A/N: I don't own anything, Saban and Disney own the Rangers and characters. Bob Costas belongs to NBC Sports and HBO, as does his show Costas Now, which at this time was called On the Record with Bob Costas. Iron Chef America, I believe, belongs to the Food Network as do Mario Batali and Cat Cora.

A/N 2: I also don't own the Calgary Flames, L.A. Kings, Stanley Cup or anything related to the National Hockey League. I should also mention I don't own anything Major League Baseball related. I also don't own Dance Master, Falcon4Crane does.

Chapter 21 - Preliminaries

Sunday, August 15, 2004

7:30 p.m. local time

Olympic Indoor Hall

Maurosi, Greece

As the eight spectators watched the qualification round for the women's gymnastics competition, they knew they had to shake off the worries of what might come.

Tommy had told them all that the current team was down two Rangers now - but they couldn't worry about that. In fact, the group of eight who was sitting down with their "GO KIMBERLY" pennants, signs and USA flags were focused on nothing but this competition, and lending Kimberly their unending support.

Tommy watched how Kimberly was moving closely, watched her body movements, everything. And what he saw caused him to make a prediction that would become legendary in Power Ranger circles.

"I think she's going to kill everyone on the balance beam today," Tommy said. "Not that she needs to, but..."

"Do you have some inside information on that bro, or are you making one of your wild guesses?" Jason said.

"I'm not basing that prediction on any inside information I'm getting from her, well, maybe I am a little bit, but rather, from watching her movements," Tommy said. "Do you notice how she's looking at the balance beam?"

"Not really, but..." Aisha said.

"Well, I've noticed her and she's looked at it five or six different times since she came out for warmups. I think she has something to prove to us, that she can handle herself on the balance beam. And actually from what I understand from her teammates..."

"Yeah?" Adam said.

"The field is 'allegedly' much weaker on the balance beam than it is on the vault, which is the other event she's got going tonight," Tommy said. "I'm more concerned about the vault because I'm hoping she doesn't tire herself on the balance beam, and the field's pretty tough too."

"Top 8 make the finals on the 23rd, right?" Kat said.

"Yeah," Tommy said.

"Hey, look!" Kat said as she pointed behind them. "Look who's coming over here!"

"It's Ernie and Lt. Stone!" Rocky said, which brought wide smiles from the rest of the group. And the two men had...well, treats.

"Hey guys!" Ernie said as he stopped by the group. "We didn't know if you'd eaten already, so here's some treats for you guys to enjoy during the competition!"

"Hey thanks!" Tommy said. "We hadn't eaten yet, so thanks for covering us like usual."

"No problem, kids," Ernie said. "Cheer loud for Kim!"

We will," Adam said.

With that, the Rangers began digging in, knowing full well that Rocky's bottomless stomach would probably end up devouring a good chunk of the food Ernie had brought for them. Hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, you name it, it was there.

It kept the Rangers busy for a while, until, finally...

"Hey, look!" Tommy said. "They're starting the balance beam competition!"

One by one, the contestants went, with Kimberly's fans looking on.

"Allana Slater looks good," Kat said as the Australian team went through. "Hopefully with that 9.587 she'll be able to make the finals at least. Gives me some pride in my home country."

"Yeah, she does look pretty good," Jason said.

"I'll tell you who looks really tough," Adam said, "are Ponor and Eremia from Romania. Those two walk with an air of confidence and they looked mighty, mighty good tonight."

"Well, if you know anything about gymnastics at all," Tommy said as he took a bite of popcorn, "you know that the Romanians are top notch in that sport. Objectively speaking, they'd be the ones to beat."

"Patterson looks great too," Aisha said as the U.S. team was going a while later.

"Well, but of course," Tommy said. "Patterson's pretty cool. She and Kim are pretty close, apparently. And Patterson is arguably the best there is in this event."

"Here we go!" Rocky said as Kimberly finally walked to the balance beam for her turn. "Here we go!"

"Rocky, please, do not have an orgasm in this arena," Aisha said. "Kim would be much displeased."

As Kim went through her routine, Tommy was quick to point out some things.

"Watch the incredible balance that Kimberly exudes on that beam," he said. Sure enough, Kim was flipped over, hands on beam and feet in the air. "You think it's Kimberly's great athletic ability that makes all the difference, but remember that exactly one little bit and the routine could go haywire. She's great at the little things too."

"Just how do you know so much?" Rocky said.

"Guys, I'm not exactly stupid, I have a fucking Ph.D for goodness sake," Tommy said. "And I watch a lot more gymnastics than you might think."

Overall, Kim would end up scoring just over a 9.6, which was good enough for fifth place and would put her in the finals in 8 days. She did eventually qualify for the vault final, too, although it was a little bit harder.

As the vault competition ended, Tommy spied Kim walking over to do an interview with someone that looked familiar.

