Disclaimer: I don't own them, some else does. So please don't ask me to borrow these characters. If you want to borrow this story ask me first.
Authors note: I was just watching the PR on DVD "The Best of PR" and the Ep was "White Light 1&2". Got me thinking how Billy was fighting very well, here is the explanation.
TimeLine: Not long after Switching Places. Tommy just joined our heroes as the Green Ranger. Whoo hoo
Blue and Pink
Billy paced around his garage, freaking out at every noise coming from outside. He didn't know how and what had happened. It had been going on for days, no, weeks. Slight changes to his personality that didn't make any sense. Nor it was any easier to grasp what had happened.
A knock on his garage door had him landing back in reality. He looked up to see Jason, grinning widely.
"So, you going to be coming to school or what?" he asked, smirking.
"As a matter of fact," he inhaled, "Yes." Inwardly he groaned. What happened to my techno-babble?
Slapping him on the back, Jason was about to walk into the hallway. And stopped when he saw the Blue Ranger's face.
"What's wrong?" Friendly concern was in Jason's voice.
"Nothing." Billy shrugged as he picked up his backpack and placed it on his shoulder, before picking out a file in a blue folder.
Saying nothing, Jason nodded, knowing his friend needed some time to figure it out before he could talk about it.
"You know I'm here to listen if you want," he offered.
"Thanks, Jase, but this is something I'd rather not talk about."
"Okay, but…"
"I know who to come to," Billy interrupted.
Looking at the clock... "If we don't hurry, we'll be late," Billy said, looking at Jason, who had made a disgusted face.
"Hey," he protested, "that's Tommy's job."
They both broke into laughter, their friend in green had a habit of always being late, no matter how early he got to school.
"Well…" He let the unfinished sentence hand in the air.
With another look at each other, the two friends ran for the car.
The drive was pleasant, as Jason parked his red four-wheel drive. He looked over towards Billy who was already climbing out of the car. He had been quiet throughout the drive to school.
Jason frowned. Something was wrong with Billy, but he couldn't place it. Sure strange things had happened to all of them, but this one was out of control. Not only he wasn't talking about it, but it seemed it was eating him up from the inside. Jason felt he needed to talk to the gang about this.
"Thanks for the lift, I guess I'll see you in class," Billy sighed, before making his way to the school, leaving behind a speechless Jason.
He continued to walk – fast. But he didn't stop till he got to his locker. As if in a relay team he quickly got into action on the combination of the lock.
"Hey Billy!" Kim's perky voice greeted him, along with a friendly pat on his shoulder.
Luckily his face was hidden, the door of the locker acting as a wall between the Pink and the Blue Rangers. So she couldn't have seen the long haunted look on his face. Putting on his best fake smile he greeted her back.
"Hey Kim." He tried to look keen and enthusiastic on seeing her.
"You okay?" she asked, eyeing him very carefully. Over the last few weeks she had gotten to know a side of Billy she had never known existed. His caring nature and his toughness were just coming to the surface.
"Yeah, I am." Uh huh, nice going there, main brain. Not when you counted the changes he'd been going through and the confusion it was bringing him. Everything going on in the last few weeks had been driving him nuts.
"Hey, Billy, Kim." Trini joined her two teammates. "What's up?"
"Sale!" Kim cooed. "You gotta come to the mall with me this afternoon."
"Billy?" She angled her head. "How about you?"
"Nothing." He avoided any eye contact with the Yellow Ranger. Unusual for him.
"You okay?"
"Uh huh," he said before slamming the locker door behind him, and walking away fuming.
"What's biting him?" Trini asked.
Kim shrugged. "I don't know."
"Hey, where's Billy?" Tommy asked as he joined the girls.
"He," Trini said, pointing down the hall, "went thataway."
"Thanks," Tommy said, as he was about to make his way after him.
"Umm…" Kim began. "If I were you I wouldn't follow him."
"Why?" Baffled, he turned to Kim.
"Cos' he needs space, Bro," a deep voice explained from behind Kim.
"But who's going to help me with my math?"
Discomfort surrounded the group for few minutes.
He had kept on walking, and didn't stop till he got to the boy's restroom. His heart was beating wildly and sweat covered his forehead. His hands were damp.
