Chapter Three: Mission Time!
As Amelia followed her cousin through the Main Campus yard towards the path that would lead them to Class 3-E, she couldn't help but feel as if she was being watched. Glancing up from looking at the heels of Sugino's shoes, Amelia gasped slightly when her dark brown eyes made eye contact with a pair of intense violet eyes. The violet eyes were attached to a boy about the same age as her, with strawberry-red colored locks of hair, slightly tanned skin, and a very good athletic build. In those few seconds, Amelia recognized a fellow Martial Artist. Whether he was as versatile as she was in the many styles, she did not know. All she recognized was the sign of someone who knew how to fight and fight well. It was apparent that this person recognized it in her as well, because she caught his violet eyes widening slightly in surprise, before his handsome face broke into a slight smirk as he then turned away and broke the sudden eye contact.
Feeling slightly unnerved with what just happened, Amelia sped up her walking so that she was walking side by side with her cousin. Finally, they reached the gate that led to the Mountain path to the Class 3-E. Making a grand gesture with his hands, Sugino stated sarcastically, "And here we are! The Walk of Torture, as some people like to jokingly call it. We get to do this hike for the rest of the year!" Amelia rolled her eyes at her cousin's sarcasm and observed the path. "It doesn't look that bad Tomo." She said calmly as she started walking up it. Quickly following her, Sugino muttered under his breath, "Says the Master Martial Artist."
When they reached the top, poor Sugino was once again out of breath, and holding his knees for support. Amelia on the other hand, barely even broke a sweat! Instead, she patted her cousin's back in comfort, "What happened to being in shape, Mister Baseball Star in the making?" She slightly teased her cousin, as she also looked around, with interest mounting, at the old campus for Class 3-E.
Suddenly, she heard a male voice call out, "Hey Sugino! Are you ok?" Turning in the direction of the voice, Amelia blinked in surprise to see a feminine looking boy with amazing baby-blue colored hair and sapphire eyes, walking towards them from the school building. The boy then took notice of Amelia, and paused a few steps away. "Oh, uh sorry, I didn't see you there." He slightly stuttered out in surprise, as a slight blush of embarrassment covered his cheeks. Smiling, Amelia shook her head and said, "That's fine," Then giving a polite bow, she continued saying, "I'm Tomohito's cousin, Park Amelia. But you can just call me by my first name, Amelia, because that is what I am used to."
The blue-haired boy nodded, then bowed in return and said, "Nice to meet you, Amelia, my name is Shiota Nagisa, but you can also call me by my first name." Sugino, having caught his breath finally, patted Amelia's shoulder and said happily to Nagisa, "Amelia just moved here from America, and is going to stay till the end of the year. So she gets to have fun with us in E Class isn't that great?"
Amelia's brows furrowed slightly at the slightly forced cheerful tone that her cousin was emanating. But decided to ignore it for now, as Nagisa simply smiled at her and said, "Well, we're glad to have you Amelia." With that the three entered the class. When they walked into the classroom, most of the other students were already there. Some paused in the conversations they were having to give Amelia curious glance.
Soon, all the students had arrived and the bell to begin class rang out. But… The teacher was missing! Amelia remembered her cousin mentioning earlier that their Homeroom teacher had been absent for almost a week now, but they still should have a substitute teacher, right? It seemed a few of the other students shared her thoughts. One of the boys in the front of the room, who Sugino had pointed out was the Class's male Representative for the Student Council, said out loud, "I wonder where our teacher is?" Another boy, who had brown hair with blonde highlights, huffed and said, "Those Main Campus jerks probably got fed up sending one of their own precious teachers up here and decided to let us fend for ourselves." Soon the whole class was murmuring to each other about the reason for there being no teacher.
Suddenly, everyone stopped talking, when they quickly heard the sound of multiple footsteps and, something slithering, coming from the hallway of the campus building. Everyone watched with bated breath, as the Classroom door suddenly opened, and in walked a guy dressed up in what reminded Amelia of what Government Agents back home in America would wear. The Agent looking guy was quickly followed by another guy dressed the same way, and what came after them, sent the whole class into stunned silence.
Following the two Agents, was a creature that looked like a giant sized yellow octopus, dressed up to look like a teacher. It had a creepy big grin adorning its face, and Amelia immediately found herself tensing. Ready to defend her classmates at a moment's notice. The creature did not seem like something that Rita or Zedd would create, but then again, those two villains were always trying to surprise the Ranger's.
