Chapter 2 - More Than It Seems

*Miami, FL - 1997*

The next day, Kim got to the facility early to get in some extra practice. When she arrived, she saw that there were ambulances and police officers all over the grounds. She raced towards the entrance but the whole entrance of the facility was taped off. So she hurried over to a couple of the police officers, who were conferring with one of the EMT's on site.

"Excuse me, can you tell me why you guys are blocking off the facility?" Kim asked. The officers looked annoyed at her question, but glanced down and suddenly had a change of heart.

"You're one of the girls training for the pan-globals, right?" They asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "I need to get in there to practice, can I go in?"

"Not right now, miss," the other officer replied. "There was a homicide last night."

"Homicide? Last night?" Kim's voice began to tremble. "I was one of the last people to leave last night. Who was it? Who was killed?"

"I can't tell you right now, miss, you're going to have to wait," the officer replied. "You're not going to be able to go in and train for a while, but maybe you can help us out. Who else was here last night?"

"I only know of one person, Chad Evans," Kim stammered. "There might have been a couple other gymnasts finishing up, a couple of the guys, and maybe a janitor."

"How do you know Chad? Is he one of the athletes?"

"No, he came to drop something off for me," Kim replied. "He's my ex-boyfriend, we broke up about a week ago." She paused for a moment, and then fear began to grip her. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm afraid I can't say yet," The officer replied. He looked at his partner, who whispered in his ear. "Anything else that you can remember, miss?"

"I... I felt weird last night," she replied. "I know it sounds like I'm crazy, but the lights... they kept shorting out throughout the building. It didn't feel like we were alone. Like something else was there, something we couldn't see."

"Is that all?" The officer asked, with a hint of dismissiveness.

"Yeah," Kim replied coolly.

"Can we get your name, just in case we need to call you in for more questions?" The officer asked.

"Kimberly Hart."

"Thanks Ms. Hart, we'll be in touch." She walked away, shaken by what had happened. Was it Chad? Was he the one that was killed? She ran back to her dorm and called Chad's phone number, both at home and at work, but there was nothing. Worry began to rise in her heart, when she got a knock at the door. She nearly jumped out of the chair she had been sitting in, and opened the door to find Abby.

"Hey Abby, what's up?"

"Did you see the news?" Abby asked somberly, to which Kim simply shook her head. "You might want to sit down," she said, prefacing her comment.

"It's about Chad, isn't it?" Kim asked weakly.

"Chad was killed last night at the practice facility. Coach called and cancelled all practices for the next 24 hours." Kim's heart sank. She turned for a moment, trying to hold back any tears. "I know you guys had a bad break-up, but I know this must be hard for you."

She turned to show a tear streaking down her face. "I saw him last night," she confessed. "He swung by to see me. I had left my camera at his apartment, and he was returning it. I gave him hell for visiting me, I left him there alone, and..."

"Don't blame yourself, Kim," Abby interrupted. "In fact, you should be grateful that you weren't there when this thing attacked."

"What do you mean?" Kim asked.

"Well, the weird thing about it is apparently he was mauled by some animal," Abby explained. "So they don't think it was another person that killed him. Theory is that a wild animal got into the facility."

"How would something like that get in there?" Kim asked honestly. She retreated back into her small room and stood by her window while Abby followed her in. Kim turned back towards her friend, who merely gave her a shrug.

"Do you need anything?" Abby asked.

"Not that I can think of," Kim replied softly. "I... I probably just need some time alone." Abby nodded and hugged her friend, and then gave Kim her desired space. Kim sat down for a few moments and just stared at the wall, lacking the desire to do anything. She didn't know why this affected her, and that just added to her lethargy. They were broken up. She was mad at him, and she didn't want to see him for a very long time. But he was gone forever. And she may have been the last person to see him alive. Her internal thoughts continued to plague her, as her soul longed for comfort.

Elsewhere, in a small trailer outside the city limits, Hopper sat at a small desk with a radio in hand. The inside of the trailer had very little. There was a kitchenette, a chair and a desk, and nothing else. He slumped over and tuned the frequency of the radio. He leaned forward to speak into the receiver, but stopped himself for a moment. He waited. And waited. Until finally he couldn't any longer.

"This message is for Mike Wheeler, Joyce Byers, El... this is Jim Hopper. I'm not dead. I repeat, I'm not dead. I'm stuck in the future. I've tried looking you up here, but I can't find you. I don't know how to get back to you, I don't know how I got here, but listen..." Suddenly the signal cut out, and then he heard another voice on the line.

"Hopper... Oh Hopper... we're aliens from the year 2099, and..."

"Listen up nitwits, I'm sick of dealing with you, get off my frequency and let me find my family!"

