Chapter 26 – Just a Little R&R(Relax and Recap)

Thinking that the Rangers needed a break from their intensive preparations, Zordon and the other mentors had prepared an impromptu ceremony to take some of the stress off them. Zordon again spoke in front of the assembled masses of the Power Rangers but he had no bad news this time. In fact, this might be his favorite duty since he arrived. He looked solemnly down at the two standing in front of him. "For their bravery above and beyond the call of the normal, everyday person; for their willingness to fight the forces of evil even though they had no powers beyond that of goodness and moral strength; for their character and resolve, it is my great honor to bestow the title of Honorary Power Ranger upon Farkus Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch."

Bulk and Skull's faces burst into identical grins of pure joy. Bulk grabbed Skull's shirt, nearly shaking his arm off in his excitement.

Smiling now, Zordon continued, "May you always fight against evil and their forces, may you always be brave and, always, may the Power protect you both!"

Bulk clumsily rolled around the corner, seeing no new enemies, he motioned to his friend, "Come Honorary Power Ranger Skull, our quest continues!" He ran forward, full of energy.

Skull followed, grinning. He loved the idea of being an honorary Power Ranger. The fact that these heroes recognized their contributions was more than he had ever hoped to ask for. But he would like to be an actual Power Ranger even more. "Honorary Power Ranger Bulk! Hey! Bulk!"

Bulk stopped, "Yes, Honorary Power Ranger Skull?"

Skull scratched his head, "Can we come up with better names than Honorary Power Ranger? I've got something better." He struck a pose, one arm and finger dramatically lifted in the air pointing out to the side, chest pushed out "How about, Super Amazing Skull Ranger?"

Bulk stuck a similar pose, "And I'll be the Cool and Awesome Bulk Ranger!"

They moved together, arms crossed, "Together we are Power Rangers: ….um…"

Bulk looked at Skull, "I can't think of anything."

"Me neither."

"We have to have a cool team name! Everyone else has one!"

"How about Mighty Morphin," a voice asked. The duo turned to find the youngest version of Jason come out of a nearby building. He smiled, "I was actually on my way to ask you guys to join my team but you ran off so fast after the ceremony that I didn't have time. For once, you were just too quick."

"Really," Skull asked, torn between hope and shame. "After all the times we made fun of you?"

"Or tried to throw trash on you," Bulk added.

"Or tried to embarrass you?"

"Or tried to trick you?"

"Or tried to…you know…beat you up?"

"Multiple times."

"Almost every time we saw you pretty much."

Jason shook his head, "You two are not the same guys who were desperately trying to be bullies. You've changed and grown and I would be proud to call you my teammates."

Bulk and Skull were silent, thinking.

Jason pressed, "So, how about it? Will you become the Mighty Morphin Bulk and Mighty Morphin Skull Rangers?"

"Not so fast, younger me!" Zeo Jason leapt down from atop the same building Red Jason had come out of. He smirked, "See, great minds think alike." He addressed Bulk and Skull, "How about being a Zeo Ranger instead? Our name is cooler and we have a much better gear."

"No way," Red T.J. exclaimed, leaping from the underside of the bed and landing with a graceful roll to his feet, "You should come with us, we have cool cars!"

Andros calmly strolled into the fray, "And I have a spaceship which trumps your silly little land vehicles." He smiled warmly, "Plus, from what I hear about my season's ending, these two literally saved my teams lives. We owe them more than we could possibly pay but it would be my greatest honor to have them on our team."

The Rangers looked at Bulk and Skull, who were in turn looking overwhelmed.

After a few silent seconds, Bulk stubbornly wiped a hand across his eyes. He glared at the Rangers, "You losers are making my eyes water! With disgust! From all these pathetic emotions you're throwing around!" He grabbed Skull by the shirt again and started to storm away, pulling his helpless friend behind him. "We'll make our own team and it'll be the best Power Rangers team ever! It'll have even better gear, better cars and an even awesomer spaceship! Then you'll all want to join our team… and we just might let you!"

Red Jason smiled at their backs, "We'll gladly look forward for that day."

Indiana Jones had never seen his own movies before. Neither had the Alien Rangers nor the Lost Galaxy Rangers nor most of the Mystic Rangers. So after the ceremony for Bulk and Skull and since Arthur and his parents had left for the day, the Rangers turned on the big screen TV downstairs and had a movie marathon.

And beyond the occasional cases of Theo and Trip blurting out, "Oh, I love this next part!", everyone had to admit that they really enjoyed the first one. Indy was a little annoyed that they had included his dislike of snakes. That information was way too personal and not something he liked being common knowledge. Unfortunately, judging from the superheroes reaction, it was also very funny. Wonderful.

As Alyssa and Tanya put the next disk into the fancy machine, he tore apart a piece of oversized popcorn and stifled a groan as Theo scrambled up next to him.

Theo was practically glowing with excitement. "Are you having fun," he asked.

