In the week or so since she'd first gotten off the plane at LAX and stepped into her new life, she'd gotten used to it. At least, for the most part. College student and novice filmmaker by day, and Power Ranger by night… and sometimes afternoon… okay, and by day, she'd admittedly regretted picking up that morpher.
First, she'd had to rush off early from a script breakdown meeting to head to the Aqua Base for a "quick" briefing. The "quick" briefing lasted an hour and a half.
Then, when she'd reconnected with her favorite second cousin who also studied at Mariner Bay U, their reunion over coffee lasted about six minutes before a flock of Battlings appeared unannounced in downtown.
These, and countless other instances that'd already piled up, tired Ally out.
Hence why she'd slept half an hour past an alarm, something she was honestly prone to do. What woke her up instead was a pillow to the face by her roommate, Kelsey.
Kelsey Winslow couldn't believe her luck when the sixth Lightspeed morpher had chosen her roommate to join the team. Now, she wouldn't have to hide a secret identity- although that'd arguably been blown during the very first fight they'd had with Diabolic's monster- and she was grateful for the opportunity to be honest. But whereas the Yellow Ranger had fully accepted her duties, aware of what lay at stake for her hometown, she couldn't say the same for Ally.
She understood why the gravity of all this hadn't yet sunk in to the Hawaii resident, even after Kelsey tried the "but-what-if-this-was-your-home" argument, but to no avail. After their long discussion after that Battling fight in downtown, she hadn't pressed the subject.
But she knew she eventually had to. It was true that Ally had dreams that had been built up ever since she was a kid, but what Kelsey simply didn't understand was why she couldn't just put those to the side, at least for now.
That was what she pondered when she hurled the pillow into her roommate's face. "Up and at 'em!" Ally let out a groan and rolled over to face the wall. "Come on. Captain Mitchell wants us at Aqua Base. Besides, it's literally ten AM, I think you ought to be up by-" Kelsey jumped as Ally jolted up, rushing to her small closet. "Was it something I said?"
"I have class in fifteen! I'm not gonna make it-"
Kelsey flinched. She figured this would come up soon, but not this soon. "Can't you skip? What class is this?"
"One of my core classes, it's my science lecture."
"The one where the professor posts the videos of the lecture on the class site?" Ally heaved a sigh. She hated when her roommate was right, which was most of the time.
"Yeah, that's the one." She pulled a lavender-and-white ruffle top along with matching jeans out of her closet, gestured to the door. "I'll get changed. I think there's some leftovers in the fridge if you haven't eaten yet."
Kelsey made a face. "I wasn't about to eat cold pizza, so I ran and got us some pastries from the bakery downstairs."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it, but you might wanna hurry up."
Over this past week, Ally had been careful not to get too close to her teammates. Thankfully, she didn't have to count on the amount of time they spent together allowing them to bond, since they really only saw each other at fights. But when she and Kelsey arrived at Aqua Base and met up with the others, she still noted one person missing.
Carter glanced up, nodded, and Ally did the same. Out of everyone there, the Red Ranger was arguably the most understanding of her reluctance. He hadn't even bothered to bombard her with questions about Hawaii, as Chad did, or about her upbringing, like Dana did. Instead, he listened quietly as she tried to formulate her answers as smoothly as possible without giving too much away.
After all, once they found out she came from one of the richest families on the island, what would they say about her then? About her accomplishments thus far?
Would they become as meaningless as they were to the many, many others who'd heard about them, only to find out whose they were?
She wiped her expression back to a neutral one as she glanced around. "Are we missing someone?"
"Yeah," Carter muttered, "Joel's late." Chad scoffed.
"Not a surprise." Dana straightened up from where she leaned against the wall, and Ally was surprised to see that the Pink Ranger had even bothered to relax.
"Joel!" Ally flinched at her tone, "You're late, again! You're supposed to be here with us for this meeting. Hurry up!" Miscellaneous beeping sounded from her morpher, and she frowned down at it.
"O-on my way. Green Ranger out."
