Chapter 25:
Her eyes slowly flitters open, the world around her was blurry, but it came into focus after a few moments. The surroundings were unfamiliar, she was confused as to where she was or what happened. Her head was foggy and had a dull ache to it. She had a cottonmouth and her muscles were sore. She's looking around for the others for a few moments but didn't see them. It was only then that her head clears and the gravity of the situation came rushing back to her, as fear spiked through her.
The room was fancier and more extravagant than she ever saw before as she scrambled up to a sitting position. She looked down and saw the angry red welts on her wrists, where the retrains bit deeply into her skin from her struggling. The skin had broken open in a few spots.
She presses herself against the headboard of the bed she seemed to be on and curls up into a ball. Then tries to get the lay of the land so to speak. She notices the same red welts on her ankles.
The last thing she remembers was being in the gardens of the church. Standing in front of the fountain with Tommy, pledging their love to each other.
"Where am I?" She groans. She grabs her at her head. Feeling her head spin a bit from moving so fast, the ache still lingers. She tries to get up. She wants to know where she was. Who took her?
Well, to be honest, she knows that last answer, but he didn't do it himself. The more important was where was she now, and how long until the others find her? She knew they hit the panic button by now and a tsunami of past and present rangers were descending upon the city, but was she still in the city? Would it help? She tried to get up, but fell back on the bed too dizzy to stand, "ugh." she groaned.
Suddenly she heard the loud echoing sound of footsteps approaching the door. They held no hesitation as they moved quickly, with purpose. She scrambles back against the headboard. She was too dizzy to attempt a fighting stance when she can't even stand. She had a good guess at who her visitor might be.
The door opened and she was right. It was none other than Lex Luthor. She sneers at him as if he was something disgusting.
"My princess is awake," Lex said with a grin.
"I'm not yours, I never will be." she spits back. Actual hate for this man blooms inside her, which was unusual for her, but in this case, it was warranted. It shone out through her eyes, as she stares at him.
"You will see that I have a lovable side too, I can be very gentle." Lex said with a smile, "If you only let me."
"Why should I? You took me from the man I actually love, and the people I care about, and for what? Why me and not any of the other girls on the team if all you are looking for is a trophy?" Kim said with an angry tone in her voice.
"I am not looking for a trophy, I knew you were the one I wanted. A Luthor always gets what he wants." Lex says while coming closer to the bed that stood across the room.
She shrinks away from him, and says "So what I want is irrelevant then? Because I don't want you, so this time you're out of luck. You might not hear this often, but NO! "
"I am warning you, Miss Hart. I will get what I want. If not the easy way then it has to be the hard way. So watch your tone, princess." Lex says in a deadly calm, but a dangerous tone of voice.
Pulling on her inner ranger, she gave him her coldest stare, and said, "Or what? you're going to break your shiny new toy? Am I supposed to cower to you? " she asks in a tone that was defiant and dripping with sarcasm.
She stared back at him in such a steely stoic manner that is utterly unaffected by his threat or tone. That portrays no fear at all. It surprised him.
"You think you are tough, aren't you, princess? But you will fall for me they all do. I can give you a life in wealth if you only let me. Don't make this hard on yourself." Lex said still trying to use his charms.
"You know nothing about me, or who I am, nor do you actually care. Why would I ever fall for you when I already had my soulmate? Anyone so filled with darkness isn't capable of love," she says as she makes a dismissive gesture with her hand. exposing the mark on her wrist.
Lex grabbes her wrist. "Who did this to you? I specifically asked that they bring you here unharmed."
"Your guess is as good as mine," she answers flippantly.
"Nevermind, even without your help, I will find out who did this and punish them for it. As far as your soulmate is concerned, I can make you forget him. I can be quite charming after all, and I have all the time in the world to wear you down, one way or another."
"You seem to have a strange habit of picking strong women who consistently reject you, masochistic much?" she asks in the same way she baits a monster in battle
His eyes blaze with anger, and he reaches out and roughly grabs her chin and draws close as if to force a kiss on her, but in the last moment, she spits in his face.
