A/N: Welcome to the main event of the Project Phoenix series. As a disclaimer, this series is inspired by Kctimes2's The Adoption (one of the best stories I've ever read here). Before reading this, you should read The Crane's Destructive Path and its accompanying one-shot, Granted Wishes.
A/N 2: This is the story of what happens when Jayden leads Rangers old and new into a fight for the Earth's survival...with his corrupted mother. However, he must first learn of his true heritage and meet his extended family.
A/N 3: Couples featured are Jayden/Mia, Memily, Lantonio, Jason/Kat, Adam/Tanya, Billy/Trini and a slew of other oldschool Ranger pairings. Hunter/Tori and others mentioned in this chapter...yes, Hunter/Tori. Big fan of Lilac Moon's Hunter/Tori stories. You'll have to read this story to see if there's Tommy/Kim at the end, hehe.
A/N 4: So it's not only Halloween 2016 in most of the world, today marks the 10 year anniversary of when I published my first story on this site, Thirst for Revenge. Ever since that point, I've tried my best to carry the banner that Tommy/Kim writers on this site have done before me, by giving T/K fans great content that obviously now has newer PR seasons included. All my projects are a ways from being finished but I will do all that I can to one day accomplish that goal. When that will be, I know not. Thanks to all who have read any of my stories.
A/N 5: Usual disclaimer. Power Rangers doesn't belong to me.
Chapter 4: History Lesson Part II
Saturday, May 19, 2012
9:45 a.m. local time
Jayden's Room
The Shiba House
Panorama City, CA
As he sat on his bed and tried to let all the information that he had received sink in, he wanted more than anything to be mad at the world.
Mad at the family that had put him up for adoption, mad at the Shiba family for basically lying to him all his life about something this important.
Mad at the fact that he hadn't had the life other privileged kids had gotten.
And more than anything, mad that he'd had his greatest moment of victory, beating the "bad guy" stolen from him in a way with this new mission. Whenever that was going to be.
Jayden then sighed. No, he really couldn't be mad, not at any of it.
Mentor Ji had told him many times before about prophecies; that even though they were annoying, they were, by and large, fixed events. They were events that could not be changed. That you could be mad all you wanted, but it really wasn't going to do any good because it wasn't going to change a fixed outcome.
And besides, his thinking was, that if his parents had put him up for adoption, there were other evil forces out there that could have sought to turn him evil just as Madimot had Kevin.
That wouldn't have been fun...it wasn't any fun fighting Kevin and he was sure it wasn't fun being that guy too. Fortunately for him, he hadn't had that burden.
He then got up off the bed, walking over to the DVD player that was hooked up to the big plasma television sitting in his room. Every room in the Shiba house had a plasma television with access to satellite television channels, and the ability to play DVDs like the one the Yellow Ninjetti Ranger had just given him.
Before he could pop the DVD in though, he heard a knock at the door.
"Come in," Jayden called, and he saw Aisha poke her head into his room. He also saw a sly grin plastered on her face.
"I can see you take after your mother already," Aisha said, and Jayden looked confused. "This room is pristinely clean. That's how your mother liked things; she was a total neat freak unlike your father."
"I came in because I forgot to say one thing," she continued. "Your father, or Mr. Technicolor as some of us call him put a safeguard on that DVD. When you pop that in, for security purposes, it will ask you for your identity. Just say that you are Jayden the Red Samurai Ranger and you should be OK to view the DVD."
"OK, thanks," Jayden said. "Yeah, I don't like things lying around. It looks terrible. When I'm not saving the world I generally clean around this place."
"One time early on in our tenure Mike used the symbol power for party here in the house on his Samuraizer and glitter was everywhere afterwards. It was utterly ridiculous," Jayden said.
"He must take after your Uncle Rocky, my husband," Aisha said. "Rocky has done something similar twice in our marriage of ten years and I made him sleep on the couch both times I was so mad."
"Not to mention what Mike did, that's using your powers for personal gain," Aisha said, making a face as she did so. "Zordon would have never allowed that in our house. He gave us a lot of freedom but we could never use our powers for personal gain."