Ally figured that Dana's warning had been a little too late, since her dad swept into the room, nodded to them, and immediately started walking away. She rushed to follow the Captain, careful to keep her hands folded in front of her. "We'll proceed without Joel," he explained as he led them to who-knew-where. "This is the weapons lab." An open fire blazed at the center of the room, and she scooted away from it, much to Chad's laughter.
Besides Kelsey, Chad Lee had been something like a friend to Ally, and she appreciated his biting humor, but also his love for the ocean and its inhabitants. He reminded her of her big brother, the one who'd encouraged her to apply to Mariner Bay U in the first place. And while she missed him terribly, it's like she'd found another sibling in Chad's presence.
Ally was never planning on telling either Kelsey nor Chad about her upbringing.
The scientist standing closest to the fire held some kind of red gun, and Ally leaned forward, eyes wide, ready to see what- A white, misty spray flew out from the gun's muzzle, and she let out a yelp, leaping backwards once more even as the fire was extinguished. The Captain didn't miss a beat, instead moving right along as if he hadn't allowed a fire to be openly started in his lab. "Everything you'll use to defeat the demons was designed, built, and tested right here." He stopped, and Ally watched as he greeted a scuba diver emerging from a watery tunnel, probably one that was built to allow easy access to the ocean outside.
Curiously, she peeked up at Chad's face, knowing that he'd probably- yep, she was right. Ally noted the glimmer in his eyes as he stared down into the ocean access tunnel, and she nudged him. "Gonna go for a swim?" He laughed, even as he continued to stare into the water.
"Maybe later." She'd been joking, but he sounded one-hundred-percent serious. Yet another… interesting thing about her teammate.
"Now, I want you to meet the genius behind everything, from your Rescue morphers, to our newest weapons. Rangers, this is Mrs. Fairweather." That was one thing Ally wasn't quite used to yet: being called a Ranger. She'd read up on the past Rangers, but to realize that she held the power of one of them now… that was something else entirely. And as such, she wasn't sure if she liked it.
"Thank you Captain. Welcome to Lightspeed." Mrs. Fairweather, who Ally assumed was a scientist, was gorgeous. A brunette like Kelsey, but with glasses and straight hair instead of her roommate's curly style. She looked like she belonged on the cover of a magazine she might find in the news stands in Waikiki instead of in a lab. "Diabolico will stop at nothing to destroy the city." When she stepped over to their single file line, Ally fixed up her posture, squared her shoulders. Fake it until you make it: a tip she lived by all throughout grade school, especially when classes started getting boring. "It's my job to make sure you stay one step ahead of him, and his monsters." Mrs. Fairweather stopped directly in front of Ally, and she wasn't sure whether to lift her chin in bravery or to give a kind smile. What kind of response was one supposed to give to a superhero scientist? She smiled, and the older woman smiled back, before turning to face another worker who stood by some sort of display. "Vincent?"
At her command, the man flipped a switch, bringing up a video feed of some sort of… hangar? Ally wasn't sure. She'd never been much of a car girl. "Which is why we developed this." She followed right behind Kelsey as her roommate stepped closer to the screen, and her curiosity grew as she craned her neck to see… okay, she thought, that was… anticlimactic. Ally and Kelsey exchanged glances.
"Trains?" Mrs. Fairweather smiled, and Ally started feeling slightly annoyed. It was a sort of condescending smile, as kind as she tried to make it seem. She'd seen about enough condescending smiles throughout her life to know that this was one.
"Oh, they're much more than trains, I assure you."
The tour over, Ally found herself awaiting orders from the Captain, all the while checking her watch. She had a class in a few hours, one that she most definitely couldn't skip: it was her Intro to Filmmaking course, one that she'd actually "tested" out of and gotten placed in the TA assignment for. She couldn't be late, or else… well, she didn't know exactly what would happen, but she didn't plan on finding out, either.
"You have a class?" She glanced up, surprised that Carter had spoken to her. She felt like the only time he truly spoke was during missions.
"In a few hours. I'm TAing it, so I can't be late." His brow furrowed, and she prepared herself for the question she knew was coming.
