Welcome to the Neighborhood
Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers.
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"Shh," whispered Z, holding a finger to her lips. "Don't tell mum or dad I'm going out." She opened the cupboard and got out her favourite black jacket, and pulled it over her yellow shirt. She smoothed out the creases in her long pants, as Sam nodded.
"I'll beep you if I hear them coming," said Sam, tapping the phone they had in the room (well actually it was Z's room, but Sam wanted to sleep with her that night, because of the missing Bridge). "Then tell me where you are and I'll port you back."
Z nodded. As she opened the bedroom window, her eyes flashed yellow, creating a duplicate at the bottom of the house. She made the 'real' her disappear, now becoming the 'duplicate'. Sam waved to her, smiling. Z gave him a thumbs up and walked off.
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Syd sat down on her bed, drying her long, blonde hair. She closed her eyes, feeling extremely tired. Yet, she didn't want to sleep. She was troubled from the events that happened just now in the afternoon.
There were other people in the world who had genetic powers. They were captured by some weird alien girl. Bridge agreed to stay in the place so they could be sent back to Earth. Somehow these events, Syd figured, didn't happen just accidentally. She was sure
that this was 'fated' that someone up there planned these events so that they would meet.
Her mother and her father were quarrelling again. Syd was sure that they were arguing about her father's blunder resulting in the family's bankruptcy. Listening carefully, she made sure that her parents were quarrelling in their room.
She opened the door. Her parents were indeed in their room. Fishing the house keys out of her bag left in the living room, she went out of the house. After locking the door behind her, she stuffed the keys in her pocket and ran away quickly in case anyone saw her out of the house.
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Syd shivered. It was a cold night. She cursed herself for not bringing a jacket. Syd was in a sleeveless pink top and black short pant. What an idiot she was, it was no wonder she was so cold.
"Boo!" said Z, creeping up behind Syd, scaring the day lights out of her. Syd screamed, before Z clamped her hand down on Syd's mouth. "Shhhh…. You'd wake the whole neighborhood up!"
"Well sorry, I'm not used to having people sneak up on me in the middle of the night," replied Syd. "Which brings me to my next question: What are you doing up so late anyway?"
"Couldn't sleep," answered Z simply. "Sam couldn't too, but he's doing the night watch." She regarded Syd. "And you?"
Syd sighed. "I don't even know how my aunt sleeps through the thing. My mum and dad are kinda quarrelling. They seem to do that pretty often. In fact, even before coming here, they already started quarrelling. So I don't get why Dad married her in the first place," she said.
"Marry her?" asked Z, quizzically.
"Yeah… My mum, my real mum, she died when I was 5. From heart problems. I can't really remember her clearly though. But everything was fine then. I remember everything was happy and she and Dad were really in love. Then my other mum came along and Dad married her. I was 7. She used to be real nice, but recently she and Dad always quarrel."
FLASHBACK
"Pa pa, where's Ma ma?" asked five year old Syd, in one of her hands was her newly bought stuff toy, Peanuts, she was sitting down on one of those plastic grey chairs outside an operation theatre. "Where's Ma ma?" she asked again, pestering her already stressed father. "I don't like this place… It's cold," she added, whining.
Resisting the urge to scream at his naive daughter, the father continued pacing around. His footsteps seemed to echo off the corridor. Was she alright? "I don't like this place!" said Sydney again, shrieking loudly.
"Ma ma is just having a little nap. We're waiting for her," he said, not sure how to properly explain the situation to his daughter. "The doctors are looking after her."
"Why must it be here? It's cold. There's something bad here. Something very bad," replied Syd, shivering. "Everything is so straight and not messy. I don't like here. I want to go home!"
The door to the operation theater opened silently. The doctor came out. He looked… Sad. "I'm sorry," he started. This was hardest part, breaking the news that they failed. "We tried our best. I'm sorry," he repeated. He scurried off, before he had to face the husband's anger, grief, despair.
Syd ran to the door, trying to open it. "Doctor went out. Where's Ma ma? I want to show her Peanuts," she babbled, oblivious to her mother's death. "Open! Open! Open!" she shouted at the door, following a show she had watched another day. "Open Sesa- Seaaane…" She paused. "Oh yeah! Open Sesame!" To her disappointment the door remained firmly closed, with her mother on the other side. "Pa pa, get the door open!"
