Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers. So don't try to buy them from me. Please don't get all offended because I mocked your favorite Ranger. I try to mock them all. Besides, it's just for fun. I really do enjoy the show :). Hi to all from AFPR…especially my fellow Psychos. Please let me know if I make any errors. I have no difficulty with receiving constructive criticism.

This is story number four. Yeah, yeah, I know this is the second Ethan story in a row. Well, blame that on its requester…Lord-Pisces. And yes, I know it is impossible to play a bunch of video games at one time, I guess Ethan's just extremely talented in that area :). Since I sent this right after story number three, check that one out also. Oh, and the due date for requests is now August 25. That's it.

Carter and Ethan

By

Eileen (Psycho Tangerine)

Carter yawned as he lounged around the firehouse. After all the excitement of being a Power Ranger, being 'just' a firefighter was a bit of a letdown. Not that there weren't any fires around his new post in Reefside. There were as many as in any other town. But for some reason, whenever the alarm sounded, all of the other firefighters made sure to hop on the fire engine and speed away before Carter could get geared up.

"Jealousy," he mumbled to himself, "just plain jealousy because I was a Ranger and they weren't." He just couldn't admit to the real reason. At the last fire he had gone to while still working in Mariner Bay, Carter kept trying to morph by holding out his axe. Then he kept trying to attack the flames barehanded as if they were batlings. The other firefighters became so distracted with keeping him from burning himself that the local Starbucks burnt down. Carter was chased out of town by all of the agitated and angry coffee addicts.

At the moment all of the other firefighters were out fighting yet another fire. Carter smiled to himself. If the alarm sounded again, he would be the only one available to go. No one would be able to stop him and he'd be a great hero again…. just like when he had been the Red Ranger. Best of all, Dana would stop calling him "delusional doofus" whenever he tried to call her for a date.

"Whooowhoooowhooowhoooowhoooowhoooowhoooowhooo…"

Carter jumped at the sound of the alarm. "Wheeeee!" he shouted as he slid down the pole. He grabbed his gear and put it on. The big fire truck was gone, so he grabbed the only vehicle left and raced as fast as he could towards the fire.

"All right!" yelled Ethan excitedly as he plugged yet another computer into the already overloaded extension cord. "Twenty video games at one time! This will really get me into the Guinness Book of World Records!" Every outlet in his living room was plugged in with extension cords, and multiple plugs. He flicked on each computer and video game system that he had.

"Ma!" he called as he heard the sizzling. "Make my hamburger medium well!" He had already forgotten that his parents had gone away on their second honeymoon, entrusting the house to him. Ethan got each game started and then began to run from one to another as quickly as he could to keep the games going. Soon, he smelled smoke. "Ma! I said medium well, not burnt!"

"Dang it!" he cried as he began to realize that he just might not be quick enough to play so many games at once. But he kept trying. If he was going to be known as a computer geek by his friends, he might as well become a famous computer geek.

Two minutes later, he could hear the smoke alarm go off. "Hey, Dad!" he called to his currently vacationing father. "Do you mind? I'm in the middle of something here! Play your saxophone somewhere else! And play it better while you're at it!" Unheeding of the first small flame that was licking the furthest game system, Ethan just kept playing, mesmerized by all the different games.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING went the little bell on the bicycle Carter was racing to the fire on. "Whoooowhoooowhoooowhooowhoooo! Get out of the way! Fireman coming through! Whoooowhoooowhoooowhoooowhoooo!"

People jumped out of his path, cursing and throwing him dirty looks as he went past them. Several of them began to confer among themselves about how a shame it was that Power withdrawal has caused such insane behaviors.

When Carter finally arrived at the fire almost fifteen minutes after the alarm sounded off, half of the house was already on fire. "Must remember I'm not a Power Ranger…must remember I'm not a Power Ranger," he recited to himself over and over just as he psychiatrist had taught him. "Hello?" He called as loudly as he could. "Is anyone in there?"

There was no answer. But Carter could swear that he heard blipping and plinging noises combined with shouts of "gotcha!" and "all right!"

Hefting his axe in the air, Carter chopped the door down. He ran into the smoke towards the strange sounds. To his disbelief, there stood a young man, so engrossed with his video games that he wasn't even panicking over the flames that were inching closer to him. Carter ran over to him and grabbed him by the arm to drag him out.

"Are you crazy???!!!" screamed Ethan as Carter attempted to pull him away from a controller. He moaned as the disruption caused him to lose a game. "Ten more minutes and I would've gotten a world record!" He looked at the now filthy and sweating Carter. "I don't know who you are, but if you want to play, you'll just have to wait your turn." With that, he ran to a now-smoking keyboard. After all, he reasoned, he could still get into the World Record book with the thirteen games that were still going.

With one final effort and a mighty curse, Carter grabbed Ethan around the waist and pulled the protesting teen out of the house. "I'm crazy?" he cried at the struggling teenager. "I'M CRAZY???? If I'd given you ten more minutes, you'd have been barbecued! You just burnt your whole house down with all those stupid computers and game systems of yours!"

Ethan, who was finally snapping out of his computer-induced trance, looked around at the now arriving firefighters and his now burnt up shell of a house. "Nooooo!!!!" He wailed. "My computers! My beautiful, beautiful computers!" Then he realized what else he had left in the house. "My morpher….NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

"Morpher? Him?" laughed Carter. "And they told me I was delusional."