"You have freshmen standing, though." She nodded, feeling awkward and unsure how to reply without sounding boastful. After all, the reason why she'd unofficially "tested" out of the course was because she'd submitted her portfolio to the MBU. They'd seen her film, decided it was great, and handed her a few extra credits before the semester started.
"Uh…" An alarm burst through the space, cutting through the general quiet, and Ally frowned. Trouble? She watched as someone ran up, handed the commander his headset, and rushed off once more.
This place, she decided, was like a fine-tuned machine. According to what she saw on the news, combined with what she'd dug up online, the past Power Rangers never had this sort of… of… assistance? Behind the scenes work? It made her feel important, which only made her feel worse that she didn't want to be important. Ally glanced up, realizing that while the others had left, Kelsey and Chad had hung back, waiting for her. "S-sorry." Together, they rushed towards the viewing screen, where a giant glowing hunk of rock sat in the middle of an intersection.
"You guys want us to get rid of an asteroid?" Carter asked, but Mrs. Fairweather shook her head.
"Watch carefully. We think it's transforming." Of course, Ally mused, she'd been right on target: before their eyes, the rock took shape like the superhero in her comics, The Thing.
"It's time to put the Rail Rescues to work," Captain Mitchell instructed, and she wished with all her heart that she could just be back in her apartment, flipping through the pages of The Fantastic Four.
"Yes, sir," Carter acknowledged.
"The Rail Rescues? We haven't used them before, I don't think I'm ready." Finally, Ally thought, someone was making some sort of logical sense here.
"I second that," she added.
"Don't worry guys," Kelsey replied, but when Ally glanced over at her, she wasn't smiling, instead, grimacing, "None of us are."
"They're programmed to assist you automatically," Mrs. Fairweather explained, laying a hand on Ally and Chad's shoulders. "You'll be fine." The scientist's gaze stayed on Ally a little too long, as if she saw past her agreeable facade, and once more, she straightened her shoulders, nodding as bravely as she could manage. It wasn't much, though, because she wasn't feeling very brave.
"Alright. Let's go," Carter ordered, and with that, Ally rushed off, following her team and wondering what the hell she'd gotten herself into.
The main control room of the Rail Rescues was what Ally could only describe as the cockpit of a sci-fi movie vehicle. Something straight out of Star Trek, she reasoned, although it was a hell of a lot cooler when she was writing or imagining it, instead of literally sitting in one.
"Amazing." Apparently Carter didn't think the same. "All systems online, Captain." She glanced down at the controls in front of her, all a mess of buttons, dials, switches, and levers, and was glad that these would automatically help her out. At least, according to Mrs. Fairweather, they would. A few seconds later, she felt the Rail Rescues slowly lift up, and up, and up, and then the bay doors folded outwards, revealing the almost-too-bright sunlight of the surface. Each individual door on the Rail Rescue opened up as well, and Ally found herself wondering what each one held. "Rail Rescues, on track," Carter announced, drawing her attention back in, and she watched as he gripped the lever on his controls, "Here goes nothing."
After years and years of living with people who fought to hide their emotions, fearful of vulnerability- the typical Asian upbringing- Ally deciphered his emotions all too well: he was nervous. Not afraid, just… nervous. For a moment, she felt bad for her leader who'd had an enormous burden on his shoulders.
She didn't dwell on this long, though, not when their individual Rail Rescues began to link up in front of their eyes, forming one long train. Power almost like heat waves radiated out from the vehicles, and despite herself, her eyes widened. "Incredible," Carter breathed.
"What power," Chad added.
"Awesome!" Joel cheered.
"Damn," Ally whispered.
With their newfound speed, the Rail Rescues took them zooming towards the lava monster, and Ally tried not to freak out. The thing was even more terrifying up close, taller than even the tallest buildings around them, not to mention setting the ground on fire wherever it stepped. "There it is!" Kelsey announced, and Ally snorted.
"You got that right."
"Heads up, it's firing!" Dana warned, but the Rail Rescues only continued to drive through the growing flames. Finally, they came up to the end of the rail line, and they ground to a halt.