When he saw who it was Kim was being interviewed by, his mouth dropped open.

"Tommy, what's going on?" Adam said.

"Look," Tommy said, pointing over to where Kim was being interviewed. "I know who that is - and he's good, too."

"Who is it, Tommy?" Jason said.

"That's Ron MacLean of CBC Sports in Canada," Tommy said. "He's best known as the host of Hockey Night in Canada on CBC which is one of the oldest sports television program in North America and the world. But he does good Olympic work too - he's been one of the best at that for a long time, too. I see him in the Costas mold - very professional, very detailed and very humble. He's very good."

"He does look handsome, and very confident," Kat said.

Jason shot her a dangerous look, to which Kat simply winked at him, as if to say, 'But you're more handsome than he is.'

As soon as the interviews were done - Kim had done about three or four of them in total - she exited to a huge ovation. Moments later, the Rangers were headed out of the Hall already making plans for the 23rd.

"So that went about as you expected, didn't it?" Rocky asked Tommy.

"Yeah, it kind of did," Tommy said. "I'm not surprised Kim did well on the beam. Patterson, the Romanians and Pavlova look tough though."

"Don't they, though?" Adam said. "I mean, we're all fans of Kim, but man she's got it tough if she wants to medal at all."

"I think she'll be good to go on the 23rd," Tommy said. "I'm just glad she qualified for the vault - she'll be much better on the 23rd than she is right now."

Mesogog's Island Fortress

He was bloodied, battered, beaten down. But being the wily veteran that he was, he wasn't about to back down, even from his girlfriend.

Here on this island fortress, there was another kind of preliminary going on.

Preliminary torture.

Hayley had used every single bit of torture which she had been gifted with by her new masters. Electrical chair. Whip. Experiments. She'd done everything she could to make him bleed, and she was doing a pretty good job of it.

"Hayley, just please, let me go," Billy pleaded, almost in a whisper. "I'm no use to you now."

"Oh, but you are, darling," Hayley said in a false-sweet voice that had become her trademark. "You're useful because I'm going to make you watch your friends being tortured and destroyed, one by one. GOLDAR!"

"Yes?" Goldar said as he came into the room, bowing before her.

"It is time for your assignment. You know what to do."

"Your wish is my command."

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

8:30 p.m. local time

Reefside, CA

They had spent two hours at the early evening movie - the Rangers who were left on Earth, that is - and it had been a good time for all of them. It was a way for them to get their minds off everything that was going on.

Occasionally, Conner, Kira and Ethan were stealing glances towards Trent (who was, technically, on a date with Dischordia who was disguised as a red-haired human named Diane). They could see the nervous looks on his face and they could only wonder what was going on. Rumors had been flying around town that Anton had just disappeared out of the blue over the last 24 hours, which could only make them wonder.

As the movie was ending, no one saw the blast of fire from outside that had just hit the movie theater. That was, until the theather started being engulfed in flames - with the Rangers inside!

"You need to teleport out of here!" Trent said to his girlfriend.

"Right!"

With that, his girlfriend teleported safely back to the Mystic Mother's palace, leaving the Rangers to deal with the attacks as hordes and hordes of people streamed out of a theater that was moments away from being burned to the ground.

"These guys are so going to pay for ruining my first date," Trent said.

"Let's try to morph!" Kira said. "Then maybe we can get out of here!"

"Right!" Conner said. "IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"

"ORANGE RANGER POWER!"

"GRAY RANGER POWER!"

"GOLD RANGER POWER!"

"GREEN RANGER POWER!"

With the morph, the four were indeed teleported out of the theater as it went up in flames.

Unfortunately, as soon as the feet of the four Rangers hit the ground outside the theater, they were hit with a blast of fire which sent them backwards, and gasping for air already.

"And you want to know the bad news?" Hayley said with a vicious smirk on her face, "That's but a taste of my firepower, Rangers."

"You wouldn't dare interrupt my first date!" Trent shouted, pointing his finger at Hayley.

"Ah, but I would," Hayley said. "You can thank your mentor's meddlesome acts for me doing this. Because of his actions, you four are going to be the recipients of my newest plan. Which includes the last days you will ever see."

"And what makes you think you're different from any of the rest of the goons that we or Dr. O have faced?"

"Oh you'll see. You'll see all right. This is only my preliminary attack - good luck eventually stopping me as my attacks will only get stronger. And don't think that your older friends across the ocean are safe either. I've got some of my friends after them too. But back to the present. I'd like to introduce you to someone Dr. O is familiar with."

Hayley shot a beam from her sword - and when the light vanished, there stood a foe that Dr. Oliver had been familiar with.

"Rangers, allow me to introduce an old friend of Dr. Oliver's...Rito Revolto," Hayley said. "Rito, get them."

"With pleasure."

TBC...

TBC...