Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or any of the weapons associated with the Power Rangers, so if you recognize it, it is not mine. I do own the characters, Ally Jameson, Fanny Abbott, Richard Myles, Dennis Alderway, Amanda Williams, Charlie Hughes, Ashley Meggs, Amy Tillery, Meagan Sipper-Stone, Jack Abrams, Todd Billingsway, and all of the characters featured as karate competitors, as well as any other characters from "Saving the World, Again" that may be brought into this story.
TrueRomantic: Thanks yeah that is going to be very interesting.
DreamsofGold: Well, I didn't mean to make you cry, but I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter.
Daisyz: You're not the only one who said that and you'll see how it goes.
XRachX: Thank you, I'm glad about that. I was worried that he would seem out of character in the last chapter.
Ghostwriter: Well, I thought a few people would and I'm glad it didn't shock you, too much. Yeah it is going to be interesting and I hope that you like how it turns out.
secretguest: Yeah, you'll see. I really don't plan to torture them that much, as they do deserve some peace.
Now on with the Story!
The Dojo's Tournament
Charlie's POV
It's the morning of our dojo tournament and I'm really nervous about this, I can't lie about that one. Tommy and Rocky have been putting in so many extra hours with us and I still don't know if we're all prepared for this. I've never seen what any of these people can do and if they're anything like Dr. O and Jason, I don't know if I want to see them. Jackson and I will be competing in one pair's challenge and then Ashley and I will then have to fight against Angel Grove's coed team. I don't want to let her down by not being able to compete because I'm too tired from going up against the guys. Tommy has guaranteed that I will be able to do this, but I don't know if I can. I'm not him, I'm not as strong, and I'm definitely not as sure of myself.
"Charlie! Charlie Hughes!" Ashley yelled as she ran towards him and he still did not turn around, until after she was tapping him on his shoulder. She was so excited about this day and Charlie just seemed to not be in a really good mood, which was a shame. He should have been trying to have some fun with this, but all he could think about was the pressure of competing. It seemed that there was nothing that would make him happier than winning and only winning, which proved he was just a very competitive guy. "What's wrong with you? Can't you hear?"
"I'm sorry, baby," Charlie said, giving her a hug and then watching as she pushed a strand of hair out of his face, trying to get a better view of his eyes, which showed how worried he was. He knew that he might as well admit it or she would try to pull it out of him. She had done it in the past and she was sure to do it again if he made her. "I can't think right now, I'm too worried about all of this."
"That's not good," Tommy said with a smile as he came up behind him and patted him on the back. "What's eating at you, Charlie? You think that they're too good for you?"
"No, it's other stuff Dr. O," Charlie said as he adjusted his white gi and then looked over at the ring they had set up in the middle of the dojo. They had put out folding chairs yesterday, preparing for the people that were going to be there, which was quite a few more than he had ever performed in front of. Kim was standing next to the ring and she had been watching Tommy closely as he walked around and did some final inspections on things as he was not letting her help with any of it, which was odd. He had always welcomed her help, but he just didn't this time.
"Hey, you're good, just trust yourself and she has your back if your ass hits the mat, trust me on that one," Tommy said with a smile as he saw Jason walk into his dojo, with the Angel Grove kids following closely behind him.
They looked scared to death, but when Jason spotted Tommy the first thing he did was head them straight for him, so they could see he was a real person and he was not someone that they needed to be scared of. Of course, they might not get that idea from seeing him in karate clothes, as he seemed to naturally fit into them without a problem. They probably would get the most comfort when they saw Kim and noticed that she had nothing to do with karate or so it looked to them. If they had known her while she was in Angel Grove they would have thought otherwise, but they could only remember Tommy and that was scary enough.
"How you been doing?" Jason asked, as Tommy gave him a hug before looking at the kids, who staring at him in wide-eyed shock.
Jason could tell Tommy had something on his mind, to tell them later, but he could not imagine what it would be. Hopefully it had nothing to do with Mesogogg, but if it did, Trini and he had packed enough clothes away in case they were to have to leave the planet. They had gotten to where they carried clothing with them all the time, because they never knew when Tommy or Kim might call and say that it was time to go.
"Good, Kim will show you to your locker room, so they can get changed," Tommy said, as he pointed towards his wife and the teenagers immediately headed towards her, while Jason took a little longer to talk to him.
