The Second Chances Saga: Chapter 7: Battle
Fandom: Power Rangers/ Alternate Universes (duh!)
Notes: This story takes place before they lose the Dinozords. Zack has
moved to Iowa, and Adam took his place. There was no Peace Conference. It
is loosely based on Karen Davis' BLUE YONDER, (I guess it's one of the five
universes Jason never made it to.) and that concept is used with her
permission. Timeline is modern as opposed to a few years in the past.
Disclaimers: I don't own the Power Rangers, Zordon, Zords, Angel Grove, Ernie's or any of Saban's other properties. If I did, I can guarantee you it wouldn't be a kiddie show. I also don't own Storm Quest, Temblor or the Time Shard. They belong to my buddies over at Sky Comics. (Joe- Just be glad I left Seeker alone-) The rest is all from my own twisted mind, and that of my best friend Kim Nichols-Hornbuckle. This is slash fiction. If you don't like guys in love with each other- run as far and as fast as you can. I'm always open to constructive criticism. I can be reached at cobalt- blue@rocketmail.com
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"Alpha!" Kimberly screamed angrily as she looked around and realized where she was, and in what state of dress. Then the situations involving the others intruded on her mind, and she blushed deeply. "You are SO dead!" Without a second thought, she took the towel from her head and tossed it across the blushing forms of Billy and Jason.
"Aiyiyiyiyi," Alpha said in a low tone, as he once again started to move toward the main holotank of the Power Chamber. "Sorry Rangers, I seem to have teleported you at a bad time."
"I am going to take him apart, and use his body for a trash can," Jason grumbled under his breath as he wrapped the towel around his waist, leaving Billy scrambling to pull on his jeans.
"Well, well, well," Ms. Stone commented with a smirk as she came into the room. "Alpha, didn't you warn them before you teleported them here?"
"You did say immediately," Alpha replied.
"Just what I need, an AI who takes orders literally," Ms. Stone said to the ceiling. She turned to Jason and Billy and it was obvious to Kimberly that she was hard-pressed not to snicker, "You could go ahead and Morph. I don't think it would count as personal gain, to get a few clothes on your backs." She turned to look where Kyle and Adam doing their best to disentangle one from the other. "As for you two," she smiled, "We can talk about what ever is going on later. Right now we've got work to do."
Both boys suddenly scrambled to their feet, blushing deep red. For just a moment, Kimberly was afraid one or both of them were going to bolt from the room. "What's the problem, Ms. Stone?" Jason asked as he morphed into his costume.
Ms. Stone suddenly became all business, "A Kregar Light Cruiser just entered orbit around the moon. Currently, they are bombing Rita and Zedd's palace out of existence."
"You'll pardon me if I'm not heart-broken," Kyle said under his breath.
"Oh, I agree entirely," Ms. Stone replied. "However, the moon is only their first stop. As soon as they're finished there, they'll be heading this way, and we had better be ready to stop them." She indicated the holotank and hit a stud on the panel. Suddenly an image of the Kregar ship appeared dropping huge egg shaped pods from it's underbelly. As the pods descended into the atmosphere of some alien planet, they released a swarm of giant robots that looked like the head of a grasshopper suspended between two backwards sloping legs. Each was about a fourth the size of a 'Zord. "This class of cruiser carries a complement of almost a hundred walkers. These walkers, although one-on-one are no match for your 'Zords, do carry enough fire power to be dangerous in swarms. If we let the pods reach a low enough orbit, we'll have the invasion all over again. You have to stop most of them in the air."
"What about the main ship?" Billy asked as he pulled his shirt back on. Kim noted that for some reason, Billy had managed to at least keep most of his clothing partially on his body, where as, Jason had been almost totally nude when he'd arrived. "How much of a threat is it without the walkers?"
"Good question Billy," Ms. Stone replied. "It carries several batteries of particle cannons and lasers, as well as a small mass driver. It has navigational and defensive shields, but all these are fairly useless without the walkers. What good is it to bomb a planet if you can't hold it? That's what the walkers are for."
"Besides," Ms. Hayes voice said as she entered the room, "I will deal with the main ship. You take care of the drop pods and any walkers that get through."
"With all due respect Ms. Hayes," Billy said, "How do you intend to disable a craft capable of super-luminal speeds from a planetary surface?"
"With these," Ms. Hayes smiled and opened her hand to reveal the five power coins that the team had originally possessed. According to Billy and Ms. Stone, the team no longer needed the coins to tap into The Great Power, so they were of little use to the them. "Alpha Five and I have been very busy upgrading your old 'zords, and I intend to borrow a page from Zordon's book and find myself five more teenagers with attitudes, and drop them and their 'zords directly into the hangar bay of that cruiser."
"Where are you going to get five new Rangers?" Jason asked.
