FAR BEYOND LOVE AND HATE
Thanks to all the reviewers…few that there are. TommyElsa gets a real start next chapter! WITH A PROPOSED DATE! You read me right. A real D-A-T-E.
Chapter 2:
- - - Reefside High - - -
Tommy walked in the door to the class. His class moved around, babbled a little, finishing conversations and then settling in. A boy entered the room.
"Late for class Paris" Tommy said.
"Have I missed anything?"
"I - "
"I haven't so there's no need to have a coronary," Paris said nastily.
"Watch your tone"
"Or what? You'll put me in detention?" growled Paris as he examined the plant on Dr Oliver's desk. "This plant is dying the soil's all wrong…" he turned and sat into his seat.
"Right let's continued from where we left of…Osmosis is only applied to water, never to anything else" explained Tommy. "That's where people get it mixed up with Diffusion. Osmosis diffuses water until both areas concerned are isotonic - "
The door burst open. The girl skidded to a halt and put on a smile. "Sorry Dr Oliver… family situation" she said.
"Calypso…if that was your brothers explanation for everything it wouldn't hold much sway…you can both see me after class" Tommy sighed. "Take a seat". Calypso adjusted her blonde hair over one ear and walked towards her assigned desk near her brother.
Tommy sighed, shook his head and turned back to the black board. Suddenly there was a shout of NO. He spun around as a crater was blown in the blackboard inches to the left of his head.
"LET GO" Paris snarled as his sister wrenched his hand off to one side.
"You know what dad said" she grimaced, fighting his strength. "No energy bolts indoor's!" she head butted him. His nose started to bleed but reformed. He grabbed her around the throat and lifted her up. "Then again" she croaked. "To every rule…" the power bolt blasted him in the chest and he fell backwards.
"Well you really are a pain" Paris snarled. He spun around and a green bolt lanced at Tommy. If he'd not moved when he did there'd be a very big hole in his torso. Paris cursed and hurled his sister aside.
Calypso landed into a flip and unleashed another energy bolt. Her brother vaulted over it and kicked her out a window. Tommy dived aside as another blast hit the wall having been aimed for him. He was on the run. He couldn't morph now…he needed to get away…easier said then done.
"Dr O!" Tommy spotted the rangers on the stairs sadly they weren't morphed. If they had been, then the psychotic boy with energy bolts wouldn't be such a problem. "Hey it's Paris Stevens!" Kira said in a voice that sounded…dreamy? Trent virtually flashed green with jealousy.
Paris was striding down the hall. He stopped and looked at the rangers. He hurled an energy bolt at the crowd of students they were in. The students screamed and fled as the energy bolt exploded. The rangers were at Tommy's side in 5 seconds flat. Paris smiled a seductive smile. He was the dreamboat of the school; every girl (and some guys) wanted him. His dark hair was wavy, a little curly in some places, his eyes were a green-blue and his slender body was nicely muscled…jealousy was understandable.
"Ah, all lined up…watch the pin heads fall" he said as he hurled the energy bolt at them. They ducked in different directions and instead a locker blew up.
"Let's go" Tommy said as the pulled them towards the main door. Paris had thrown some seeds into the air and they'd grown into a large group of Exol's with green plating. They turned around as Paris advanced and abruptly stopped. The White Woman was approaching.
"Going somewhere? This time I won't miss" she snapped. White Exol's were leaping along behind her as she pulled a bone sword from her hip. She charged up the blade by running a finger along it. "Destroy!" she snapped pointing with the charging hand before swinging her blade and sending a blast flying along the hall… The Exol's charged…and attacked Paris and the Green Exol's.
The blast blew Paris and blew him off his feet. The woman's costume vanished, Calypso stalked towards her brother. "Calypso…you are a pest" Paris hissed. "You held no love for father! You'll let his killers get away with this!"
"You're angry Paris" Calypso said quietly as she stepped around two Exol's locked in combat. "You're angry at everyone and you're taking it out on everyone!"
"Drop dead sis," he said as he pulled a sword from his spine. "Luckily I can help there!" He slashed at her and sparks flew as their blades met. They battled up and down the hall, through walls and doors and finally stopping where they began. Their swords locked…Calypso spun and kicked him down the hall.
"GET THEM" he roared as he moved in a green blur to slash his sister with his blade. The flash of light exploded from her side. Paris swept around for another strike but Calypso blocked him with two bone daggers she'd pulled from her thighs.