"We've arrived, Captain." When she'd first met these people, they'd each explained a little about themselves. Carter was, as she assumed they all were, a firefighter, and she'd thanked him for his work. He'd brushed her off, said he enjoyed it to the point where it didn't feel like a job, and she realized now that he was something like a born leader. She didn't know him well, and wasn't comfortable with sharing her own background, but she'd follow him because she knew that as long as she did, he'd keep this team safe.
"Each Ranger to their own Rescue."
"Yes sir. Let's do this thing, guys." With that, they each rushed off to their own station, and Ally followed the signs demarcating the path to her own Rail Rescue: a sleek dark purple motorcycle.
When she'd turned 17 and gotten her provisional license, Ally had then begged her parents to let her try to get her motorcycle license. She'd ridden on the back of her older brother, Leon's, motorcycle many, many times (although, not to her parents' knowledge), and thus had gained an interest in learning how to ride on her own.
Somehow, miraculously, they agreed, and her first bike had been an inexpensive silver motorcycle with blue accents. This one, though, was different, and Ally barely registered the others' calling out the names of their Rail Rescues in a form of status update as she brushed her fingers along the sleek metal. Instead of wheels, the bottom of the bike was outfitted with multiple miniature propulsion jets. The number 6 was painted onto the side of the bike in dark purple, along with a stripe that went all the way up the back wing.
If everything from here on out was as cool as this, Ally thought, she might even get used to it.
"Ally? Everything good?" She jumped at Carter's question, nodded to herself even though she knew they couldn't see her.
"Yes," she replied, and when she sat on the motorcycle, her helmet shifted to a black and purple color pattern. Then, she twisted the small key that was already in the ignition, revved the motorcycle's jets, and sped out of the carrier. "Street Rescue 6." For a moment, no one spoke. Then:
"Geez, and I thought my Rescue was cool!" Ally couldn't help but smile at Joel's joke (which kind of sounded like a complaint to her.) Admittedly, out of all the Rangers, he was her least favorite. His pompous attitude and arrogant nature went against everything she was used to, including her own personality, but she knew she had to put up with it for the sake of the team.
"Says the person literally piloting a plane right about now," she replied, risking a glance up to him as she swerved through the wreckage, zipping between the other Rail Rescues.
"I'm getting a signal from inside that building," Carter announced, and it was only then that Ally took notice of the different features blinking to life on her helmet view. One of them, she read quickly, was an X-ray scan, and she blinked twice to select it as it instructed her. Then, she pulled up to a stop at the apartment Carter'd pointed out, slowly looking up at it as the scan showed her the inner workings of the building… there.
"I see them, Carter," she replied.
"They're trapped in the elevator," the Captain informed, and Ally frowned. This wouldn't be easy.
"Let's go get 'em, guys."
It took the rest of the Rail Rescues a bit longer to get to the scene, since they didn't have the luxury of speed and mobility like Ally did. She almost felt a little guilty when she spotted extra features on her own Rescue, one of them being an extension that would release a sweeper that would shove aside the debris in the way.
Oh, well. She would use that at a later time, no doubt.
"The building's surrounded by lava!" Chad reported, "We can't get to it!"
"We've gotta cool that lava into rock," Carter figured, "Joel, think you could get in there?"
The pilot laughed, and Ally could swear she felt a muscle in her forehead twitch. "Are you kidding? With this thing, I can go anywhere!"
"Hold on," the Captain interrupted before either of them could do so much as think, "You've got to work together."
"I'm sure I've got enough power to do this alone!" If that was true, Ally observed, they wouldn't have needed all of them on this mission today, and she could be sitting in class, not having to play catch up later on.
So, she guessed, Joel was wrong. Which was satisfying. "Negative," the Captain announced, which only sent a surge of pride through her.
"Says who?" She couldn't help the scoff that escaped her as she scanned the rest of her Rescue's features. There was a button that would deploy a sidecar in order to transport hurt individuals, then a button on her handlebar that would shoot off a laser from the front of the bike. Along with those, there was a button to release a hook at the back of the bike so she could pull extra weight, and a lever that would switch the lasers to a fire extinguisher.
Not bad.
