THE REASON - Part Seventy-Three: Identity
Summary: Secrets are revealed about Principal Randall and Dr. Anton Mercer. And the surprise is one that could hurt the team greatly.
Disclaimer: Power Rangers is not mine.
A/N: It does tie into "A Test of Trust", but altered. Just read on, and hope it explains everything.
"We all hold secrets. Some are best unheard of. I just didn't expect this to happen now. It was bound to happen sooner or later." -Eclyptyk Neo
Nearly one week later.
Even after it being senior year, Conner, Ethan and Kira were literally inseparable when it came to choosing classes.They were in Dr. Oliver's seventh hour Geology class, and Trent was in Dr. Oliver's first hour AP Biology class.
The week had gone by slow, and it was only Thursday now. The teens were going insane, and even Kim as trying to get used to the new teaching environment. But her students welcomed her with a warm heart. And she had grown close to a few. And told a few, that spread like rumors of a couple within the school getting married in a couple months. It being Coach Kimberly Hart, a coach to the Girls' 2004 Olympic Team and Dr. Thomas Oliver, a mysterious, yet down-to-earth science teacher. Now students began to barter Dr. O about his relationship with Kim and his love life. He simply kept it simple, leaving the students hanging. He didn't need Pavarotti on his case, but it was already too late for that.
The teens began to dose slightly as Dr. O began to name off dinosaurs from the Palezoic era. Then looked at Ethan, hoping to get a few more out of him. But he was obviously pre-occupied with other things.
"Ethan? Ethan!" Dr. Oliver called out to the pre-occupied African-American teen. "Can somebody tell me what the problem is?"
Kira raised her hand slowly. "I can. Ethan is bummed out because Principal Randall took his and Devin's Dragon War cards."
"Dragon War? Isn't that a kids' game?" Dr. Oliver furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"Hey, c'mon. It's a game of strategy and not only that, Dr. O she took the Ruby Dragon card." Ethan protested.
Some of the students in the class began to laugh.
"It was brutal, Dr. Oliver." Devin called from his place in the room.
Dr. Oliver sighed shaking his head in disappointment. "I'm sorry, Ethan, but I'm gonna have to go with Principal Randall with this one. You know you're not supposed to play cards at school."
"But you don't get it, Dr. O." Ethan let out a saddened breath. "I have been looking for that card since I was a kid. It's like the rare of rare cards..."
"Okay. Okay. Okay. Stop." Dr. Oliver held up his hands to stop the teen. "I'll talk to Principal Randall after school Maybe I could convince her otherwise. But, can we get back to a little science?"
Ethan smiled brightly. "Hey, anything for you, Dr. O."
---
After school.
Dr. Oliver paced the room a little after his students had left it. It wasn't necessary for him to do this for Ethan, but he knew if he didn't Ethan wouldn't focus on his schoolwork.
He forced out a breath and left the room, heading for the main office. As he reached the principal's office, his stomach sunk. He took another step forward, and he felt dizzy. But he couldn't wait any longer. He knocked on the door only to have it creak open against the force.
He peeked his head through and saw what had to be a dream. But it wasn't. The room glowed with a light purple haze and he watched as Principal Randall transformed into his enemy, Elsa. He removed his glasses and walked into the room.
"I knew there wasn't something I didn't like about you," Tommy growled as the woman turned to face him.
It was true. There standing in front of him was in fact, Elsa, Mesogog's lead henchman.
Elsa shook her head in disappointment. "Well, I was wondering how long I could pull up the act."
"We should have seen this coming. Looks like it's all over, Ms. Randall." Tommy's eyes narrowed with anger as he watched her like a predator.
"I'm surprised, Tommy. We really could have had something."
"Dream on. I'm already taken." Tommy sneered with a heated breath.
"That would appear so. I didn't really want to catch you and your fiancee kissing in your classroom anyways. It would have been a waste of my time."
"Sorry to have ruined your fun."
Then Elsa jumped on the desk and launched a kick toward the science teacher. He ducked away, launching his own kick toward the cyborg. But she jumped away and set another round of kicks that threw him off balance. Tommy charged forward and locked arms with the woman, but failed to get any farther as she twisted and turned out of his grip forcing a powerful blow that sent him hard into the ground.
Elsa cleared her throat and transformed back into her civilian form and left the room.
Tommy sat up in pain as he called up Ethan on his communicator. He warned the teen to find the others and warn them of the news he had just uncovered about the principal. He quickly got to his feet and chased the principal outside.
Several insults later, the two had launched themselves into anther series of attacks. Students began to slowly file out of the school when they caught eye of the two fighting. Many were agape and shocked to see what was going on in front of them, making comments to each other about the discovery. And they were literally fighting to see who the victor was. For one, it was a science teacher vs. the principal. And two, it was on school grounds that could very well put both of their jobs in jeopardy, but more so the science teacher. Most people knew what it was over—the Dragon War Cards—but no one could believe it was happening.