Indy popped a piece of shredded popcorn in his mouth and chewed, "Had more, had less. It's about neutral right now. What's the name of this next one?"

"The Temple of Doom."

He thought about it, he'd been to a lot of temples in his life and it turned out that most of them were in fact deadly. "And which one's that?"

"The one with the temple, of doom, human sacrifice and a little kid in a baseball hat."

"Aaaah yes. Weird though, that actually happened a few years before the Nazi thing. Whoever made these movies needs to get their stories in order."

"You mean, your stories. Right?"

Alyssa and Tanya high fived and the movie credits began to roll. Indy shook his head, "Whatever they put up on that screen is fiction, even if it mirrors exactly what happened to me. Even if that ruggedly handsome face who does heroic things looks like exactly me. We aren't just characters kid, we're people." He paused as his onscreen doppelganger clutched his dying friend, he felt a faint pang. There had been more smoke when Wu Han was killed. He remembered almost choking on it, gasping for breath. "What happened, happened and no matter the gloss they put on it, the pain, the joy, it's real."

Syd and White Tommy sat facing each other, the tension between them was palpable. A group of twenty assorted Rangers surrounded them, quiet, watching. Tommy twitched and Syd sprang forward, slapping her card on top of the pile, "I win!"

"Dang, I was hoping you didn't have that one!"

Syd laughed, "I've been holding on to it for a moment just like this." She grinned, "I did warn you that you were gonna lose. Just like those other two."

Red and Dr. O all looked away, ashamed that they had lost so easily. s

At first, when the group of four Pink Rangers had challenged the Tommy brigade to a contest of skill, they had laughingly agreed. Then they had found out just how much they under estimated their opponents. Dr. O had been the first to lose to Rose and in a game of tic-tac-toe no less. Then Red Tommy was challenged by and lost to Zeo Kat in six out of ten games of Battleship. That's when the Tommy's started taking the challenges seriously. Challenging Syd to a complex and completely made up card game had been the Tommy's big plan. And after White Tommy loss, the Tommy's scrambled for a shoo win.

So when it was Kimberly who stepped forward from the giggling gaggle of girls, Green Tommy picked something that she should have little chance in, a game of tag. With a grin Kimberly agreed.

Being stronger and confident, he played with her at first. Teasingly, he dodged back and forth, holding back. That backfired after about a minute when Kimberly had stopped playing too. Green Tommy was thrown to the carpet so hard there was a small indention in the floor. He slowly got back on his feet, laughing and congratulating Kimberly on her sneaky blow. She winked at him then dashed away into the tight streets of Rangerville.

And while watching her leap gracefully on the roof of a single story building made of Legos, he realized that this game probably wasn't such a great choice. After all, she was a gymnast. A very good gymnast. The other Tommy's glared at him and he winced. Yeah, bad choice.

"Well," Kat said, not even trying to hide her smirk, "Are you giving up?"

Red Tommy nudged her playfully, "Yeah, right. He's one of us, he doesn't give up."

Kat shrugged, "I don't know, he's still standing there when he should be trying to catch Kim. Seems like giving up to me…"

Green Tommy took off before his older self could continue the joke and say something humiliating.

Zen-Aku and Villamax exchanged blows.

"Is that all you've got," Zen-Aku taunted. "The Pink ones hit harder than you!"

Villamax grunted, "You should know, they're the only ones you ever fight."

Zen-Aku growled, "That wasn't funny."

"Reality rarely is."

Watching from the sidelines, Goldar and Elgar made wagers as to who would crack and lose control first. Ever since their fellow villains heard that they had volunteered to 'help' the Power Rangers, they were shunned and ignored. Their pleas of ignorance or insistence that they hadn't really fell on deaf ears. They had been outcast from the only group that had grudgingly accepted them. So they mostly hung around Zen-Aku and Villamax, annoying them, getting in their way. Normal for them really.

"Zen-Aku's pretty much a demon," Golder explained. "His self control is pathetic!"

"No, no. I bet Villamax loses it first. He's like, strange."

"No, it'll be the wolf guy, trust me." He leaned in closer, trying to whisper and failing, "He's just uglier. The ugly ones always lose they temper first." He pounded his chest, "That's why I've never lost my temper, I'm the handsomest guy here!"

"No you're not!" Elgar ran a hand over his pointy, bald head, "I'm far more handsome than you!"

They squabbled without progress for a few minutes before Hissta had the misfortune to walk by. The pair surrounded her, invading her personal space.

"Which one of us is more handsome," Goldar asked. "Go on, tell him it's me!"

Elgar pushed closer, "No, me. Me!"

Hissta, panicking, shoved the two away, "You're both crazy!" She quickly slithered away leaving them dumbfounded.

"You moron," Goldar exclaimed, hitting Elgar on the back of his head, "You've scared her away!"

"Hey!, no I didn't! It was you!"