"See, you're already getting comfortable around us and you don't even know it. I'm not going to hurt you and none of our brothers and sisters are going to hurt you or look down upon you. They know what you're going to mean in the future," Aisha said. "Happy viewing."
Jayden gave a small smile as Aisha closed the door. Two words came to mind in just an hour of meeting her; maturity and class. It was no wonder she wore the same color as Emily. Emily was quite a bit more upbeat, but Aisha seemed to have a lot of the same traits as Emily did.
Jayden beamed at the thought of Emily; he without question loved Mia more, but that didn't mean he was without respect for Emily. She'd come from the farm, to fulfill what her sister Serena could not because of her illness. He was grateful that Antonio had saved Emily's soul from heartbreaking death at the hands of Splitface; that had been a close call. A few minutes later, and Emily may not have been able to be saved.
Now she was undoubtedly back on her farm with Mike, taking care of her sister.
Jayden then popped the DVD in, and a few moments later he found the portion of the DVD that Aisha had just referenced.
'Before watching this DVD, please state your identity.'
"Jayden Shiba, Red Samurai Ranger."
'Identity confirmed. Welcome, Jayden, someday a part of the Oliver family. Your father would be proud of what you have done. Enjoy the DVD.'
Jayden waited a few moments and the blank screen disappeared, replaced by a man who seemed to be in his early 30s; he had spiked, short black hair, and wore a white dress shirt, denim suit, and a green and red colored tie.
He appeared to be in top physical condition, and Jayden could have swore that if he wanted to, this guy could be fighting Brock Lesnar somewhere.
"Hello, Jayden," the man said. "My name is Dr. Thomas Oliver. If you are viewing this, then obviously either I, or one of my brothers and sisters in arms has given this to you, and I'm quite sure that you've at least begun to learn of your true heritage."
"Believe you me, this is not the life I wanted for you. In an ideal world, when you were born in Sept. of 1995, we would have been able to keep you. But our fight, and fate intervened."
"My first enemies, Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd were still around at the time, and they would be followed by even more nefarious opponents. Had any of them found out about you at that age, they would have sought to capture you and corrupt you for their own evil purposes," Tommy said. "We would have broken prophecy and I could have lost you all at once. That was not something I wanted on mine, or Kimberly's, conscience."
"There is one more reason we gave you up which I will get to later. In the meantime, let's talk about the powers that I'm sure are burgeoning inside of you," Tommy said.
"If you are viewing this, then I am quite sure that your dormant powers are starting to awaken. If you feel that roaring in your body, and you feel your body is on fire, that is a good thing," Tommy said. "That means you are fully bonding with your powers. The key thing is, let it happen. The more you let this happen, the quicker it will bond with you and the faster you can learn about the new powers you possess. After your powers are fully bonded to you, the roaring and your body being on fire should stop."
"The Ninjetti powers themselves are very different from the Samurai powers that I am sure you have possessed," Tommy said. "While the Samurai powers are handed down through generations, and in large part come from your Samuraizers and Kanji symbols, these powers rely on spirit animals that everyone has. You have always had these powers, it's just that they are only now starting to awaken."
"When your powers are fully bonded to you, amongst other things, you will have the capability of flight, will be able to control the element of Phoenix fire like it is second nature, and will have healing powers that will be able to heal you from injuries faster than even most Rangers," Tommy said. "It won't protect you from a gunshot wound or something like that, but you will be able to heal from pretty much all magical attacks, no matter how devastating."
"But enough about your powers," Tommy said. "Let's talk about some past Ranger history, starting from the beginning. I will get to your mother later, but for now, let's talk, in particular, about your aunts and uncles."
The first photo that came up was a side by side of a tall man, short black hair, well built, red tank top. Beside him was a blonde woman, who wore a checkered pink and white blouse.