When the Creature reached the Teacher's desk, at the front of the classroom, it cheerily started waving it's tentacles and began saying in a cheery male voice, "Hello! How are you? So I'm the one who blew up the moon!" Amelia felt, along with the rest of her classmates, complete and utter shock. To Amelia though, she couldn't help but think, 'It CAN'T be that simple! My first day of school, and I already find out what Zordon wanted me to find out? NO WAY!' Her thoughts were interrupted when the Creature continued saying, "Next year I intend to do the same to planet Earth. But never mind that now, I'm going to be your new teacher, isn't that exciting!"
Amelia could almost feel her whole class sharing the exact same thought in that moment, 'There are so many things wrong with this picture.' They all focused again, when one of the men who accompanied the octopus creature, and was not wearing sunglasses, stepped forward and said, "I'm Karasuma, I'm from the Ministry of Defense. What, uh, what I'm about to tell you, we in the business call classified." The man seemed to hesitate for a moment, then sighed and stated, "Ah hell, I'll just come out and say it. I'm going to need you all to kill this thing, for the sake of mankind."
Amelia's eyes widened, while the rest of her classmates all murmured in shock. Then one of her classmates, a tall boy with orange colored hair, spoke up, "Excuse me? No offense, but is this a joke? Because if this is the Alien that blew up the moon…" He was suddenly cut off by the yellow creature exclaiming angrily,"AH! I am an earthling born and bred, thank you very much!" Amelia's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Ignoring the next thing the Karasuma guy said, Amelia's hand shot in the air. Turning to face her, the creature asked, "Yes?"
Standing so that everyone could see and hear her, Amelia kept her narrowed gaze on the octopus as she pointed a finger at him threateningly and asked, "Just one question before we continue. Are you, in any way, in league with the villains Rita Repulsa or Dark Lord Zedd?" All of her classmates froze at this question, and slowly turned from looking at her, to looking at their soon-to-be teacher. Even the Government Agents slightly tensed at this. It seems everyone knew who she was talking about, but had completely forgotten that they were major threats as well.
The Yellow Octopus seemed to not notice the sudden tense atmosphere in the room, as his head suddenly turned orange with a red circle and he exclaimed, "What amazing detective skills you have! Not even the Government thought to ask me about that." Karasuma seemed pretty ticked off at that comment, but let it slide when the Creature then said, "Do not worry everyone, I am in no way, shape or form, associated with those vile beings. Besides," There was a brief gust of wind, and all of a sudden the yellow creature was completely decked out in Power Ranger fan gear! "I am a HUGE FAN of the POWER RANGERS!" He yelled in excitement.
The rest of the morning went by in a blur, where Agent Karasuma continued to explain that the entire E Class was to become Assassins, and that the creature swore not to harm the students while they tried to kill him. And that if the class succeeded, they would be awarded ten billion Yen!
After all the explanations were over, Agent Karasuma announced that the rest of the day would be filled with assessments to determine all of the students physical abilities. At this news, Amelia perked up in excitement, while the rest of the class groaned. Before anyone could move though, the creature suddenly piped up, "Wait! It has come to my attention that there is a new student in the class today. So, how about before we move on to PE, you introduce yourself to everyone?" Amelia sighed, but thought it best to get it out of the way. Standing up, she made her way to the front of the class and introduced herself saying, "Hello everyone! My name is Park Amelia, but I would like it if you call me by my first name instead of my last name. I just moved to Japan from the United States and," Here Amelia paused and turning to look at Agent Karasuma, she continued saying, "I am a Master Martial Artist. I am proficient in several styles of Martial Arts." Everyone's eyes, except for Sugino's, were the size of dinner plates. Smirking, Amelia then decided to add, "Oh and Tomohito Sugino is my cousin." Sugino started to blush in embarrassment when all of his classmates eyes swiveled to look at him.
Meanwhile, Agent Karasuma smirked as well and stated, "Well then Miss Park, I look forward to seeing your performance in the Assessments." Right after he said that, the bell rang to signal lunch break. Walking back to her desk, Amelia sat down and let out a huge sigh. Man, how the heck was she going to tell Zordon all of this news? Karasuma had been adamant that no one outside of the 3-E classroom was to know about what would be going on for the rest of the year, which made Amelia feel conflicted. Sighing once again, Amelia strengthened her resolve and thought that, Adam and Zordon deserved to know.