He reels back in shock, and she says "Get used to disappointment then, because I will never want you," she says with a steely defiant look in her eyes.
He stands up and goes to leave, but turns back to face her, and says, "by the way about your friends or lover rescuing you, not going to happen. They couldn't find this place even with Superman's help... Not that he's going to be in much shape to be helping anyone anytime soon."
"Superman is the least of your problems at the moment," she says and smirks deviously at him.
He looks surprised not expecting that "Just what are my current problems?" he asks her.
"Oh you'll see, but it will be too late by then." Her devious little smirk never faltered, as if she was amused by something he didn't know.
She was thinking not just about her friends, but a certain part of her lover, that she suspected that loved her as much as Tommy did. who would turn every stone upside down until he found her. Not to mention, Knowing her friends, they would have already hit the panic button, which would mean Dragon wasn't the only one Lex needed to fear, but every ranger in history as well as the current team were hunting for her. Lex wouldn't know what would hit him, a literal army was coming for his head!
"You think you are strong but you won't stay that way, Miss Hart. I have all the time in the world to break you." Lex laughs.
Kim's smirk doesn't falter when she says, "You may not have as much time as you think."
"We will see about that, Princess. I am not scared." Lex turns around and storms out of the room.
What could Lex Luthor do more than the others? Kim thought
Short of drugging her or causing physical harm, not too much. The more he abuses her, the more she is going to hate him. As soon as her head cleared she was going to check for a way out of here.
It took a few hours but she was finally able to stand and move around freely. The first thing she did was walk to the window to see if she could manage to tell where the hell she was.
She saw she was on the third floor of a massive estate. There were plush gardens, then what was looking like a dense forest, so maybe somewhere outside of the city. She also noticed a shift of guards moving around the perimeter, in some time she could learn their rotation. If she could find a way out and to the tree line, maybe she could make it to the main road and hitchhike back to the city.
She tries the window but finds that as soon as she opens it, bars snap into place.
"Okay, this is no solution. Let's try the door." Kim whispered to herself.
She tries, but when she turned the nob, she got an electric shock, frustrated she goes to another door, but it leads to a bathroom.
She sees a small window and tries it, but the same thing with the bars. Unlike the main windows, she can see some of the wiring exposed that controls the bars. She looks around the bathroom, "I can work with this, I just have to tap into my inner Billy. I was him for a day, I should be able to do this."
She finds a nail file and a nail clipper, "Not ideal but I can work with this." She just needed something to act as an insulator so she didn't electrocute herself.
She sees the bath mat and says, I can work with this and picks it up."
She wraps one end around the handle of the file, and takes the business end, and tries to work it behind the wires to pull them out of the space they are in.
She works the wires free and exposes them with the file. Once exposed, she puts the file in her pocket in case she needs it for something later. She wraps the mat around the clippers and works on the wires until she finally gets through. The mat absorbs the shock from the current running through the wires, letting the bars drop.
"Thank goodness for the mat, fried is not a good look for me." She says to herself, "How am I going to get down from this height?"
She looks out the window and says, "This must be how Rapunzel felt."
She sighs. She needed a plan to get down and not get caught by the guards. Never before did she wish for teleportation.
She looks along the roofline she sees a ledge wide enough for her foot to fit on, and it runs for several feet to the next pitch in the roof which was another wing of the house, which was a separate structure from the one she was in currently, where there is a drain pipe that runs to ground level between the two. which was right next to a spot where there was a flat part of the roof from the first floor that stretches out toward the tree line near the back of the house. Then maybe 25 yards, possibly 50 to the trees in open space with no cover, but at dark, if she timed it right, it was doable.
She just had to watch the guards long enough to learn their patterns. There were a few hours until dark she could watch them until then.
She closed the window to hide the fact she creates a hole in her gilded cage. Kim went back to the window in her room she closed the window and the bars disappeared.
She pretends to just look out of the window, pretend that she is too depressed to think of a solution.