"This ends!"
"For you maybe!" Paris spat. He unleashed a blast of lightening from his hands, down his sword lifting her up and away. White energy glowed from her body in crackling electric sparks. It struck at him and hurled him down the hall.
Cassidy looked to Devin. He gave her thumbs up and she smiled before she quickly set about straightening her hair and turned to look at the Camera. "Last week we did a segment on most gorgeous boys of Reefside…as part of our…eh – human interest report" Devin made a noise and Cassidy slapped him subtly alongside the head. "Ranking a flawless Number 1 in the eyes of all the judges was Paris Stevens who, along with his twin sister Calypso, joined the school earlier this year not long after term started…now they are fighting with superhuman abilities in the hall after Paris made an attempt on the life of Dr Tomas Oliver's life for unknown reasons."
The camera panned over to where the twins were holding each other in the air with lightening beams. "This is good TV," murmured Devin
Calypso leapt into the air and launched a series of snap kicks at her brother he blocked most until she spun and smashed a leg into his ribs. He skidded back and attacked catching her with two palm shots across the face and a head butt. He pulled back and extended his hand to the side of his body so it was about hip height and at an angle with his body. On his wrist was a silver bracelet with a green stone on it. "Let's do this for keeps!" he snapped.
Calypso extended her arm in the same manner revealing a gold bracelet with a diamond in it. "I don't want to do this Paris."
"Well then you shouldn't have gotten in my way" Paris said. "Mess with the green and it gets mean!" the bracelet glowed and became a long, thin black and bronze device with red and white buttons up the middle to the precious stone set in each.
"Oh brother" muttered Calypso. "Let's go then"
Paris pressed a button on his wrist device and raised both his hands over his head. "Green DNA" he said. "Charge Up!"
"White DNA" snapped Calypso as she pressed another button. "Charge Up!"
Dressed in their full costumes they attacked, bone blades clashed and flashed as they went all out. The rangers were caught in the middle of the warring Exol's. The fire alarm was blaring down the halls as students hurried to get out.
A blast bounced off the blade and blew open a set of doors sending them shooting off the steps. Tommy kicked a Green Exol off balance and let a white Exol finish it off as he and the rangers darted outside.
Calypso slashed her brother twice and jump kicked him across the room. He shouted out, brandished his blade and slashed the air. The glowing energy beam blasted his sister aside. "Charge Up indeed" snorted Paris as he advanced.
"Hey!" Conner's spear slash hit Paris for six points. "I think this sibling quarrel has gone long enough". Paris was clutching his head, he was turned off to one side as if thinking or crying and trying not to be seen. Suddenly he whipped around and unleashed a blast of green light from his eyes. Conner was blow through two walls.
"I'm a simple person," sighed Paris as he advanced on Conner. "All I want is to make the rangers burn in hell!" Conner flipped backwards and blasted him. Paris shouted out and hurled a blast of green light. Conner ducked aside.
"Red. I hate Red Rangers!" spat Paris. "So high and mighty with their "special weapons" and smug little "aren't I great?" complexes!" he caught Conner by the throat, closing the distance between them in a blur of green. "This will hurt A LOT" he snarled and hurled Conner through a wall.
Tommy attacked with his Thunder Max Sabre. "I've studied your style Red, Green, White, Red again and Black ranger," Paris said as he pulled a blade from his arm and swung a full slash at Tommy. "And you'll never know how much your pain means to me" Paris pulled another blade from his elbow and spun again, slashing Tommy before going into a true full on slash that ground Tommy along the floor into a trophy case.
"End of the line ranger!" Paris said as he charged his twin blades up.
"Not today!!" Kira was fast; she attacked with a spinning slash of her Ptera Grips. Trent blurred in and tackled Paris down the hall away from Tommy. There was a familiar noise as an invisiportal opened up and Elsa and Zeltrax strode forth.
"Mesogog sends his greetings" Elsa said darkly. She hurled a power bolt at Trent and Zeltrax grabbed Ethan around the throat and unleashed electric pulses into the Blue Ranger. "And his condolences on your deaths!"
Elsa darted at Trent and their swords met. Elsa kicked Trent and slashed him across the chest. Calypso hurled a spark at the woman and Elsa was knocked backwards. "So you've teamed up with these clowns?" Calypso snapped.
