Author's notes: This and the next two chapters are going to come out in fairly quick succession. I have plenty of time to write, and I'm taking advantage of it. These three chapters will each be in a different perspective of a new Ranger: this chapter's is Adam's, the next is Aisha's, and the next is Rocky's. I wanted to work on the voices for all the new characters, so that literally meant getting into their heads. I'm also going to be writing the same days and events from different perspectives, with each subsequent chapter adding on another layer. So… this writing is a bit more experimental, but it should still be fun.
Thanks to all my reviewers: The-Knight2000 (I hope I can convince you to appreciate Rocky and Aisha. They just didn't get a lot of space to work with), Ghostwriter (We all love Goldar, even when he's being an ass), jwstahle (Cheers!), KLR (These next few installments will be quite a bit lighter, without quite as many philosophical questions, but I'm glad you appreciated them), Mirajane92 (I'm going to miss those three goofballs, too. But, hey, we get three all new goofballs, and I really felt like I'd taken those characters as far as I could go), Festacles (Thanks for joining us! I don't post often… but when I do, it's in a pretty good chunk), Notepadhalffull (This part of the show was stymied by both having to recast and by the beginning of filming the movie. Seriously, watch the second half of season 2 while realizing they're filming in Australia, and it suddenly becomes much more entertaining. Hopefully I can do this section more justice.), GothamPowerKaiju (Bulk and Skull as detectives are my favorites. They're so right and so wrong at the same time), and bleedredstars (I'm glad you can't quit me. Hopefully this story might bring you back to the series. Season 2 after the power transfer has some pretty good stuff.)
Book 3: A Sense of Perspective
Chapter 12: Black Mood
Adam read through the list again. It was the third time he'd read it, and the list still hadn't changed. His name wasn't on there. He hadn't made the cut. A whole year, and no soccer.
He'd been one of the top players at Stone Canyon, but that was Stone Canyon. This was Angel Grove, and here he apparently wasn't good enough.
He forced himself to walk away, his eyes stinging. He refused to cry about it. It was a stupid thing to cry about anyway. So he hadn't made the soccer team. He still had a lot of other things going on. He was going to teach a class with Rocky at the Youth Center; they were taking over Jason's and Zack's class. He'd gotten into the creative writing class, something he'd always wanted to do, something Stone Canyon hadn't even offered. And he was a Power Ranger. He was the Black Ranger, protector of Earth.
His name still wasn't on the list. A tear slipped out of his control. He just made it to the bathroom before anyone noticed.
Adam washed his face in the sink, the water cooling his hot face. There were no paper towels, so he used the tail of his t-shirt to wipe the water away. He stared at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. His reflection stared back. He looked normal, he thought. Definitely not like he'd just been crying like a little kid.
He was about to turn when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked again at the mirror, and then around the bathroom behind him. It was empty. No one was at school; everyone had already gone home after checking the try-out lists. It had to have been a trick of the light. He looked at his reflection again. It looked... strange... now. Uncanny. He shook his head vigorously. Empty school must have been giving him the heebie-jeebies.
Adam decided that moping around the school wasn't going to do anyone any good. He grabbed his backpack and started walking slowly to the Youth Center, where he'd agreed to meet Rocky to plan out classes.
It was the last Friday of summer. The heat hung heavy in the air. Across the road, he could see people in the park, battling the heat to try to squeeze out the last bit of fun out of summer before classes started.
He recognized some of the guys playing Frisbee from try-outs. Their names were on the list. He looked away.
Adam realized he'd barely had any time to himself over the summer. First, he'd gotten recruited as a Power Ranger... after being kidnapped by aliens, almost turned evil, and joining the fight to save Angel Grove from said aliens. He'd almost gotten killed, but then had been saved by turning into a Power Ranger, possibly one of the best and strangest moments of his life. Then the rest of the summer had gone by in a blur. The aliens... Lord Zedd, he reminded himself... hadn't attacked all summer, but he'd had almost daily training as a Power Ranger. Tommy had insisted, worried that the lack of any outward attack would put them off their guard.
Then there was the rather disastrous talk with his brother...