So deep was she in her thoughts, she did not hear her cousin approach her desk in the back until he tapped her shoulder and asked, "A lot to take in, isn't it?" Jerking her head up and seeing Sugino giving her an understanding look, Amelia gave a weak smile in return and replied, "You could say that." Sugino nodded, then pointed his thumb over his shoulder and asked, "Nagisa and I are about to have lunch with a few of our other friends, would you like to join us?" Amelia wanted to say no, but then thought better of it. So instead she quietly nodded, grabbed her lunch and followed her cousin over to a small group of their classmates.
The group looked up from their discussions when the two approached and Sugino smiled and said, "Everyone, you already know Amelia, my cousin, since she introduced herself earlier. Amelia, this is Kayano, Okuda, Isogai, Maehara, Okano, Okajima and Kataoka." Each person gave a friendly wave and smile when their name was called. Okajima's greeting was a little to enthusiastic for Amelia's liking. So she sat down as far away from him as she could.
The group ate their lunches and talked about small meaningless things for a little while, before Maehara looked to Amelia and asked, "So Amelia, I'm curious, how did a pretty girl like you end up in the End Class?" At Maehara's question, conversations around the entire room died down, as everyone was really interested in Amelia's answer. Amelia gave the golden-haired playboy a deadpan look as she said simply, "Even though I can speak Japanese fluently, I can't read or write it very well because English is my first language spoken and written. So, when the stupid school board gave me the entire entrance exam in Kanji writing…. You get where I'm going right?" Everyone nodded in understanding, while Sugino simply snickered at his cousin's misfortune, resulting in him getting smacked upside the head by said cousin, "Shut up Tomo."
Soon lunch ended and all the students headed to the locker rooms to change for the Assessments that would be held during their P.E class. Once everyone was outside, Agent Karasuma began by saying, "We will have three different assessments. Hand to hand, knife skills, and gun shooting." With that, he and his colleagues began separating the class into different groups. Amelia ended up in a group with Nagisa, Okajima, a tall lanky boy who introduced himself as Sugaya, and one of the girls she met earlier named Kataoka.
The first thing that her group was assigned to work on was gun shooting. Amelia sighed slightly in relief. She knew that she had to be VERY careful in these assessments because, in becoming a Power Ranger, her body had become slightly enhanced, to be able to endure hard fights with enemy monsters. And her Ranger weapon was a pair of twin daggers to symbolize and act like leopard claws, so she was already familiar with working with knives. She was just grateful that she had not had a chance to learn about shooting yet, so that could help her pretense of seeming like a simple teenager.
But, when it came her turn to shoot, she already could tell that it would be a struggle to seem normal because her battle-trained mind was already analyzing the angles and trajectory for the shot to hit the target. So, forcing her mind to stop spewing facts at her, she made her shots carefully. She deliberately missed her first shot, second she had it hit the middle ring of the target, and then third shot she hit the bullseye. Grinning at her performance, and turning to talk with Nagisa, who was congratulating her on her shots, she failed to notice Agent Karasuma watching her with a keen eye. 'She was to focused with those shots, and that first one was a deliberate miss. Something is going on…'
Next, their group was going to work on knife skills. When all of them received the green rubber knives from the agent in charge of this station, they all looked at them in confusion and Sugaya asked, "Um Sir? Is this a joke? These knives are not going to hurt anyone." The Agent nodded and stated, "Correct. The knives won't hurt humans like you or me, but they are deadly to our Target." After that, he began showing them how to use the knives most effectively. Amelia actually enjoyed this lesson because it also gave her ideas on how to use her purple twin daggers better.
When they came to the last assessment, hand to hand combat skills, Amelia could not hide her grin of excitement. She absolutely loved Martial Arts. She patiently decided to let all of the rest of her group try the different techniques. But, the sensei in her could not resist not speaking up, and soon she was walking around her group, and correcting their hand positions and stances. The Government Agents, including Karasuma, watched her in silent admiration, as she patiently talked her fellow group mates through how to hold themselves so that they could be most effective attacking and defending.
Deciding to finally test her skills, Agent Karasuma stepped forward and said, "Miss Park, allow me to be your sparring partner, and we will see just how good you are at Martial Arts." Amelia's face broke out into a huge grin as she replied, "It would be an honor, Mr. Karasuma sir!" This statement caught the attention of all the other groups and agents, and soon a big circle of people surrounded the two. Even the Yellow Octopus was watching in excitement.