She sighs, thinking back to that conversation she had with Clark about the connection she has with Tommy. She wondered if she could reach him from this far.
She walks back to the bed, and once she lays down, she closes her eyes, and her focus goes to the crane crying for her falcon, hoping she can reach him if not too lost in despair. Maybe this way she could let him know that she was still alive, to give them both hope, that is if they managed to keep Dragon at bay.
As soon as she connected with the crane, she felt it calm, it knew what she needed and what she intended. She called out to Tommy in her mind, hoping to reach him. She stretched as far as she possibly could, she called his name again. She calls for the third time, "can you hear me?"
She hears a faint echo of her name going through her head. Tommy had heard her. The call was far away but she could hear a 'Where are you?' in the form of Tommy's voice.
"I'm alive. I'm in a large house, like a castle almost. It's somewhere with woods all around. I'm guessing a large estate. I think I might have found a way to escape after nightfall I'm going to try. " She says through her link, but she notices how much energy it costs, stretching it out at its maximum reach.
"I can't hold this for long, but know you are my heart and make sure that reinforcements are coming," Kim tells Tommy over the link. Right after that, she breaks the link not being able to hold it much longer. Kim is exhausted.
She opens her eyes panting, happy to know that at least worked. Now it was the only thing she had to do was wait until dark. So she took a little nap to restore her strength before she put her plan into action.
A few hours later, Kim awoke to the low sounds of thunder rumbling above her.
She opened her eyes and saw a gray silk gown hanging on a stand laid out that says, "dinners at 8 please dress appropriately. Read the note attached." She scoffs she didn't plan to stick around that long.
Kim got up and stretched to shake the sleep out of her body and stretch her muscles for what she was about to do. The original pink ranger went into the bathroom and locked the door.
She went over to the window and opened it, seeing that the storm clouds hung heavy above and brought the shadow of an early evening to the area. If she left now, she would have a huge head start by 8pm, since she saw on the clock it was 6:30 pm. If she played this right, she would be able to drop to the ground during a shift change for the guards.
She looks at the size of the window and where the ledge was, "man, it's a good thing I'm flexible." She lifts herself onto the window sill, so she sits on it with her legs hanging out and over the ledge.
She slowly and carefully looks for the ledge with her foot as she lowers herself out. Finding it with both feet, she starts to contort her upper body out of the window. just as she has herself fully out of the window, there's a large bolt of lightning igniting the sky, followed quickly by a deafening crack of thunder. She has to bite back the scream as she holds close to the window from the outside.
She had to do this, "No time to fear the weather." She thought to herself.
She looks at how far she has to go to make it to the drainpipe, and tells herself, "just like the beam, nothing to it," trying to stoke her confidence. She lets go of the window and finds her balance, and starts to walk forward slowly.
"I got gold for this, and the beam is not as wide as this, this should be easy," she tells herself while she keeps on walking. Slowly, she inches along the length of the roof, the stakes this time were a lot higher than just a medal, it was her very life.
Painfully, she inched across as her muscles burned and ached from the effort. Slowly, the effort started to pay off as the distance began to shrink. Finally, she made it to the edge, Kim had to reach out and jump across to the drainpipe, hoping it would hold her weight.
She took a deep breath and did so, she latched onto it like her life depended on it, because it did. It groaned and protested, and shuddered a bit, but held firm to the building. She thanked everything she could think of for the fact the pipe held.
Kim lets out a breath, the breath she didn't know she had been holding all this time.
Now she had to look down for the next foothold, "may the power protect me" she says quietly, and her hands started to burn from where she held onto the metal brackets holding the pipe to the wall.
She slowly starts to climb down the pipe, this was even harder since the brackets were so thin it was hard to find them with her feet, and her hands were starting to get slick with sweat. The effort seemed herculean to her and was very time-consuming. Eventually, she made it to the point where she was to jump to the section of flat roof that she could easily run across.
She had to time it just right, but after gauging the distance she pushed off the pipe and jumped for the roof, just like the floor routine hit the roof into a tuck and roll to absorb the impact.