Aaron, his brother, had completely flipped. Adam had decided to just have Tommy, Billy, and Billy's mom there when he told his brother about his new powers. He hadn't wanted to overwhelm him, even everyone had though literally volunteered to be there, including the families of the former Rangers. Aaron hadn't believed him at all until they'd morphed.
Adam still remembered what his brother had said. "How DARE you risk your life when we've already lost half our family! And you've already been in fights?! You could have already died?! How was I supposed to live with that? How am I supposed to live with this?!"
Sylvia had tried to talk to Aaron. Talked about her own losses, talked about how brave and necessary the Rangers were, and how they all took care of each other, and how Adam did have the choice to not tell his brother at all...
Tommy and Billy had tried talking as well, but Adam hadn't heard what they said. He'd already demorphed and run out of the house, shaking. He could still feel how defenseless he'd been: suffused with the power of the Morphing Grid, yet helpless before his brother's words.
Adam gritted his teeth. He knew why his brother was doing this. They were still haunted by the car wreck that had claimed mom and dad. Some days still felt like a walking nightmare, for both of them. But... it was a car wreck. A hairpin turn on a slippery road, and an oncoming eighteen-wheeler. It wasn't like either of them had given up driving cars, and from where Adam was standing that was just as dangerous as being a Power Ranger, in some ways. And if Aaron was so worried, why had he moved to Angel Grove in the first place?
Adam realized he was breathing hard. He worked to calm down. He was close to the Youth Center, and he didn't want anyone to know how upset he was.
There had been a second meeting after that, which included just Sylvia and Kimberly's mother and step-dad... and no Power Rangers. He didn't know what had been said at that meeting, but after Aaron had apologized to Adam for blowing up at him, and then... Politeness. Really really tense politeness. A politeness that they couldn't break, no matter what Adam tried. Adam spent most of his days now trying to avoid going home. It would be even more difficult when school started, as Aaron—Mr. Park, during school hours—was a teacher there. He wouldn't be able to get away from his brother at any time.
Needless to say, Aisha had decided not to tell her parents... at least not yet. And Rocky maintained that his father would have to notice him in the first place to care.
Too soon, he walked through the front parking lot of the Youth Center. It was completely full of cars, and he was glad he'd walked. He didn't see Rocky's jeep, which didn't bode well. Maybe he'd gotten a ride?
At the edge of the sidewalk, Bulk and Skull were leaning against two cars and messing around with a voice recorder... one of those that looked like the one in Home Alone 2. They were recording their own voices and playing them back at a slower speed, and then laughing at the results. Adam realized that in order to get past them, he would have to take a wide arc around two cars. That would be too obvious. Taking a breath, he forged ahead to walk between them.
He almost got past them when Skull suddenly put his leg against the car opposite, blocking the way with his leg.
"Not so fast, new kid," Bulk said, looking up from the recorder. "You gotta pay the toll."
Adam felt his face flush and his heart start hammering. He hadn't been bullied like this in a long time. He knew he could take care of himself... but that didn't mean he wanted to. And today was definitely not the day for this.
"Toll?" he said. "The Youth Center is free to use."
"If you don't have the cash, you don't get in," Skull said, smacking a huge wad of gum.
"Of course, we take information instead," Bulk said, pulling out the microphone on the recorder. He pressed a red button. "Where were you on the afternoon of June 11?"
Adam knew exactly where he'd been. On a merry-go-round in a park, about to be killed by Goldar but instead turning into a Power Ranger. He would never forget that day. However, it wasn't like he could tell them that, even though that was exactly what they wanted to hear. And it wasn't their business anyway.
"You caught me," Adam said, his voice taking on a sarcastic edge that he didn't really like. "I was fighting space aliens, because I'm a Power Ranger. In fact, I have to fight space aliens in there, so you'd best get out of my way."
Skull's leg had dropped at Adam's confession. His mouth dropped open, and his gum dropped out of his mouth.
Adam, not feeling entirely good about what he'd just done, walked past them.
"Oh, close your mouth," Adam heard Bulk snap at Skull. "He's not a Power Ranger. The Power Rangers have been fighting for more than a year, and he just moved here."