"Says the expert who designed it who's standing right next to me!" Serves him right, Ally thought begrudgingly. The more he argued, the less time they had to rescue the trapped civilians. "You have to combine your Rescue vehicles."
"I can do it alone… but if it's an order, we'll do it your way." Ally turned around on her bike, watching Chad, Joel, Kelsey, and Dana's Rescues combining to be one giant machine. "Alright guys, you can take it from here."
"Water cannons, extinguish!" Ally kept a close eye on the lava as Chad doused it in water, and when it cooled down enough to turn back into rock, she grinned.
"I have an opening."
"Great. Go in, check for any more civilians, and we'll be right behind you," Carter instructed, and she nodded, leaning forward and letting her bike zip over the rubble.
When she'd woken up today, Ally hadn't planned on running into a burning building to rescue some people trapped in an elevator. She guessed things sort of took a detour somewhere, but here she was, shimmying down the elevator cables next to Kelsey. The heat of the fire sent sweat dripping down her face, stinging her eyes, and honestly, she wasn't sure what was sweat and what might've been tears.
"They're unconscious," her roommate reported, and Ally reached into the pack she'd found in her bike's storage. Inside were five oxygen masks, and she bent down, about to fit the first one onto the child's face, when the elevator creaked. Her back hit the wall hard, the air rushing out of her, but she didn't stay down. She couldn't stay down.
Instead, she scrambled across the floor, placed the oxygen masks first over the kids' faces, then the mother's. "Now all we need is a way out." Kelsey nodded, and the two went to work, pulling and pulling at the elevator doors. No matter how hard she tried, though, they wouldn't budge, and Ally swallowed hard. Of course one of her illogical fears had to be coming true now, right? (Being trapped in an elevator was scarier than one might think, regardless of if said elevator was on fire.)
"We need help!" Kelsey radio'd in to the others as Ally desperately tried to even her breathing, "Elevator 3!"
"I'm almost there, guys!" The elevator car creaked once more, and Ally let out a soft yelp.
"Better make it quick, Carter."
"Aqua Base, we're gonna need some help!"
"Rescue Red, we have a new weapon online. Call for the Rescue Bird."
Ally wasn't sure how a bird could help them in this situation, but she decided to hope for the best. "Alright. Rescue Bird! Rescue Drill, power up!" The high-pitched whirring of the tool Carter was using to pry open the doors almost masked the sounds of the civilians stirring awake, and Ally turned to them.
"It's okay," she reassured them, reaching down to loop an arm around the mother's shoulders for support, "You're safe now."
"Guys, you might wanna get a move on! The monster's coming back." Ally grit her teeth, pushed her motorcycle as fast as it could go with the added weight of the passengers in the sidecar. While the others had gone back into the fight, she'd offered to bring the civilians into somewhere relatively safe,
"On it, Joel." Once she'd deemed it far enough away, Ally came to a stop, clambered off of her bike and helped the family out of the sidecar. For a moment, though, the mother simply stood there, taking her hands in thanks.
"Thank you so much, we owe you our lives." Ally wasn't sure what to say. Sure, she'd always been one to protect her siblings, her friends. But there'd never been a life-or-death situation like this one before. She'd never had to face these odds.
She felt, at least a little bit, like a phony.
"You don't owe me anything, ma'am-"
"Carter!" Chad's shout was almost too loud over their communications, and Ally pivoted, spotting Carter's Pyro Rescue stuck in between some pieces of debris.
"Damn it," she hissed, hopping back on her bike. "Carter, I'm heading your way!"
"Got it!" With the sidecar tucked back into the bike, Ally could fly seamlessly over the destroyed pavement, and she got to the Red Ranger's vehicle in mere minutes.
"Joel, help Alyssa." She cringed at the use of her full name. Especially coming from the Captain, it felt like a scolding more than a command.
"I've got another idea," he interrupted as Ally aimed her laser at the first pile of debris, fired it off. And while it was doing it's job, it wasn't working fast enough, "See, what I could do is-"
"Joel, a little help!"