Both Agent Karasuma and Amelia shed their outer jackets, and Karasuma shed his tie as well. Then before falling into stances, Amelia politely asked, "What will the rules be?" Agent Karasuma thought for a moment and then stated, "Whoever gets three hits first, shall be the victor. Any objections?" Amelia shook her head no, so then the two bowed in respect to each other and proceeded to fall into they're fighting stances. Amelia chose her familiar leopard stance, while Agent Karasuma did a basic karate stance.
When someone yelled "Begin!" Amelia's brain immediately started analyzing the situation. She knew that Karasuma was a professional and would be a lot harder to face than most people she had sparred with in the past. So deciding to see how things panned out, she decided to fall into a pattern that her fellow teammates had dubbed, her "cat's prowl."
Karasuma watched with narrowed eyes as the female girl before him began to slowly start circling around him. Not wanting her to get behind him, he also started moving so that they were now moving in a circle. After a few moments, and realizing that she was not going to make the first move, Karasuma stopped and lunged a sudden punch towards the girl! The crowd gasped in awe as Amelia easily maneuvered Karasuma's punch to the side then quickly released a series of jabs at his unprotected midsection. Caught by surprise at the girl's speed, Karasuma was unable to avoid the first hit, since he was still off-balance from his first hit not connecting, but he managed to block the second and third hit. Then, he quickly swung out his leg, intent on knocking the girl off her feet. Amelia, seeing this, jumped and backflipped away, trying to kick out while doing so, but Karasuma blocked her foot with his arm.
The spar went on for a while. The two seemed to be equal as they matched each other move for move. Eventually, Karasuma landed a hit on Amelia when she least expected it, making their score tied. Her classmates watched in complete fascination, especially the boys. All the boys, minus Sugino, felt their respect and admiration rise for the new girl. Her moves were so graceful and well calculated that at some points she almost looked like she was dancing instead of fighting.
Finally, Agent Karasuma called a stop to their fight. Standing and facing each other, both were surprisingly breathing pretty normally, though they were both sweating pretty well. Taking a deep breath, Agent Karasuma let a small smile grace his face as he said, "Miss Park that was exceptionally well done. You definitely deserve your title of Master Martial Artist." Amelia grinned back and bowed in thanks, but straightened back up as Agent Karasuma continued,"That being said, I would like you to help in teaching your fellow classmates the basics of Martial Arts. In the end it can serve all of you well to have the discipline that Martial Arts brings and it will give everyone that physical strength needed for assassination."
Amelia's eyes widened in surprise at the Government Agent's request. And at all the hopeful eyes of her classmates as they looked excitedly at her. Looking down to the ground, eyes lost in thought about what Zordon was going to think of all of this, Amelia finally thought to herself that she will just treat it like one of her classes like back when she taught at the Youth Center. Looking up, she met Agent Karasuma's eyes firmly and said, "I accept."
As all the other students around them cheered and started talking in excitement, Agent Karasuma could not help but be taken slightly by surprise at the intense look in Amelia Park's eyes. They were eyes that one would see on a soldier, or a warrior who has experienced intense combat before. Shaking his head to clear it, Agent Karasuma decided that he would keep a close eye on this particular student. Something definitely seemed different about her.
The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Finally the final bell rang, and as Amelia and her classmates got ready to leave, Agent Karasuma had a final word to say, "Remember, you must keep all that you have learned today strictly to yourselves. Tell anyone outside of this classroom and you may be subject to a memory wipe." Amelia's back straightened slightly, as she could see the Agent subtly looking in her direction. She kept her face unreadable, but internally she was thinking, 'Does he suspect?'
Once Amelia and Sugino reached the main campus again, they were stopped by the same strange violet eyed boy, that she had made eye contact with earlier that morning. This time, he was waiting with a small group of other boys. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, Amelia could tell that her cousin seemed really nervous around this group. Before she could make anymore observations, however, the boy with the intense violet eyes began speaking, "It seems our prestigious Academy has gained a new member. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name Miss?"
Instantly, Amelia picked up on the hidden meaning and subtle calculations behind the seemingly innocent question. Deciding to play along, and dig a little herself, she gave a small, innocently polite, smile and replied, "Such a seeming gentleman would introduce himself to the lady first to display proper etiquette, don't you agree?" Completely focused on her 'opponent,' Amelia failed to notice her cousin and all the other boy's eyes widen in shock at her response. Sugino was the most shocked. Was, was his cousin flirting? With HIM?!