They hadn't seen each other in awhile and Jason couldn't help but notice some slight changes around Kim's middle, but he could always ask about that later. For all he knew, she could finally be gaining the freshman fifteen that she was supposed to gain in college, but had not because of the intense gymnastics training she was still in. He could never figure out how she had done it for all of those years, but even once she quit training, she still did the stuff, for the fun of it. Of course, some people could say the same about him with his karate.
"She doing alright?" Jason asked, as Tommy watched her guide the kids towards their locker room.
"Yeah, she's fine Jason, just a little bit stressed because of somethings that have come up," Tommy said, as he noticed a few of the kids glancing at the two of them, knowing that they were scheduled to fight against each other, although they did happen to be best friends. Many had expected that they would be avoiding each other, but all they wanted to do was catch up a little before they had to get in the ring. So they would know if they needed to be careful of some emotionally draining situations, although Jason did, but Tommy was putting up Tommy many walls for him to be able to read him well. "You better get going before they decide that we are planning out something together."
"Hey," Kim said, smiling up at him as he placed a hand on her stomach for a second before he slowly took it away. They didn't want to draw any more attention to it before they told everyone at the cook out later on this evening, but both of them were having a hard time acting as if it wasn't there at all. They had quickly gotten used to the little touches that they gave each other now and trying to keep from doing those things was proving to be harder than they thought it would be. They had thought they would be able to turn everything off for a few hours, but that proved to be nearly impossible for the two of them. "You'll do fine."
"How could you tell?" Tommy asked, as she couldn't help but laugh at him.
He never put up walls in front of her, which was a good thing and it kept them from having some problems, although it did create others on the rare occasion he was trying to keep a secret from her. There were times when he had wanted to surprise her with something but his eyes gave it away long before they got anywhere close to it, although she had learned to not mention it to him. She would just act surprise any way and most of the time the thought that went behind what he was doing was what counted, not her actually being surprised by it.
"I just know you, now you better get to your kids, they look like they're scared to death, although they shouldn't be after training with you," Kim said, as he gave her a quick kiss on each cheek and then turned to walk towards the kids he had been teaching for a long time now. She was right about them being scared, but hopefully he would be able to talk the nerves out of them.
"You better stop staring or he won't be able to compete, Kim," Billy said, as he sat down at the scorer's table, as they had asked him to do the scoring, since everyone thought he was the least likely to be biased. He had noticed some of the same changes that Jason had earlier that morning, but he was not going to breech the question, unless it was brought up in such a fashion that he could no longer help but to ask. And then he would have to prepare himself for an answer that he was not too sure he wanted to deal with this early on a Saturday. He was certain that he was not reading into this the wrong way, but he did not want to risk being punched by Kim if he was thinking the wrong thing, it had never been a comfortable position when that happened. "Who's first up?"
"Charlie Hughes and Jackson Morrow, against Alex Miller and Jason Davis," Kim said, as she read off the list Tommy had given her a few minutes ago, after going to talk to Jason about it, as he had forgotten to get the list when they first walked in the door. He had been so happy to see his best friend that he had forgotten about that little list, although they were all used to it. "Then we have Tommy and Jason. After that, we have Ashley Meggs and Charlie Hughes against Veronica Mills and Jason Davis. All of the others you'll have to ask Rocky for, I don't have that list."
"That's fine, you just need to be able to sit back and enjoy this," Billy said, as he sensed that Tommy did not want her to get too worked up over anything, as he seemed to be keeping an eye on her at all times. Over what? He hadn't been able to exactly figure out, yet.
"Billy," Kim said sitting down next to him and seeing him glance warily over at her before flicking his eyes in Tommy's direction. "Why wouldn't I enjoy it?"
"I don't know, but he's been keeping an eye on you all morning, whether you like it or not Kim. He either has a big secret to tell us all or something is going on between the two of you and my personal vote is for the latter," Billy said as Kim looked at him carefully and then looked away, as Billy knew that he had gotten it right, but he had better not press his luck on finding out anymore information. If something was going on between them, then they were sure to find out soon, although it might not be something that they wanted to hear. They could only hope that it was some little problem that had nothing to do with ranger duties, which would be a first in a very long time. "First up, we have Hughes and Morrow from Reefside against Davis and Miller from Angel Grove. We want a clean fight, referees, will you please enter the ring."
"Why not?" Adam said with a laugh, as he and Rocky stepped into the ring. Some people were worried that because Rocky was an instructor that he would not break things up soon enough for Angel Grove team members and he would do just the opposite for Reefside, but they all knew that Adam's level headedness would keep him from doing something like that. "Okay, boys, clean match. Each round will be three minutes and there can be up to fifteen points in a round. First round, Morrow and Miller will compete against each other. Second round, Hughes and Davis will compete against each other. Third round, all four of you. Any questions?"