"Those are your godparents, Jason and Katherine Scott. I met Jason on the first week I moved to California from Arizona; the only man who's ever been able to match me move for move is your Uncle Jason, and that match ended in a tie," Tommy said. "As for Katherine, she's been through more crap than most Rangers put together. She was a part of Rita's plans when she moved here, but overcame a lot of odds, replaced your mother and became a fine Pink Ranger and later, a mother of two children."
"Jason is part of the police force in Angel Grove and has connections there and in Europe, and Kat is a very famous ballet dancer who participates in shows all over the world."
Jayden found himself in awe as Dr. Oliver went through the various sets of Rangers he served with, and the one thing he noticed was that most of these people were at or near the top of their professions. In particular, he recognized Trini Kwan immediately when she was shown; she was Cameron Watanabe's attorney. Tommy dubbed her the "Ranger Attorney," or more specifically the person who most Power Rangers went to when they had a legal case.
He knew this because Mia often talked about problems that Cam and Sensei Kanoi had that Trini sometimes had to clean up.
He smiled at the name Zack Taylor; Jayden already knew about him because when he wasn't DJing celebrations or helping his wife Angela with her dance studio, like Tommy described, he was a morning show DJ on Panorama City's top radio station and was a very good one too. Much like his radio persona, Zack was an upbeat guy, and would almost certainly take to Jayden pretty quick when the two finally met.
When Rocky's name came up, and Tommy explained what he did, Jayden's mouth dropped open. Mia was going to the cooking school that Rocky was running. In the past, he'd spent time as a chef in places like Paris, London, Los Angeles and New York City. What a small world it was.
No doubt, Mia would find her place in the cooking world; she was in good hands. Rocky DeSantos was known as one of the best culinary minds in the entire world.
He felt it was a shame when William Cranston's name came up, through unwitting circumstances, he'd had to move to another planet, and hadn't been seen since. Little did he know, Jayden would be seeing his Uncle Billy really soon.
He recognized Justin's name too when that came up; though he was the last of Zordon's chosen heroes, Justin Stewart had become arguably the most notable of them or near the top of the list.
He was an executive at NASADA in Angel Grove and had been in many scientific magazine interviews. Antonio, being the technical whiz of his team, liked it whenever Justin was interviewed and had said many times he'd like to meet Justin some day.
The theme of Rangers being near the best at the top of their professions continued as the DVD went on. When the Lightspeed part of the DVD came on, he'd found out that Chad Lee (Blue), Lebron James and his mother Kimberly Hart had one thing in common.
They'd all taken their talents to South Beach, with varying results.
So far, as Tommy told it, Chad Lee had been the most successful of the three (of course only after he said this did Lebron James start winning NBA titles); Chad worked at the Miami Seaquarium, and was considered highly successful. He'd had many offers to come back to California, but Chad, unlike Jayden's mother, had found success in Miami and chose to stay there with his wife Kelsey and two kids.
'Perhaps some advice from Antonio would do the trick if he swings by Miami,' Jayden thought.
The DVD then moved on to Time Force, and he was really surprised when he heard Jennifer Collins name come up. She was another leader in her profession, this one being the fashion profession. Jayden knew all about her thanks to Emily, who always seemed to buy the Scotts-Collins Fashion Boutique Catalogue.
They didn't have a store in Panorama City but Jayden had seen plenty of the catalogues arrive in the mail and had seen an interview in a magazine with Jen. She was first class all the way. Her husband Wes held a pretty powerful position too, working with his father on running the Silver Guardians. Those two probably had money flowing from their ears yet the two appeared to be pretty humble.
As the DVD continued, Jayden heard about the Wild Force, Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder teams, the last of which was his father's team. He was pretty much their Zordon, if you will.
Three things crossed Jayden's mind as those teams flashed across the screen. One was that the Red Wild Force Ranger Cole bore a striking resemblance to Deker, although his father never mentioned anything about it.
Could it possibly be?
As the Ninja Storm Rangers were featured, Jayden found out that not only were Mia and Cam (Green Samurai) related, but that he wasn't the first Crimson Ranger. That belonged to Hunter Bradley, who was married to their Blue Wind Ranger, Tori.