"Just obey the order!" Was that… Mrs. Fairweather? Ally would've laughed at the change in tone from the mellow scientist, if she wasn't so focused on these damn rocks- finally, the front wheels of the Pyro Rescue broke free, and she took her finger off of the trigger.
"Heads up!" Ally craned her neck back, spotted Aero Rescue preparing to get Carter up and out of danger, and it felt like a weight lifted off her chest. That was one thing fixed. As soon as she was sure the two were out of harms way, she zoomed back to where Kelsey, Chad, and Dana waited in their Rescues.
"That was pretty badass," Kelsey commented, and Ally shrugged.
"We'd both have been toast if it wasn't for Joel."
"Aw, no need to thank me." Ally regretted her words.
"Carter, prep for Megazord mode," the Captain ordered, and Ally frowned. Mega what mode?
"At once, Captain. Alright, here we go, Rangers. Megazord Mode, Lightspeed!"
Kelsey was right, Ally realized as their vehicles came together to form what she could only describe as a giant Gundam. They were pretty badass. At least, when they were all together.
"Alright, we're locked in," Carter announced. "Ready?"
"Ready to kick some ass," Joel agreed.
"Let's get 'em!" Chad cheered.
Ally wasn't sure how they could still be so enthusiastic in the face of all of this. Especially when the lava monster started to toss piles of flaming rock towards them. From where her Rescue had formed miniature propulsion jets along the arms and hands of their Megazord, even she could feel the toll the attacks were having on them. "He's hitting us hard," Carter reported back to Aqua Base, "But not hard enough. You're going down!" Again, Ally wondered, how was he so damn optimistic?
Kelsey and Dana pushed them forward, and soon they were right up in the monster's creepy face. "Power thrust, online! Power thrust!" The arms that'd originally served as their ladders into the burning apartment burst out, sending punch after punch at the monster. If Ally didn't know any better, it was like they were winning.
"He came in from the air," Chad began, "Why don't we send him out that way?"
"Excellent idea, Chad." Glancing down at her controls, Ally spotted a button that would give the arms extra power and stability, and she activated it as they grabbed hold of the monster. "Enjoy your flight!" Then, with that, they tossed the creature into the air and watched as it burst apart on impact.
Ally leaped up, punching a fist into the air.
"Now that's an air show!" Joel cheered.
"Great job, Carter!" Chad congratulated.
"No," their leader corrected, "Great work to all of us. We did it, guys."
Ally hadn't planned on sticking around. But after the others had quite literally begged her to stay, she couldn't say no. (Even after becoming a Power Ranger, she was unfortunately still a pushover.) "The only way we're gonna beat the demons is if we work as a team, like we did today," Carter explained, but she wasn't quite hearing his words.
Instead, she was remembering what the woman had told her earlier, after she had rescued her and her kids. The woman had felt indebted to her, even though Ally had just been doing her job, which she admittedly didn't even want to do, still.
The feeling of being a fraud, of not quite fitting into this new lifestyle, clung to her like a too-tight outfit. And Ally wanted out. She snapped back to reality when Joel grabbed back the flowers he'd handed to Carter and dashed off after Mrs. Fairweather.
"I'm… not sure what happened there." Chad frowned.
"Me neither. What do you say we find out?" Dana grinned, patted his shoulder.
"You don't even need to ask." Ally trailed after her as they retracted their steps earlier in the day to take them back to the weapons lab, and they were apparently just in time to see Joel being told off. She couldn't hear the exact conversation through the glass, but she wasn't blind, and Mrs. Fairweather looked furious. Especially when she shoved the bouquet of roses back into the pilot's hands and marched off.
"Yikes." Despite herself, she started laughing, and when Joel turned to look at them, looking like a lost puppy, they mimicked an explosion with her hands along with the others. A pretty good example of what had just happened, she figured. Joel rushed out to meet them, doing double take after double take at the lab, and after a few moments, he glanced at them warily.
"She designed…"
"Everything," Carter explained, and Dana leaned forward.
"From our morphers to our Zords."
Ally wasn't quite sure about how much she was willing to share with these people, but if getting to be a part of this team meant having experiences like this, with friends like this… she was okay with staying on board.