After searching for more than ten minutes, Tommy decided that Kimberly had too much of a head start. Their simple game of tag had turned into a game of hide and seek. He hadn't even caught a glance of her and anyone he asked just shrugged and walked away. He suspected Kimberly had already been this way and asked them to do just that so he tried to follow the path of people who seemed to be amused whenever he asked. The second he came across a person who just looked confused, he turned a different direction and found the trail again.

Eventually he tracked her down. Feeling slightly annoyed, he walked into the space and stopped. A dozen couples were sitting together on small pieces of a cut up checkered table cloth. Scattered around them were some of the white Christmas lights that normally lit up the buildings. He scanned the crowd and found Kimberly beaming from a piece of cloth on the outer edge of the group.

She gestured to the other side of the cloth, "Well?"

As he sat down he finally noticed the small assortment of food sitting between them. He glanced around, "What's this all about?"

She grinned, "For fun." She nodded at Zeo Kat and Red Tommy sitting not far away. A shadow passed across her face but she shook it off, replacing it with a smile, "It's apparently been awhile since anyone could have a real, date-like, atmosphere and Valentines day is ages away, so we faked this whole 'competition' thing to give some of the others time to put this together behind your backs. Just because."

Tommy still looked confused, "I still don't understand."

Kimberly laughed, "You don't have to." She picked up a sliced piece of cheese, "Just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere."

Andros and Ashley sat across from each other. Surrounded by happy friends and dim lighting, Andros was in the mood to reminisce. "Do you remember that time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took over the Megaship?"

Ashley nodded.

"I really think that should have clued us in to just how big everything is. And I have to admit, when we first got here, I wasn't all that shocked. It just kind of made sense. We'd already had visitors come to our world so why couldn't we go to others."

"I'm glad it did to somebody. I'm still at a loss as to what's going on."

"Well," Andros amended, "I honestly don't have a hundred percent grasp but I could recap the last few months if you would like?"

He said this with such a hopeful tone that all Ashley could do was lean back and laugh, "All right then, regale me."

"First off, we were kidnapped from our universe and brought here."

"Yeah, I noticed that."

"Anyways, the other Power Ranger teams arrived or were already here but things finally picked up when the Mighty Morphin, season one, showed up. Then this crazy snake lady tried to attack the kid whose house we all pretty much live in. She turned out to be working for this mysterious 'Lady' who is the one who did this to us. So we sent a group through a magic wardrobe and into some strange place in the hope that by attacking from both sides, we'll have a chance of actually defeating this all powerful person. In addition to that, some of the villains remembered that they are, after all, evil, stole the Sword of Light which can be used to steal our powers. This Sword is, of course, also the embodiment of a kind of compass leading to some miraculous point in space that is some kind of headquarters for the powers of Light and Justice and all that jazz. And since this point is the only hope against a similar rallying place for the powers of Darkness and Evil it would be bad if said evil villains found out this information since the Sword is the only thing that can destroy the Daylight Singularity. There is a similar Sword for its Midnight cousin but nobody seems to know anything about it so we've mostly forgotten about it. So we sent two teams to deal with them even though they probably won't be enough." He paused for breath, "What else?"

"You forgot our powers."

"Ah, right. On top of all that, most of us don't have any of our abilities or weapons, some of us are missing large swaths of our memories and personalities AND my sister took off on some insane, hopeless recovery mission!" He sprang to his feet, "She could be in serious danger!"

"Andros!, relax." Ashley reached up and pulled him back down, "Karone is a big girl. She's tough." She chuckled, "I remember her kicking your butt a few times."

"Yeah, but…"

"Relax." She leaned even closer, smiling playfully, "Enjoy the atmosphere."

*AN*

Yeah, writing this was mainly my much needed R&R and I've always wanted to see Bulk and Skull as real Power Rangers so I took it from there and just had fun with it. And yes, the thing with the turtles in a half shell really happened. Gotta love Power Rangers:)

*CL*

Bulk - Mighty Morphin though Lost Galaxy

Skull - Mighty Morphin through In Space

Zordon - Mighty Morphin through In Space

Jason- Red Mighty Morphn

Red Jason – Red Zeo

Red T.J – Red Turbo

Andros – Red In Space

Indian Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom

Theo – Blue Jungle Fury

Trip – Green Time Force

Alyssa – White Wild Force

Tanya – Yellow Zeo

Syd – Pink SPD

Rose – Pink Overdrive

Zeo Kat – Pink Zeo

Kimberly – Pink Mighty Morphin – seasons 1,2 and 3

Dr. O – Black Dino Thunder

Red Tommy – Red Zeo

White Tommy – Mighty Morphin – seasons 2 and 3

Green Tommy – Mighty Morphin – season 1 and 2

Zen-Aku – villain from Wild Force

Villamax – villain from Lost Galaxy

Goldar – villain from Mighty Morphin

Elgar – villain from Turbo

Andros – Red In Space

Ashley – Yellow In Space