A/N: See? I told you this episode would be out sooner! I already had it all planned out, so it didn't take nearly as long to write. Anyways, this is Beth's episode.
Without further ado, I give you, Power Rangers Element Storm Episode 6. Enjoy!
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Episode 6: Forgotten Earth
"Rebecca James awoke to the sound of her alarm blaring next to her. The noise pierced her ears like needles. On the clock there was a switch to turn the alarm off an on. Becca moved her hand slightly, looking at the button, and the switched turned off, shutting up the annoying beeping sound.
She looked at the clock groggily. It read 6:20am. Ugh. She hated this hour. It was way too early to be awake, but she needed plenty of time to get ready for school in the morning. Standing up, she grabbed her glasses from the nightstand and put them on. To her surprise, everything looked smudged and blurry when she put her glasses on. She quickly took then off again and examined them closely. Of course, the problem was that they were dirty. Sighing, Becca wiped them off on her shirt and put them on again.
Much better, she thought, smiling a little as she made her way to the bathroom. She undressed quickly and stepped into the shower, turning on the water. At first, it was frigid cold, but soon the hot water kicked in, and the temperature rose to a comfortable level. Becca stood there for a while, letting the warmth of the water help wake her up fully.
After she was done with her shower, she got out and dried off quickly. After blow drying her long, blonde hair, she brushed it out and put on her hat. It was white with two stripes going around it, and it had a button in the middle of it. She made sure to have the button positioned off to one side, as she always did.
Becca made her way into the kitchen and sat at the table. Turning towards the cupboard, she made a motion with her hand and a bowl came floating out, sitting at last in front of her. Next, she looked at the pantry and caused a box of Life cereal to come to her. It landed right in her hand, and she opened it and poured it into her bowl. Closing the box, she sent it back to the pantry and closed the door.
She ate her cereal silently, staring at the table, lost in thought. She was day dreaming, thinking out the fan fiction she was working on in her mind. It was something she liked to do when she had nothing else to do. After finishing her cereal, she sent the bowl to the dishwasher and stood up, walking towards the door. Her backpack was there, and she used her telekinesis to draw it up on her shoulders. She glanced back once more at her empty house as she left, locking the door behind her with her mind.
Becca looked around her cautiously. There was no one around, luckily. She was glad that there were few teenagers in her neighborhood. That meant that there weren't many people awake at this hour in the morning. Checking her watch, she saw that it was now 7:20. Smiling, she lifted herself gently into the air, floating down the street to school. She couldn't lift herself very high off the ground, but flying was flying, she thought.
She continued to fly as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast, until she was a few blocks from the school. Now, there were more people around, and she didn't want them to see what she was doing. Dropping to the ground, she walked the rest of the way in silence until she got to the school. The halls were already crowded with students, talking, laughing, hanging out with their friends before class. Becca smiled. She was glad that some people around here could have friends.
Soon, she arrived at her first class. Sitting at her desk, which was right in the middle of the front row, she got out her notebook, her textbook, and her pencils. She smiled at Ms. Fleet as their eyes met, but her teacher only looked away and back at what she was doing. Becca sighed. Oh, well, she thought. I tried to be civil. Looking around the classroom, she saw that there weren't many students here yet. Sighing, she couldn't help wishing that today was Friday. That way, she'd be that much closer to the weekend."
Bethany Blackmon finished typing her post for the role play and pressed the Submit Reply button. This was her first post in this particular RP, and she was rather proud of it. This role play had the potential to be really great, and she hoped it would end up that way.
Glancing at the clock in the lower right-hand corner of her screen, Beth noticed that it was 11:12pm. Sighing, she knew that she would have to get to bed soon. After all, it was Sunday night, and school started again tomorrow. Spring Break was over already, and, as always, it had gone by extremely fast. Of course, this break had been very eventful, and she felt so different than she had before break started. She was a Power Ranger now; a hero. She had been a hero in many role plays before, but this was obviously different. Now, instead of just writing about it, she was living it.