"From Zordon's files," Ms. Stone replied. "Surely you wondered why Zack Taylor's family had decided to return to Angel Grove? With a little help from some friends, I made arrangements to get him and all of Zordon's replacement Rangers here," she looked at Kimberly. "Plus one that Rita and Zedd had plans for becoming their evil ranger."
"What chance do they have against the Kregar with our old 'zords?" Adam asked.
Billy pushed his glasses up from his nose, "Actually, I've seen the modifications Ms. Hayes has suggested. The new Tyrannozord can easily match the fire-power of our new 'zords." He shrugged, "Just not the versatility."
Ms. Stone turned to Kim, "By the way Kimberly, I've been reviewing the old tapes from your first mission," she gave the petit chestnut-haired girl a teasing smile, "You're going to have to worry more about your particle cannons and flying than the cool stereo."
Kimberly blushed, she knew that remark was eventually going to come back and haunt her. "Yes ma'am," she replied.
"Why do I suddenly have the image of Kimberly flying into a fight with DANGER ZONE playing in the background?" Kyle asked innocently.
Everyone laughed at that mental image, and the embarrassments they'd all felt earlier were put behind them, as the mission took precedence. Ms. Hayes continued to explain. "As you know doubt realize now, you're 'zords are no longer limited to simply one form, plus the mega-zord, and ultra- megazords . You can reconfigure them into several forms depending on your needs, as Billy, Jason and Kyle have already demonstrated."
"What forms are available then?" Adam asked.
Hayes smiled at him, "What forms do you want?" She turned and leaned back against the counter, "You guys still haven't even begun to touch the edges of what you've become. Those 'zords can be anything you want them to be- anything you have the will power to make them." She sighed and shook her head, "I understand that you're still awed by the power of what's happening to you, but keep this in mind. Even with all this new power, a victory against the Kregar still isn't guaranteed. So far, you've only fought against Rita and Zedd. Now you're going to see real fire power, and this is only a light cruiser. When the Kregar get here with their primary invasion force, you're going to be in for the fight of your lives."
Kimberly felt a shudder run down her spine at the woman's words, as they continued to analyze and plan for the upcoming battle. She remembered the ferocity of the attack that never happened, in that battle before the Gray and it made her worry about the people who she loved.
She looked over to where Tommy and Jason had their heads together with Billy as the three planned their strategy. The relationship between the three of them had strengthened over the past few weeks, not that it had ever been anything but strong, and Kim seriously suspected it had a great deal to do with the revelation of Jason's and Billy's relationship. It seemed to have brought their friendship into a whole new realm. Some part of her realized that for some reason it finally made Billy as much of Tommy's Little Bro as he was Jason's or Zack's.
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Adam kept stealing glances over to where Kyle was doing his best to concentrate on what Jason as telling them about their attack strategy. However, he caught the raven-haired youth returning his glances on more than one occasion. He wasn't so much concerned about what had been revealed about their activities, as he was how it was going to affect their ability to work together as Power Rangers and as friends. He thought he'd crossed a line that may have cost him a friend.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, "You're worried about something," Kim commented.
Adam turned, smiled weakly at her and said, "Wouldn't you be?" He shrugged, "I mean what happened wasn't planned, it just happened. How would you feel if the first time you ever kissed a boy you'd gotten teleported into the Command Center with him?"
"I see what you mean," Kimberly replied, "However, I don't think that's what's bothering you."
Adam shrugged. Kim was right. He was confused. He'd never even considered the idea of being attracted to another guy until recently. In reality, he'd never even thought the idea of sex to be that appealing, it all seemed kind of messy and just a little frightening. However, getting to know Kyle, he'd discovered that the idea wasn't so bad after all. Now before he could really decide for himself, he'd had his quest for self- knowledge suddenly thrust into everybody's view. "At least Billy and Jason got a chance to decide on what they wanted, and to experiment in other areas before we all got to find out that they loved each other. I just had my first kiss exposed to the whole group."
Kim chuckled at him, "Don't feel like the Lone Stranger. Jason told me that the same was true of Billy. Evidently that day in the park was our Blue Friend's first kiss too."
Adam smiled, "Really? I would have thought he'd at least kissed Violet." He shrugged, "Anyway, he was the one who started that, knowing we were all there." He turned to look toward the holotank where the Red, Green, and Blue Rangers were developing a strategy for taking out the drop ships while in the air.
Kim sighed and turned his face to look at her, "Really? You know what that first time we used the Power felt like that day. Billy was running on an emotional high, created by the rush of the fight. I wouldn't grant him too much testosterone credit for that kiss if I were you."
"You think so?" Adam asked.
"I know so," Kim said. They stood there listening the battle plan for long moments, as Adam considered her words. Finally she said, "I'm not going to ask if you love him, after all, you've only known him a short while. But, I am going to ask you if you intend to find out."
Adam shrugged, "If he wants to I guess. I'm not going to push anything. I don't want him to think I'm trying to replace his first love."