Adam sighed and left them behind. At least they weren't bothering him anymore.
The Youth Center was packed with teenagers trying to get everything they could out of the last of summer, only with air conditioning. Kimberly was practicing on the balance beam, with Tommy spotting her. Aisha was working out her legs on some exercise equipment in the corner, and she waved and smiled when he came in.
Rocky, of course, was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably forgotten. Adam tried not to take offense-he knew his flighty friend was just sort of like that. It hurt a little, though.
He ambled over to Tommy and Kimberly, since there really wasn't any place for him to sit... or stand without looking awkward. He tried to look like he belonged there, and that he wasn't completely intimidated by his fellow Rangers, with their easy confidence and always knowing what to do.
"Hey, Adam," Tommy said. "What's going on?"
"Looking for Rocky," Adam said. "Have you seen him?"
"Not today," Tommy said. "Kim, I think you've got that move down."
Kimberly swung to sit on the side of the balance beam and accepted a towel from Tommy. "Easy for you to say," she said breathlessly. "I'm super out of practice with the less fighty aspects of gymnastics. I'm going to have to practice a lot before I try out for the gymnastics team."
"Most gymnastics don't include fighting," Tommy pointed out.
Kimberly stuck her tongue out. "That's why I'm special."
"Well..." Adam said awkwardly, "if you see Rocky, could you tell him I was looking for him? I'm headed for the coffee shop on Main."
"Sure," Kimberly said, looking suddenly a bit concerned. "Adam, you okay?"
"Yeah, of course," Adam said. He felt his voice shake, but he tried to hide it behind a smile. Seriously, what was wrong with him today?
He was about to leave when he heard something that made his stomach immediately seize up like a fist. Musical beeps that he had only heard a few times before. And, from the looks on Tommy's and Kimberly's faces, it probably wasn't a training exercise.
Aisha was already wiping down her exercise machine and gathering up her stuff. Together, they walked out of the Youth Center and turned a corner. It was too crowded to have a conversation over the communicators, so they teleported as soon as they rounded the corner.
Alarms were ringing in the usually quiet Command Center. Billy was already there, propped over a computer console and typing furiously.
"Looks like our vacation's over," Kimberly snarked. "So nice of Zedd to wait until school started up again."
"He could have waited until Monday," Billy pointed out. "Tommy, can you make any kind of sense of what Zedd's trying to do here?"
He flicked a switch, and the Viewing Globe showed a group of about thirty or so Putties... and nothing else.
"That's not his style," Tommy said. "Are you sure there's no monster down there?"
"I cannot sense any monsters on Earth," Zordon said. "There are, however, some holes in our surveillance from the past 24 hours, which might point to a larger plan."
"In the meantime, those Putties are threatening people," Tommy said. "Where's Rocky?"
As if in answer, a red stream of light announced Rocky's entrance. "Sorry," he said. "I was driving to Ernie's, and I was running late, and then I had to park the Jeep..."
"It's okay, you're here," Tommy said, seeming a bit impatient with Rocky's excuses. "We got Putties to fight."
"We're taking no chances," Kimberly said. "Let's morph out of here."
"Keep an eye out for anything abnormal," Billy said, frowning. "A group of Putties... this seems too similar to some of Rita's earliest attacks."
They teleported down to the park that Adam had passed earlier. Several people were running for the nearby Youth Center-probably not being stopped by Bulk and Skull to pay a "toll"-but there were still some who were trapped by the Putties.
"Divide up and fence in," Tommy said through their helmet speakers. "Red and Blue, make a path."
Adam knew exactly what he was supposed to do. These were maneuvers they had run all summer, practicing them in the Command Center away from Zedd's prying eyes. When they had multiple opponents in the middle of town, particularly near civilian-dense locations, they were to spread out their fighting, but then keep to the outside, between the Putties and any other points of attack against civilians... namely, the Youth Center. He, Tommy, Kimberly, and Aisha were going to do that.
Billy and Rocky, in "making a path" were to focus on getting the civilians out of there by hitting the least dense area and pushing any Putties on the four others, thus making a point of escape for the trapped civilians. Billy's lances and Rocky's sword were particularly good at doing that. Adam's own axe could do that as well... but he'd never really gotten the knack for the maneuver in the simulations.
