Chapter 12- Damage
Kim flew through the air in a crackling blur of pink energy, hoping beyond hopes that Mesogog would be too preoccupied with watching the rest of the battle to notice her arrival and do anything about it. She landed on the ground in a crouch and glanced at the melee trying to discern who needed her help the most. A part of her desperately wanted to run to help Tommy- old habits die hard after all- but it was evident that Conner needed all the help he could get.
She dashed for Conner using a Ninja Slide teleport, which sped up her arrival somewhat. With a warm feeling she extended her right hand and called out,
"Ninja Pink, boomerang!" Her old weapon materialised in a flash of white in her hand. She threw the weapon at the monster and it swirled around him landing hits all over the creature's body, causing him to turn from attacking Conner to notice her.
"Gee, can't we all just get along?" She quipped as the monster did a double take.
"A Pink Ranger?!"
"That's right baby." Kim nodded before flinging her weapon at the creature once more, causing him to fall back.
"What the- Kimberly?" Conner said disbelievingly as Kim ran over to him to pull him to his feet.
"In the flesh. Now that dog-breath is on the ropes, maybe we can even this out. Call your weapon to keep him at bay until Kira and Ethan can come help you." Kim instructed. Conner nodded and called for his Tyranno Staff to engage the monster. When Kim saw he was holding his own she dashed over to Kira and Ethan who were finally making some dent in the Tyrannodrones' numbers with their weapons.
"Kimberly is that you?" Ethan gawped and Kira's grin was audible even behind the helmet.
"Awesome!"
"Sure is, are you guys okay here?" She asked as she leapt into the air to kick two approaching Tyrannodrones on either side of her.
"We're dealing." Ethan nodded.
"Good," Kim dispatched another with a scissor kick and looked back to Conner then over at Tommy. "Go and help Red over there, that monster's a sneaky one."
"You got it." Kira affirmed and Kim nodded to both before slide teleporting to the cluster of drones surrounding Tommy and Zeltrax.
She began kicking and punching through them, the familiar surge of energy and speed provided by the crane reawakening her old fighting instincts. It had all come flooding back to her the moment she felt the crane's power surround her, and although she was no longer as young or energetic as she had been when she was first active, the spirit of the crane made up the difference. It was liberating.
Tommy leapt into the air to deliver a powerful kick to Zeltrax's chest, causing the being to fly backwards in a flash of gold sparks, but at this the surrounding Tyrannodrones surged against the Black Ranger, limiting his movement. As Zeltrax recovered himself and rushed forward to engage the surrounded Ranger, Tommy heard a familiar call that made his heart leap up into his throat.
"Pink Ninja power!" Then a wall of the drones in front of him disappeared in an explosion of pink light. Kim stood where they had once been with her arms extended, she had obviously just thrown balls of pink energy at the attacking creatures, recalling the old powers the Ninja Rangers had had. He noticed her sway slightly after this but regained her balance almost instantaneously.
"What trick is this Dr. Oliver?" Zeltrax growled, his metallic voice dangerous. "There is no Pink Ranger!"
"Guess again metal-head." Kim snapped as she rushed to Tommy's side.
"Kimberly, what the hell are you doing here?!" Tommy whispered to the pink clad Ninja by his side.
"Nice to see you too." Kim commented sardonically.
"One or two of you it makes no difference, I shall destroy you both!" Zeltrax snarled at the two of them.
"You really wanna try that Zeltrax?" Tommy questioned darkly. "You can't even beat me one on one, what do you think your chances are against two of us?"
"You'll be returning to Mesogog in pieces, that's a promise." Kim added as she and Tommy both struck offensive stances and stared the cyborg down.
Zeltrax glanced between the black and pink Rangers and snarled in frustration.
"This isn't over Black Ranger." Zeltrax vowed, before teleporting away with a flash of dark energy.
"Z-Rex Blaster!" The two elder Rangers turned to see the Red, Blue and Yellow Rangers had combined their weapons to destroy the Kanibone monster, who exploded in a flash, its pieces scattering over the grass of the park.
"I could say that was easy. But I think I need to sit down first." Conner said breathlessly, leaning his hands on his knees as he recovered himself.
"It would've been even harder if Kim hadn't gotten here when she did." Kira commented and Kim smiled, at least someone was grateful for her presence.
Tommy glowered behind his helmet but said nothing, wondering why Mesogog had yet to use the Hydro Regenerator to reanimate and enlarge the destroyed monster. He didn't think the answer to that would be a good one.
"We better get out of here, now." At his serious tone the other four glanced to him and nodded without argument, teleporting out in a rainbow glow of colour.
"Activating Hydro Regenerator." Elsa commented monotonously but Mesogog's clawed hand shot out,
"No, leave it." He commanded his eyes trained on the five rangers as they disappeared in a flash. Elsa raised a brow.