"That's sweet," Kimberly told him. "But don't wait too long to talk to him. I know it sounds cold, and I don't mean it that way, but you heard Ms. Stone. We could all die soon, and I'd hate to see one or both of my friends feeling like they had a chance to tell the other how they felt and never did."
Adam turned to face Kimberly, surprised at her insight, "Since when did you get so smart?"
She shrugged and smiled, "Eh, I've always been smart. You guys just have never noticed before."
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"Missiles away!" Tommy said as he fired the missiles on the leading edge of the wings of his falconzord and banked hard, barely avoiding the blast of energy from the falling drop ship. Checking his scanners, he realized that the missiles had not even scratched the surface of the egg shaped vehicle. He smiled weakly as he keyed the mic, "No good, they impacted on the surface, they didn't go in." He quoted his favorite movie.
Suddenly his targeting warning klaxon went off, and he banked hard to port, and pulled up on the yoke as a huge energy bolt slammed into the ground below him. The mother ship was targeting him!
"Use your scanners, find a weak point in the armor," Ms. Stone's irritatingly calm voice came over the speakers. It should be somewhere near the juncture of the heat deflector plates at the top of the ship."
"Yes ma'am," Tommy radioed back.
Tommy brought the falconzord around for a second strafing attack on the drop ship, dodging more of mother ship's blasts from orbit. Getting a solid lock on the juncture Ms. Stone suggested, he fired the 'zord's particle cannons. Twin beams of annihilation energy lanced out to strike dead on target. Keeping himself in a steep stoop to avoid any more attacks from above, he watched as the punishing energy of the cannons peeled away the hull plating of the Kregar attack craft. Finally, closing to almost point blank range, he fired a full volley of missiles into the area he'd been hitting with the cannons, before he pulled out of the stoop. Looking back over his shoulder, he watched the ship slowly erupt into a fiery ball of hot plasma, that rained down pieces of ship, and walkers onto the city below. To his dismay, he saw several of the walkers right themselves as they scanned area for targets to attack.
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Jason watched as the walkers that fell from the exploding drop ship began to right themselves. Cursing to himself silently, he charged his Grizzlyzord into a group of them, batting the smaller craft to one side. Extending the huge claws from the 'zord's paws, he raked two of the Kregar walkers into a bear hug. Pouring power into the crushing force of the 'zord's arms he watched as the stress on the structural integrity fields increased. Finally, in a satisfying series of explosions, he felt the smaller walkers crushed into so much scrap metal.
Dropping them, he turned to where his sensors showed that he was being targeted by a walker that was just a little larger than the others. Dropping his 'zord to what Billy liked to call four-paw all-terrain mode, he charged the walker. Suddenly the 'zord was rocked by a blast as the Kregar energy weapon grazed its right shoulder. Jason realized that the Kregar had been targeting the 'zord's groin area.
Closing the last few hundred yards in a steady run, he brought the 'zord back up into an erect posture and swiped again at the smaller walker. He was surprised to encounter only air, as the smaller vehicle launched itself over the head of his craft, like the grasshopper it resembled.
Turning to face where the walker had landed on the side of a building- which by the way was beginning to collapse from the extra weight of the seventy-five feet of war machine clinging to it's surface- he caught a second blast from the walker's twin lasers.
He felt the temperature in his 'zord rise as the heat from the punishing energy being poured into his Grizzlyzord's shields. That energy tried to find some place to which to escape. His sensors suddenly went blank from his heat sinks overloading, so he swagged it. Lashing out blindly with a forepaw, he swept the offending walker from the building. Before the smaller craft could recover its feet, he leapt with Grizzlyzord and came down on the juncture of the walker's head and leg. Jason heard a satisfying grinding of metal, as his own 'zord crumpled the walker under its weight.
"Just like in sixth grade," Kim's voice came over the radio, "you're throwing your weight around, again." His friend reminded him of an embarrassing time when he was thirteen and had tried to solve all of their problems through intimidation.
"Well next time, I'll just wait around for you distract them by stripping," he teased back.
"Won't work," Kimberly told him. "I have it on good authority that they're all piloted by women."
Jason smiled to himself and gave her something to think about, "What's that got to do with it? You know a matriarchical society would probably embrace all-female sex."
"Ooooh!!!," Kimberly protested over the radio.
"Good one Big Bro," Adam interrupted. Jason was mildly surprised at the comment coming from their shy friend.
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Adam felt his Ravenzord rock under the force of another aerial bombardment from the Kregar mothership. Fighting for control of the craft, he brought her in low, and twisted hard on the yaw control so he was literally flying sideways down the concrete canyons of Angel Grove. Can't keep this up for long. Turned this way, the wings have absolutely no lift. Just, as he felt the primary feathers of the Ravenzord scrape the asphalt of the street below, he hit an open area of the city and brought the craft back to flight mode to regain some altitude. Looking over his shoulder, he saw black smoke pouring from the aft section of his craft.