Walking to a basin, he turned on the cold water. Took off his glasses and placed them on the wooden edge just above it. Sighing, he cupped his hands and splashed himself a few times, until the muscles on his face went numb. He then grabbed a few paper towels to dry off.
He didn't remember when all these changes started, but it had him baffled when he found out he could fight, do a cartwheel, and a few other moves, without having learned them. Sure, he was learning karate from Jason and Tommy, but something different was going on inside him, and he knew it. For days afterwards he ignored it, didn't think much of it, till now, when his tech talk wasn't coming easily to him.
It was no longer a second language, it now was something he could understand, but couldn't speak. Regretfully, he shook his head, and put the glasses back on. Seemingly on cue, the bell rang. He picked up his backpack, and threw the used paper towels into the bin, before heading to his homeroom.
"Where's the main brain today?" Zack asked cheerfully. He had left Angela long enough to join his friends near where Jason was sitting. It was the first period.
"I don't know, Zack," Trini answered honestly.
"You think we should…." But he was cut off by Billy's arrival.
"Hi, I apologize for the untimely departure and my lack of proper manners."
Jason replied, "Oh, that's okay."
Mrs. Applebee's arrival prevented any further conversation as she resumed the class. Rather than paying attention, Billy's mind was elsewhere, trying to find a solution to his little problem. Little, he snorted, more like a giant golf ball.
Just as he finished the last sentence, the bell rang.
"Please read chapter twelve for next week," she told the students before allowing them to leave.
Billy was the first to go, dashing out of the room before any of them had a chance to call out his name.
He had the first two periods free; most of his time that morning was spent in the library. Searching for information without knowing what to look for. Medical books weren't that useful, science didn't help this time. He sighed, science was one thing that had always helped him when he needed it, now it was nothing.
Frustrated, he put the book down with a thump and sat back on the chair, thinking. There wasn't much information in it, or any of the science books he had read. The problem had started in his own home, in the garage. But that still led him to back to square one. Where was the solution to his problem? Or was it even a problem?
Taking a deep breath, he knew the answer. The Command Center. He walked out of the library and teleported in a blue streak of light.
"Billy, what brings you by?" Zordon, the ancient mentor, asked.
"Well, um…" He ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm here to run some tests."
"In the middle of the school day?"
"Yes, I really need to run few biological tests." I just hope I know what I'm doing.
"On what?" Alpha asked.
"Myself."
"Billy, I…" Alpha was cut off.
"Alpha, it's nothing dangerous."
"Would you care to explain?"
"Well, umm...it's a rather long story…." Billy said, then dived into the tale, of when bodies were swapped between himself and Kim. What changes followed afterwards. Including the changes in his own mind and his personal behavior, leaving them not what he was used to.
"I see. And you haven't mentioned it to the other Rangers?"
Billy shook his head. "Kinda embarrassing."
Zordon smiled. "Very well…go ahead."
With Alpha's help, Billy managed to get in two tests more than he originally had in mind. A brain scan and a full body scan along with a blood test.
When the last test was over, the alarms rang loudly.
"Aye, aye, what now?" Alpha panicked.
On the viewing globe, there was a hideous monster, ugly as a trash dump.
"Ew!"
"Please contact the Rangers."
"I'm on my way, Zordon," Alpha said.
"I'll meet them there. It's morphing time, Triceratops!" Then Billy disappeared into blue light.
Everyone minus Billy was over at Jason's place that afternoon right after the fight. Jason personally was glad that Billy wasn't there. Not that he disliked the Blue Ranger, but because of the conversation that was going to take place.
"And you dragged me here for what?" Kim blasted at Jason. She was fuming, due to missing out on the sale. But she understood Jason's reason for this, his fears and what needed to be done. She wanted to do something for her friend but couldn't think of anything.
With his brains and her fashion sense…the results would have to be disastrous. She let out a giggle.
"Billy." Jason's deep voice said in two careful syllables. He looked at his team, knowing that they were in the dark as much as he was.
"Billy?" Trini repeated.
"Yeah."
"What's with Billy?" Tommy asked. He didn't know the Blue Ranger well, but from what he knew, Billy didn't seem to have any particular troubles. This was a puzzle for him.
"Well, he seems to be acting strangely."
"Strangely? How?" Zack asked, almost falling off his chair.
"Well…um, I can't answer that directly, but…" he looked sheepishly at everyone, "the thing is he's not being the Billy we're used to."
