This story will leave a lot of gaps in your knowledge of what is going on, how some characters are connected and the why of certain important question. Some of it is because I don't know the answers yet and others are on purpose. There's a lot of things I want to hold on to until the rangers are actually together again, and as of right now that's not looking to be until around chapter five or so.
The Song Remains the Same is not only about the adults that grew from teenage superheros, the things that traumatized and changed them, but also a story about how found families can fracture and learn to heal, even if it isn't the same as it once was.
"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.- Alice in Wonderland"
Galactic Council Outpost Ship 4 Zeta Echo, Monitoring Control Room
"Good Morning ma'am" Doverian said as she walked past him into the control room. He was young by his planet's standards, with skin the color of burnished gold and eyes that reminded Kim of the spiced wine her mother used to drink during the holidays. He had reminded her of a greek statue or the subject of a painting when they first met.
"One of these days you're going to call me by my name." the former pink ranger chides as she slides into the empty chair a few down from him.
"It's not likely ma'am." Beyond her status as a leader on one of the Council's ranger strike teams, the well known fact that she was Zordon's chosen pink meant that everyone treated her like she was a hair's breadth from royalty.
"Any issues over the shift?" she questioned, her eyes on the screens in front of them.
"The secondary squad was sent to check out a small little skirmish on Rashon. The Cleanup team is still deployed out to Tarmac 3 after the attack, it's going well." His voice has a musical lit to it that reminds the human woman of Trini.
She's about to comment on how it's been a quiet week so far when something catches her eye, black feathers and purple armor. It's a city block, but not one she notices right away.
"Doverian what sector is that?" She asks with a tight voice, pointing to the screen up in the top right corner.
He taps away at a few buttons before that one screen takes over the whole wall and now Kim knows that it's New York City. "It's sector six ma'am, in a place called New York on the planet Earth." The Herucron doesn't remember as he says it that she grew up on the planet, has no way of knowing that she knows exactly what street it is now that she can see.
"How long will it take the planetary team to get there?" The Galactic Council worked closely with the Morphin Council to keep a record of every ranger team on every planet. They kept information on the power source, weapons, allies and any other pertinent information. Doverian taps out a few more keys and a dialogue box appears on his computer screen.
"The last planetary team went inactive two months ago. A new one hasn't been created yet according to either Council's records." He looks up, seeing the Strike Team leader's face go ashen.
"Send out a priority one alert to my team. Sleath only. And send a notification to the Grand Councilman, I'm going to need to see him when I get back." She's already moved out of the chair as she issues the orders. Kim's legs move her through the hallways towards the teleportation platforms they take off from missions from at a dead sprint, skidding to a stop in the empty room. Taking a deep breath she motions with her left hand, the Grid providing the energy for her transformation into the stealth uniforms that her team used. The black piping that denoted her ranger color was only a few shades lighter than the black fabric of the uniform.
"Kimberly what's going on?" Kayden, the Triforian Red Ranger asks as he runs ahead of the rest of their team, already in their stealth uniforms.
"Tengu are attacking a major Earth city. There's no active team on the planet right now. Under no circumstances can we morph, it will draw attention I do not want." The black ranger issues the orders as she walks to the teleporters command computer, smiling to herself when she sees that the location has already been attached to her ID code. She's going to have to make sure she brings back Doverian something nice tomorrow morning.
New York City, New York, Planet Earth- Sector Six
When the beams of teleportation fade away and their feet touch the asphalt ground of 7th Avenue, there's no time for her to admire the scenery.
The scene in front of them was pure chaos.
People were running and screaming away from the overgrown birds that were flapping their wings and cawing at them. No one looked hurt just yet, but the Tengu knew how to terrorize a group of people. "Jayden, Kenale and Akhuti get the civilians out of harm's way, do your best to keep anyone coming this way out of the trajectory of the fight. Geka and Thyltand will take on the Tengu with me." Kim looks around, glad for the face mask and hood that covers her as she tries to judge the best launching point. Getting a running start she vaults herself over one of the overturned cars, landing soundlessly a few yards in front of the gang of monsters.
"I thought the Z wave toasted you overgrown turkeys!" She shouted, drawing their attention to her.
"Nothing can stop evil Black Ranger." The lead Tengu said before it flew at her, Kim taking a defensive stance just long enough to get her footing and duck under the huge wing like arm, the blow only landing part of the way.
