Hey guys, you are all so awesome, and I mean that! The reviews were totally inspiring and now I'm really psyched about the story. I gather from your words of wisdom that you guys like where this whole thing is going and you're just dying to know who the bad guy is right? Well, you're going to have just wait a tad bit longer but at least you get to find out what became of the other rangers. Enjoy.
"Here," said Tommy as he slid into the driver's seat of the white rental car and handed Kimberly a truck stop hotdog, a bottle of soda, and a rather large bag of chips.
"Thanks," replied Kimberly eagerly. She was starving and hadn't even thought about food since before she left for Adam's yesterday. It was very kind of Tommy to think of her like that.
Tommy said nothing suggesting that he heard her remark of gratitude and instead shut the door, revved up the engine and pulled out of the truck stop. The couple was only about twenty minutes outside of Shady Mountain and although Kimberly's rental car was in desperate need of gas, Tommy didn't feel much like making polite chit chat right now at Earl's, so he stopped at the next closest place. It was decided immediately after Kimberly informed Tommy of the dilemma at hand that it would be smartest to take the rental car back to Reefside, rather than Tommy's Jeep. Obviously, who ever had kidnapped their friends knew their stuff and also knew where everyone lived, worked, and probably what they drove.
The short drive to the gas station had seemed like an eternity to both Tommy and Kimberly. After Tommy said his farewell to Heather directly in front of Kimberly, back at the cabin, he returned to his bedroom, packed the important stuff and locked up the cabin. By the time he joined Kimberly in the car there was enough tension to last the rest of their adventure together and it certainly lasted all the way to the truck stop. The two sat in complete silence the entire distance, aside from Kimberly pointing at the gas gage, indicating to Tommy that they were low on fuel. Tommy just nodded. Tommy silently prayed that Kimberly wouldn't bring up Heather, but she had no intention of doing so.
Now, that the real struggle was about to begin on the four hour drive back to Reefside, Kimberly figured that it wasn't worth the stress to make the journey uncomfortable and frankly unbearable; she was determined to break the ice.
"This hot dog is delicious," Kimberly began casually as she stared out of the passenger window. Tommy made no response. "Are you hungry?" she continued, seeming unfazed by his cold response. "Do you want some chips?" she asked, shoving the bag of Lay's in Tommy's direction.
Tommy seemed a little irritated at her gesture, he clearly had other things on his mind, like the fact that he had just left behind the best thing to ever happen to him since high school and he may never even see her again. "No thanks," he responded, hoping Kimberly would get the message that he wasn't in the mood to be social. She did get the message, but she didn't really care, she hated the silence.
"I know that we have like four hours ahead of us Tommy, but do you mind telling me exactly what we're going to do once we get to Reefside?" It had been Tommy's declaration back at the lake that they would return to his home in Reefside, no questions asked.
Tommy turned his head from the road and looked at Kimberly with what appeared to be annoyance. He didn't mean to come off as such a jerk but Kimberly couldn't possibly understand what he was feeling right now. She hadn't been the one to sacrifice her social life and love life since high school to ensure the protection of the planet Earth, an oath they had all taken together. But, only some of them seemed to have actually taken it seriously.
"I have a sort of command center, I guess you could call it, in my basement," began Tommy, trying to be as polite as possible.
"Oh, from your black ranger days!" interrupted Kimberly excitedly.
Tommy stared at her in bewilderment, clearly Jason had been talking about him to her, which strangely enough bothered Tommy. "Yeah, from then," he replied. "So, what else did Jason tell you about me?" he asked shaking his head.
"What?" questioned Kimberly with confusion, "No, it wasn't Jason who told me. I saw on the international news in France that evil forces were attacking the city of Reefside, California, and that a new team of rangers was protecting the city. Then, my brother called me one day from UCLA to tell me that you had been a guest lecturer in one of his science classes and that you had said that you were living in Reefside. From there the connection wasn't hard to make. Why else would you be living in a town like Reefside?"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" asked Tommy, finally lightening up.
Kimberly grinned, "Oh come on Tommy, you were Tommy Oliver the most popular guy in school the most talked about athlete to come out of Angel Grove, not to mention the best looking guy to ever walk the halls of Angel Grove High. Everyone was expecting you to make something great of yourself, and you did. But no one expected you to do it in Reefside, California." Kimberly stared down into her bag of potato chips awkwardly, had she said too much?
Tommy turned his attention back to the road, pondering Kimberly's analysis of his life thus far. "If you always thought so highly of me then how come you never stuck around?" Tommy didn't meant to be so blunt but it just sort of slipped and he wished that he could have taken the question back. He really didn't want to know, at least not now because it had been an emotional day already, and something told him it was only going to get worse.