"You just keep your tail feathers out of the fire," Jase told him.
"You worry about Billy's tail, I'll worry about Adam's" Kyle's voice interrupted the team leader as twin beams of yellow ion energy lanced past him to knock a walker that was targeting him from the roof of a nearby building.
"Sorry Kyle," Jason's voice came back over the radio, "didn't know you'd officially staked a claim."
"Yeah well, now you do," Kyle told him. Adam was shocked to hear that. He wasn't sure how he felt about Kyle, but some small part of him was pleased that at least Kyle felt something too.
Forcing the conversation from his mind, Adam pulled up hard on the yoke and brought the Ravenzord into a zigzag climb to avoid any more blasts from space. Suddenly, the night sky lit up with an explosion from somewhere in orbit. "Jeeze! I hope they got off there in time!" he said into his mic.
"Don't worry," Ms. Stone told them over the radio. "I've recovered all five of the other Rangers, safe and sound."
"Hey man, you guys take care out there now," Zack's voice came over the radio. "Have we got a story to tell you?!"
"We'll be there to hear it," Adam growled into the mic as he brought the Ravenzord back onto an attack run for another drop ship. "Just as soon as we clean up this mess here!" He fired the 'zords particle cannons at the top of the drop ship, while extending its talons.
Dodging several defensive blasts from the enemy craft, he continued with his weapons lock watching his own power levels pushed to the max. Slowly, the armor plating at the top of the drop ship peeled away as he closed with the huge invading craft. At the last moment he killed the particle cannons, pulled the craft up, and then back down until he felt the 'zord's talons bite into the metal of the target. Closing the claws, and rotating the 'zord's feet backwards, he brought the wings forward and climbed, pulling the drop ship with him like rabbit caught in a raptor's stoop.
Banking with his prize, he fought the lack of aerodynamics his 'zord was suddenly experiencing. This is sure the hell different from piloting the mastodon. It was like trying steer a pregnant whale using only a towel for a sail. Finally getting the 'zord onto the course he wanted, he accelerated until he could see his target. Diving at the second drop ship, he released the one caught in his talons and let gravity do the rest for him. He banked hard away into a victory roll, with a certain raven- haired youth on his mind.
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Kyle brought the Raccoonzord back down the street, getting a good lock on all the targets in the area. Somehow, he got the feeling that this particular configuration had the best sensor suite of all the 'zords. From what he was reading from his teammate's attacks, he knew that the twin particle cannons that fired from the Raccoonzord's eyes were at least twice as powerful as anything anyone else was using. Except for the slightly larger versions he'd taken to referring to as command walkers, most of the invaders couldn't take a single blast from his cannons.
However, he also noticed with some trepidation that this configuration, while much more agile than the others, offered a whole lot less protection from the Kregar weapons. He'd taken several hits that were going to take a long time to repair, and his structural integrity field was almost down to thirty-three percent. He knew what would happen when it dropped to below ten percent. The 'zord would collapse under its own weight.
Locking weapons on one of the command walkers that were targeting the Wolfzord, he shifted more power from the deflector shields into the cannons. He smiled quietly to himself as the beams literally punched a hole clean through the command walker. Two seconds later, he was engulfed in blackness and explosions as four of the smaller walkers unleashed combined attack on him.
***************************************************************** Kimberly watched in horror, as Kyle's Raccoonzord was engulfed four fiery blasts of energy from a concentrated attack. Bringing her Cranezord around for a closer look, she fired everything she had in a deadly ring of explosions around the fallen 'zord. She said into her radio, "Hang on Kyle, I'm coming in to get you."
As her own 'zord set down on the yellow hunk of smoldering metal, she watched as two of the four she hit, came walking through the. Omigosh, gotta' hurry! She popped the escape hatch on the bottom of Cranezord and dropped down onto what was left of the canopy of the Raccoonzord. Willing strength into her arms, she peeled the transparent material back and dropped into the cockpit next to Kyle.
Looking around, she noticed that the readouts on the 'zord showed it in a self-repair mode. More disturbing however, it showed that Kyle had drained all the 'zord's defenses. The particle cannons showed a full charge, but the SIF was almost empty. Gathering her fallen comrade up over one shoulder she flipped several controls to redistribute the 'zord's energy. She said into her radio, "Somebody needs to tell the Farm boy that if he drains his shields he won't last very long in a fight."
"What?!" Jase's and Adam said simultaneously.
"He drained all his defenses to take out as many of the Kregar as he could. They couldn't take his blasts, but he couldn't take many of theirs either." She flipped another switch and the 'zord began to dissolve around her. "I'm sending it back to the bay for repairs."
Pulling herself and her unconscious comrade into he own cockpit, she looked up in time to see the last two walkers rotating around to target her own vulnerable 'zord. "Uh oh. Guys, I think I'm in trouble."