She manages to use her momentum to bring herself back to her feet. Just as she starts to sprint across the rooftop, without warning, it starts to pour torrentially. "Oh great, just what I need, like this isn't hard enough!"
The pounding rain made running nearly impossible for the rooftop instantly became extremely slippery. After falling a few times, she managed to get to the corner she was heading to.
The one good thing about the rain, all the guards had vanished. Kim laid down flush with the rooftop and peered over just to be sure. Having seen the spot completely abandoned, she pulled back and prepared to make the drop.
There was a spot directly beneath her that was a small spot of soft grass that would soften the fall, everything else was concrete. So she knew where she wanted to aim for.
"Time for the dismount of my life," Kim says to herself.
She looks at the sky, "Zordon, please watch over me. Help me to escape this."
She took a deep breath and lowered herself over the edge as far as her arms could hold her, then she let go and dropped. She dropped quickly, and thankfully in the now squishy, muddy spot she was aiming for.
"So far, so good. Now I only have to reach the trees." She says to give herself the courage to continue the road.
She got to her feet and slipped in the mud. She groans and says, "let's try that again." She gets up again, and without falling sprints as fast as she can to the tree line. Once under the cover of trees, she felt an enormous relief wash over her. The hard part was behind her.
Now she only had to see where the main road was, hoping that a car would pass by and pick her up.
She starts to work her way through the woods. The treetop canopy filtered out some of the rain, so it wasn't falling quite as hard in here as it was out there, but it still was getting in. The original pink ranger was soaked and cold to the point of shivering, but it was worth it, she was out. Now she just had to get as much distance as possible. Every step brought her closer to being back in her falcon's arms.
She pressed on for what must have been at least two miles, but it was hard to tell, but the fact that she could no longer see the silhouette of the house through the trees was a good sign.
The trees were starting to thin out, and the rain was getting heavier again, but through the space in the trees she could see a clearing, that could mean one thing, a road or so she hoped. She picked up her pace and heads towards it. As she got closer she could tell she was right about that. She listened closely if she could hear a car. Kim really was hoping that she wasn't going to get lost or worse end up going in a circle.
Then she heard the unmistakable sound of an approaching car. She broke through the cover of the trees and up onto the road and started to wave her hands and jump up and down to be seen.
It appeared in the distance ahead of her small at first, but larger as it got closer. The windows were tinted so she couldn't see into the car, but anyone that could help her get away was welcome.
The car slowed down and came to a stop in front of her. She rushed over the window. As it started to roll down, she says, "Please can you help..." She stops when she sees who it is behind the darkened glass.
"I clearly underestimated you, princess." Lex Luthor says with a tense jaw.
The abject horror of the moment gripped her tightly, stealing the very air from her lungs.
****** Stolen crane ******
Superman, Tommy, and Trini arrive at Starlabs, "Dr. Klein, how is Jason?" Superman asks when they arrive inside the lab.
"He's okay, we managed the pain, but the removal is a bit tricky." Dr. Klein answers
"What's so special about the bullet?" Superman asks concerned
"It's something I never saw before. It's a metal egg-like, flat bullet. The sides are so sharp that we can't touch them. We tried to remove it, but clearly, it gives electric shocks when we did." Dr. Klein sighs.
"It seems to have attached to the nervous system. We have to disarm it before we can remove it," says Billy.
"I know if someone can do it, it's you." Trini says to Billy, "Please help him."
"Oh, he has been a big help, quite an intelligent young man. He could be quite an addition here." Dr. Klein says.
"I know you two are the only ones that can do this." Superman says, "You helped me so much over the years." He says to the doctor.
Jason gasps in pain, then says, "I trust you, Billy, if anyone can figure this out, it's you."
"It looks like it has an outer casing, if we can open that up, we can get it to power down and let go of him," says Billy.
"I don't have anything here that can do that," says Dr. Klein.
"I think I might," says Billy and pulls what looks to be the size of a Swiss army knife. He opens it up. He unfurls two extremely long skinny metal poles with tiny little hands on the end.