Conner, Kira and Trent froze atop one of the line of stairs, shocked.
"What is Dr. O doing? He is so gonna get fired for this." Conner shook his head.
"Well, maybe there is a good reason for why he's doing it," Trent shrugged.
"Over a set of Dragon War cards? Yeah, I think that's pushing it just a little bit." Kira said.
Then they heard a series of footsteps behind them as Ethan and Kim came to a halt beside them out of breath. They raised an eyebrow wanting to know what the two of them might know about the situation. Both of them watched as Dr. Oliver and Principal Randall continued to do battle, doing moves that no human could do without a little added help.
"Well, this changes everything." Kim nodded slowly looking at the teens.
"No doubt. That's Elsa." Ethan blurted out without anymore hesitation.
"Who?" Conner asked.
"Randall?" Kira could make only one conclusion, looking back at the battle being played out before them. "No way."
Then the team watched as Principal Randall leapt into the air. Her body glowed with an unusual purple haze and when she came down she was now in her real form. As Elsa.
"See! I told you!" Ethan pointed out with some relief.
"Oh, man. This is crazy!" Conner shook his head.
The science teacher and ex-principal barked out another series of insults that had Elsa retreat into an invisi-portal, leaving the teacher behind to cope with the recent discovery.
And Ethan was discouraged knowing exactly what Elsa would do with that Ruby Dragon Card now that it was in her possession.
---
Trent had made his way through to Mesogog's island fortress hoping to get the card back, but ran into a little more than he had hoped for. He ran through the corridors finding the main lab, when he ran into a spot of trouble.
A line of five figures came to greet him as he came through the door, but had not done anything or said anything. But for a long time, their red flaming
eyes bored down on him, glaring. He felt small and a little frightened.
He could only image what Mesogog was up to, but his main goal was in the card.
But he failed.
Hours later.
Trent had reassured the team that he had an idea to get the card back, but didn't go into great detail as he left in a hurry. Dr. Oliver had headed over to the school board building to discuss what had just happened on school grounds. The rest of the team was assembled in the forest to go through some rigorous training. However, it was short-lived when the Ruby Dragon appeared.
Trent had failed to get the card back, but he had came in last minute to assist the team in causing a retreat for the evil team.
But with the discovery of Elsa being Principal Randall, she had teased Trent in speaking of his own deep secret. The one regarding his father, having the team grow a little suspicious about what he could be hiding from them.
They were all assembled in the lab. The two adults were stationed in the series of chairs at the main computer console. The teens were all standing, waiting to hear a reply from their friend dressed in white.
"Trent, if there is something you need to say, you need to say it." Tommy instructed with a firm voice that meant business. "We're in this together. We're a team."
Trent nodded slowly as he turned away from the crowd. "I know."
"So, let's hear it." Conner said. "How can we trust you on the battle field if you're not gonna tell us everything?"
Trent forced out a breath, then turned back to look at the team. "Okay. Okay. Here's the deal. I went to Mesogog's lab to try and get the card back."
"You what?" Kira seemed to most shocked and worried.
"Whoa. Suicide mission right there." Ethan nodded.
"I found an invisi-portal that took me straight there. But, that thing knocked me out, and I barely escaped to help you guys. Look, Ethan, I was only trying to help you out," Trent concluded hoping to avoid anymore confrontations.
Ethan nodded slowly understanding what his friend must have gone through to try and get the card back. "Hey, he was only trying to help out, Dr. O. Any of us would have done the same."
Tommy sighed and nodded. "I get that. But none of you should ever do that again. It's one risk we cannot take especially this far in the game. That's exactly what Mesogog wants us to do."
"Mesogog won't take lightly to any of this crazy suicide missions." Kim instructed the teens remembering her fair share of evil beings. "These next few battles will only introduce you to your final battle."
Trent nodded again knowing what his teachers were saying. "Yeah, okay. I understand that. I'll try to be a little more careful."
A silence fell over the room.
Kira walked over to Trent placing a hand on his shoulder with great concern. "That's your big secret?"
Trent looked at her for some time before answering. He nodded slowly. "Yeah. It is." He took a step back and ran a hand across his head. "Listen, I'm gonna head out. I got a good knock to the head and I'm still feeling a little dizzy."
Tommy instructed him to get some rest as the teen flashed a peace and headed out of the door.
The team looked at Kira, who was occupied with other things. They all reassured her nothing was wrong, but she wasn't convinced. She felt that Trent wasn't telling them everything, and neither Kim nor Tommy could deny it. They knew exactly what Trent was hiding, but refused to speak of it.
---
The next day.
The battle with the Ruby Dragon was tough, but the team had pulled through yet again. It was a real blur, with no real collection of what happened except a good amount of energy and a lot of teamwork.