Suddenly both of the enemy 'zords were bowled over by a huge blue wolf, and a familiar friendly voice came over her radio, "Belgarion's got nothing on me!"
Kimberly slowly gained altitude, and headed back toward the Command Center. She watched on her scanners, as below Billy tore into the last two invaders.
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Disclaimers: I don't own the Power Rangers, Zordon, Zords, Angel Grove, Ernie's or any of Saban's other properties. If I did, I can guarantee you it wouldn't be a kiddie show. I also don't own Storm Quest, Temblor or the Time Shard. They belong to my buddies over at Sky Comics. (Joe- Just be glad I left Seeker alone-) The rest is all from my own twisted mind, and that of my best friend Kim Nichols-Hornbuckle. This is slash fiction. If you don't like guys in love with each other- run as far and as fast as you can. I'm always open to constructive criticism. I can be reached at cobalt- blue@rocketmail.com
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"Alpha!" Kimberly screamed angrily as she looked around and realized where she was, and in what state of dress. Then the situations involving the others intruded on her mind, and she blushed deeply. "You are SO dead!" Without a second thought, she took the towel from her head and tossed it across the blushing forms of Billy and Jason.
"Aiyiyiyiyi," Alpha said in a low tone, as he once again started to move toward the main holotank of the Power Chamber. "Sorry Rangers, I seem to have teleported you at a bad time."
"I am going to take him apart, and use his body for a trash can," Jason grumbled under his breath as he wrapped the towel around his waist, leaving Billy scrambling to pull on his jeans.
"Well, well, well," Ms. Stone commented with a smirk as she came into the room. "Alpha, didn't you warn them before you teleported them here?"
"You did say immediately," Alpha replied.
"Just what I need, an AI who takes orders literally," Ms. Stone said to the ceiling. She turned to Jason and Billy and it was obvious to Kimberly that she was hard-pressed not to snicker, "You could go ahead and Morph. I don't think it would count as personal gain, to get a few clothes on your backs." She turned to look where Kyle and Adam doing their best to disentangle one from the other. "As for you two," she smiled, "We can talk about what ever is going on later. Right now we've got work to do."
Both boys suddenly scrambled to their feet, blushing deep red. For just a moment, Kimberly was afraid one or both of them were going to bolt from the room. "What's the problem, Ms. Stone?" Jason asked as he morphed into his costume.
Ms. Stone suddenly became all business, "A Kregar Light Cruiser just entered orbit around the moon. Currently, they are bombing Rita and Zedd's palace out of existence."
"You'll pardon me if I'm not heart-broken," Kyle said under his breath.
"Oh, I agree entirely," Ms. Stone replied. "However, the moon is only their first stop. As soon as they're finished there, they'll be heading this way, and we had better be ready to stop them." She indicated the holotank and hit a stud on the panel. Suddenly an image of the Kregar ship appeared dropping huge egg shaped pods from it's underbelly. As the pods descended into the atmosphere of some alien planet, they released a swarm of giant robots that looked like the head of a grasshopper suspended between two backwards sloping legs. Each was about a fourth the size of a 'Zord. "This class of cruiser carries a complement of almost a hundred walkers. These walkers, although one-on-one are no match for your 'Zords, do carry enough fire power to be dangerous in swarms. If we let the pods reach a low enough orbit, we'll have the invasion all over again. You have to stop most of them in the air."
"What about the main ship?" Billy asked as he pulled his shirt back on. Kim noted that for some reason, Billy had managed to at least keep most of his clothing partially on his body, where as, Jason had been almost totally nude when he'd arrived. "How much of a threat is it without the walkers?"
"Good question Billy," Ms. Stone replied. "It carries several batteries of particle cannons and lasers, as well as a small mass driver. It has navigational and defensive shields, but all these are fairly useless without the walkers. What good is it to bomb a planet if you can't hold it? That's what the walkers are for."
"Besides," Ms. Hayes voice said as she entered the room, "I will deal with the main ship. You take care of the drop pods and any walkers that get through."
"With all due respect Ms. Hayes," Billy said, "How do you intend to disable a craft capable of super-luminal speeds from a planetary surface?"
"With these," Ms. Hayes smiled and opened her hand to reveal the five power coins that the team had originally possessed. According to Billy and Ms. Stone, the team no longer needed the coins to tap into The Great Power, so they were of little use to the them. "Alpha Five and I have been very busy upgrading your old 'zords, and I intend to borrow a page from Zordon's book and find myself five more teenagers with attitudes, and drop them and their 'zords directly into the hangar bay of that cruiser."
"Where are you going to get five new Rangers?" Jason asked.
"From Zordon's files," Ms. Stone replied. "Surely you wondered why Zack Taylor's family had decided to return to Angel Grove? With a little help from some friends, I made arrangements to get him and all of Zordon's replacement Rangers here," she looked at Kimberly. "Plus one that Rita and Zedd had plans for becoming their evil ranger."