"Those are amazing. I could use something like that here too." Dr. Klein said amazed by the invention.
"Thanks, I invented it myself." Billy says, "could I have the headset with the magnification goggles on it?"
Dr. Klein does so. Billy puts them on setting the magnifying setting up high. He takes the tools and enters the wound.
He finds the so-called bullet and sees its small, flat, metallic egg-shaped object, that is razor-sharp on the rounded edges/ends. Along the flat sides are tiny slits that allow hair-thin wires to expand forth from that. Bards also tap into the central nervous system and send the electric jolts tricking the body into thinking it's been shot, and acting accordingly.
"WOW, this is some complex circuitry. No wonder it protects itself, but maybe if I can expose the brain." Billy says.
He manages to run the tiny fingers of his invention around the edge of the edges until it catches on something. With a little effort, a flap flips open exposing nano-sided circuitry in the bullet that is like its brain, allowing it to be programmed and function remotely from the gun. Also, a tiny fragment of some kind of crystal sitting in a clear fluid that is used as a power source.
"Rose quartz in a viscous liquid, as a power source that inspired," says Billy.
He flips a switch on his invention, and a little tube comes out and sucks out the liquid, then retracts. He then uses the little hands to pluck out the tiny piece of quartz, the bullet seems to lose power. All the barbs retract into the bullet instantly, and it falls from the place it was lodged and into a little tray on Billy's device. He pulls back out of Jason's wound, clearing his body completely. Now we can study it more carefully, as he puts it on a neighboring tray.
The pain in Jason's body drops by 90 percent. "I knew you could do it, man," says Jason with a relieved tone in his voice.
"Thank you, it might be a few hours until you can walk on it, it will take that long for your nervous system to realize there isn't the wound it was tricked to think was there and recalibrate," says Billy as he bandages his friend's leg.
"Thank you too, Dr. Klein," Jason says.
"Your welcome, but your friend seems to have done most of the work. He has a job here if he wants one," says Dr. Klein.
"Thanks, but no thanks, once everything is done and we save our friend, and the wedding happens, I need to get back home to my family," says Billy. For the reason of his secret identity as a ranger, he couldn't tell his family was living on another planet.
Superman picks up on this and changes the subject by saying, "could you do more work on that bullet? I think Clark and Lois were investigating something like these, this might help them a lot."
Jason asks, "Did you catch the guys that took Kim?"
Tommy shook his head, "no, but Superman kept it from getting worse." Jason knew that was code for he stopped Dragon. He also saw Tommy wearing the bracelet Zara had brought with her. So he knew what happened just now and how big of a fight it took to get it there. He could ask about that later.
"I will bring you to Clark's house now. I know Billy will take further care of him there. I don't think Lois and Clark will mind." Superman says
Superman picks up Jason and says, "I'll be back for the others."
"Don't bother, I know my way to their house." Tommy says, "We will be there soon."
Superman nods and takes off with Jason.
"Dr. Klein can we borrow a few things to help us find our friend?" asks Billy
Dr Klein says, "of course, as long as its returned."
"Of course," Billy answers.
Trini says, "let me help you get what you need Billy."
"Thanks, Trini, I appreciate it, and thank you, Dr. Klein, that we could use your space for this," Billy says
You're welcome," Dr. Klein said, "Take good care of your friend, and I hope you will find the other one soon."
Superman and Jason arrive at Lois and Clark's house to find the others there, everyone busy with something. He puts Jason down on the couch as Zack comes over towards the original red ranger, "you okay man? They fix you up?"
Jason groans a bit, still in pain, "I will be okay. They took the bullet out. I should be able to walk in a few hours. Long story," he says when he sees Zack's confused state, "Did the panic button get pushed? When are they getting here?"
"Rocky has pushed the button. They were shocked to see Dragon's impact." Zack says, "did you guys stop him?"
"Yes, I did, Tommy is in control because I'm in control of Dragon," says Superman.
"Where is Tommy anyway?" Zack asks.