She looked at the clock again and saw that five minutes had gone by. Deciding that she'd better get to sleep now, she shut down her computer and climbed into bed, dreading the fact that she had to go to school tomorrow.
Rufus sat in Erica's room on the foot of her bed, still keeping vigil over his unconscious companion. Why hadn't she woken up yet? What if somehow she never woke up? Rufus knew that he wouldn't be able to handle it if that happened. She had to wake up sometime, right? Of course, he thought. She will wake up. And he was determined to be there when she did.
He stared into her face sadly. She was so beautiful in his eyes, even when she was sleeping. Her chest rose and fell methodically as she breathed in and out softly. He laid a hand on hers gently, not looking away from her. He sighed.
"Please wake up, Erica," he whispered. Then, almost as if she heard him and was complying with his wish, she began to move slightly, and Rufus could feel the motion of her hand under his. At last, her eyelids began to slowly open, revealing her light blue eyes. She looked immediately at Rufus, who was now kneeling next to her bed, trying to fight back tears of joy.
"Erica," he said gently, hardly knowing what else to say. A confused look came over his friend as she watched him.
"Rufus," she said in a quiet, sleepy voice, sounding almost like a child that had just awoken from her nap. "What happened to me?" Before he could respond, a look of remembrance flashed over her face, soon replaced by one of anger. "The Blue Ranger," she said simply, her voice thick with annoyance. Rufus looked away sadly, feeling guilty that, unknown to Erica, he had failed to get revenge for her. Although she didn't know what, Erica knew that something was wrong, and her face and voice softened. "How long was I asleep?" she asked.
Rufus looked at her again and smiled. "A few days," he told her. "We were so worried about you." He paused, thinking for a moment. "Well, at least I was. Stephen didn't really care. He never does." With that, he chuckled and Erica laughed with him before giving him a serious look again.
"You were really worried about me?" she asked, sounding confused and surprised at this knowledge. Rufus blushed, and opened his mouth to respond. But, before he had a chance to say anything, Stephen walked in, his arms folded across his chest.
"Good, you're awake," he said, looking at Erica, his voice sounding hard as usual. "Come with me." He motioned for both of them to follow him. After glancing at each other one last time, almost shyly for some reason, the two younger members of the Chaos Three got up and left the room.
Beth sighed with relief as the bell rang, signifying that it was lunch time. Fourth period was now over, and she would finally get to spend some time with her friends again. Putting her binder away in her backpack, she put it on her shoulders and walked out of the classroom to the quad area. Most students ate lunch in the cafeteria, but Beth and her friends preferred to eat outside, where it was much quieter and less crowded. She went to the place they always met, and, as usual, she was the first one there. The others bought lunch from the school, but Beth always brought hers from home. It was cheaper, easier, and often tastier, since the school sold some strange food at times.
She pulled a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a bottle of water out of her backpack and set it on the table in front of her. There were only a few tables outside in the quad, and Beth made sure to save one for her group every day. Normally, that wasn't a challenge, because most students who ate outside bought their lunch, leaving Beth plenty of time to claim a table.
So far, her classes had gone well that day. In English, they were reading "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, a book that they were half done with. Beth had finished it long ago, so she didn't need to pay much attention while the teacher had the students take turns reading aloud. It was an easy enough book, and she had no problems understanding it when she read it by herself, as usually seemed to happen with her.
Math had been boring, as always. They were working on matrices, and Beth had no problems with those. Adding, subtracting, and multiplying them posed little challenge to her. Not that math was always easy, but this section was.
Then, she had gone to chemistry, the worst class of the day, in her opinion. It was harder than any other science class she had ever taken, and it was the class she had the most problems in. Still, she had managed to squeak by with a C so far, and hopefully she could keep it that way.
She had just now gotten out of anatomy. While she enjoyed learning about bones, muscles, organs, and bodily functions, it wasn't exactly the class you wanted right before lunch, especially since they had been dissecting a sheep heart today. It was a rather interesting project in Beth's opinion, but it had the potential to ruin one's appetite if one isn't careful.