"What chance do they have against the Kregar with our old 'zords?" Adam asked.
Billy pushed his glasses up from his nose, "Actually, I've seen the modifications Ms. Hayes has suggested. The new Tyrannozord can easily match the fire-power of our new 'zords." He shrugged, "Just not the versatility."
Ms. Stone turned to Kim, "By the way Kimberly, I've been reviewing the old tapes from your first mission," she gave the petit chestnut-haired girl a teasing smile, "You're going to have to worry more about your particle cannons and flying than the cool stereo."
Kimberly blushed, she knew that remark was eventually going to come back and haunt her. "Yes ma'am," she replied.
"Why do I suddenly have the image of Kimberly flying into a fight with DANGER ZONE playing in the background?" Kyle asked innocently.
Everyone laughed at that mental image, and the embarrassments they'd all felt earlier were put behind them, as the mission took precedence. Ms. Hayes continued to explain. "As you know doubt realize now, you're 'zords are no longer limited to simply one form, plus the mega-zord, and ultra- megazords . You can reconfigure them into several forms depending on your needs, as Billy, Jason and Kyle have already demonstrated."
"What forms are available then?" Adam asked.
Hayes smiled at him, "What forms do you want?" She turned and leaned back against the counter, "You guys still haven't even begun to touch the edges of what you've become. Those 'zords can be anything you want them to be- anything you have the will power to make them." She sighed and shook her head, "I understand that you're still awed by the power of what's happening to you, but keep this in mind. Even with all this new power, a victory against the Kregar still isn't guaranteed. So far, you've only fought against Rita and Zedd. Now you're going to see real fire power, and this is only a light cruiser. When the Kregar get here with their primary invasion force, you're going to be in for the fight of your lives."
Kimberly felt a shudder run down her spine at the woman's words, as they continued to analyze and plan for the upcoming battle. She remembered the ferocity of the attack that never happened, in that battle before the Gray and it made her worry about the people who she loved.
She looked over to where Tommy and Jason had their heads together with Billy as the three planned their strategy. The relationship between the three of them had strengthened over the past few weeks, not that it had ever been anything but strong, and Kim seriously suspected it had a great deal to do with the revelation of Jason's and Billy's relationship. It seemed to have brought their friendship into a whole new realm. Some part of her realized that for some reason it finally made Billy as much of Tommy's Little Bro as he was Jason's or Zack's.
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Adam kept stealing glances over to where Kyle was doing his best to concentrate on what Jason as telling them about their attack strategy. However, he caught the raven-haired youth returning his glances on more than one occasion. He wasn't so much concerned about what had been revealed about their activities, as he was how it was going to affect their ability to work together as Power Rangers and as friends. He thought he'd crossed a line that may have cost him a friend.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, "You're worried about something," Kim commented.
Adam turned, smiled weakly at her and said, "Wouldn't you be?" He shrugged, "I mean what happened wasn't planned, it just happened. How would you feel if the first time you ever kissed a boy you'd gotten teleported into the Command Center with him?"
"I see what you mean," Kimberly replied, "However, I don't think that's what's bothering you."
Adam shrugged. Kim was right. He was confused. He'd never even considered the idea of being attracted to another guy until recently. In reality, he'd never even thought the idea of sex to be that appealing, it all seemed kind of messy and just a little frightening. However, getting to know Kyle, he'd discovered that the idea wasn't so bad after all. Now before he could really decide for himself, he'd had his quest for self- knowledge suddenly thrust into everybody's view. "At least Billy and Jason got a chance to decide on what they wanted, and to experiment in other areas before we all got to find out that they loved each other. I just had my first kiss exposed to the whole group."
Kim chuckled at him, "Don't feel like the Lone Stranger. Jason told me that the same was true of Billy. Evidently that day in the park was our Blue Friend's first kiss too."
Adam smiled, "Really? I would have thought he'd at least kissed Violet." He shrugged, "Anyway, he was the one who started that, knowing we were all there." He turned to look toward the holotank where the Red, Green, and Blue Rangers were developing a strategy for taking out the drop ships while in the air.
Kim sighed and turned his face to look at her, "Really? You know what that first time we used the Power felt like that day. Billy was running on an emotional high, created by the rush of the fight. I wouldn't grant him too much testosterone credit for that kiss if I were you."
"You think so?" Adam asked.
"I know so," Kim said. They stood there listening the battle plan for long moments, as Adam considered her words. Finally she said, "I'm not going to ask if you love him, after all, you've only known him a short while. But, I am going to ask you if you intend to find out."
Adam shrugged, "If he wants to I guess. I'm not going to push anything. I don't want him to think I'm trying to replace his first love."
"That's sweet," Kimberly told him. "But don't wait too long to talk to him. I know it sounds cold, and I don't mean it that way, but you heard Ms. Stone. We could all die soon, and I'd hate to see one or both of my friends feeling like they had a chance to tell the other how they felt and never did."