"No, we can do this," Charlie said with a smile, before stepping out of the ring and standing beside it calmly. Jackson could take care of this, but he knew that he would be seeing the Davis boy one other time today and he did not want him to get it in his mind that he could beat him. Jackson fought his opponent rather well and when Charlie entered the ring, he was feeling rather confident for the first few seconds.
"So, Kim, what exactly is going on in Reefside?" Trini asked, as her friend sunk into a seat next to her and tried to pay attention to Charlie and the boy that he was sparring against, but she found that her mind was wondering off much more than it needed to. Tommy was not helping her any in that situation, as he was barely able to watch the match himself, as he kept his eyes on her.
"A lot of stuff, Trini," Kim said, as Tommy looked over at Kim, after a few seconds of watching the match, and noticed that she was looking pale, but he couldn't really worry about that right now, as he had to focus on not getting hurt by Jason. Charlie was then thrown up against the side of the ring and ducked as the blonde haired, green-eyed boy sent a kick towards his head his way.
"What type of things?" Kat asked, as Kim looked over at her as if she was about to answer the question, but then suddenly stood up and headed towards the locker room. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's not you. She's done that twice already today. She seems to have something that is making her really nervous," Amanda said, as Trini got up to go check on her friend and Jason noticed the two empty seats and got the sinking feeling that he had been right in his assumption today, but he just needed to talk to someone else that would agree with what he was thinking. "I'm Amanda Williams by the way, I work with Tommy."
"I'm Katherine Hillard, an old friend of theirs," Kat said with a smile, as Amanda seemed to think back in her mind, trying to figure out if she had heard that name before. "You probably haven't heard of me, I'm not exactly Kim's favorite person in the world."
"I don't know about that. She's talked to me about you and Adam quite a bit and it seems that she doesn't think that you're all that bad, although you and Dr. Oliver over there did date for a little while," Amanda said with a smile. "I'm not here to judge though, I just came to see how some of my students were doing."
"Who the hell does he think that he is?" Jackson asked, as Charlie was thrown, yet again and he was surprised that the boy was able to get into his head so easily.
"Chill out, Jackson. Charlie can take care of himself in there and I'm sure that Ashley will straighten him out in between rounds," Tommy said, as the boy looked over at him and then sighed, knowing that, that was all of a response that he was going to get from Dr. Oliver. Sometimes they wished that he would drag them off to the side and yell at him like their football coach did, but then again, that was what made that football and this karate.
"Kim, are you alright?" Trini asked, as she heard her throw up and winced at the thought that crossed her mind. She knew that in all likelihood that her best friend was probably pregnant, but Kim and Tommy seemed to want to tell them in their own way, so she was going to let it slide. There was really no need to press the issue right now, anyway.
"I'll be fine Trini, breakfast just didn't agree with my stomach this morning," Kim said, stepping out of the bathroom stall and getting some paper towels out of the dispenser. She wet the towels and wiped off her face, trying to get the feeling out of her mind. She didn't like lying to her best friend, but she would find out all of it soon enough and that made her feel a tiny bit better.
"Okay, but you know that you can tell me if it is something else, don't you?" Trini asked, trying to lure Kim into spilling what it was without her feeling guilty about it.
"I know Trini, but I have someone who might get a little bit agitated with me if I do," Kim said, as they re-entered the dojo and they noticed that round two was over.
"Charlie," Ashley said and he looked down at her from his place in the ring, "listen to me. I know that you can fight that guy and win, but you have to quit worrying about how we'll do later. We can cross that bridge when we come to it, now take care of him in this next round and then we can sit back and watch Dr. O and Jason without a problem."
"But, Ashley," Charlie started to object, as she glared up at him. She was not going to deal with any of his excuses today and he was sure to find that out very soon.
"No buts, Charlie. You can do this and remember what Dr. O said. I'll have your back if you land on your ass during the next one," Ashley said, reaching up to give his hand a gentle squeeze before taking a few steps away and going to sit down on one of the walls.
"Dr. O," Charlie said, looking down at him as Jackson entered the ring and prepared himself for the last round.
"Charlie, she's right and we know that you'll listen to her. So listen and do what she says that you can do or else you will have one hell of a summer at the dojo, you understand me?" Tommy asked with a stern look as he watched the boy's eyes widen.