The whole thing had Trini thinking, about Billy and his behaviour earlier in the day. "Uh huh," she agreed. "Quick temper, lack of tech words." She ticked off the list with her fingers, then shook her head. "That boy has got some explaining to do."
"Not really." Everyone turned to Kim.
"Meaning?" Tommy asked.
"Well um… the biological changes within his body are causing a mental overload, due to the pressure from the increase of hormones. And if the causes are unknown, there is little we can do."
"Huh?" Tommy, Zack and Jason said in unison. Trini looked at her friend in surprise.
"What?" she asked, baffled.
"Well…the bio-" she was cut off.
"In a simpler version of that?" Jason said.
"Oh, well, hell. It's simple; technically speaking, the changes he's going through are driving him nuts." She shook her head at the guys, with a look saying, I-can't-believe-this.
Trini, on the other hand, was roaring with laughter on the ground. The scene was priceless, and boy, she wished she had her camera to take a photo for later.
The three male rangers frowned.
"So what we going to do about Billy?" Tommy spoke as he watched Trini and Kim giggling non-stop.
"Party!"
The battle itself was quick and easy. But Billy was glad he passed the time, or otherwise he would have been bored, while waiting for the test results to come.
It hadn't been easy for him to walk away from his friends after the battle, not that anyone was hurt, but the celebration was hard to avoid, especially when Zack was the one who dragged Billy off to the Juice Bar from the Command Center nearly two hours later.
A yawn escaped, as he tried to concentrate on the printed results along with the sample of his blood under the microscope. The clock deep within the house chimed the hour, he gave a quick glance at his watch, and it was past midnight. He had to get up early.
One more hour, he told himself, then he would go to bed. Putting his eye at the viewer of the microscope, he was fascinated by what he saw.
In his own blood, there were the traces of his own power, but there was a trace of another power, gliding along with his. The color was pink.
He paused to think. Whatever had happened, it was enough to throw him into a good spin.
But it still didn't explain the facts of how this happened. Unless….
This whole thing started after he and Kim switched places. She was popular, he was a brain. He smiled at events that had taken place.
He was in Kim's aerial Zord. For the first time he felt scared, not because he was flying the Pterodactyl DinoZord. Because he jumbled up the words.
"Billy here...er... I mean Kim."
He laughed, with his shoulders shaking. He still couldn't believe that it had happened. And boy, what a mess it had been. Trying to explain to their families. Who didn't find anything amusing in the situation as they did.
"So this confirms my suspicions." He rubbed his chin as he made notes on the paper. Another yawn escaped, he pushed back his glasses and rubbed his eyes before placing them back.
And went on working into the night.
The next morning, Jason again knocked at the door; Billy's father greeted him as usual. He made his way to the garage, only to have his lips twitching at the sight of Billy asleep on the table, where he must have been working.
Walking closer to his friend, he noticed that Billy's glasses were twisted on his face. Papers were scattered like a tornado had just hit the place. Also there were half-finished projects lying around. Jason shook Billy gently.
"Wake up, Pretty in Pink."
Billy grumbled something about being too early for school and turned to face the wall in the opposite direction. More papers fluttered to the floor. Jason had a hard time keeping his laughter at bay. After an internal debate, he coughed loudly.
With a jerk, Billy was up and on the floor.
"Okay, okay, I'm up, no need to kill." He rubbed his eyes and looked at Jason, who was again having a hard time controlling his laughter, but it was written in his eyes. "What!' he exclaimed.
"School," Jason replied, in his voice Billy could detect the humor.
"Oh." He blushed. "Give me five minutes."
"Kay, I'll be in the car."
After Jason left, Billy got up to get dressed. He needed to talk to someone, but who? Trini was out since she was good friends with Kim. She would rather kill him than hear a bad word about Kim.
Zack was out, since he gave more attention to Angela. Tommy -- he didn't know the Green Ranger that well.
So the only choice he had was Jason. Jason might laugh, but he was also loyal. Not that the others weren't also, but he felt Jason would listen, give the advice he hoped for.
Billy changed his shirt and replaced yesterday's overalls with fresh ones. Grabbed his bag and headed out the front door.
When he saw Jason sitting calmly, he took a deep breath and headed to the red jeep that had been a present for Jason from the Scotts on his sixteenth birthday.
"I need to talk to you."