"Yeah I've heard that before." she groaned out flipping forwards so she would be out of the way. Even just at a glancing blow, it hurt far more than she had ever remembered.
"What are these things Lightening?" Geka, the Eltarian Pink Ranger of her team, asks as she kicks out at one of the Tengu
"Tengu warriors. They were henchmen of Ivan Ooze, Rita and Zedd." It distracts both rangers long enough for them to get sent flying backwards, groaning from the power behind them.
"They're incredibly strong." Geka comments, pushing herself to her feet.
"Stronger than they were before. But they go down eventually, just like all the others." Her teeth grit as she gets back on her feet, ready to go up against them all over again.
Kimberly surveyed the battlefield after nearly a half hour of fighting, worn down and not seeing any other options. The civilians are for the most part gone now, staying clear of the area, police have set up a blockade almost half a mile away from the fight. With their powers it would be easy, but on the off chance they get spotted by news cameras and then any of the on planet former rangers see and come looking for them. It would be a disaster that she's really not willing to have to mitigate.
Which lead her to her brilliant plan
It was a stupid decision, she knew that, and something that might get her killed if it didn't work. She had to try though, because if it was just her, by the time anyone who possibly caught sight of what was going on had gotten in contact with her replacement, Kimberly would be long off planet. "Zordon." she thought as she moved away from the fight, wanting space just in case the Power backlashed during this attempt. "if you can hear me, may the power protect me."
"NINJETTE THE CRANE." she shouted into the air, eyes screwed tightly shut, a split second before the crane screeched to life in the back of her mind and she was again clad in the pink ninja uniform that had been made for her. Even though she had shared these powers with Katherine, they were hers, just as much as her heart or lungs belonged to her.
"Alright birdbrains, let's tengo." she quipped, flipping forward as she made relatively quick work of the Tengas, smug when they started blowing up and dropping black feathers all over the place. It was a new development, but a satisfying one.
Kimberly lets the morph drop, leaving her again clad in the stealth uniform that she had been wearing before. "Let's get out of here." She told the other five rangers, hitting the activation device on her belt.
Galactic Council Outpost Ship 4 Zeta Echo, Ranger Mission Teleporting Bay
When they're back on the ship Kim isn't surprised to find the Grand Councilman's liaison to the rangers standing there waiting. Alyven is a tall creature, of a planet the former pink ranger never has actually asked about. Her skin is the color of a pistachio nut and towers by at least two feet over the slight black ranger.
"I have a message from His Eminence for you Lady Crane." Alyven says in her blown wind voice, bowing ever so slightly to her.
"I need to see him right away." She stressed, feeling it even more important than when she first sent the message to him.
"As Captain Doverian told me. The Grand Councilman is at home with his family for the next few days. However he wanted me to extend the invitation for you to meet him there to discuss what you need," the green skinned woman pulled her lips into a smile.
"I'll go there now then." Kimberly turns to the control panel and starts inputting the information about where she's headed. "We'll debrief when I get back. You all did well today." she smiles at her team encouragingly before hitting the button to active the teleporter.
Home of the Grand Councilman of the Galactic Council, Sector 14
The black column of crackling energy deposits her on the edge of the forest that borders the home she's heading too. Kim can see from where she's standing that the small family of four is sitting outside in the yard, the two children playing catch with a bright red and yellow ball. As she begins her walk across the field that separates the yard from the forest, it gives her time to ruminate over the developments on Earth. The Tengu had been powerful, more so than any foot soldier she had ever remembered facing. It had almost been like going up against a monster. More concerning for Kim was the fact that they had even been there at all. The Z wave had to her knowledge destroyed everything that hadn't been human. Zedd and Rita had both been cleansed by it and she personally saw Ivan Ooze blow up so the who of how the Tengu got onto Earth was another gnawing worry in her mind.
But the most disarming event had been the ability to connect to the Ninja powers. It shouldn't have worked. It should have killed her in a flash of pink power. The coins had been destroyed, her life force physically severed from the connection to her animal spirit. Did being able to connect to the ninja form that should she need to, even without a coin, connect to the full morph abilities of the Pink Crane Ranger?
"Too those who possess the great power, anything is possible." Dulcea's voice floated through her head
"Well this has to be really terrible if you didn't even bother to change before coming." Andros comments sardonically when she's close enough.
"It is me and it is ranger related so of course it's terrible Stripes." She uses his nickname, stepping forward to pull him into a hug.