"Oh sis you have to be careful," Paris said in mocking good nature. "Because – I'd be crushed if you got in my way…" Calais materialized behind Calypso and thrust out her hands. "Or maybe YOU will be the crushed one."
"Hey Calypso!" Calais said as the vines dragged Calypso to the ground by sheer mass. "Don't worry it'll just be the death of you."
Zeltrax and Ethan were fighting; the cyborg's grasp had been broken when Ethan had somehow short-circuited his hand briefly. Zeltrax was attacking as angrily as he could but he was mindless now. His edge was dulled. Ethan flipped him over and dropkicked him on the chest.
"Game over!"
Trent and Elsa were beating each other around. Elsa spun backwards, ran her finger along the blade of her sword and slashed the air. Trent wasn't fast enough…he was blown off his feet. Elsa walked towards the stunned boy, her blade out before her. "This has been a long time coming," she said. "I hope you're not too fond of your head or your heart…they're both taking a vacation to jars on my shelf". She swung her blade down on him…
Tommy caught the slash and shoved the sword aside. "It's not going to happen Elsa," he snapped. She laughed and their weapons clashed off each other before they both launched kicks at one another, their legs bounced off each other and they spun into spinning kicks again…once more their attacks deflected each other.
"I've been practicing. My master gave me an upgrade" she blasted Tommy with a pulse of glowing blue energy and she unleashed a stream of energy at him. He rolled backwards just in time. Elsa charged at him and leapt. Time seemed to slow as she shot into the air and flip kicked him down the hall.
"End of the line Black Ranger!" she said huskily and charged up a bolt. Kira kicked the sword out of the way and unleashed a series of kicks and swipes on her.
"It's so easy it's not fun!" Kira said. Elsa's hand shot out. She grabbed her by the throat and lifted the Yellow Ranger up.
"Are you sure you want to say that?" Elsa smirked. She tossed Kira into the air a little and swung. Before Kira landed she was slashed with the blade. Elsa advanced… with a roar of rage Trent blurred around her slashing.
Elsa fell into a crouch, weakened. "It's over Elsa" Trent said.
"Retreat" snapped Paris. "We'll deal with this later!" he gestured and vanished. Elsa glared at Tommy then she and Zeltrax and the back up T-drones they had brought vanished.
Calypso was lying unconscious on the ground. Tommy kneeled beside her and picked her up.
Calypso sat up with a groan. Her outfit had de-morphed and the rangers surrounded her. "So" she said slowly. "I guess I'm failing science…" Tommy raised an eyebrow and she sighed. "You want to know what the hell is going on"
"Well it tends to pique my curiosity when abruptly my students can throw energy bolts and use knock-offs of morpher technology" Tommy said.
"Abruptly?" murmured Calypso. "Not by a long stretch…" she sighed and slid off the medical bed. "All right… you want the full story."
"Definitely" Kira said. Calypso shrugged.
"My father was Edwin Scott. Stevens was our mother's maiden name…he was obsessed with the power rangers and their technology since their first appearance in the city of Angel Grove" Calypso said.
"He devoted his life to research of the morphing grid…threw himself in deeper when our mother died. He had big plans, he could use his programs to find the focus of Morph Energy" she continued as she tapped some keys on a console and opened Tommy's files on past ranger teams.
"He was first drawn in while we lived in Angel Grove," she explained. "It started with the first earthbound team in a few hundred years. He watched the moon and its activity with Rita Repulsa, and then Lord Zedd. He became obsessed"
"How did he fare?" Tommy asked
"He was satisfied…well as satisfied as he ever got" shrugged the girl.
"Ignoring Ninjetti for various reasons we move on to when Zeo Rangers appeared he changed tact and researched the crystals they used and that wasn't very helpful to Paris and I. We were his assistants, we were only small children but we tested their response time to situations…accidents and such…"
"So he was trying to unmask them?" asked Trent
"Essentially, he wanted their secrets, he wanted their strength" shrugged Calypso. "It was his life's work, to find the rangers and prove his genius". She continued
"Then came Power Rangers Turbo, we went diving in the lake, found the sub, took pictures and then had to help him work on his mechanics" she rolled her eyes. "We also began research into The Phantom Ranger and that annoying traffic-cone with legs". She tapped to the next image.
"The team changed during that time," Tommy said.