Kimberly was speechless, what in the hell kind of question was that? She was just trying to make friendly conversation to loosen things up a bit. But the worst part of it was that she didn't have an answer to give Tommy. "Tommy, I uh, well…" she stuttered on for a few moments before Tommy relieved her of the burden.
"Kim, just forget it. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. It just sort of slipped and you don't have to answer. Really. It was a stupid thing to say."
Kimberly sighed, not quite sure what to say once again, so she didn't say anything at all and neither did Tommy. In fact not another word was spoken until they reached the city limits sign just outside of Reefside. Conveniently enough, Kimberly had fallen asleep not long after the confrontation, or at least she pretended to fall asleep and eventually she did.
When Kimberly awoke, she didn't really recognize where she was but beside her Tommy looked perfectly at ease. Yawning, Kimberly stretched as best she could in the midsize and rubbed her eyes profusely, trying to wake up. "So you never answered my question. What are we going to do now that we're in Reefside?" The city limits sign whizzed passed Kimberly's window in a blur.
Tommy answered her dryly, "Like I said before I have a command center in my basement, which may have the capabilities to track the others' whereabouts." Kimberly stared at him, clearly doubtful of his claims. "Don't worry, I didn't build it myself, I had help from a friend of mine from college, Haley. She's an MIT grad…" Tommy continued to speak of the woman fondly, which made Kimberly uncomfortable.
"So, she knows?" asked Kimberly with just a hint of anger.
"Well, yeah," replied Tommy, "how else could I have convinced her to help me?"
Kimberly crossed her arms in disgust. "I don't know," she replied, "but it would have been nice to have been consulted before you went and spilled the beans to a complete stranger. Does Jason know?"
Tommy was clearly offended by Kimberly's distrust, how dare she question his motives. He led the team long after she left and he most certainly didn't need her permission to recruit a civilian to help save the world, when it was the only option. "You know what Kim," he began impatiently, "No, it's not worth getting into it with you and I don't even owe you an explanation at all. Where have you been all this time, huh? It's been a long time since you turned in you power coin and I don't recall you ever returning to claim it anytime recently!"
Kimberly opened her mouth, prepared to defend herself but she realized that she had been out of line and Tommy was right. It had been quite some time since she suited up and she could have continued the fight like Tommy had and monitored and investigated the evil forces of the galaxy, but she just simply chose not to. If anything she deserved the scolding. "I'm sorry Tommy," she apologized softly, "you're absolutely right. I have no right to ridicule you or your decision when you've done nothing but make sacrifices for the rest of us."
There was a brief silence and then Tommy picked up where the conversation should have left off. "I've been trying to reach Haley on my cell phone the past few hours, but she doesn't answer and she took off of work for a couple of weeks apparently."
"Do you think she's alright?" asked Kimberly with surprised concern.
"Yeah, I'm sure she's fine, she had mentioned something about going to see her parents some time this summer. Maybe our timing is just crummy."
Kimberly nodded her head in agreement, "Okay, but you don't need her to track the others down do you?"
"No, at least I don't think so," replied Tommy with slight hesitation, which was no comfort to Kimberly.
The couple drove on, discussing a plan of action and shortly arrived at the small gray house located in the outskirts of Reefside. "Well, this is it," said Tommy as he pulled into the driveway. The sun was setting and all that was really visible was the house's silhouette as the pink and orange rays radiated around it.
"I like it," declared Kimberly, smiling at the view, and she really did like it. It was a very cute home but it clearly belonged to a man. It was in desperate need of a woman's TLC, unfortunately that woman would most likely be Heather. Kimberly shook the thought out of her head as she unbuckled herself. "Tommy can you open the trunk, the latch is on the side of the seat. I need to get my stuff out."
Tommy released the plastic latch and exited the car, heading directly for the trunk. Frankly, he was stunned at the amount of luggage packed inside the trunk. He starred at the suitcases and duffel bags in astonishment.
"What?" said Kimberly, joining him in front of the open hatch, "You act as if you've never seen a suitcase before." She began shifting and removing various pieces.
"Oh I've seen a suitcase before," replied Tommy, "I've just never seen so many in one place."
Kimberly rolled her eyes, "Well, if you must know, I didn't come out here for just a vacation," she struggled to lift the top suitcase. "I'm moving back."
Now Tommy stared at Kimberly in astonishment, "What made you decide to do that?" he questioned.
"I hope that question is just a question and not a plea for me to change my mind," she answered with a giggle. "I just missed everybody that's all. I mean France is great with my mom and all, but it's time for me to start a real life. After the Pan Globals I got bombarded with endorsement deals and-"
"And long lost relatives looking for a hand out," finished Tommy.
"Yeah," said Kimberly slowly, "how'd you know?"
"Just a guess," said Tommy, once again stuck on another parallel between Kim and Heather.