He saw that Tommy and Kimberly had taken the positions nearest where Rocky and Billy were going to make the path, so they could handle the extras thrown at them. That left him and Aisha with the densest collection of Putties, which so happened to be nearest to the Youth Center. Adam steeled himself and followed Aisha to the fight. He'd fought Putties before, and he knew that the self-destruct buttons on their chests were the fastest way to get rid of them, but that they drained energy and hurt like hell. He'd have to fight carefully and wait until the others could give him backup.
The Putties, who had been paying attention to the civilians in the middle, were momentarily surprised by the sudden attack and their outer ranks. That surprise didn't last long. Adam quickly found himself fighting three Putties at once. While Putties weren't always the best fighters in the world-which is sort of what he expected from clay monsters-they had numbers and a disregard for everyone's safety on their side. They didn't care if they got hurt. They didn't care if their fellow Putties got hurt. They were programmed to cause damage and fulfill a mission, and their primary attack was self-destruct. In fact, they tended to emphasize their self-destruct button in fighting, hoping to weaken their opponents by sacrificing themselves. Other Putties waited for their fellows to be defeated so they could continue the fight without letting the Rangers recover.
Adam allowed himself one Putty disintegration. The pain hit him like an electric shock, but he swallowed the pain and didn't allow himself to slow down. The other Putties, frustrated that he seemed unaffected, redoubled their efforts. Some started to try to get past him as a few of the trapped civilians ran for cover-Rocky and Billy were succeeding-but Adam pushed them back to the middle. He was not going to fail in his first real test as a Ranger.
He was back-kicking one Putty while aiming a punch at another when he felt his back-kick just glance off his opponent, sending him sprawling. He flipped up in seconds and turned to face the Putty that had tripped him up, deciding to get this one of the way, too. He tried to land some hard punches... but he kept getting deflected. At one point, the Putty twisted his arm back behind him, and Adam had to struggle to loosen the Putty's grip.
"Black, what are you doing?!" a voice yelled from across the battlefield.
Adam looked up to see the Putties he'd been fighting earlier breaking ranks and running to the Youth Center. He tried to draw his blaster to shoot them down, but the Putty he was fighting grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground. Adam flipped up again and tried desperately to hit the destruct button... but the Putty deflected his punch. Again and again, Adam tried to gain the advantage. He could practically feel the Putties approaching the Youth Center, and he hoped no one was outside of it...
He saw two pink bolts shoot past him, and he and the Putty were knocked down by the resulting energy wave, as the two Putties turned around just in time for Kimberly's arrows to strike them right in the destruct buttons.
Adam glanced around. All the civilians had been saved, and the rest were taking down the last of the Putties. The one he was fighting, as well as a few more who were left, nodded to each other and then teleported away, leaving the battlefield empty and quiet.
The six Rangers ran toward each other, Adam limping a bit. Tommy spoke into his communicator. "Zordon, are there any other threats on Earth?"
"No, Rangers," Zordon said. "Report back to the Command Center immediately."
Adam took a breath before teleporting up along with everyone else. He knew this wasn't going to be good.
As soon as they teleported into the Command Center, Billy, Tommy, and Kimberly promptly removed their helmets and set them on the top of the right-hand computers, where the top formed a sort of shelf. Rocky, Aisha, and Adam followed suit. Adam surreptitiously leaned against the edge of the Command Center computers. That fight with the Putty had taken more out of him than he really wanted to think about.
"Alpha, have you been able to figure out what was going on there?" Tommy said, putting a hand on Alpha's shoulder and looking at the readings Alpha was poring over.
Alpha threw his hands up, unintentionally smacking Tommy's hand away. "Oh, ay-yi-yi, Tommy, it doesn't make sense. It seems like a normal Putty fight. There were no power fluctuations, and nothing else was happening on Earth... or even at the Moon Palace. Our security shield wasn't even hit."
"Could Zedd be testing us out?" Aisha said. "Or maybe he's still recovering from using so much power at the beginning of the summer."