Finally, Beth heard the familiar voices of Dan, Sean, Tiz, and Peg walking up to the table. Turning to them, she gave a look of mock annoyance.
"Took you guys long enough," she said, laughing.
"Sorry," Dan said with a chuckle as he sat across from her. "The lines were especially long today." Peg nodded as she sat next to him. Tiz sat on the other side of him, and Sean sat next to Beth, which made her blush slightly for some reason.
"Hey, Sean," she said, smiling at him.
"Hey, Bethy," he replied, grinning.
Tiz looked happy. "Even though the lines were long, it was worth it," he said, holding his lunch up almost triumphantly. "Bread pizza is always worth the wait." With that, he took a bite from the end of his pizza and smiling with satisfaction. The others laughed at him.
"So, how's everyone's day going so far?" Peg asked. "Mine is okay for the first day after break, I guess." The others simply murmured in agreement. Peg looked at them and sighed. "Well, don't go into too much detail, guys," she said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Can't talk," Dan said, taking a bite of his pizza. "Must eat." Peg grinned at him, a mischievous look on her face. Pointing her index finger at him, she shot a small stream of water in his face.
"Hey!" he cried, spluttering a little and wiping his face with a napkin. He held his hand out palm upwards next to her and made a small fireball in it. "You don't want to mess with me, Peggy." He laughed as she backed away from the flame.
"Oh, yeah?" Tiz asked. "Watch this!" He shot a small electric bolt at Sean, not hurting him but causing his hair to stand up on end from the static electricity.
"Hey, what did I do?" Sean asked, trying to smooth his hair back to normal. The Yellow Ranger shrugged.
"Nothing," he said. "You were just there."
The White Ranger glared at him. "Two can play at the 'messing hair up' game." Putting his hand out towards Tiz, he caused a rather swift gust of wind to fly at him, throwing his hair out of place. When the wind stopped, Tiz's hair didn't look much different from Sean's. The others at the table laughed at him, and after a moment, he laughed too. They were glad that no one was around to see their previous antics, or their secret would have been blown. Even though there had been no chance of anyone seeing them, they knew that Will would have been mad at them for using their powers so lightly.
Beth sighed and looked kind of disappointed, knowing that she couldn't do anything like what they had just done. She couldn't use her powers in small quantities like that. All it would do was cause an earthquake, which would cause panic all over the school. Although Beth had never tried to use her power outside of a battle, she figured that she probably couldn't without doing a major attack. Oh, well, she thought, a bit sadly.
Lunchtime was over way too soon, in the student's opinion. Half an hour never seemed like quite enough time to eat and hang out before fifth period. But, it was all they had, and they had to do what they could with the time that was given to them. After the bell rang, the five Rangers stood up and threw their trash away and went their separate ways, agreeing to meet at the Overclocked Café after school.
Beth sighed as she made her way to her Spanish classroom. Only two more periods until school would be over, and they would be free. Even though she liked Spanish, she always felt tired and unwilling to work after lunch. Still, she had no choice but to work, and work she did for the entire hour that the class lasted. Beth liked her teacher, but she gave them too much to do each period, she thought. She wasn't the only one who thought that way, and the other students were much more vocal about it, complaining constantly about the amount of work they were assigned. Not that it did any good. All it accomplished was making the teacher angry and, at times, vengeful. Mrs. Gonzales was always able to come up with more work for them if they complained about what they already had.
Finally, it was sixth period; the last class of the day. Beth greeted her economics teacher, Mr. Thompson, as she entered. Although econ was normally a boring class, Mr. Thompson found ways to make it interesting, and his class loved him for it. He was a well known and well liked teacher at the school amongst both students and his co-workers. Even though Beth was shy, especially around teachers, she had no problems talking to him, and they had had some interesting conversations in the past. When Beth got to class, she could only wonder what he had in store for them that day.