"Yeah, loud and clear Dr. O," Charlie said, as he turned around and noticed that they were waiting on him so that they could begin this round.
"You alright?" Amanda asked, as Kim sat down in the seat in front of her, careful not to draw anymore attention to herself.
"Yeah, breakfast just didn't agree with me this morning," Kim said, as she received a confused glance from Amanda before Kat decided that it might be best for her to go and join Zack and Aisha.
It was not that she didn't want to see what was wrong with Kim, but it was more like she didn't want to get the impression that what she was thinking was correct. They all knew just how risky that could be right now and they hoped that they could trick their minds into thinking otherwise. They desperately needed to do that for their sanity right now.
"Kim, come here please," Billy said, looking over his shoulder and she then stood up from her seat and walked over to Billy.
"What Billy?" Kim asked, sitting down next to him and placing her head on the table. She was becoming exhausted from how her stomach was acting today and if it continued to get worse; she was just going to have to go home. Tommy could hitch a ride with his parents, as he knew that she had been feeling particularly awful this morning.
"Do you need to go home?" Billy asked, as she turned her head to look up at him and wondered why he would ask that question.
"Why do you ask?" Kim said, sitting up and seeing that Charlie and Jackson were working together much better than they had over the last few weeks, although Ashley's pep talk might have helped a little bit.
She had watched as Ashley and Charlie became closer over the last year, while Tommy tried to keep himself from saying too much to her about it. They are too much like the two of them when they were there age, for the exception that they are not rangers, although with the way that they fought, you could not tell that one. They were great teenagers and it was a true shame that none of the dino gems had ever been meant for either of them, as they would have done an exceptional job as well. That, however, was not a topic that people brought up in everyday life, unless they had just witnessed a battle and even then, they were fairly quiet about it. A ranger's identity was never meant to be known, but there were times when it would be so much easier if it was.
"Well, the fact that you have vomited three times this morning does not help your cause any, missy," Billy said, as she paled and looked at him with wide eyes. "I'm not telling you to go home, but I think that you might need to, since you are supposed to be saving up your energy for something."
"I'll be fine, Billy, as long as I can sit up straight, I should be able to make it," Kim said with a smile, as Billy rang the bell to signal that the third round had ended and that they would soon be announcing a champion. From Billy's scoring sheet, she could tell who had won the match and she knew that Tommy would be happy about it, but he still had to sit through one more match in which his students were in the lime light.
"The winners are, Hughes and Morrow of Reefside," Adam said as he lifted up Charlie's arm and Charlie in turn lifted Jackson's, while the team from Angel Grove got out of the ring quietly. "Now, we have Jason Scott versus Tommy Oliver."
"Lord, help me," Kim said as she slid down in her chair a few inches, as she knew exactly what matches like this did to her mental well being.
Jason and Tommy had always been the type to lose the tops of their karate suits if they were in high stress situations and they both had done that now. She looked out at several of the girls in the audience, who were staring at the two, spoken for, men. It had been like this in high school, but now that she saw him like this on an everyday basis, her mind decided to play nasty tricks on her at the worst of times.
"Shouldn't I be the one saying that?" Tommy asked, putting his arm around her and giving her a gentle squeeze before getting into the ring.
He had noticed several of the staring girls, but the one that made his heart skip a beat was his wife and she was probably the only one in that room who could have pulled off the look she was carrying on her face. Every feeling that she felt for him was somehow managing to be displayed for everyone to see and he couldn't help but wonder if her being pregnant made her forget to camouflage them.
"Fair fight guys and the loser has to," Adam said in a normal voice before dropping it to a whisper, "not give their significant other a hug or kiss for the rest of the day."
"Whoa," Tommy said, putting his hands in the air, wondering if he had agreed to this one day when he was not really listening to the conversation, as he had been known to do in times past. "I don't know about Jason, but that it is a warrant for death where I'm concerned."
"Then don't lose," Rocky said, as Tommy glared over at him. He honestly wondered if the black ranger had enough energy to go up against the two of them at once, but quickly decided he did not want to volunteer himself for such a thing, if he did then the two them might be icing bruises that night.
"Sorry, Jase," Tommy said, as they took their positions on the mats. "I can't risk her being mad at me right now."
"Tommy," Jason said, as they round started and Tommy went after him, as he had used to when he was the green ranger. He was scared to death that he would be held to what Rocky and Adam had said, although Jason doubted that either would hold them to it.