"You also don't call up Priority One level alerts for nothing Kim." It's Ashley who comments now, looking grave as she pulls the other woman into a crushing hug.
"I need a total scrub of any possible footage of my team's interaction on Earth today. There's a chance one of them already saw it but if they haven't I'd like to keep it that way." Her hand repeats the movements it did earlier to call up the stealth uniform to make it disappear, sitting down heavily into a chair set up around the beautiful mosaic table.
"What happened?" Andros asks, suddenly incredibly serious. This is Grand Councilman, the man whose primary concern is keeping all of the universe safe and peaceful.
"There were Tengu in New York. And they were stronger than they've ever been. My whole team couldn't take them down unmorphed after half an hour. I wasn't willing to make the call to morph. It would have raised too many questions, gotten too much attention from the planet side rangers. And they didn't do more than a few lines of banter. These guys meant serious business Andros." Sitting with her friends, with people who she feels more comfortable showing her anxiety and fear brought on by today's showdown, she lets it bleed into her voice.
"So if they were too tough unmorphed and you didn't morph with the Strike powers, how'd you get rid of them?" Ashley questions interested. She still had access to her Space and Turbo powers but to her knowledge that wasn't the case for the original Pink Ranger
"I called on my ninjette powers and they actually worked." Kimberly looks away, watching the twins toss the ball back and forth to each other telepathically.
Andros hand thumps against the table, the glass he had been holding shattering with it. "Putting aside how monumentally stupid that was off you. Not to mention reckless, dangerous and potentially suicidal." They're both glaring at her, she can feel it. "I'll send out the order for the scrub and we hope none of your old teams saw it. In the meantime, we'll gather Mystic Mother and Zandred, see if maybe they have some idea on the hows of this."
"I'm going to see Dulcea, she may hopefully have some answers." Kim decides it as a way to avoid having to see Rita or Zedd. They may not be evil anymore, but it doesn't erase all the things they did to her, her friends, her planet and to Zordon. The less she has to spend time with them, the less likely to do something she won't be able to forgive herself for.br /
"That's a good idea. She's not a fan of either council so it's more likely she'll talk to you than anyone else." Andros comments, now standing as he telepathically lifts the broken shards of glass into a trash bin just inside the house's back door.
New York City, New York, Planet Earth- Sector Six
"The world just keeps getting weirder." Jason Lee Scott commented as he sat down at his kitchen counter, his back to the TV he had turned down when his wife called him. She was about to fly back from Vietnam, her work at the consulate requiring her to go to the country where her parents had immigrated from. "Next thing you know there will be world peace." He was eating some leftover lasagna before heading into work for his overnight shift, his wife would get home just an hour before he would and then they would be able to spend the next two days together before either had to go back to work. "I'll see you tomorrow though, fly safe." he let out a chuckle as she reminded him to be safe while he was out working. "I will. I love you too." Jason hung up the phone and dug back into his food, never turning around to look at the tv screen until well after the story that would be of interest to him was long over. Had he turned around when he hung up with his wife, he would have seen a brief glimpse of a pink ninja taking out overgrown crows.
Jason Lee Scott had enlisted in the army after his stint as the Gold Zeo Ranger, restless and feeling like no matter what, he would always need to be in the thick of the fight. He had done three tours overseas, before coming home and marrying his longtime girlfriend Trini Kwan, the move to New York motivated by Trini being offered a position with the Vietnemise Consulate, Jason rattling around their apartment before landing on taking the civil service exam and attending the police academy. All but one of his friends had attended his graduation, even Billy who had newly returned from Aquitar. Kimberly had been the only one of their little found family that hadn't been there. He had tried to find her of course, exhausted every resource all of them had but it was like she didn't exist. It hurt him in more ways than he could accurately describe. Kimberly had been his first friend, his little sister. Everything in their lives they had faced together, up until right after they had been dropped in a lava pit and turned into soulless evil children of a lava monster. He'll never forget the moment he called her after three letters had been sent back to him, only to find out that the number was no longer in service. He called the gym she was training at after that, only to find himself told that Kimberly would take no calls from him and that the receptionist hung up on him.
He'd never gotten over the sting of that, to be completely shut out of his sister's life for no fathomable reason. They watched her compete in the games, watched as she gave interviews that never once mentioned the group of friends who were all watching. Equal parts angry and sad, Jason wondered what the carmel haired woman was doing nowadays.
He didn't know what he would do if he ever saw her again but he hoped if she was alive somewhere, she had a really good reason for all of this.