She was Gone. Gone. A tear slid slowly down his cheek, followed by another and another. A whirlwind of emotions raged through him. Sadness, grief at his wife's death. Anger, rage at the doctor's incompetence, at his wife for even getting injured so that she had to be brought to the hospital. She was Gone. And money couldn't bring her back. No matter how much he had, he would never be able to bring her back. He had never felt so helpless. Syd tugged on his sleeve, snapping him out of his self pity.
"Pa pa, open the door. I want to see Ma ma. She will like Peanuts, cause Peanuts is an elephant and Ma ma likes elephants," she said, tugging harder when she noticed her father wasn't doing what she asked. "Pa pa. Why are you crying?" She asked, noticing the tears halfway down his face. "Don't cry. I'll let you play with Peanuts too!" She waved her elephant in front of him. She frowned, why was Pa pa not talking to her? "Let's go see Ma ma now!" she said again, pulling his arm now.
"Sydney…" he began. "Ma ma isn't coming back," he said softly. "She's gone to heaven."
Syd paused. Heaven? "Where's heaven? I want to go there too! Let's go there! I want to show Ma ma Peanuts!"
"Ma ma is dead. She died," said her father, bluntly. "She is going to sleep forever."
"Dead?" The word seemed foreign to her. She heard it before when she was watching television. "Died?" They meant the same thing right? Ma ma was dead? But Ma ma is invincible. She can't die. Dead and die are for people not like Ma ma, for the people in the television and the bad guys. Ma ma isn't a person in the television or a bad guy. She's a teacher. "But Ma ma can't die. Ma ma is not bad or a television person," said Syd, confused.
"Syd, Ma ma's gone. She's dead," repeated her father.
"MA MA CAN'T DIE!" she shouted at her father. "MA MA CAN'T DIE! SHE'S NOT DEAD!" She tried to open the door. "They just closed the door cause Ma ma isn't ready to come out!" Pulling hard on the door handle she shouted, "Ma ma! Open! I'm here with Peanuts! And Pa pa! Open the door!" The door didn't open. She started to cry.
xxx
"Pa pa who's that?" asked Sydney. She was now 7. She pointed to the woman who was walking towards them. "Is she your secret friend?" Her Pa pa told her that he had a secret friend. Was this the person? She fit the bill. She was as tall, or maybe slightly shorter, as Pa pa. She had red hair which was up to her shoulder. She had green eyes. She looked like how Pa pa told her his secret friend looked like.
He nodded smiling. "She's going to be your Ma ma," he said. It was their wedding day. His and Carol's. He was dressed in a suit, dressed to the nines. Sydney too was all dressed up. A pink hair band placed on top of her head, her hair flowing down. Matching the hair band was a light pink dress with floral designs which she was wearing.
"My Ma ma?" she asked questioningly. "I thought you said that Ma ma is gone to heaven? How can she be my Ma ma? She doesn't even look like Ma ma."
"I know this is late. I know I should have told you earlier. This is Carol, my secret friend. We're very in love. Like last time Ma ma and me. Because we're in love, I want to marry her. And then you'll have a Ma ma again. And we can be a happy family cause then I would have a wife and you would have a Ma ma and Carol will have a husband and a daughter. Wouldn't that be fun?" he explained. Syd shook her head.
"Why?" she asked.
"You'll like her. She's really nice," he answered. Syd didn't reply, staring at the woman who would replace her darling Ma ma.
xxx
A 12 year old Sydney cowered in her room as she heard her parents quarrel. Again. "WHY ARE YOU BACK SO LATE?" screamed her mother.
"YOU'RE NOT IN CHARGE OF ME!" replied her Pa pa. They were having these fights so often now. And it was always so loud. Too loud that Syd couldn't sleep. She was afraid that her parents would decide to divorce.
The quarrels usually lasted for slightly over an hour. Then everything would fall into perfect order. They would kiss and make up. Syd always wondered if they were just having these fights for fun, just for an excuse to make out after the whole thing.
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"That must suck," stated Z. "You know you seem, nicer… I mean I thought you were a stuck up prat. But you're different… Cause the way you act, you pretend everything is alright. That you life is like so perfect and glam and awesome. But it's not. Right?"
Syd nodded. "Thanks. I think…" She found it hard to believe that she was actually bonding with the person who she had hated extremely a few days before. "And I'm sorry about what I said about your friend, Bridge. The parents thing…"
"Don't worry. Bridge isn't someone to actually hold a grudge. He's that kinda guy. And cause he can't afford to have to hate someone, with the whole sensing other's emotions thing," said Z.