Stephen looked at his two companions, a firm, serious expression on his face. He had just finished telling Erica everything that had happened while she had been unconscious. While he told her about what Rufus had done to try and get revenge on Peg, she looked at the younger boy with surprise, wondering why he had gone to such lengths to do that for her. Maybe…
But, her thoughts were interrupted by Stephen's gruff voice, telling them what they were going to do next. He said that they were going to make a monster to send down, but it had to be especially powerful. He wanted to force the Rangers to use their Elements rather than morphing. If they could do that, they could cause the Rangers to tire more easily after using large attacks, and, if the monster wasn't defeated after that, it would be a breeze to destroy them from there. It wasn't a particularly great, amazing plan, but it was better than nothing, and Stephen assured them that he had bigger plans later on.
"Erica," he said, looking at her seriously. "Go in your room and try to come up with the most powerful monster you can muster. Don't come out until you've got something really good, no matter how long it takes."
Erica groaned slightly at that. She was still exhausted from being unconscious for so long, and she really didn't feel like thinking right now. But, Stephen was the boss, and she knew she had to do what he said. Sighing, she went into her room and lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling, hoping she could come up with something good enough.
After school that day, Beth went to the parking lot to meet her friends. They agreed to meet there and then head out to the Overclocked Café. When she got to the place they always met, everyone was there except for Sean. Beth sighed in mock annoyance as she walked up.
"Sean's late again?" she asked with a grin.
"No," Dan said. "He said that he had to go home and do something and that he would meet us there. He didn't say what he was doing, though."
Beth laughed. "Oooh, how mysterious." The others laughed as well, then they piled into their cars and headed for the café. When they got there, they didn't have to wait long for Sean. He was there within ten minutes of their arrival. As soon as they had all sat at their usual table, Del came over to take their orders.
"Hey, Del," Beth said, smiling at him. He waved and smiled back.
"How was everyone's first day back at school?" he asked after writing down their orders, looking around the table.
"Boring," Dan answered. The others muttered in agreement.
Del lowered his voice and made sure that no one was listening in on them. "Any Ranger activity today?" he asked.
"Nope," Tiz said, smiling grimly. "But, the day is young. They still have plenty of time to attack." He didn't have to explain who "they" were. It was obvious to everyone there who he was talking about.
"Yeah," Del said. "Hopefully they'll leave you alone for today, though, so you can have a break after break." He chuckled as he went over to the counter to give their orders to Will.
Tiz smiled slyly at Sean, remembering what had happened at lunch that day. Pointing his finger at him, he shot a bit of static electricity at him, making his hair stand up on end again.
"Hey!" the White Ranger cried. But before he had a chance to retaliate, a stream of water hit Tiz smack in the face. He turned to Peg to see her laughing at him, her finger still pointing towards him.
"Hey, that's not cool!" Tiz said, glaring at her, a smile still on his face. "I didn't do anything to you!"
"I know," Peg said simply, grinning at him. "But I did something to you. What are you going to do about it?"
"Absolutely nothing," Dan said, making a fireball in his hand and stretching it out between his two friends. "Or you'll have me to deal with," he added with a laugh.
Beth sighed audibly. "It's not fair that you guys can use your powers whenever you want like that," she said, a bit surprised at the anger in her own voice. "You guys got cool powers. I got the stupid Element of Earth. It's the weakest of all of them. I can't even use my powers unless it's a big attack." She stood up from the table and glared down at them, but not because she was angry at them, because she was angry at her Element. "Why did I get this stupid Element?" she asked, trying to keep her voice down. "It's not fair that my Element sucks. I hate it. I think it chose the wrong person." With that, she turned and ran out of the café, tears of frustration stinging her eyes.
The others looked at each other, shocked at what they had just heard. Beth was never one to get so upset like that. Sean stood up as well and ran after her, hoping to catch up before she got too far away.
Erica came out of her room, a confident smile on her face. She had come up with what she thought would be the perfect monster. It would definitely force the Rangers to use their Elements, just like Stephen wanted them to do. She walked up to the two boys and grinned at them.
