Disclaimer: I do not own the power rangers or any of the weapons and/or original characters from that series. This is the third story in the "Saving the World, Again" series, so any characters from those stories that are mine, might be brought in. I do own the character Ally Jameson as I know she will appear in this story a good bit and I just wanted to let you know that she is my character from the beginning. I also own the characters of Janice Mitchell, Principal McEntire, Mallory Wiggins, David Jackson, Mrs. Thornsby, and Alabaster. I do not own Katie Couric; she is being used here as a well-known newscaster for effect.
This type of writing indicates a dream.
Now, on with the Story!
Keeping Up With the Oliver's
"Well, I always knew that my son led a rather odd life. I mean, it would take a fool to not notice everything that happened around my house some evenings when he was a teenager. I just didn't know what it was until a few months ago, after his first child was born," Martha Oliver said, as Katie Couric leaned in, interested to hear all of this newfound information about some people that no one truly knew about.
When she had first gotten the letter on her desk saying that she was going to be interviewing the mother of a Power Ranger, she had thought it was a joke. She had heard about all of the odd occurrences that had happened in Angel Grove and now Reefside, but she had never believed in the Power Rangers. They were merely a figment of these poor, people's imagination, but now she had proof and was going to break the story of the decade. These people deserved to be famous and she wanted to make sure that their story was told, even if they were not the ones telling it to the world.
"Well, what happened to be so odd about your son? In this picture, he seems normal enough with his wife and daughter," Katie said, as she picked up the picture and held it so that the cameraman could focus in on it. They would be sure to edit the picture in with a close view later. It was important to show that these people seemed normal, but they were not. They merely were very good actors and had been for years, it was a miracle no one had found out about them sooner.
"At first, he would just be late for curfew, not very late, just a few minutes late every night. The first few times it happened, we didn't do anything. He was not and is not a bad boy, we just thought that he was being forgetful, which he truly is forgetful, bless his soul. I think he would forget his head sometimes if it wasn't attached. His forgetfulness just seemed to be aggravated after we moved to Angel Grove. I guess that was when he first became one, but neither of us knew about it. We never asked about it. I mean, we thought it was a possibility, but he was not getting in trouble at school and he was keeping up his grades, so we thought it was just some minor teenage mischief. If I had only known the magnitude of what he was doing, he would have never gotten in trouble," Martha said, as she looked around the room.
There were signs of her son here, everywhere and she wondered what Tommy was going to do when he found out that she had sold them out to the press. He had kept it a secret for so long, but it was time that people knew who the rangers were and that they were not a mere myth. She did not want her son's memory to be turned into a legend years down the road.
"What, exactly, did he become Mrs. Oliver? You were not very clear about what he is," Katie said, as she twirled her glasses between her thumb and index finger. To get a parent to admit this was a tough feat, but she seemed willing enough, so she hoped it would not take more prodding to get the answer out of her.
"He became a Power Ranger," Martha said, as Katie nodded her head and looked over at the cameraman. The woman was serious and she imagined that she had some evidence to help support her theory. This was certainly going to be a story worthy of reporting on several broadcasts.
"No!" Tommy yelled out, as he bolted out of his sleep and found himself sitting upright, revealing his bare chest to the cooler air, which made him unconsciously gasp.
He had had dreams about people finding out that he was a ranger, but it had never been one where the whole nation found out who and what he was in one interview that his mother gave. The sooner he got rid of his powers, the better, maybe he would finally be able to get a peaceful nights sleep with Kim at his side. Her nightmares had subsided, but his own were starting to take over their nights and he hated it.
"Tommy, lay back down," Kim said, as she reached up to grab his arm and realized that he was not going to lay back down, without some more reassurances from her. She was now freezing because of him moving away so quickly, but he seemed to be alarmed by whatever had jerked him out of his sleep. "What's wrong?"
"I had a bad dream," Tommy said, as Kim sat up and held the cover up over herself in an attempt to warm herself up. She couldn't help but smile at him for the childish way that he had formed that statement. He, however, seemed horrified by the dream and she knew that she needed to take him seriously, for a few seconds. They could laugh about how stupid the dream was later.
"What happened in the dream?" Kim asked, as she was curious about it.