Amelia couldn't help but smirk a tiny bit in satisfaction, when she saw those mysterious violet eyes widen marginally, and then narrow slightly 'challenge accepted,' his eyes seemed to say, as he then seemed to feign surprise by placing a hand on his chest and exclaiming, "Oh! Do forgive my slip up." Then holding his hand out in the simple gesture of the beginnings of a handshake, he said, "My name is Asano Gakushu." Sensing nothing hidden in the revealing of the boy's name, Amelia shook his hand and gave a genuine small smile as she replied, "Nice to meet you," But did not reveal her name.
As she went to release her hand from the handshake, Asano shocked her by bringing her hand up… and he placed a kiss on to the back of her hand! Surprised, Amelia yanked her hand out of Asano's grip and glared at the now smug looking boy. Huffing in annoyance, Amelia grabbed her still gawking cousin by the wrist, and stormed away in anger at the audacity of that Asano jerk. As they walked away, they heard Asano call out to they're retreating backs, "Enjoy E Class while you can, Ms. Park! You most likely won't be there for long." Amelia stiffened a little bit in hearing that the strange boy somehow knew her name when she had never given it, but decided to ignore him and continued walking till she and Sugino had rounded a corner and were completely out of sight.
Once they were far enough away, Amelia released Sugino's wrist, slowed down her walking, and let out a huge sigh. "Great, another annoyance to deal with on top of everything else!" Sugino, on the other hand, was shaking his head in disbelief and asked, "Did that seriously just happen?" Rolling her eyes, Amelia replied, "It did, and we shall pretend that it never occurred. The nerve of that, that Jerk!"
"Whose a Jerk?" Adam's voice suddenly piped up from directly behind the two fourteen year olds, making them both jump in startled surprise and whirl around to find Adam leaning nonchalantly against the light post at the corner of the road, looking like he had been waiting for them, and smirking that he caught the two unawares.
Huffing in annoyance, Amelia crossed her arms across her chest and growled, "Some boy who thinks he knows everything about me. Obviously, he has a long way to go." Sugino silently shook his head, still baffled that Asano, the student Council President, and top in the school, seemed to fancy his cousin.
The conversation died down as the three began to walk home together. Deciding to break the silence, Adam looked over to the two Jr. High students and asked, "So, how was the first day? Anything exciting or interesting happen besides getting read the do's and don'ts of school?" Amelia and Sugino both exchanged an uneasy glance with each other, neither realizing that Adam noticed it but made no comment as Sugino nervously laughed and replied, "Ha-ha, well other than the run in with Asano, the school day was pretty smooth, don't you agree Lia?" Amelia nodded in agreement, then grinned and said, "Although, I did get permission from our PE instructor to start a Martial Arts club after school, so I will be able to continue teaching and carry on what I used to do at the Youth Center!"
Adam narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but decided that he would let their nervous behavior go for now and instead said, "That's awesome Lia, congrats!" Pretty soon, the three made it back to their Grandfather's home, where the Parks were staying. Sugino bid his cousins goodbye and continued down the street to where his family lived. Once Amelia was sure Sugino was out of sight, she glanced around to make sure no Governmental Official was spying on her, then grabbed Adam by the wrist and literally dragged him into the front courtyard of their Grandfather's home.
"Lia? What'd you do that for?" Adam asked in irritation at being yanked by the arm. Ignoring him, Amelia glanced around the front courtyard garden to make sure no one, not even a creepy yellow octopus, was spying on them. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she touched her Communicator and said, "Zordon, do you read me?" Adam immediately straightened to attention hearing that, especially when Zordon replied, "We read you loud and clear Amelia. Are you and Adam all right?" Giving a small smile at the concern heard in Zordon's voice, Amelia answered, "We are fine Zordon. But I need you to have Alpha beam the two of us to the Command Center. I have urgent news to share with both you and Adam regarding our Mission."
There was a short pause, then Zordon stated, "Understood, standby for Transport." A moment later, Amelia and Adam disappeared in two subtle flashes of purple and black light respectively, and reappeared in the center of the Control Room of the Command Center.
Once they landed, Adam immediately turned to his sister and demanded, "All right, just what is going on Lia? What do you mean you already have information about our Mission? We haven't even started looking yet!" Zordon's face appeared in his tank and he added, "I would very much like to know the answer to that as well young Amelia."
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Amelia looked straight at the two of them and stated, "What I am about to tell you could land me in a heap of trouble with the Japanese Government, so please promise that you will not tell anyone else, not even the other Ranger's, about this conversation. Deal?" Adam and Zordon shared a look, before both nodded in agreement to the deal. With their agreement, Amelia took one more calming breath, and began explaining everything that happened at School that day.