"I got a good one," she said simply.
"It had better be good," Stephen said, his face not changing from the normal scowl he usually had. The three of them formed the circle and created the monster in the same way they usually did. Stephen raised his eyebrows at it and smiled a little. "It looks tough," he said, looking it up and down. "Hopefully, it's as strong as it looks." He turned to the youngest member of the Chaos Three. "Rufus." The boy nodded, knowing what he meant.
"Alright," he said. "Your name shall be…Sygyrx." As soon as he named the monster, it teleported away, reappearing right in front of the café.
Sean ran up to Beth, who wasn't far from the entrance to the café. She had stopped running and was walking slowly now, hanging her head sadly. Sean put his hand on her shoulder gently and stopped her, but before he had a chance to say anything, Sygyrx appeared right before them. Beth let out a startled scream and stood back, getting into a fighting pose. Sean did the same, and they started to fight with the monster.
Dan, Tiz, and Peg heard the scream coming from outside and knew that something was wrong. They ran out of the café along with Will and everyone else who had been inside. There weren't many people that day for whatever reason, and the few people who had been there were now fleeing as fast as they could. It didn't take long for the Rangers to spot Beth and Sean fighting Sygyrx off to the right. They ran over to help.
Dan flew in, kicking the monster in the chest and sending him flying on his back. He stood up almost immediately, though, and it slapped Dan across the chest, causing him to fall over backwards. Tiz came up from behind and kicked Sygyrx in the back, making him stumble forward. While he was caught off guard, Beth and Peg each grabbed one of his arms, holding him still, and Dan and Sean ran forward and gave him roundhouse kicks to the abdomen. The monster keeled over in pain, but it soon recovered and pulled out a sword that they hadn't seen before. He slashed it at each of the rangers, sending them flying across the pavement. Now, they were about 30 or so feet away from him, struggling to stand up.
Tiz looked at Dan. "What should we do?" he asked. "Should we morph?" The Red Ranger shook his head.
"Guys, let's use our Elements on this one," he said with a grin. The others smiled as well and nodded at him, all except for Beth, who looked a bit dejected. Dan was the first to move. He made a huge fireball with both of his hands and sent it flying at Sygyrx. The monster dodged it, though, doing a sideways somersault out of the way. Dan cursed and prepared to try again, but Tiz put his hand on his chest, stopping him.
"Let me try," he said. He thrust his hands forward and sent a powerful electric beam at the monster. It hit him head on and caused him to start convulsing as the electricity surged through his body. "Now, Peg!" Tiz cried, turning to the Blue Ranger, who nodded at him. She shot a large stream of water at Sygyrx, soaking him through and causing the electricity to intensify, being conducted more by the water.
Sean stepped forward. "It's my turn, now!" he said, grinning. He put his hands forward and caused a huge amount of wind, making it swirl together in a mini tornado. It lifted Sygyrx high off the ground and dropped him again, causing him to crash to the earth with a loud bang.
Beth took a deep breath and went forward as well. "Here goes nothing," she whispered. She concentrated hard and caused the ground to start shaking, first just a little, then more and more strongly. A crack opened up in the ground below where the monster was lying. He fell into the crack and Beth concentrated more and closed it again. But, the earth was still shaking.
"Beth!" Dan yelled over the noise caused by the shaking. "That's enough. You can stop now."
The Green Ranger closed her eyes and shook her head. "I can't stop it!" she cried. "It won't stop! I…I can't…stop it…" She stood a bit apart from them, and the quaking of the earth still resonated from where she was standing.
"She can't control it," Will said softly. He had been wondering when this would happen to someone. But, he hadn't expected it to be Beth.
The Green ranger opened her eyes again and looked pleadingly at her friends as the shaking continued, still just as intense as it had been before. "Help me…" she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.
At last, Sean moved forward and stood right in front of Beth. He put his arms around her waist gently and looked into her eyes.
