Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. I simply write stories for fun.
Anonymous: I'll try to add more parts about the evildoers, but I make no guarantees that I will, even though there is a small write up on them in this chapter. Thanks for the review!
Ghostwriter: Thanks for reviewing again!
Now on with the story:)
"How was your shift?" Aisha asked, as Kim and Tommy walked back downstairs, looking fairly tired, but they did not look like they had had to fight anything, which was a relief. They had all been worried about an attack, but it seemed that everything had gone smoothly, so far.
"Uneventful," Kim said, and then yawned, "has Nicarni-Aso tried to contact us overnight?"
"No, she hasn't," Billy said, looking as if he had not slept any the night before. They had hoped he would get rest, but he had not been able to do that at all, from what they could tell. "But no news is good news at this point."
"Yeah, it is. Trust me," Tommy said, rubbing his hands together as an attempt to warm up, from the frigid air on the outer deck of the ship. He had not been wise enough to take a jacket, but they also didn't want to go back downstairs, as they would possibly think something was wrong. They knew that they didn't need to make the others panic. They were going to have enough of that when they finally got where they were going. "Anyone up for breakfast?"
"Oh, yeah. That would be nice," Jason said as his stomach growled, which caused a few of them to smile. "What? I can't help that I'm hungry."
"No, you can't help being hungry now, but it seems like your always hungry, Jase," Kim said, with a laugh, the first one they had heard since Trini was captured. "Come on, I'll cook."
Asoriotan"They will never come and get you, my pretty. They would be fools to try and come this far to save one, unimportant, person. Your planet is in danger, why would they leave your planet for an unknown amount of time, just for you?" Nicarni-Aso spat, through the bars that Trini was behind.
"You don't know them very well, do you? They will come and you won't be able to stop them from destroying you," Trini said in a determined tone, as she glared at the woman. She was not going to let them break her spirit.
"That shows what you know. The amephors and asoriods will protect me until they all are dead. Your 'friends' will not have enough power to destroy them. Then, find and battle with me," Nicarni-Aso said, confident, although she knew very little about the newer rangers. "Why don't you just come over to my side? It would be so much easier on you."
"I never will. As long as there is hope in this lifetime, I will never join you," Trini said, defiantly. "Do your worst, I'm sure that you will only make my will stronger."
"You have no idea," Nicarni-Aso said, "but as you wish. Zefoid, bring me the anotions."
Back on the Vessel"We need to come up with a plan," Jason said, after they had cleaned up from breakfast, which had stopped the grumbling in his stomach.
"Yeah, we do," Tommy said, looking over at Billy, hoping he had been able to think, through the stress that he was under right now. "Billy, you have any ideas?"
"I've done some research on Nicarni-Aso and her cronies; she seems to have an unlimited amount of resources, but each of her defenses have a deadly weakness, that we have to exploit. The asoriods have a weak back. The amephors cannot handle Zack's power axe and I have the feeling that most of our other weapons will have the same effect on them," Billy said, with a half-hearted smile. "In the past, it looks as if Nicarni-Aso has depended upon these two weapons without ever having to battle by herself. I suggest that our best fighters stay and fight the amephors and asoriods, while the rest of us try to locate Trini and Nicarni-Aso."
"So, Jason and Tommy need to stay back and fight," Kim said, as Billy stared at her, in shock. "What? What did I say wrong?"
"Nothing, except the fact you don't trust yourself enough to fight," Billy said. "The people I would suggest stay behind would be Tommy, Kim, and Jason, that's it. If you were to get into trouble you would have to fend for yourselves."
"We'll do it," Jason said, after silently asking Kim and Tommy's permission with his eyes. "The rest of you just make sure you get to Trini in time."
"I'm going to continue to do research that will hopefully help you throughout your mission," Billy said, walking off.
"Just remember it's our night to patrol the ship," Jason said, to Billy's back.
"Alright," Billy said, and continued walking.
"Is he going to be alright?" Aisha asked, as Billy had just gotten out of earshot.
"Do you remember what I was like when Kim was captured?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah, I do," Aisha said.
"He's that bad," Tommy said, as all of them watched how Kim could only stare at him. "There's not much we can do but wait and hope."
"And not mention this around Billy," Rocky said.
"That would be a very wise thing to do," Tommy said. "I'm going to try to get an idea of how many of those things Nicarni-Aso has to use for a battle."
"Alright," Kim said and gave Tommy's hand a squeeze before he went over to talk with Billy some more.
"Kim, don't put yourself in a position to get hurt," Adam said, as he saw Tommy was truly scared, knowing Kim would be fighting along side only Jason and himself.
"Why not?" Kim asked, completely confused by this statement.
"We'll lose the only advantage that we have. If Tommy becomes too distracted to fight, somebody will die," Aisha said sadly. "He loves you, he may not be willing to admit it, but he loves you, Kim."
Jason, Zack and Billy's Shift"This reminds me of old times way too much," Zack said, as Billy, Jason and he walked around on their patrol.
"Yeah, it does," Jason said, "except this time things are different than before. Our job has become much harder since then. There's people we all love that could get hurt if we don't succeed."
"It's always been this way, Jason," Billy said, after a long silence among the three friends. "We all have been in danger of getting ourselves killed since the first time we ever morphed. This isn't the first time one of our own has been captured by an evil leader. You, Kim and Tommy have all been through this before, now it's Trini. We've been lucky so far and it makes you wonder when our luck will run out."
"You can't believe all of this is pure luck," Zack, the voice of reason, said, astonished that Billy would even begin to think like this. He, of all people, had never really believed in luck. He had always believed that hard work would get them through and now he was talking about what luck they had. "We all have a gift and with it comes some risks. We all had to accept this long ago. Don't worry about us failing, we will get her back."
"Thanks," Billy said and then went back to his own thoughts, as they continued on their patrol.
Jason's POVThe rest of our shift was just as uneventful as Tommy and Kim's shift was last night. After the first conversation we had, there wasn't much left that we wanted to talk about. It seemed that we all drifted off into our own little world of concerns. I know that my thoughts were troubling about what Nicarni-Aso might do to Trini, but I could only imagine what Billy was going through right now.
AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a lot shorter than the usual, but I thought it necessary. Feel free to review and thanks for reading!