Adam turned to face Kimberly, surprised at her insight, "Since when did you get so smart?"
She shrugged and smiled, "Eh, I've always been smart. You guys just have never noticed before."
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"Missiles away!" Tommy said as he fired the missiles on the leading edge of the wings of his falconzord and banked hard, barely avoiding the blast of energy from the falling drop ship. Checking his scanners, he realized that the missiles had not even scratched the surface of the egg shaped vehicle. He smiled weakly as he keyed the mic, "No good, they impacted on the surface, they didn't go in." He quoted his favorite movie.
Suddenly his targeting warning klaxon went off, and he banked hard to port, and pulled up on the yoke as a huge energy bolt slammed into the ground below him. The mother ship was targeting him!
"Use your scanners, find a weak point in the armor," Ms. Stone's irritatingly calm voice came over the speakers. It should be somewhere near the juncture of the heat deflector plates at the top of the ship."
"Yes ma'am," Tommy radioed back.
Tommy brought the falconzord around for a second strafing attack on the drop ship, dodging more of mother ship's blasts from orbit. Getting a solid lock on the juncture Ms. Stone suggested, he fired the 'zord's particle cannons. Twin beams of annihilation energy lanced out to strike dead on target. Keeping himself in a steep stoop to avoid any more attacks from above, he watched as the punishing energy of the cannons peeled away the hull plating of the Kregar attack craft. Finally, closing to almost point blank range, he fired a full volley of missiles into the area he'd been hitting with the cannons, before he pulled out of the stoop. Looking back over his shoulder, he watched the ship slowly erupt into a fiery ball of hot plasma, that rained down pieces of ship, and walkers onto the city below. To his dismay, he saw several of the walkers right themselves as they scanned area for targets to attack.
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Jason watched as the walkers that fell from the exploding drop ship began to right themselves. Cursing to himself silently, he charged his Grizzlyzord into a group of them, batting the smaller craft to one side. Extending the huge claws from the 'zord's paws, he raked two of the Kregar walkers into a bear hug. Pouring power into the crushing force of the 'zord's arms he watched as the stress on the structural integrity fields increased. Finally, in a satisfying series of explosions, he felt the smaller walkers crushed into so much scrap metal.
Dropping them, he turned to where his sensors showed that he was being targeted by a walker that was just a little larger than the others. Dropping his 'zord to what Billy liked to call four-paw all-terrain mode, he charged the walker. Suddenly the 'zord was rocked by a blast as the Kregar energy weapon grazed its right shoulder. Jason realized that the Kregar had been targeting the 'zord's groin area.
Closing the last few hundred yards in a steady run, he brought the 'zord back up into an erect posture and swiped again at the smaller walker. He was surprised to encounter only air, as the smaller vehicle launched itself over the head of his craft, like the grasshopper it resembled.
Turning to face where the walker had landed on the side of a building- which by the way was beginning to collapse from the extra weight of the seventy-five feet of war machine clinging to it's surface- he caught a second blast from the walker's twin lasers.
He felt the temperature in his 'zord rise as the heat from the punishing energy being poured into his Grizzlyzord's shields. That energy tried to find some place to which to escape. His sensors suddenly went blank from his heat sinks overloading, so he swagged it. Lashing out blindly with a forepaw, he swept the offending walker from the building. Before the smaller craft could recover its feet, he leapt with Grizzlyzord and came down on the juncture of the walker's head and leg. Jason heard a satisfying grinding of metal, as his own 'zord crumpled the walker under its weight.
"Just like in sixth grade," Kim's voice came over the radio, "you're throwing your weight around, again." His friend reminded him of an embarrassing time when he was thirteen and had tried to solve all of their problems through intimidation.
"Well next time, I'll just wait around for you distract them by stripping," he teased back.
"Won't work," Kimberly told him. "I have it on good authority that they're all piloted by women."
Jason smiled to himself and gave her something to think about, "What's that got to do with it? You know a matriarchical society would probably embrace all-female sex."
"Ooooh!!!," Kimberly protested over the radio.
"Good one Big Bro," Adam interrupted. Jason was mildly surprised at the comment coming from their shy friend.
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Adam felt his Ravenzord rock under the force of another aerial bombardment from the Kregar mothership. Fighting for control of the craft, he brought her in low, and twisted hard on the yaw control so he was literally flying sideways down the concrete canyons of Angel Grove. Can't keep this up for long. Turned this way, the wings have absolutely no lift. Just, as he felt the primary feathers of the Ravenzord scrape the asphalt of the street below, he hit an open area of the city and brought the craft back to flight mode to regain some altitude. Looking over his shoulder, he saw black smoke pouring from the aft section of his craft.
"You just keep your tail feathers out of the fire," Jase told him.
"You worry about Billy's tail, I'll worry about Adam's" Kyle's voice interrupted the team leader as twin beams of yellow ion energy lanced past him to knock a walker that was targeting him from the roof of a nearby building.