He didn't have bad dreams that often and she just hoped it was something stupid, that it was not some sort of evil being tampering with his dreams. They were going to let go of their powers, no matter what else was going on in the universe. They had to retire now and they were trying to make a point of it to everyone who could understand why they wanted to get out of it.
"My mom told the world that I was a Power Ranger. Katie Couric interviewed her and everything," Tommy said, as he looked over at Kim, who was surprisingly silent about the situation. She didn't know what to say to make him feel better, but she could try to reassure him, somehow. It was not the first time that he had dreamed something like that, only this was on a far bigger scale than normal. Usually it was just that he yelled it out in class or something, but his mom doing an interview was definitely a new type of dream for him to be having. "It's a stupid dream, Kim. You know how it is to have dreams that our identity is revealed."
"It's not a stupid dream, Tommy. I know that it has always worried you that people will find out who you are and come after you," Kim said slipping her arm around him and feeling him rest his head on her shoulder. He rarely had something frighten him like this, but when he did have something go wrong, even if it was only in his dreams, he could worry about it for days on end. He had had his dreams become reality before and he did not want that to happen to him again. Their identity was the one thing that they protected to no end, they'd sacrifice almost anything, except that. "Listen, it's five o'clock. The alarm is going to go off in thirty minutes, I'm going to go ahead and take a shower."
"Kim," Tommy said, as she moved away from him on the bed and headed towards the bathroom. He didn't want her to leave so soon, but he was not sure that he should express his displeasure right now. She had, after all, woken up when he yelled out in his dreams, which was something she had not done the previous week because Angie had been sick all day.
"Well, I didn't say that you had to join me," Kim said, with a sly smile, as Tommy rolled out of bed and followed her. They knew that the others wouldn't be here for a couple of hours and that gave them plenty of time to be alone.
Later
"Ow!" Charlie yelled, as he banged his head against the door of the Command Center, while trying to avoid it. He had the absolute worst luck at this and if his luck continued in this fashion, he was going to have walloped himself unconscious soon.
"Poor Charlie," Ashley said, with grin as she saw him rubbing his head and giving her a mock-glare. Neither was surprised that they were the last to arrive today. They did not want to let go of their powers, but it seemed that choice had already been made for them. All of the powers had to go or there might be worse fates to deal with than just some minor nausea.
"Alright, rangers. I know that none of you are looking forward to losing your powers, but it has to be done. Hand over your morphers and I will begin breaking the bond they have with you. It will be painful," Alpha said as they handed in their morphers, rather obediently and he then thought that some warnings might need to be given out. The older rangers knew the affects, but the younger ones seemed to think they would still be able to stand at the end of this. "You may wish to sit down."
"And grab a garbage bag," Jason said.
"And some Midol," Kim said, as several of the inexperience laughed, but the others readily accepted the box of medicine. It seemed to be the only thing that could even begin to curb the pain and it didn't do that good of a job. They were sure that prescription drugs would do much better, but none of them could get a prescription for morphine.
"And as much beer as you can…sorry that's only us," Zack said, as they all laughed. They felt sorry for those who did not understand what the pain was going to be like, but it was about to be proved to them that they were serious about everything that they had said.
"So we have no relief?" Conner asked as Tommy looked over at him. He must have thought that they were joking about the Midol helping, but they were about to find out that it helped them a lot.
"I have plenty of Midol for everyone," Kim said as Conner, Trent, Ethan, and Charlie exchanged a glance. There was absolutely no way that they were going to take Midol, no matter how bad they were hurting.
"No thanks," Charlie said nicely as the other males simply shook their heads as they each popped two of the pills. They had had to drop the macho bravado that surrounded them as rangers, this was painful, and they didn't care what they took, as long as it made them feel better.
"To each their own," Adam said as Alpha began the de-bonding process. It was not going to take that long, compared to what some of the others had been through, but it was going to leave them completely drained and with more side effects than they could comfortably manage to deal with.
"You all right?" Tommy whispered as Kim reached over to grab his hand and slowly closed her eyes. She knew that it was not wise for her to drink alcohol right now, but she might have to resort to that, in order to dull the pain she was feeling.
"Tommy, you know what it is like. Just be quiet about all of it, my head is killing me," Kim said, as Jason grabbed a garbage bag and threw up. They were beginning to have the symptoms that the withdrawal was working. It was going to get much worse, before it got better though.