"Can you just hand me the pink one," said Kimberly, pointing at a pink overnight bag towards the back of the trunk. "That has everything in it that I need for tonight." Tommy handed her the bag and commenced packing the trunk back up. "I hope you don't mind Tommy but the first thing I want to do when we get inside is shower, I haven't had one since I was in France!"
"And strangely enough you don't stink," returned Tommy chuckling. Kimberly gave Tommy a playful slap as they topped the porch steps but before they could reach for the front door, something else reached for them.
Adam woke up in a haze of pitch black and for a moment he thought that his eyes were closed, but upon blinking several times he realized that his eyes were very much open. Groaning, Adam discovered that he was bound and shackled in a vertical position and he wondered how in the world he had been asleep standing up.
"You guys I think he's awake," said a familiar voice, echoing through the black chamber.
Adam looked around, frustrated that he was unable to see anything at all, much less the source of the voice.
"Adam?" came another voice.
"Aisha? Rocky?" responded Adam, listening for their response.
"Yeah, it's us," replied Aisha.
"All of us," added Jason.
"I'm so relieved," began Adam, as he slumped over "well, sort of. You guys have no idea what hell I've gone through the past few days looking for all of you." As sad as it was he was actually comforted in knowing that whatever it was that he was about to undergo, at least everyone was going to be there with him.
"Well congratulations," said Zack, "you found us," he didn't sound at all amused.
"So, who's all here?" questioned Adam, in desperate need of a tally.
"Everyone but Tommy and Kimberly," answered Billy.
"Yup," replied Trini who had not yet been heard from. "Uh huh," added Katherine with her distinctive Australian accent still coming through.
"Well, is everyone okay? I know it was no picnic for me to be smothered by that green slimy tentacle that reeked beyond belief," continued Adam.
"Yeah, we're all okay," replied Jason, "we've had a little time to adjust. But what I'm really worried about is Tommy and Kimberly."
"Why?" asked Adam, still leading the discussion.
"Because, they have no idea what in the hell is in for them," finished Aisha.
"I don't know about Tommy," said Adam, "but I know that Kimberly is very much aware of the misfortunate turn of events and she's working on it," Adam was assuring himself more so than his friends.
"What do you mean 'working on it'?" questioned Rocky, his stomach growling so loudly that it echoed through the chamber.
Adam chuckled at the sound of Rocky's tummy even though it wasn't that funny that he might have to stand here helpless as his friends wasted away from starvation. He would most certainly be the last to go. "I contacted Kim when you guys started disappearing and we were supposed to meet at my house but Kim got there too late, I was already gone."
"Well that's nice that Kim knows we're in trouble but who exactly is going to help her?" questioned Katherine, trying to be realistic.
"What about Tommy," added Trini. She was always the optimist and had always placed a great deal of trust in the former White Ranger.
"I don't know if Tommy's really and option guys. I never got a hold of him and no one seems to know where he is," answered Adam, recalling his efforts to reach the guy.
"Oh that's right!" gasped Jason. "He was going up to his Uncle's cabin for the summer. Why in the hell didn't I at least mention that to you Adam?" If Jason's hands had been free he would have slapped his forehead.
"The cabin," began Adam, "I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"Hey guys, calm down," said Billy, trying to be the voice of reason. "Kim's a bright girl, I'm sure it won't be long before she realizes Tommy's whereabouts."
"Yeah, if they haven't captured her yet," pouted Rocky.
"And even if she does find Tommy," cut in Aisha, "what can they do? They're just civilians, just like us. Man, what I wouldn't have given to have had my power coin the other night!"
"Everybody cut it out," cried Trini, "this is so ridiculous, Kim and Tommy have never let us down in the past so there is no reason to doubt them now."
"Trini's right," added Jason, once again assuming his role as the leader, "we just have to think positive and do whatever we can to stay alive and safe. We'll do our part and Kim and Tommy will do theirs. Alright?"
Slowly but surely, everyone agreed with Jason and after a short time things did actually seem not so dim, well except for the pitch-black room.
"So where exactly are we anyway?" asked Adam finally.
"Who knows," replied Rocky, "but who wants to put money on it?"
"Rocky, you're such a bafoon," snapped Aisha. "This is no time to be making bets."
"What?" questioned Rocky, "I was just trying to make things interesting, I haven't seen anything but black out for the last, well…" he thought for a moment, "I don't even know how many days!"
"Four," answered Adam, "you've been here four days my friend."
"And still, no one has come to check on us or even taunt us," added Zack. "I don't know about you guys but, I don't know how much longer I can stand this."
"My money's on Zedd," said Rocky, paying no attention to Aisha's earlier attacks on his behavior, "he's the only one sick and twisted enough to torture us like this, without any food for God's sake!"
The room erupted into laughter, in spite of the seriousness of the situation. Things were not looking so good for the rangers, but little did they know, the last thing the wanted to happen was for their kidnapper to reveal himself.