"Excuse this question, but what happened?" asked Syd.
"A fire," answered Z. "Their house caught fire. Somehow. Bridge managed to escape in time. His mother pushed him out. Then when his parents was about to escape. The house collapsed on them."
"How do you know? I mean about what really happened," asked Syd. "I don't think that Bridge would just tell you all these stuff. If I were him, I'd rather just keep mum."
"Cause I was there…"
FLASHBACK
"Tag! YOU'RE IT!" shouted Z at the top of her voice as she tagged Bridge. Giggling she ran off, before Bridge could catch her again.
That's when she noticed the smoke. She stopped suddenly, causing Bridge to slam headfirst into her. The two picked themselves up. "Now you're it!" said Bridge, grinning. His messy brown hair was now even more messy.
"Bridge look. There's smoke," whispered Z, as if if she talked too loudly the smoke would encase them, pointing at the smoke which was drifting out of the kitchen.
"Why would there be smoke? Unless there's a…" He trailed off.
"FIRE!" shouted the two friends suddenly alarmed. "MUM! There's a fire!" The two of them sprinted to the basement to tell the two adults, Bridge's parents, about their discovery. "Mummy, Daddy, there's a fire!" said Bridge, tugging his parents. They were working on their automobile, trying to upgrade it. "Hurry. See the smoke!" He pointed at the grey air already floating into the room, as if trying to gobble them up in the haze.
"Mrs and Mr Bridge's parents, hurry," cried Z, watching the smoke come nearer and nearer. "Hurry!" She was close to tears.
"Don't be scared Z," said Bridge. He held her hand in his gloved one. Then his mum lifted him up, carrying him. He looked over his shoulder. His dad was also carrying Z. "Don't be scared Z. My Mummy and Daddy will save us." He gave her his mega watt smile, Z smiled back.
The living room was already smoky. The ceiling looked as if it would collapse at any given time. The room was too smoky. "Crawl," said Mr. Carson, putting Z on the floor as his wife put his son on the floor too. They dropped on all fours. The adults making sure that the children were always ahead.
The door seemed ages to reach. A plank fell from the ceiling, nearly hitting Z. She shrieked and stopped. "Don't worry Z," said Bridge, crawling beside her. "I'll crawl with you."
"Hurry out!" said Mr. Carson as he saw the children reach the door. They scrambled outside. Bridge stood a few metres away from the door waiting for his parents to emerge safe.
It never happened. As soon as the two kids were out of the house, the inevitable came. The ceiling caved in. Planks, bricks, building materials all encased in fire fell on the two Carson adults, trapping them in a fiery hell.
"MUMMY! DADDY!" shouted Bridge. He tried to run back in to somehow safe his parents but Z held him back. "Let me go Z! Let me go!"
The firemen came, along with their bright red fire engine. Several moments later, the fire was put out. But no Mummy or Daddy. They were gone.
"Bridgey don't cry," said Z, wrapping her arms around him.
xxx
"Oh…" said Syd. "I'm sorry for teasing him. I… Didn't know," she said.
"It's ok," replied Z. She checked the time on her wrist watch. "It's getting late, we better go. See you tomorrow." Before Syd could reply, Z already ran off.
"See you tomorrow too," said Syd, to no one.
xxx
"Bring them back here. Alive. But hurt them. The less resistance they put up the better. We need them unconscious for the extracting of their genetic powers. They'd be dead after that anyway. Or we could simply mind wipe them. But why am I telling you this? You don't even know what I'm talking about," said Mora. He nodded vacantly. She sneered. "Wait till they realize that you are under my control. Ooh! How fun that would be!" He nodded again. "You're boring," she said. "Oh well. At least when we rule the world, I can find someone else to play with."
She watched the monitors. The two girls were meeting up. "Nah… We'll wait for tomorrow morning. They're all there anyway. And they can't fight back cause if they do. They'll hurt you," she said to herself, smirking at the blank nodding Bridge.
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Did anyone read 1800-WHERE-R-U? Or When Lightning Strikes by Meg Cabot or Jenny Carrol or something. The boy Sean in that book reminds me of Sam! Hehe… Sorry, rambling off right now.
Hope you like this chapter!
Blackie Frogz