"You need to talk to me?" Jason was surprised. He pointed a finger to his own body with one hand, while the other was placed on the steering wheel, an eyebrow rising.
"Uh huh." Billy shook his head. "You said it yourself."
"Okay, okay."
Billy ran his fingers through his hair, not knowing where to start. He looked at Jason, then back at his own feet. Panic wanted to climb up his throat, but he forced it down. Sweat wanted to break, yet he kept calm.
Jason on the other hand waited patiently. He wasn't the type to use force, unless it was required of him to do so. He had seen the worried look on the Blue Ranger's face.
"Um…." He was at a loss for words already. Oh dear! Now what? "Why don't I show you before I explain the situation."
"Show me?" Confusion came out before it could be stopped. Jason shook his head, it might be more confusing than he wanted to know.
"Um, yeah. It's back in my lab." Billy pointed to the closed door of the garage.
"But what about school?"
"We'll teleport."
Saying nothing, Jason followed Billy back to the lab.
Once they were inside, Billy motioned to the microscope. "Have a look."
Nodding, Jason did just that. "What's the pink stuff supposed to be?" he asked without looking at Billy.
"Kim's powers." Billy then heard a loud thud. Jason had fallen off the stool. Shock and disbelief tried to top one another on the Red Ranger's face.
"K…K…Kim's powers?" he finally managed.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Billy nodded.
"I don't understand," Jason told him.
"Neither do I," Billy agreed. "But I have one conclusion."
"That'll be what?"
"You remember the body swap Kim and I had some time ago?"
"Yeah..." He nodded. "You had a hard time keeping up with Kim and vice versa."
"Well, somewhere along the line we also swapped each other's personalities."
"The biological changes…"Kim had been speaking just yesterday.
"You mean like you got a bit of her personality and she got yours?" He finally came to some understanding of all this.
"That's putting it mildly." He gave Jason his best you-gotta-be-kidding look.
"Ookkkay." He put out his hands in surrender and took a step back.
"The major swap had been in the…" He paused for the right words to go on. "Like I can do things that she can do; only I didn't learn them. It was more like downloaded into my brain."
"Downloaded?"
"Copied."
"Oh."
"Yeah." He was now back to square one. Still, all this didn't help him.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "Maybe help me understand the changes."
"Uh-huh..." Now, how in the hell was he supposed to get this out? Nice going Romeo. "The best advise I can give ya is to go with the flow."
"I suppose so."
"Let's just hope that this is for a good cause." Billy gave Jason a questioning look. "What I mean is, there had to a reason behind the swapping, you know?"
"I see that, but it's driving me nuts."
"How?"
Oh boy... Billy rolled his eyes. "Like wanting to go shopping, and I can't even speak my -- as Kim calls it -- Billy talk."
Jason laughed.
"I can even do a cartwheel, for crying out loud. Adding to that, I can almost predict what moves she's using without knowing."
"You know what?" Jason said, slapping Billy on the back.
"No, what?"
"I'm glad I'm not in your shoes."
"Hah, wonder why?" Billy teased his old friend.
"Cos', if Tommy ever finds out, I can't imagine what he'll do."
"You mean like he'll forget that he was even mad?"
"Uh-huh, now if we don't get going we'll be late."
They both arrived in record time, two minutes to spare before the bell went off. Huffing and puffing, they ran into the classroom. Their other friends raised their eyebrows in surprise. Kim let out a giggle. Tommy, well, he was a different story.
Both took their seats after getting a warning from Mrs. Applebee. The ride to school had given Billy time to think about what Jason had said.
"Go with the flow," he had said.
Billy smiled. He knew the Red Ranger was right. But how right Jason was, Billy wasn't too keen to find out. If he ever found out.
But one thing was for sure, whatever happened, he knew that he could count on his friends for their advice and understanding. But for now he had enough to learn, to understand. To take the changes in a positive way and still be good old Billy.
For him this was a new challenge, a new area to explore, but not on his own. He had friends, who were the protectors of the world, to help him.
This was something the Billy he had known would never have expected. But as the saying goes, no one knows what he can do unless he tries.
To his left he felt a light touch. Turning his head, he saw Trini smiling.
"You okay?" she mouthed the question.
Billy nodded. For the first time in his life, he looked to the future with a bright side. To seeing the person he was to become.
THE END