"Master?"
"We shall let them have this round. We have discovered something far more…intriguing." Mesogog turned back to Zeltrax who stood behind them both, head bowed in supplication.
"Now tell me again, why did you retreat?"
"There was, another Ranger lord Mesogog. A new one. Pink. She did not wear the same armour as the others." Zeltrax explained, wondering when the inevitable punishment would come from his master.
"Interesting…It seems as if Dr. Oliver's secret energy source… has finally revealed itself. Reinitiate the scan to locate the energy signature. And prepare our… 'guest room', we shall soon be receiving…company. Sss sss sss." He chuckled maliciously.
Finally, his dreams for a prehistoric world would be realised, and the Rangers would be powerless to stop him.
The five Rangers had assembled back at Dr. Oliver's house and Hayley-as soon as the café was closed- joined them.
Kira, Conner and Ethan sat in the living room listening to Dr. O bang around in the kitchen, muttering angrily to himself while Kim stood silently by the coffee table waiting for him to join them. Hayley sat in an armchair with her arms folded looking displeased.
Finally Tommy entered the lounge, wearing his familiar-at least to the teens- 'Displeased Teacher' face. He cast an accusatory glance at Hayley who stared back witheringly, before he spoke, directly to Kim. His tone was clipped and dark.
"Kimberly, can I speak to you for a minute?"
Kim gave a curt nod and gave a mock smile full of attitude, rolling her eyes as she passed the teens and following him out into the hall and down the stairs into his lab.
Tommy rounded on her once they found themselves in the centre of the room.
"Would y'care to give me an explanation?" He asked her, his eyes steely.
"No." Kim responded, folding her arms and standing defensively as she faced him.
"What the hell do you think you were doing out there?" Tommy tried a different tack, but Kim's stance seemed to be as determined as his.
"Well, from where I'm standing, it looked like I was saving your ass." Kim said tightly.
"Well then you better come take a look from my perspective. From where I'm standing it looked like you were showboating and putting yourself and the entire earth in danger just so you could get back into the action." Tommy snapped.
"Excuse me?" Kim's eyes narrowed.
"You heard. You deliberately disobeyed my orders, completely ignoring everything I've said to you up until now and putting mankind at risk just because you've found out you've got the Powers again and you wanted to use them, knowing full well what the consequences would have been if Mesogog had gotten his hands on you." Tommy said pointedly and Kim glared fiercely at him.
"That is completely untrue."
"Is it?"
"Yes."
"Is it?!" Tommy asked more stridently, his whole posture echoing his disbelief.
"Look Tommy, you might be their leader, but you are not mine any more. You can't just presume to order me about and expect me to take it from you, I'm a grown woman." Kim snarled, her hands on her hips.
"Well you're sure not acting like one." Tommy retorted. "You are here living in my house, fraternising with my students and interfering in our lives, so you will play by my rules."
"Gee, sorry dad, what's next, you telling me my skirts are too short?" Kim shot back.
"You're not taking this seriously enough." Tommy gritted his teeth and shook his head at her unconcerned look.
"I beg to differ, I saw my friends in trouble and I decided to help, Conner was in danger and you were too busy with Zeltrax to go help him, so I did. If I hadn't stepped in when I did you'd be one Red Ranger down." She argued
"Kimberly you don't seem to be getting that if Mesogog gets his claws on you we'd be a whole species down. Humanity would be wiped out let alone a Ranger team. We could have handled it alone, Zeltrax always runs sooner or later, but now, he knows who you are, and he will have told Mesogog about you. And Mesogog will now be trying to identify you and will uncover your energy potential. You've just completely wrecked the whole point of you staying here in secrecy, Mesogog will be on to you now and he will stop at nothing to find you if he thinks you're the carrier of all that energy. Everyone we know, everyone we care about it, and everyone else besides, will be dead if Mesogog uses you to realise his plans. And it will be all your fault."
Kim bit her lip, all of her arguments for going out and helping the Rangers seemed so insignificant when Tommy reminded her of the implications. She remained silent for a long moment, her eyes downcast as the truth of his words hit her and the guilt surged up to overwhelm her.
"You're right." She said at last, her voice small and tight. "God, you're totally right."
She shook her head as if disbelieving of her own stupidity. "I didn't realise…I, I didn't think. Oh no…I was being so selfish!" She raised her tumultuous eyes to his, "I, I just saw you taking all those hits and Conner being tossed around like a toy and I just wanted to be there, like the old days! Oh god, I was so stupid!" She raked her hands through her hair, still shaking her head as if trying to erase the actions.