"We are your family, Hopper!" There were excessive amounts of laughter in the background, which caused Hopper to turn off the radio and throw it across the ground in anger. He held his head in his hands, and sighed.

"I don't blame them," he said to himself. "Hell, I'm not even sure if I believe it myself. Jim Hopper, time traveler. From 1985, to 1997." He went to the fridge and poured himself a drink and sat back down, contemplating if there was anyway to get back home.

He drove into work, getting to the dormitory around dusk once more and took his post. It was relatively quiet for a while, no one coming or going. About an hour into his shift, he saw Kimberly walk down listlessly.

"Hey," he called out, in his typical burly manner. "You ok?"

"I... um... I don't know," Kim replied. "There's just a lot going on, and I'm sure you don't want to hear any of it."

"Honestly, I'd rather hear what you're going through than sit here and do nothing for another night. I don't think the rest of the guards understand that no one is coming to harm you."

"Tell that to my ex-boyfriend, who just got killed by some weird thing!" She shot back. She quickly realized that she was out of line. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I yelled at you, I just..."

"It's okay," Hopper said gently, standing up. "This is probably an instance where I should have kept my big mouth shut. I'm sorry to hear about your ex-boyfriend."

"I just... I mean, I was probably the last one to see him alive at our facility, and before he showed up, the lights start flickering, and then..."

"Wait... back up. What do you mean by 'lights flickering?'"

"Well, I was in the locker room, and one minute, everything is normal, and the next they start freaking out. It was so creepy, it felt like someone was watching me." At this point, Hopper stood up.

"And what did you say killed him?" Hopper asked.

"They think it could be an animal, the way he was mauled," she replied. "I know it sounds crazy."

"I don't think you sound crazy," he assured her. "Can you take me to the crime scene?"

"I mean, sure, but the whole area is being canvased by police," she pointed out. "What do you know that they wouldn't?"

"If I tell you why, you might think I'M crazy," Hopper quipped. "And honestly, I hope I'm wrong, and that I am crazy."

"Look, if you think you know what's going on, I don't care how crazy you end up sounding," Kim replied emotionally.

"Fine, I can explain what it could be on the way there," he replied. "Though, I'd ask you to listen with an open mind." Kim looked puzzled at his request, but she nodded her head and they left for the gym. However, before they took off, she went back upstairs and grabbed her old communicator, just in case. He explained from the beginning of the ordeal with the so-called "Upside-Down." The disappearance of Will Byers, the demogorgan, Eleven, all the way up to how Russian operatives tried to reopen the gateway to the alternate dimension, and how he thinks that's what sent him to the 90's.

"So you're from a small town in Indiana, from the 80's, and you think that this monster may have followed you here?"

"I don't know," he explained. "But from what you explained, I'd like to see for myself if there is more evidence. Maybe, just maybe, I can find a way back to my time."

"I'm sorry that you've been stuck here," Kim empathized.

"I'm just glad there's someone that actually believes me," Hopper confessed. "Why do you believe my story, anyway?"

"Well, I used to work with a group of heroes called the power rangers," she revealed. "On multiple occasions, I've been sent back in time. So, honestly, a time traveler from the 80's doesn't sound all that absurd. Not to mention that we used to fight monsters on the regular, though none of them really sound as terrifying as the ones you described." Hopper had stopped walking mid-way through her explanation, his mouth hanging open as Kim shared her experience. Kim realized she was now walking alone, and looked back to find the newly minted security guard gawking at her. "What? You tell me all about your demogorgan and your time travel, and I reply with how I was a super hero, and that I got sent back through time, and you look at me like that?"

"I'm sorry," he shared, giving himself a mental shake. "It's not that I don't believe you, or think you're crazy. I guess, even with all that I've been through, it's hard to imagine a world where all of this exists."

"Yeah..." Kim sighed. "I hear you on that one. There are days I look back and wish I never got chosen for the power. The whole ignorance is bliss, thing, you know? But at the end of the day, I'd never trade in my experiences, even the bad ones."

"These heroes, do you have access to them now?" Hopper asked.

"I brought my old communicator, just in case. But I have no idea if they even would receive the signal. I haven't used this thing since I left the rangers, and with team changes and switching power sources, I just don't know if it will work."

"And even if it does, I have no clue if they would want to rescue me," she thought to herself.

When they arrived at the gym, they found it deserted. The entrance remained taped off, but Kim and Hopper snuck under the caution tape and entered the building. It was dark, so they flipped on the lights, which revealed the horrifying aftermath of what had happened. Walls were dented in, glass was shattered, and blood stained the hard floors of the lobby. Kim gasped at its sight, while Hopper seemed unfazed.

