Cat: Hey all! Nobody guessed it! Catapult is close, but I gotta tell you that when my little sister read it she knew exactly what it was. We're such nerds. Also, the Trojan Horse is Greek, not Roman. Anyways, this chapter is pure fun without any real action at all, but it's one of my favorite chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers, but if you do I'll trade you my M and Ms for them.

"Are they building what I think they're building?" Alyssa asked loudly.

"Yup." Kira said.

"And they're using pies?"

"Yup." Tori replied

"I'm not sure if the ancient Romans would have laughed or cried."

"I'm not sure whether Trent's going to laugh or cry."

"His drycleaner will cry." Blake said.

"They could actually injure him with that." Cam said thoughtfully.

"If they throw it at him." Tori snorted.

"Or run him over with it."

"Or throw it at him and then run him over with it."

"Well, we know one thing. If you want a pie you'd better go and get it now." Hunter said.

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Several hours later, the bright sun having finally risen to aid their construction, the Rangers stepped back and admired their handiwork. It was originally designed by the Romans for use in war, but modern technology had long ago made it obsolete. But now the weapon was resurrected. It was a trebuchet. Similar to a catapult it could launch up to twelve pies at a time for (by Cam's estimation) about a half mile. Except, instead of using springs to pull down and release as is done with a catapult, a huge weight, in this case a table, was pulled backwards. When released it would swing forward, dragging a tray forward, launching whatever was in it.

"We need a test run." Jason said.

"Who is the most irritating person in the world?" Conner mused.

"Kira?" Ethan suggested, but when the guys looked in her direction she drew a finger swiftly across her throat. They got her message. 'Aim that at me, and you take your safety into your own hands.'

"Hey, has anyone seen Andros recently?" Carter asked.

"You mean he hasn't blown up from stress yet?" Trini asked.

"He's trying to do too much. He needs to relax." Dana agreed.

"We could make him relax." Damon suggested, feeling very demonic.

"We could."

"Do you think he'd murder us?"

"He'd have a hard time getting at all of us."

"It probably wouldn't be an issue." Carlos agreed. Because he had been Andros' teammate, they took this word as the go-ahead and quickly loaded the machine with a pair of cherry pies.

"Not those."

"Why not?"

"They aren't shaped right."

"What does the shape have to do with anything?"

":Nothing. But when we use it for the first time the pies have to be shaped like pies."

"So these aren't round enough?"

"Exactly."

"But they're only a little bit lopsided."

"So?"

"Good point." They quickly swapped out the offending pies.

"Where is he?"

"Over there!"

"Dang it. He's standing with Ashley and Cassie. We'd hit all three."

"Which only means that we need another pie."

At this point about two thirds of the crowd of Rangers was part of the group. A few others were standing close by and watching with interest, now that it had come time to test it. Those remaining were the people who had been too stressed out and panicked and busy to pay much attention to the construction of the device and were oblivious to its completed state.

The Rangers who had built the trebuchet felt evil as they loaded the third pie and slowly wheeled the machine to the proper angle. Those who were watching felt evil not telling Andros, Cassie, and Ashley what was coming. And those who weren't paying attention were soon to feel bad because they missed out.

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Tw—" The trebuchet launched before the countdown was finished and Joel, who had been in charge of releasing it, might have gotten in trouble because of it. Except that three perfectly round pies were sailing through the air coming ever closer to the three unsuspecting Rangers.

They hit them dead on and it seemed to the onlookers like the result was nothing short of an explosion of pie. It was everywhere. Andros, Cassie, and Ashley were covered in it and they looked around madly for the source. Ashley gaped at them in complete shock, but Andros began storming over. Unfortunately for him (but extremely fortunately for everyone involved in the pie-launching) the grass was slick with cherry and he slipped before going more then two steps. He pin wheeled, but landed flat on his butt. For a moment no one spoke. Then Cassie and Ashley made the mistake of making eye contact and they burst into helpless laughter. Ashley helped her husband to his feet, and he grinned slightly.

Everyone how had been standing by the trebuchet decided it was safe to come out of hiding. They grinned and waved energetically at the three pie-soaked Rangers. Others high-fived each other. Cassie jogged over and began a thorough investigation of the machine. Many of the boys, including both Carlos and Damon, seemed more then willing to show off their knowledge of ancient weaponry to the recently single Cassie.

"A pie-loaded trebuchet. How did they come up with that?" Ashley asked.

"Don't ask me. It'll shock Trent thought."

"It shocked you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the look on your face." She said and lifted a gob of cherry filling off the bridge of Andros' nose with her index finger.

"I was not surprised." Ashley giggled.

"Don't go there."

"What? I wasn't!"

"Sure. Whatever you say."

"You, on there other hand. I think you were pretty surprised." He put his arms around her waist tenderly.

"Whatever you say." Ashley repeated.