"Sorry Kyle," Jason's voice came back over the radio, "didn't know you'd officially staked a claim."
"Yeah well, now you do," Kyle told him. Adam was shocked to hear that. He wasn't sure how he felt about Kyle, but some small part of him was pleased that at least Kyle felt something too.
Forcing the conversation from his mind, Adam pulled up hard on the yoke and brought the Ravenzord into a zigzag climb to avoid any more blasts from space. Suddenly, the night sky lit up with an explosion from somewhere in orbit. "Jeeze! I hope they got off there in time!" he said into his mic.
"Don't worry," Ms. Stone told them over the radio. "I've recovered all five of the other Rangers, safe and sound."
"Hey man, you guys take care out there now," Zack's voice came over the radio. "Have we got a story to tell you?!"
"We'll be there to hear it," Adam growled into the mic as he brought the Ravenzord back onto an attack run for another drop ship. "Just as soon as we clean up this mess here!" He fired the 'zords particle cannons at the top of the drop ship, while extending its talons.
Dodging several defensive blasts from the enemy craft, he continued with his weapons lock watching his own power levels pushed to the max. Slowly, the armor plating at the top of the drop ship peeled away as he closed with the huge invading craft. At the last moment he killed the particle cannons, pulled the craft up, and then back down until he felt the 'zord's talons bite into the metal of the target. Closing the claws, and rotating the 'zord's feet backwards, he brought the wings forward and climbed, pulling the drop ship with him like rabbit caught in a raptor's stoop.
Banking with his prize, he fought the lack of aerodynamics his 'zord was suddenly experiencing. This is sure the hell different from piloting the mastodon. It was like trying steer a pregnant whale using only a towel for a sail. Finally getting the 'zord onto the course he wanted, he accelerated until he could see his target. Diving at the second drop ship, he released the one caught in his talons and let gravity do the rest for him. He banked hard away into a victory roll, with a certain raven- haired youth on his mind.
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Kyle brought the Raccoonzord back down the street, getting a good lock on all the targets in the area. Somehow, he got the feeling that this particular configuration had the best sensor suite of all the 'zords. From what he was reading from his teammate's attacks, he knew that the twin particle cannons that fired from the Raccoonzord's eyes were at least twice as powerful as anything anyone else was using. Except for the slightly larger versions he'd taken to referring to as command walkers, most of the invaders couldn't take a single blast from his cannons.
However, he also noticed with some trepidation that this configuration, while much more agile than the others, offered a whole lot less protection from the Kregar weapons. He'd taken several hits that were going to take a long time to repair, and his structural integrity field was almost down to thirty-three percent. He knew what would happen when it dropped to below ten percent. The 'zord would collapse under its own weight.
Locking weapons on one of the command walkers that were targeting the Wolfzord, he shifted more power from the deflector shields into the cannons. He smiled quietly to himself as the beams literally punched a hole clean through the command walker. Two seconds later, he was engulfed in blackness and explosions as four of the smaller walkers unleashed combined attack on him.
***************************************************************** Kimberly watched in horror, as Kyle's Raccoonzord was engulfed four fiery blasts of energy from a concentrated attack. Bringing her Cranezord around for a closer look, she fired everything she had in a deadly ring of explosions around the fallen 'zord. She said into her radio, "Hang on Kyle, I'm coming in to get you."
As her own 'zord set down on the yellow hunk of smoldering metal, she watched as two of the four she hit, came walking through the. Omigosh, gotta' hurry! She popped the escape hatch on the bottom of Cranezord and dropped down onto what was left of the canopy of the Raccoonzord. Willing strength into her arms, she peeled the transparent material back and dropped into the cockpit next to Kyle.
Looking around, she noticed that the readouts on the 'zord showed it in a self-repair mode. More disturbing however, it showed that Kyle had drained all the 'zord's defenses. The particle cannons showed a full charge, but the SIF was almost empty. Gathering her fallen comrade up over one shoulder she flipped several controls to redistribute the 'zord's energy. She said into her radio, "Somebody needs to tell the Farm boy that if he drains his shields he won't last very long in a fight."
"What?!" Jase's and Adam said simultaneously.
"He drained all his defenses to take out as many of the Kregar as he could. They couldn't take his blasts, but he couldn't take many of theirs either." She flipped another switch and the 'zord began to dissolve around her. "I'm sending it back to the bay for repairs."
Pulling herself and her unconscious comrade into he own cockpit, she looked up in time to see the last two walkers rotating around to target her own vulnerable 'zord. "Uh oh. Guys, I think I'm in trouble."
Suddenly both of the enemy 'zords were bowled over by a huge blue wolf, and a familiar friendly voice came over her radio, "Belgarion's got nothing on me!"
Kimberly slowly gained altitude, and headed back toward the Command Center. She watched on her scanners, as below Billy tore into the last two invaders.
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