"We found that much out" nodded Calypso. "It made him even more curious thank you very much…"
"We had to work in the space program after this" she muttered as she showed them the next line up. "We wound up briefly on the space station that was used to start work on Terra venture to keep tabs on the Space Rangers whenever they were in the solar system."
Conner grinned. "Sounds cool"
"It was very cold…and not much fun" Calypso sighed. "But it opened another link to the next set of rangers. Terra Venture was another start you see, he was major-ly pissed when we wound up having to chase them across the galaxy to a place the Sabres had started generating pulses on the morphing grids" Calypso turned to the next picture.
"The Lightspeed program hired him to help with the morphing technology because of his expertise…not that it went perfectly. He finally had ranger identities and labs he could use…and he ends up devoting all his time to the Zords they had and their weaponry working with Ms Fairweather"
"So you chased rangers?" Haley asked.
"Doggedly" Calypso nodded. "The Time Force Rangers led us to Silver Hills and we had SOOOOO much to do. He investigated mutants and rangers alike to see what they would ultimately lead to… it lead to him being kicked off the Silver Guardian Project…proud moment after he shouted at Mr Collins and called him incompetent"
"The Wild Force was particularly sticky, he sent us into confrontation against them and investigated the history of rangers…this was getting close to his death and he didn't know it. He was particularly interested in the exceptional sentience of the Zords they used."
She gave a sigh. "And then was his time in Blue Bay Harbour unlocking the tales of the Ninja Rangers and their connections to the Ninjetti…he found connections…and was led to the old Command centre where a hologram distracted him, self-destructed a console and blew him backwards down a gaping hole in the floor"
Tommy swallowed. "I programmed that…"
"And that's why Paris wants you and the Red Ranger dead as disco" explained Calypso. "He loathes your existence, he blames you for our fathers death and will stop at nothing to make sure you pay. He's after Conner because Conner is the leader, it's a statement"
"How did you get morphing technology?" Haley asked as she stared at the bracelet.
Calypso gave a light laugh and walked towards a display of Haley's latest designs and research on Triassic Rangers. "I didn't GET morphing technology. I –AM- morphing technology. My brother and I were born with a bone disease, which developed into leukaemia. We died. But father adapted his research into the most distant rangers and the morphing grid that he'd happened across and used it to re-engineer our bodies. Cloning us and using technology to replace the genetic illness."
Tommy looked the girl up and down…she definitely seemed human. "Then mother was killed when a monster and a Megazord were fighting, an energy blast destroyed a road and it caved in. Paris and I were with her. We survived she didn't." Calypso shrugged. "Paris was sensitive he'd always been designed as a lover not a fighter but there was nothing that could be done…he threw himself into his study of combat to protect the ones he loved."
"It wasn't good enough, two girlfriends were wounded in a monster attack…a friend of ours as well…and then our father was killed and Paris went off the edge"
"How -" began Tommy.
"I'm getting to the power bit" Calypso sighed. "Every time a new ranger team appeared father upgraded us to make sure we could match their abilities and many of those their enemies had. He even developed a way to make monsters grow because of their bizarre DNA and such. We were armed and dangerous and he kept fixing us up… then he died. And Paris turned those powers from "only when in danger" to "only to cause danger" powers."
"So your brother thinks he can beat us?" Kira said. "Mesogog's not done it yet"
Calypso gave another laugh. "Mesogog's working with Calais and my brother" she said. "Paris is ruthless and relentless…nothing will stop him."
"This is Bad" Tommy said. "We need to focus on a plan of action" his phone beeped. "Hello? - - What! When? - - - Okay I'll be down right away - - - they've been in there an hour? - - - Yeah it doesn't sound good - - I'll see you" he snapped his phone shut. "That was Mr Rosen the Spanish Teacher…Principal Randall got called into the school board's emergency meeting in the bad kind of way. I'm going down to help at the school, see if she's okay" he didn't see EVERYONE in the room roll their eyes.
"Watch out for Paris" Calypso said. "He'll be recharging but that doesn't mean he won't hunt you down outside of Ranger Form." Tommy nodded and left the lair. Calypso looked around. "No offence but you definitely need an upgrade around here."
- - - - TBC- - - -
In the next chapter: Elsa's big mission, a new mutate, more fighting, Tommy takes the plunge and asks Principal Randall Out (yes you read that right at the start AND the end) and the plan goes into phase 1