Yay, this episode is my favorite. I like it cause we see Kimberly is more than the flexible gymnast and archer of the team, she can do sign language and is quite good at it. Though sadly this is the only time we see her use it and also, I noticed the the deaf girl, Melissa, is wearing hearing aids but can't talk while Eliza can. Yes, to anyone who doesn't know, deaf people can talk, just depends on the people and if they want to.
Thank you to all the favorites and followers, as for the reviews
MerlockVonBaron - I'm so happy that you relate to her. This story will be a bit on a higher scale that Eliza will struggle with the fact she can't hear and the typical teen stuff along being a Ranger.
And I hope you enjoy the story, brankel1.
Disclaimer is I own nothing of this. Power Rangers belongs to Hasbro and my only property in all of this is Eliza, all her powers and items as the Silver Ranger, and David
Chapter 5 - Different Drum
Walking into the Juice Bar, Eliza stretched and watched Kimberly teach a dancing work out class. David waved to her and she walked over to him, Jason, Trini, and Zach. She sat, watching Trini and Jason have a arm wrestling match while Ernie and Billy tried to dance along with Kimberly's teaching. Eliza laughed to see Jason trying not to lose to Trini. Billy, trying to follow what Kimberly was teaching, tripped and fell on a cart that Ernie was pushing, rolling over the place and crashing, landing where Kimberly was teaching. Eliza, though feeling bad for him, laughed at seeing him like that.
Kimberly knelt down to him and said, "Billy, let me let you in on a little secret. This is not the way to meet girls."
Billy just groaned in pain and crawled over to the others, Eliza knelt down to him and patted his head as Trini helped him up.
"Billy, what happened?" Trini asked. "Are you okay?"
Trini and Eliza helped him stand up and walked him over to the bar, helping him get into a chair and sitting him down carefully.
"Billy, are you alright?" David asked.
"My main brain, what's up?" Zach said, smiling.
Though still dazed, Billy explained, "Well, I'm intrigued by the rhythmic modulation yet daunted by the coordinating movements of the appendages."
"Uh, Trini, translation?" Eliza asked, looking at her.
"He can't dance." Trini explained, looking at her and the boys.
"Precisely." Billy said, looking exhausted.
Meanwhile, Kimberly went back to teaching her class and hoping no one else interrupted the class. While she was teaching, one of her students knocked into another and she ran, embarrassed and scared. Eliza looked at her and walked to her as did Kimberly after asking her class to take a break. The two female Rangers sat with the girl and when Kimberly asked her a question, she gasped to see what she did.
"What happened?" She asked, signing the question.
Then the girl began to sign and Kimberly began to translate, "'You didn't step sideways and backed right into you.'"
"I'm sorry." Kimberly signed. "I forgot to sign the moves. It was my fault."
"'You think it was your fault because you're different.'" The girl signed, Eliza looked down.
"You are a very good dancer." Kimberly signed to her. Then she touched Eliza's hand and the two looked at each other, before Kimberly looked around.
Then Kimberly signed, "And even hearing people make mistakes."
She pointed to Billy and the three of them laughed as they watched him trying to dance. Standing, Kimberly took Eliza aside before returning to her class. Removing Eliza's hearing aids, Kimberly smiled and gave them to her.
"You're deaf, aren't you?" Kimberly signed to her.
"'How long have you known?'" Eliza signed back to her.
"Since the day we met and I think the others might have realized it too." Kimberly signed.
"'Please don't think differently of me cause of this.'" Eliza signed. "'I feel like I have become something, being with you all and being a Ranger.'"
"I would never think any differently of you, Eliza." Kimberly signed, smiling. "You are brave, smart, beautiful, and above all, prove that despite you can't hear, you can still fight to protect the world.'"
Eliza smiled and hugged her, then put her hearing aids and waved at Kimberly as she went back to her class. This time, Kimberly signed as she spoke, saying that they will use one more song and then be done for the day. Eliza looked at Trini, Zach, Billy, and Jason, considering on when to tell them or asking if tuey did know that she couldn't hear naturally. While they were enjoying themselves, who else but trouble came in as Bulk and Skulk happened to see Kimberly teaching her class.
"Look at all the litte rapping ballerinas." He said, trying to sound tough.
"Not even ballerinas." Skulk told him. "The stuff they're doing is easy."
Eliza sighed, shaking her head. They looked at her and tried to make fun of her by doing a poor attempt at sign language. But Eliza looked at them with a deadpan look and signed something so quick and angrily that when the Rangers looked at David for what she signed, he sweatdropped and rubbed his hair.
"You don't want to know what she said." He said. Kimberly nodded in agreement, embarrassed.