The team walked through the halls, minus Trent, conversing before the school day was about to begin.
"So, this must have been a crazy week for you, wasn't it?" Conner looked over at the new P.E. teacher/athletic trainer.
Kim forced out a breath and nodded. "No doubt about it. I guess it just shows a sense of a lot of surprises."
"I just hope there are no more surprises." Kira shook her head.
The team joined in a laugh and a sigh of relief.
Dr. Oliver looked over at the teen dressed in blue. "Next time, Ethan, think about what you're about to do on school grounds."
Ethan nodded obediently. "Yeah, well I'll try to be more careful."
"Meaning, don't bring those cards back to school, dude." Conner patted his friend on the shoulder. "And leave it to the kids."
Ethan began to go off saying that it was still a good game to play, even if they wouldn't understand why it was so great. He didn't blame them. They were all different.
But then the team came to a halt when two familiar faces passed in front of them. Dr. Anton Mercer and his son, Trent.
Dr. Oliver held out a hand to his friend in a friendly greeting as Anton pushed open a light smile. "Hey, Anton. How are you?"
"Tommy." Dr. Mercer smiled back as he shook the hand firmly. "I'm actually doing all right. Looks like the whole team just can't seem to get tired of each other."
Dr. Oliver shrugged with some confusion. "Yeah, I guess so. Can't keep a good team down or away from each other. But what's up with you? What have you been doing lately?"
"Busy." Dr. Mercer said simply. "But I hear you guys are looking for a new principal."
"Why?" Dr. Oliver raised an eyebrow. "You interested?"
"Noo!" Kira, Conner and Ethan shook their head in dismay.
"I'm sure Dr. Mercer is far too busy to run a school." Kira said.
"Yeah. Far too busy." Ethan agreed instantly.
"Relax, everyone. They're right." Dr. Mercer relayed a simple smile. Then his beeper went off as he reached into his pocket. "Oh see, even as we speak."
He pulled out the beeper just as something else fell from his pocket hitting the floor. Ethan's eyes dropped and widened at what laid on the floor. His ruby dragon card. He retrieved the card just as everyone else exchanged a concerned and confused look.
Dr. Mercer couldn't give him a straight answer, not clear to how it was in his position. And as he asked his son, Trent has said the same thing.
Then Dr. Mercer turned pale and stumbled to the ground. Trent and Dr. Oliver raced to grab an arm, pulling the man to his feet. Dr. Oliver suggested his friend go and get help, but Anton refused. He pushed Tommy aside and raced down the hall.
Dr. Oliver exchanged a confused look with his team and followed the man down the hall. Each went after him, Trent bringing up the rear, but it was clear that something was wrong.
They raced through the hallways before coming to a stop in Dr. O's classroom. They paused at the front catching their breath as they saw Anton standing at the back of the room, looking at his briefcase absently.
A silence fell over the room as Trent pushed his way up to the front of the audience set before his father. Each of them was out of breath, but not as feared or sunken as Trent or Anton. All eyes laid on Dr. Mercer.
Anton forced out a breath and turned toward his audience. As he did, he lost all control of what he so desperately fought to cure and a strange green-yellow light covered his body. It transformed and mutated, taking shape as something else. Someone else. And each of their hearts sunk to see the news of what had happened. They had all witnessed the transformation of Anton Mercer into his evil form, Mesogog.
Ethan, Conner and Kira took a step back in shock.
"No way!" Conner breathed a heated breath as he glared at the dino-menace in front of them. "Mercer is…"
"Mesogog." Ethan looked away disappointed. "Oh, this is definitely one crazy week."
Kira looked over at Trent, her heart crushed with sadness. "This was your big secret?"
Trent looked down ashamed and guilty. "He's my father, Kira. I'm sorry. How could I tell you?"
"You will pay dearly for betraying me, Trent." Mesogog growled.
"I never betrayed you!" Trent pleaded forgiveness from his father. "I would never do it. Dad, please…"
"You betrayed us, if anything." Conner said heavily glaring at his friend in white.
"Silence!" Mesogog hissed.
And as he did, the strange green-yellow light filled his body. He began to glow and transform back to his normal self. Anton fell to his knees with sweat running down his face in an exhausted heap. He looked up at his son with guilt. He looked at his friend asking for forgiveness. He looked at the new teacher seeing her sadness. He looked at the other teens and saw shock and anger.
"Trent, I'm so sorry." Anton whispered as he forced his hand out to the ceiling and disappeared into an invisi-portal.
Trent looked back at his teammates and found the loss, anger and betrayal running deep in their eyes. He looked away as Kim placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
They had to discuss this. And as soon as possible.
to be continued…
A/N: No real changes except for putting Kim into the mix. But, I'll see you next chapter. May the Power Protect You Always.