"It's okay, Beth," he said, his voice nearly drowned out by the loudness of the earthquake. "You can stop this. I know you can." She shook her head sadly and closed her eyes, turning away from him. He brought a hand up to her cheek and turned her face to his. "Look at me, Beth," he demanded in a gentle tone. She obeyed and gazed at him through her tears. "You can do it. I believe in you, because, Bethy, I…" his voice faltered a bit and he paused. "I love you."
Beth gasped slightly and stared at him in awe. Had he really just said that he loved her? She smiled at him, struggling to do so. "I love you too, Sean," she said. Smiling, he leaned down and kissed her tenderly on the lips. She kissed him back happily. As they kissed, the shaking started to subside, growing less and less as time went by, until, at last, it stopped altogether. Sean pulled away from her gently and smiled. She smiled back at him for a moment, looking perfectly peaceful and content. But, then, her eyes closed softly and she started to fall backwards, unconscious. Sean let out a cry and caught her in his strong arms, laying her carefully on the pavement.
Stephen looked through the telescope and sighed. The plan had failed. Although, as he thought, in a way, it had worked. After all, what they had wanted to happen was for the Rangers to use their powers, and they had, right? Sure, Sygyrx hadn't destroyed them, but at least they had used their Elements as he had hoped. Another plus was that the Green Ranger was now unconscious, fully drained from her intense attack. Stephen was a bit shocked still from that. He had never seen such an attack. Of course, it was because she had lost control, but it still showed that she had incredible power once she tapped into it.
He glanced over at his two companions, who looked worried. He smiled, realizing that they expected him to get angry at them for not making the monster strong enough. He took grim pleasure in the thought that he could instill fear into the hearts of Erica and Rufus. Taking on a serious expression again, he motioned for Rufus to take over at the telescope and left the room, going to his own and closing the door.
Erica and Rufus glanced at each other as he left, sighing with relief that he hadn't exploded at them. They couldn't imagine why; it was so uncharacteristic of Stephen. But, they decided not to question it and just to be happy that they hadn't gotten yelled at that day.
Will came out of the back room of the café, looking at the floor and frowning. The four Rangers sat at their table, each with worried looks on their faces. It was after closing time for the Overclocked Café, but they were still there anyways.
Will went over to the table and sighed. They looked at him expectantly, but he said nothing at first.
"Well?" Sean asked finally. "How is she?"
Will didn't lift his eyes from the floor. "Physically, she's fine," he said slowly. "But…she doesn't remember anything that happened yesterday. All she remembers is the sensation of shaking and that she caused it. She doesn't know why or how she stopped, or anything else that happened."
Sean stared at him in disbelief, almost unable to speak. At last, he found his voice. "N…nothing?" he said. "She doesn't remember anything? Not even…when I…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Will just nodded solemnly. Silence filled the table as Sean fought back tears. There was a pause, and no one could think of what to say. At last, Dan spoke, breaking the dull silence in the room.
"Can we see her?" he asked, talking to Will.
"Yes, but you should probably only go in one at a time," he responded. "As you can imagine, she's pretty upset right now."
Sean stood up. "I'll go first," he said. Without waiting for an answer, he headed towards the back of the café. When he got to the back room behind the counter, he found Beth lying on a small cot, a white pillow under her head. She sat up as he entered, and he sat next to her.
"Hey, Bethy," he said softly and gently. "How are you feeling?" She shrugged.
"Okay, I guess. It's freaky, though, knowing that I don't remember anything that happened yesterday…" Her voice trailed off as Sean lay a hand on hers.
"You really don't remember anything?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. Except for intense shaking. But…" she paused for a moment. "Even that is starting to fade…It's so weird. It's like yesterday never happened…" She looked into the White Ranger's eyes. "Sean, what happened yesterday?"
He looked away painfully and shook his head. "You don't want to know, Beth. Believe me."
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A/N: I hope you liked it! Leave a review!
lil Cwick-I'm glad you like that! I wanted to show the difference between Dark Elementsand normal Elements.
juzblue-I'm glad you enjoyed it!