"He'll be along with Trini and Billy shortly. He's helping Billy gather some things so he can build something to help us find her." Jason answers Zack.
Zack smirks, "same old Billy, glad he's here."
"I am curious what Billy will come up with to help us." Jason says, "I hope he will find something soon."
"Yeah," says Zack. "Well, he always comes through and the others are helping his...uhm people get set up in the backyard, as well as setting up a place for Andros to pitch 'the tent.'" says Zack.
"Well, that should take care of everyone." says Jason, "but when are they getting here?"
"Most in 24 hours, a few a little less, a few 48 hours at most," says Zack, "they all want to help us."
Just then Tommy walks in carrying a few crates of stuff, followed by Billy and Trini doing the same, "where do you want this stuff?"
"You could use one of the rooms in the back," Superman says.
"Great," Tommy says as they follow Superman to the room in the back. The room was not large but was excellent for Billy to use for this purpose.
He started to set things up, he would grab things off the ship as needed. Knowing Billy, he wasn't going to rest before he found something or had a working prototype.
Before Tommy had something to do to take his mind off things, but as soon as everyone sat down, he started to pace around the room. The others looked at him with sympathy.
"We will find her, Tommy." Jason tries to calm his best friend down, but he knows how much Kim means to him. To all of them really.
"I promised to keep her safe, and I failed." says Tommy with a sigh, "She was right there and I couldn't hold on to her."
"Don't blame yourself, bro. We were all there, and it still happened." Jason tries to reason with his friend. He wasn't going to allow Tommy to go on a guilt trip, not on his watch. "They were ready for us, they took steps to neutralize us, all of us. I even took one of those freaky bullets for her. We did what we could. He doesn't know we are going to have the numbers on our side. He is going to be up to his eyeballs in rangers, and there is nothing he can do about it!"
Tommy shook his head, "I was standing next to her, Jason."
"So was I Tommy. I was right in front of her until they shot me," says Jason, a bit frustrated with his stubborn friend.
"They were using audio warfare on us," says Rocky, "my ears are still ringing."
"Tommy, when the other rangers come, they will look to you for guidance and leadership." Jason tries again, "you're the legend, you have to fill that role, just like any other mission."
"Can't you do this one, Jase?" Tommy asks
Jason shook his head, "no, it has to be you."
Just then Tommy's knees buckled as his head was suddenly swimming in a fog, and in a distance, he thought he heard Kim's voice, "Tommy, can you hear me?" sounds in his head. It is faint, but he hears it.
A jolt of relief and excitement shoots through him at this.
'Where are you?' he replies
"I'm alive. I'm in a large house, like a castle almost. It's somewhere with woods all around. I'm guessing a large estate. I think I might have found a way to escape after nightfall I'm going to try," she says.
"I can't hold this for long, but know you are my heart and make sure that reinforcements are coming."
Before he could respond again to ask her more, he feels her break off the connection. He looks up at everyone who came to check on him, cause he started to fall when his knees buckled, and Zack caught him and sat him on the floor.
"Are you alright man?" Jason asks worriedly.
"Kim, she reached out to me using the crane," Tommy says with a weak voice.
"what did she say?" Clark asks.
"she said she is still alive and being held in a castle-like house, surrounded by woods. She is going to try to escape." Tommy says.
"Did she say something else?" Rocky asks, "Did she know where she was?"
Tommy shook his head, "no, just that she guessed it was a large estate. Do you know of any place like that?"
Clark thought for a moment, he shakes his head, "No, not that I know of."
"I will see what I can find out." Clark says, who had turned himself back in his regular clothes, "We will find her, Tommy."
Tommy nodded, "Yes, we will find her. I will make sure of that." He said in his leader's voice, "if she can have the courage to try to escape, then I can have the courage to hold it together to lead the rescue."
"Now that is the Tommy I was looking for." Jason says proudly, "That's the one I left my place as a leader for."
"Be ready Lex Luthor because it's time for you to meet the power rangers and find out just who you are dealing with." Tommy continued with new energy to find the woman he loves.
TBC