"Whatever I say? Works for me." He said and kissed her. Ashley pulled away after a minute, glowing.

"Your lips taste like cherry."

"So do yours."

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"Okay, I'm cool with kissing and all." Conner said to his fellow Dino Rangers who were watching the scene from a few yards away. "But it's kinda creepy when adults do it."

"I'm with you there. Especially when they're old like that." Agreed Ethan.

"We really shouldn't be spying. Especially because it's so…" Kira trailed off.

"Disturbing?" Ethan offered.

"It sounds so harsh when you say out loud."

"EW! Is he licking her ear!"

"Conner, just look away."

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"Joel! Share!" Kelsey whined. In response Joel just stood on tiptoes and held the cell phone that his teammate was after high up on his ear.

"Yeah. I'm still here. I can talk for as long as you want."

"Joel! You've had it for a half hour! That battery must be running down by now! I wanna call Jake. Now Give. Me. The Phone!"

"Oh no. There's no one else here. Of course not."

"JOEL!" Kelsey talked him and attempted to wrench the phone from his grasp but he yanked it away at the last possible second.

"Well. Make sure you don't wear yourself out. Oh yeah. I'll keep that in mind."

There was by this time a small audience watching the two battle it out. It was almost a Ranger-sporting event, complete with cheering and booing depending on who was winning. The witnesses seemed to have taken two sides, both of which were jumping up and down with equal excitement.

"No. There's no one else with me. Just you. Of course I'm not hogging the only phone. Where would you get an idea like that?"

"Fork. It. Over!" Kelsey punctuated her words with swift blows to Joel's stomach and at long last managed to pry the cell phone from his hands.

"Hi Ms. Fairweather." Kelsey said pleasantly. Joel had recovered and lunged at her. "Everything's great here." She said even as she began running full-tilt across the park to avoid a very irate green Ranger. "We're all just hanging out. Waiting for Trent. Eating pie. But uh, listen. Joel's gonna have to call you back. Yeah. Okay. You too." And then she hung up.

Joel threw his hands up in defeat.

"Sorry. You're gonna hafta call her back later."

"Hey. If I can't talk to my wife, then you can't talk to your boyfriend."

"I let you talk to her for ages."

"You did not. You stood there breathing down my neck and telling me to hurry up the entire time."

"So?"

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"I wonder what would happen if I just stood up and shouted 'Trent!'" Conner said mildly.

"Probably about the same thing that would happen if you shouted "fire!" in a crowed movie theater." Answered Kira dryly.

"Well, I've never done that so I don't know what happens."

"You get arrested is what happens." Ethan muttered. "Causing a panic unnecessarily is very dangerous."

"Hello!" An irritatingly cheery voice piped behind them. All three Rangers wheeled around., none of them expecting who they saw.

"Cassidy?" Ethan asked in surprise.

"Devin?" Kira greeted the other person. "What are you guys doing here?"

"See, first we followed Blake here to get an interview, but then we found out that you're here, and since you're the Power Rangers we thought—" Cassidy cut short Devin's ramble.

"We want to know what's going on."

"Um. No. Sorry." Conner said, not sounding very sorry at all.

"You guys have to get out of here." Kira added.

"Not until you tell us what's happening."

"I so cannot deal with this."

"Hey!" Devin said mildly. "Is that Carter? Red Ranger?" The Rangers groaned.

"Omigod!" Cassidy squealed in delight.

"Okay. You're leaving. Now." Kira said and she and Ethan began pushing the two toward the park entrance.

"Hey! Back off!." Cassidy complained but the Rangers ignored her.

"Conner, give us a hand here." Ethan ordered but Conner didn't move.

"Wait. I have an idea."

Kira, Ethan, Cassidy, and Devin all stopped and exchanged glances. As one they said, "Conner Mcnight has an idea!"

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"Why did they tell us to look for Dr. Oliver?" Devin asked as he and Cassidy wandered aimlessly through the science teacher's house. He drew a star pattern in the dust on the coffee table and his index finger traced a path up the spine of a minute T-rex skeleton.

"Who cares? What I want to know is, why they left him behind in the first place." Cassidy flipped idly through some homework papers that Dr. O. had never actually remembered to return to the students. "And, they had better reimburse us for gas."

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"Why hasn't Trent attacked yet?" Shane asked.

"No idea." Tori replied.

"He's probably gathering all the little bits of his army that were spread out through space." Cam answered.

"What if he's not even planning on attacking us?" Dustin wondered.

"Why would he go to all this trouble and then just give up?" Shane shot back.

"I don't mean give up. I mean, what if he just drops a bomb on Angel Grove and we all die?" There was silence at this.

"That is a miserable thought Dustin."

"Besides, I don't think you exactly have anything to worry about." Cam scrambled to his feet and the others followed his gaze.

Cat: Only one chapter to go! However, if you aren't all nice and review then I'll make it two and give you a horrible awful cliffie.