"Oh Chad," Kim cried. She knelt down for a moment, and after the wave of emotion passed, she observed where they were within the building. "He must have been attacked almost immediately after I left."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because this is where we talked last night. He grabbed my shoulder right as the lights began to flicker." Hopper looked around to see if he could find anything that would show whether this was in fact the work of an entity from the Upside-Down, but nothing presented itself.

"Where else did you say that you saw the lights flicker?" He asked

"The women's locker room." The pair then headed there, but after a few moments of looking it over, they found nothing out of the ordinary there either.

"Where's the main part of the gymnasium, where you all train?" Hopper asked.

"It's over there," she pointed towards the door opposite where they entered.

"I'm going to go and check it out, just in case we're missing something," Hopper replied, a twinge of despair laced in his voice.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked, picking up on his distress.

"Part of me hopes that it is one of those monsters, because it means that maybe there's a way home," he confessed. "But at the same time, I really hope it's not."

"You can kill one of these things, right?" Kim asked.

"I don't know if I can without El," he confessed. "Hurt it, probably. But these things... let's just say they keep even the bravest of souls up at night."

"Great," Kim whimpered. Hopper left Kim to herself in the locker room, looking around to see if she noticed anything different at all. "If there was anything different, I wouldn't be surprised if the police all ready cleaned it up and took their findings back to analyze them." She continued to scan the area and that's when she saw it. A tiny opening in the wall of the locker room. At first, she was creeped out, thinking maybe someone had carved out an opening to spy on the girls as they were changing. But as she observed it more carefully, dread began to take over.

She approached the opening cautiously, and as she got closer, she saw little white specks floating around it. She tried to peer through it, but all she saw was utter darkness, aside from whatever was floating in the air in front of it. "Hopper!" She yelled. "Hopper, I think I found something!"

A few seconds went by without an answer, when suddenly the lights began to violently flicker. Kim retreated hastily to the other side of the room until her back was against the wall. The instability of the lights only increased, and after a few moments, she saw it. The odd shaped five-pedaled figure that could only be the creature's head popped out of the opening. Kim tried to run, but her legs felt like they were stuck cement, dread had captured her heart. Only as the creature continued to emerge, was she able to race out. She screamed for Hopper, and then as she ran across the locker room towards the door that led to the main gymnasium, she called into her communicator.

"Zordon, this is Kimberly," She cried out. "I know this isn't typical, but I have an emergency and need assistance here in Miami!" There was no answer, only the loud signal that symbolized there was no connection. "Zordon! Billy! Tommy! Please hear and respond!" Again, nothing. She made her way to the center of the gym, where she waited and hoped that, if anything, she'd be able to see the monster if it came her way. She looked around for Hopper as well, but he was nowhere to be found. "Great..."

The lights began to short in and out in the main gymnasium, and that's when she heard the beast snarl. She saw it rear it's ugly head, and she quickly retreated, hoping it hadn't seen her. Yet, as she moved to find a safe place, she tripped over the mats, tipping off the monster to her location. It's scream was unnerving, and it quickly prowled towards Kim. She tried to back away from the monster, but it stalked her like a lion stalking its prey.

"Hopper!" She cried. The monster towered over her, its mouth beginning to open, readying itself for a killing strike.

"Ki-yah!" The familiar sound ushered in a flood of hope, as a the monster was bludgeoned by a strong kick to it's temple.

"Hah!" Another familiar grunt, this time a strike with an unfamiliar staff sent the monster flying to the ground. Kim looked up to find the Red and Gold power rangers zeo standing in their fighting stances. The red ranger knelt down to check on the scared former pink ranger.

"Kim, are you ok?" Tommy, the red ranger, asked. His voice instantly helped calm her fears, so much so that she leapt up and hugged him.

"You came," she replied, relieved for the moment.

"Hey guys, I hate to break up the reunion, but that monster's getting back up," Jason, the gold ranger, replied.

"Jason?!" Kim asked, shock in her voice.

"Our identities are supposed to be a secret, you know," Jason quipped.

"I just... I'm shocked to hear your voice in there," Kim replied.

"Hey, we don't have time for this right now!" Tommy commanded suddenly. "Stand back, Kim, we've got this." Before they could do anything, however, they heard multiple gunshots ring through the air. Hopper had arrived, hitting the monster multiple times before it retreated. It found one of the walls of the main training space, and burrowed itself through it, leaving a small, black opening like the one Kim had found in the women's locker room.

"What the heck was that?" Jason asked.

"It's called a demogorgan," Hopper explained. "At least, that's what the kids called it when we fought it in my time."

"In your time?" Tommy asked.

"My name is Jim Hopper, and, well, I'm from the 80's."

To Be Continued...

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- Googz333