"So, you think so, huh?" Zack said, changing the subject. The two looked at him, and he said, "I'd like to see you try it."
Crossing her arms, Eliza watched as Bulk just stepped to the sides and kicked the seat that Jason was sitting on. So Zach did his turn which proved to be a lot more professional and better, due to Zach being a natural dancer. When he finished, everyone clapped, so Bulk tried to step it up and do his own version of hip-hop. Eliza looked at David and the two shook their heads in disbelief. Skulk was the only one who clapped while everyone just laughed. So it was Zach's turn again and he did a impressive spin than split, when Bulk tried it, he just got dizzy and ripped his pants.
"Okay, that's not a sight I wanted to see." Eliza said, laughing with everyone.
So Skulk helped his large friends and Eliza smiled, thinking that Zach was getting serious as he took his hat off and jumped onto the bar with his hands then jumped down. So naturally, Bulk tried to upstage him but jumped over the bar and landed in some food that was on the other side, everyone laughed at him.
"You can have it." Zach said, laughing. "I wasn't hungry anymore."
"Okay, that was a great class." Kimberly said to her class, dismissing it.
Eliza waved at Zach, Jason, and Trini as they left to see a movie and Kimberly and Billy joined them while Eliza and David went in the other direction to talk about Kimberly acting as a interpreter for her in case he wasn't available. While he did agree, he wasn't sure and wanted to ask Kimberly herself as well as see how much sign language she knew so she could act as translator, just in case. Eliza nodded and breathed, seeing as Jason returned then began to lift weights.
The girl from earlier appeared and tried to sign to Jason and Ernie, but they didn't understand her. So Eliza stepped and signed with her, Jason and Ernie looked confused as they watched two girls use a unknown language to them. Eliza looked at him with a worried look.
"Jason, her friends are in trouble." She said. "She needs help."
"Oh, right." Jason said. "Let's go! We'll help you!"
David watched Eliza and Jason leave with the girl, putting a hand to his chin in thought about some recent things he had noticed about her. One was that was something happened in the city, she and her five new friends suddenly left, she had the same unique watch as them, she always covered it when he heard a strange beeping, also there was the thing that the Power Rangers appeared when she and they disappeared. He pondered if she could be one but doubted it for some reason.
Eliza and Jason found the other Rangers and explained the situation to them so the girl led them to the cave where the other girls were being held hostages. Kimberly asked the girl to hide while they went ahead to save her friends. As they walked to the cave, Eliza removed her hearing aids and suddenly stopped, everyone looked at her and Kimberly stepped up.
"What's wrong?" She asked, signing. Eliza looked at her and Kimberly nodded.
"Everyone, before we go in there, there's something you should know." Eliza signed with Kimberly translating her sign language. "I am deaf. I wasn't sure how to tell you all and I was hoping that when I finally did tell you, you would still accept me as a friend and teammate."
"We have kinda always known." Jason said, rubbing his hair.
"Yes, but we wanted you to tell us when you were ready." Trini said, smiling at her.
Zach and Billy nodded in agreement, Zach said, "Sides, with this new monster, we could use someone to knock some sense into us if that monster hypothesizes us."
"Thank you, everyone." Eliza said. "This means so much. Alright, lets morph and stop this new annoyance."
Everyone nodded and morphed into their Ranger forms and the monster appeared, everyone summoned their weapons to fight it. Eliza swung her hammer, hitting it as everyone joined in and attacked with their respective weapons. After knocking it down, all six Rangers created the crossbow finisher weapon, using it to destroy the monster. As usual, the monster was brought back as a giant, so they countered by making the Megazord.
They fought against the monster, but he used his instrument to confuse them. So the Megazord summoned the Power Sword, finally defeating the monster. So changing back, they saved the girls and Eliza saw David appeared, looking worried. She wondered if he knew but shook her head and walked to him, reassuring him that the girls were okay. So everyone headed back to the Juice Bar.
Everyone sat together and Ernie gave them all sodas to celebrate what happened. Once she had gotten her cup, Eliza smiled, lifting her glass in honor of Melissa, the girl who came and asked her to help save the other girls. Jason tried to sign to show his thanks but failed miserably.
"I'll teach you sign, J." Eliza said, smiling and laughing. He smiled, embarrassed and nodded.
While I do like this episode, for the context of the whole scene, I prefer the Zyuranger episode, but hey, nothing I can do about it, so I'll just take it as it is. I might include more sign conversations and maybe even do something really drastic when Tommy appears, not sure.
Next chapter, the Rangers help raise money with a food drive, a hungry pig monster appears and tries to eat everything on Earth, Bulk and Skull cause a food fight and make a mess of everyone. This has been WhiteRose-Aki, see you all in the next chapter. If you enjoyed this, please R&R