"Jason, you are completely de-bonded," Alpha said, as Jason curled up in a ball on the floor. He knew that his body was telling him not to move or he would be sick again, but that did not last very long. He was in too much pain to stay in that position.
"Jason, can you move?" Trini asked, as he shook his head no. He was afraid to open his mouth, as it would betray exactly how his insides were feeling.
"Tommy," Kim muttered, as she gave into temptation and leaned over on him. He simply placed both of his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head. How in the world were they going to teach their advanced classes today? They should have cancelled the classes yesterday, when they were still thinking clearly.
"I know, just try to ignore it," Tommy whispered, as some of the younger rangers looked at him in shock. How in the world could you try to ignore the pain that was going on right now? Conner had already grabbed his own garbage bag and he was following Jason's example. It was not a pretty sight to behold by any means.
"How?" Ashley asked as Kim threw here the box of Midol. Kim knew that if they hurt badly enough, all of them would take it. The guys agreed with her thinking to, but they just didn't know enough about what was going to happen to them to understand it at first.
"Take that and then you need to just lay down and hope it won't be too bad. The really bad symptoms will wear off overnight," Zack said, as Alpha nodded to him that he was done. Now, he just had to try to stand up. That was going to be a problem, it had always been for him when he lost his powers. His side effect was the complete loss of equilibrium. The others seemed to suffer from the less pleasant symptoms, but at least they were able to walk around on their own.
"Maybe that is the truth for you, but it is worse for me in the morning," Kim said as she knew she would steadily decline into the night and then wake up and throw up for half the day. Then the only effect she still felt was the power being gone, that was something that she never seemed to become completely accustomed to.
"Kim, you're free," Alpha said as Kim nodded her head and then she put both of her arms around Tommy. She'd have to wait until he could move around because she did not trust herself to stand on her own right now. Her ability to move at all was a real question to her.
"If you are going to be sick, tell me," Kim said, as Tommy nodded his head. He rarely got sick from power withdrawal. He usually suffered from severe sleepiness and was irritated by all of those around him. Other than those things, he was perfectly fine.
"Dino rangers you are free," Alpha said, as they nodded and they all tried to stand. Charlie and Ashley were the only ones that even managed to stay on their feet, but they were extremely weak in their own right.
"Alpha, we have got to find someway to make this easier," Tommy said, as he felt Kim shaking in his arms. He realized that it was freezing down here, but all of them were sweating due to the physical challenge of having the powers taken away.
"I wish that there was an easier way, Tommy," Alpha said, as Trini walked over to Jason and he placed his hand on hers and tugged her down to the floor. He then placed his head in her lap and held her as close to him as he could.
"I'm sorry, Jase," Trini said, as he looked up at her and then he looked towards the stairs. He felt that he might be able to try to walk up them. It was going to take him awhile and he didn't know how much he should lean on Trini right now.
"Can you help me up the stairs?" Jason asked and Trini shook her head yes. She'd try to help him as much as she could, but she didn't know how many more times she could stand to see him throw up.
"Tommy, you're done," Alpha said, as Tommy gently placed a kiss on Kim's forehead. She then muttered something to him and he merely nodded.
"Alpha, we'll be upstairs, just yell up to us when you want us to close the door," Tommy said, as he stood up and picked Kimberly up off the ground. He could walk around, but his head was throbbing and all he wanted was some peace and quiet upstairs for the next couple of days.
"I'll do that, Tommy," Alpha said, as Kimberly placed a hand over her mouth and forced the throw up back down her throat with a look of the utmost disgust.
"Don't worry, I'll take you to the bathroom," Tommy said with a smile as Kim merely looked at him with a severe glare and she had many retorts wanting to get out, but she couldn't do that for fear that she would throw up.
"How are we going to work tonight?" Kim muttered as Tommy looked down at her with wide eyes. He had completely forgotten about the classes that they had scheduled for later on today and right now he didn't even think he'd be able to drive to the dojo.
"We'll figure it out," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head. That was about all that she could manage and he just hoped that they would both be able to recuperate as quickly as they were going to have to today.
AN: I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter, I know that I just kinda cut it off at the end, but I think that the next chapter will make up for it, I'll definitely try to make it do that! Thanks a lot for reading!