"Kim, honey, what did you make him mad about today?" Martha asked, as Tommy was fighting Jason a lot harder than he usually would. She had rarely seen Tommy go after someone like, unless he was mad and there was a very real chance that he was today. He had just been acting so odd around them.
"I don't think that I did anything today. It was probably something that Rocky or Adam said to him. They were talking about having some sort of crazy restriction for the loser, but knowing the two of them, they did it to be funny. Tommy might have taken it seriously this time though," Kim said, as she noticed Charlie and Ashley were sitting against the wall, talking about something unimportant, which was a relief to see.
"Ow," Jason said, as he ducked from one of Tommy's attacks and tried to get Billy's attention that he needed to call the match now. There was no way that Jason was going to be able to get anywhere close to Tommy's sharpness without some using some sort of powers and Alpha wouldn't be willing to give him a temporary connection for something like this. "What's on your mind?"
"You don't want to know," Tommy said, as his thoughts did happen to shift to Kim and their baby, before they went back to what Adam and Rocky said. He could not risk making Kim mad at him because of some stupid condition that they were holding over their heads. Jason could deal with Trini being mad, but with the way, Kim's mood swings were bound to be, he did not want to risk it today.
"Billy, do something," Jason muttered, as he landed one decent blow, before getting thrown against the ropes even harder than before. "I don't care if you put down a forfeit, I'm going to get injured if this doesn't stop soon."
"You have one minute left Jason, suck it up," Rocky muttered, as the people in the audience found it intriguing to watch these two grown men spar and see why some of the children were scared of both of them.
"How 'bout we switch?" Jason said, as Tommy laughed at what he was saying. He hadn't known that he had been taking it that hard on him and he tried to let up, but something in the back of his mind kept him fighting like that.
"Round over," Billy announced as he rang the bell and he watched as Jason and Tommy talked to each other in the center of the ring, wondering if they were going to go two more rounds.
It would be fun to watch two more rounds, but if it was not wise for the two of them to go that many more rounds, then they were just happy to get what they got out of them. They had never expected to go the whole match, as they usually didn't work that way. One of them would jump to a sudden advantage and that would be it for the rest of the match.
"What the hell is on your mind? You've never fought like this before," Jason said, as Adam and Rocky smiled at the expression on Tommy's face.
"I'll tell all of you later, but you just have to trust me that it is nothing bad," Tommy said, as he went back to his sparring position, but Jason was heading for the ropes, ready to get away from his irritated friend.
"Whoa, we have to announce a winner," Rocky said, as they were ready to play bit of a cruel joke on Tommy, but Jason shook his head no. He could tell from the gleam in Rocky's eyes what they had planned and he was not going to let them do that with the way that Tommy would react.
"Jason, he's right," Tommy said, as he walked over to the center of the ring, having caught the way that Rocky was acting, although Jason seemed to be ready to spar against him, if he had to.
"Well, in this case, it was more like a draw, wasn't it?" Adam said, as he lifted both of their hands and they looked at him as if he was crazy, as they knew who had, had the better round that day.
"Now, for our final advanced match up, we have Hughes and Meggs against Davis and Mills," Billy said, as the girls climbed into the ring first, with Tommy and Jason going over to sit with their respective counterparts.
"Hey, you feeling any better?" Tommy asked, sitting down next to Kim and casually putting on his karate top, although he did not tie it as tightly as usual. The teenage girls that were sitting close to him were trying to lean to where they could catch a glimpse of his skin, but they soon quit as Kim leaned against him.
"Not really, but I'll be fine. I was just hoping that it would have gone away sooner," Kim said, as Tommy's parents exchanged a confused glance, before Jason and Trini joined the rest of the former and current rangers. It made no sense that he would be asking her that question, but they could always ask about it later. "What about you? You were a little bit relentless today."
"Something that Adam and Rocky told us before we started," Tommy said, as Kim shook her head, at the fact that he had taken them seriously. She had known about what they were going to say, but the condition that she found herself in now, was what probably made Tommy act like that.
"So, you took them seriously?" Kim asked, as Jason nodded his head yes behind his back. "Tommy, they were only kidding with you."
"They shouldn't kid about that," Tommy said, as Kim laughed at the seriousness in his voice as she leaned closer to him and tried to watch the remainder of the tournament, having seen that Ashley and Charlie had been able to win their part of the competition with little effort.
AN: That's all for this chapter and I bet that you can guess what will be to come in the next one. A little reminder that there are only two chapters left in this story and that a third story will be out soon. I hope that you have enjoyed it and feel free to review at any time! Until the next chapter, happy reading!