As the Dino Thunder team was featured, and he saw Conner McKnight's face, his jaw dropped. Like most, Jayden was a fan of the "beautiful game" as it was known, and had jumped on the Manchester City bandwagon in part because of Conner. Man City had just won the Premier League on Sunday and no doubt Conner was raking in millions right now.
He smiled when Tommy revealed that Conner and Kira were married; Mia's brother Terry was a musician and was a big fan of Kira as well. Those two were probably knee deep in wealth too.
The Dino Thunder team, he learned, had also worked once with a futuristic team called SPD. He would later learn that some of those Rangers were children of Rangers themselves. It was good to know that Earth would be in good hands in 2025.
As the DVD moved on to the final teams before the Samurai team, a few thoughts went through his head.
Regarding Mystic Force, he felt a lot of sorrow and anguish for both Nick, and for the Mystic Mother. Nick, because he was known as the Phoenix Mystic Ranger, had been targeted by Octomus the Master a lot. They thought Nick was the chosen one, not Jayden. It really was too bad that Nick had to go through that, even though he won.
Jayden promised himself that when given the chance, he would "give em one for Nick."
He felt sorry for Mystic Mother too, although he learned that his father had buried the hatchet with her. That was good.
"There will be a time when you'll need to listen to her, Jayden, probably multiple times. Zedd and Rita have done as good a job of keeping an eye on you as we have. She has wisdom that rivals Zordon's, and Zedd does as well. If they come for a visit, listen to them," Tommy said.
On Operation Overdrive, he admired those who had come back to fight Thrax. Who was ugly, by the way. If he really was the son of Rita and Zedd, then Rita and Zedd while evil must have been REALLY ugly. Thank God for his aunts and uncles who had come back to make sure Thrax hadn't exposed him before he was ready.
The last team was known as Jungle Fury; they weren't greatly dissimilar from the Ninjetti themselves because they too relied on the spirits of animals. It was known as the Order of the Claw or Pai Zhuq.
Jayden knew he would be stopping in Ocean Bluff at some point, not just for some pizza at Jungle Karma pizza but for some advice regarding his new powers.
"And now, let's talk about your mother," Tommy said. He saw Tommy let out a deep sigh and could only imagine how much it pained his father to talk about this. "Your mother, my Beautiful, the other half of my soul whose absence has kept me thirsty for nearly two decades. In the time we were together, she was like the air that I breathe."
"When I met her in 1993, she was 'the one.' We danced around each other for a while, but we knew we were meant to be. I go on record right now as saying the greatest two years of my life were when we were together."
"Every time I hear that she's conquered another planet, Jayden, another part of me dies inside because it's one step closer to her soul being destroyed," Tommy said. "Jayden, she let Maligore corrupt her soul in 1997 for your protection. You were almost two years old and probably don't remember, but you cried like crazy when Maligore corrupted her that day. Lauren, your deceased adopted father Michael, Daisuke and Ji told me afterwards."
"If she had tried to take on Maligore that day, had she lost, Maligore could have come and destroyed you. He would have been privy to information about you, Jayden. The risk was too great to take," Tommy said. "The events that happened to her during her gymnastics training in Florida were so deplorable that it makes me vomit to this day. Maligore, to his credit, took advantage of her troubles and helped turn her into this monster."
"When Zordon died to save the universe in 1998, Kim could have come home. But she had you in mind, in a roundabout kind of way," Tommy continued. "I'm sure if your powers have manifested you've seen some dreams of futuristic battles. The woman in the golden scorpion armor is Kim's evil half's mentor, an old enemy of ours, Scorpina. Scorpina and my archrival Goldar had a daughter, known as Nepa."
"Kim, or Flammia as her evil half, was named godmother of that child. When Zordon died to save the universe in 1998 it would have wiped out all evil, and would have returned Kim to her old state. However, Scorpina's daughter would have died," Tommy said, a tear escaping his eye. "It was Kimberly's opinion that had she not stayed by Scorpina and her daughter till she was old enough to really grow up that she would be a hypocrite. She did everything to protect you, so she felt she needed to do everything to protect Nepa, even though it would keep her on the side of evil."