Tommy looked at her stonily, but he felt his anger melting when he saw the tears in her eyes. Then it came back to him in a guilty rush, he recalled a time when he was exactly the same, when he was the Green Ranger, always running into battles when he didn't have enough energy and was risking himself, but knowing he couldn't let his friends stay out there getting beaten or hurt. He remembered all the times he saw Kimberly take a hard blow and that had cemented it, he could never bear to think of her getting hurt, and would rush down to the scene against Zordon's advice. And of course it was always such a rush for him, he felt important, like he was making a difference when he was in that suit, and although being a Ranger meant missing out on other things, he would never have given it up, he always wanted that one last fight, to feel that rush of energy again, to know he was defending the earth. The word 'hypocrite' swirled in his mind accusingly. And he had been so scared when he had seen Kim stagger…
He smiled sadly and walked over to Kim, putting a hand on her shoulder understandingly if hesitantly.
"Hey, I know you were trying to help, you didn't mean anything by it. If I was in your position, I would've done the same thing. It was a mistake, but it was an understandable one." He murmured softly.
Kim looked up to him, her eyes full of guilt. "I was a selfish bitch. I let you down, and I betrayed your trust again Tommy."
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you're safe, that we're all in one piece. And if Mesogog has found out that there's a new pink Ranger, big deal, we'll take him on just the same." He said reassuringly. Kim looked at him sceptically but he shrugged.
"You can take care of yourself, it's wrong of me to underestimate you. You're not a damsel in distress anymore, I guess it's just hard to let go of my white knight complex. We'll deal with Mesogog when it comes to it, besides if this place was so easy to locate, we wouldn't be here." He knew he shouldn't have been dismissing it so easily, but there was no use crying over it now, the damage was done, and they would just have to deal with the fallout when it came to it. Kim would only continue to obsess, and that would bring back all his old guilty memories, and there was no sense in them both brooding over what was irrevocable.
"Thanks Tommy," She sniffed. "I deserved that. What you said was completely true. I guess, I was just so excited to have my powers back I rushed into things without thinking about the consequences, but I couldn't bear to see you all being battered like that. It was wrong, but it's so hard y'know, after being a Ranger you never want to stand on the sidelines watching people get hurt, especially people you care about. I can't begin to imagine how hard it must've been for you when you lost your powers, knowing that we'd still be out there fighting when you couldn't."
Tommy nodded. "Yeah, it was rough for me. I guess you think that if you're out there, even if you're just one person, you'll be able to protect everyone." Kim agreed with that whole-heartedly.
"So, does this mean you'll let me come and help you guys out when you need it, now that my secret is out?" Kim asked hopefully.
"I'll think about it." Tommy smirked and Kim slapped his arm.
"Quit your superiority complex thing." She chided.
"Sorry." He grinned, and poked her in the shoulder. "And y'know, it was reassuring in a way."
"What?"
"Having you standing beside me. Felt like old times. Made me feel a little better." Tommy shrugged.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. Odds were in our favour then." Kim agreed, but Tommy knew it was more than that. When they used to fight together, they had each other's backs. They were like a team of their own, they knew each others moves and could predict what the other was planning and it helped not only in fighting but in his mindset. Knowing Kim was right there with him gave him security that he hadn't had with the others in his team, even though he and Jason were an efficient team too, there was a bond that the lovers shared that couldn't be replicated, even with Katherine.
"Yeah." He nodded, for simplicity's sake. Kim smiled at him lightly and started up the stairs.
"Hey. When you threw those Ninja energy balls, were you alright?" Tommy asked her as he started up the stairs behind her.
Kim hesitated. "Sure."
"Honestly?" He asked persistently.
The Pink Ranger sighed. "Okay, I felt a little light headed for a second but that's it."
Tommy had a feeling that was an understatement, but let it lie. "Hmm, I guess expending extra energy without the support of a Power Coin is a drain on you so it takes you a second to recover. I wouldn't risk it again in case it weakens you in a crucial moment, unless it's absolutely necessary." He advised, wondering at the true energy potential of the Crane and whether it was replenishable, or whether like the Green Ranger Powers would drain away until there was none left.
"Its times like this I really miss Alpha and Zordon." He muttered and Kim nodded.
"Yeah, it was all familiar to them, there wasn't much that could surprise those two." Kim sighed, "Not that that's any slight on your knowledge of course!" She added.
"No you're right, this sorta stuff was never my area of gifting, maybe we can get Billy down to check you out, there wasn't much that stumped him either."
Kim nodded. "Got that right. Not that it's important right now though, I'll go easy on my Ninja abilities just in case."
"Alright, let's get back up there before the kids start thinking that I killed you and I'm trying to hide your body." Kim giggled at this and led the way back upstairs.
Still, there was a sinking feeling in Tommy's heart that now vivid nightmares would be the least of their troubles, this was an opportunity he was sure Mesogog was not about to give up.