"Jayden, a large part of this, and this is another reason why we reluctantly gave you up, is that your biological grandmother, your mother's mother, believed in having abortions. She hated me too, thought I was some redneck freak with a ponytail in my younger years," Tommy said regrettably. "If she'd have found out about you, she would have deemed you a mistake and flown back to California from Paris and whisked Kim to the nearest abortion clinic like that."
Jayden's eyes lit up with red hot anger. Abortions were never OK to him; no wonder they gave him up. More than ever now, he believed his parents had done the right thing as hard as it may have been. And even while evil, she'd had his best interests at heart.
"In closing, I say this. I am speaking to you in the year 2010, Jayden. You may or may not be fighting Xandred already, but just know this. Flammia has just conquered Eltar, Zordon's native planet, and has conquered several other planets. More will fall and one day Earth will be the final prize she will attempt to claim," Tommy said. "If Flammia conquers Earth and destroys us, then Kim's soul dies."
Jayden's face turned solemn and stoic again. By now, in 2012, she probably had conquered pretty much every planet there was.
"When she gets here, someday, you must accept your destiny and be ready to face her army. It is a vast, expansive army of some of the most foul creatures in the universe and only with your powers will the universe be saved," Tommy said. "As I said in the beginning, I never wanted this for you, but it has come to this. Only by destroying Kimberly's evil half can you restore hope for the universe, and guarantee a life for you and me. What happens to your mother in the final battle has not been set in stone."
"I leave you with one last thought, and it's in the words of Zordon himself, Jayden," Tommy said. "May the Power protect you, always, my son."
With that, the DVD went blank and Jayden just stared at the screen for a couple of minutes.
"A chance my mother could never come back, even if I defeat her," Jayden muttered aloud. "The hell with that. I go big or go home. She's coming home where she belongs."
Jayden pounded his right fist into his opening left hand, and strode out the door of his room with a purpose. As soon as he entered the large spacious middle area of the house, Lauren and Ji saw his eyes flash a bright shade of green and visibly flinched. That had never happened before.
While Ninjor and Aisha smiled. They had their answer.
"Did I just see that happen?" Ji asked. "That's never happened with him before."
"Like father like son. Only with the burgeoning of his powers does he have that capability," Ninjor said.
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Jayden said.
"Your eyes just flashed green," Aisha said. "That only happened when your father was really pissed off about something."
"I'm pissed at the forces that drove us all away, in particular that loser in Paris who thinks I'm a mistake and would have forced Mom to abort me," Jayden said and Aisha smiled with pride; she hated that woman too. The 'Mom' reference didn't go unnoticed too. "They think I'm such a joke, they laugh in my face. I'm going to show them who the joke is."
"After everything I've been through, and what's gone on in the rest of the universe, the way I see it is that I've got everything to gain and just about nothing to lose. They think I'm a joke anyways, so what if I try and fail?" Jayden added. "The rest of the universe has been stepped on for so long by Maligore, and at some point someone's gotta step up and punch the bully back."
"Unfortunately, no Power Ranger has had the ability to stand up to that bully," Ninjor said. "As powerful as the Rangers are, they are helpless before the power of Maligore's army right now. Perhaps now things will change."
"I learned that lesson when we fought Negatron. When the big bully gets punched in the face and realizes he can't intimidate, he's not effective anymore. He didn't even faze Emily because she didn't listen to his insults," Jayden added.
"You're taking notes on everyone who thinks you're some sort of apology," Ninjor said.
"When I'm done, my mother will be free from this ridiculous corruption and she'll be home where she belongs," Jayden finished. "And when that happens no one will think I'm a joke anymore."
The tone of voice, cold and hard, that he spoke with told Aisha, Ninjor, Lauren and Ji that he meant every word of what he said.
When Maligore's army finally got here, they were going to be in for one nasty surprise.
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