"Lord Zedd would have recovered fully by now," Zordon answered. "I expected him to attack before now... and I certainly expected a far more serious attack than what he presented."
"We've seen this before," Tommy reminded them. "At least, we did from Rita. She'd attack with something small, but that would just be a taste of what she had planned."
"I want to refine our scans," Billy said, joining Alpha at the computers. "It could be Zedd is using some kind of energy that we cannot sense."
Kimberly folded her arms. "We also need to keep an eye out for anything unusual. Speaking of..." She turned her gaze to Adam, who felt himself shrink at her attention. "What was going on out there, Adam?"
Adam shrugged. "That Putty was giving me trouble. It felt stronger than the others."
He looked around at five identical frowns from the rest of the Rangers. He knew that Putties tended to vary in quality, depending on the grade of the clay and the amount of magic powering it. The senior Rangers had warned against some Putties surprising them with better skills and strength. And he'd apparently let it sucker him, despite their warnings.
"Alpha, was there anything different about that Putty that Adam was fighting?" Billy said. "Maybe some extra magic, or some kind of device?"
"No, Billy, though I can run extra scans," Alpha said. "Its energy reading was within the same specifications as the rest of the Putties on the field."
Tommy looked back at Adam, his mouth thinning. "I know some Putties can be stronger than others, but you can't just let the line break like that. Those Putties you let through were heading for the Youth Center. They could have caused a lot of damage before we got to them."
Adam felt like disappearing. Maybe melting through the floor. He wished he still had his helmet back on, and he knew his face was glowing red. Their first real mission, and he'd screwed up badly enough that Tommy was calling him out on it.
"I'm sorry," Adam said. "I... I just don't understand why that Putty was so much stronger. It really seemed different from the others."
But he felt the excuses fall flat even to himself. He couldn't just make excuses for endangering civilians. That wasn't what Power Rangers did.
"Adam, it happens," Kimberly said, trying to break the tension in the room. "And I shot them: no harm, no foul. Just don't be afraid to call for backup next time. We're not so dedicated to our battle plans that we can't look after our own."
Rocky and Aisha had been wide-eyed and silent through the whole thing. Now they looked less like deer in headlights. "So, is there anything we need to do in the meantime?" Rocky said. "I mean, any way we can help with... scanning?" The look in his eyes, though, said 'please God no.'
Tommy sighed. "There's really nothing we can do right now. Be wary of everything, though. Zedd might still strike, and he's probably not going to announce it."
Tommy and Kimberly left first, while Billy stayed to work with Alpha on the scans. Aisha hung back as well. "I want to keep learning about the computer systems," she said. "You guys go on."
Rocky clapped a hand on Adam's shoulder. "Come on. We can go pick up my Jeep."
The Jeep was parked on the outskirts of a grocery store parking lot, so Rocky and Adam had to teleport behind the store across from it and run across the road. Rocky hadn't been able to park in the shade, so the Jeep was scorching hot. Adam ran into the grocery store to buy drinks while Rocky blasted the AC and put blankets over the leather seats.
Adam climbed into the passenger seat and let Rocky fiddle with the radio before pulling out into traffic. It was 5:00, so the traffic was bumper to bumper.
Rocky frowned at the traffic. "Do you think if I ask Billy nicely, he'd give my car a flying upgrade?"
Despite Adam slowly settling into a good sulk, he couldn't help but smile. "I don't think it's a good idea to give a Jeep flying capabilities."
"Makes as much sense as a Volkswagen Beetle," Rocky responded.
Adam didn't answer. In fact, he was trying to figure out how he could get away from Rocky, and how he could just be alone for a while without going home.
"So..." Rocky said in what he obviously thought was a casual way, "that sucked all of the donkey balls, didn't it?"
The joke caught Adam off guard, like it always did, and he snorted as he was taking a drink, the bubbles burning through his sinuses. "Rocky..." he said, coughing.
"God, you're easy to crack up," Rocky laughed. He face took on a more serious expression. "I don't care what those energy readings were... You've been fighting Putties even before you were a Ranger. We all have. I didn't see the fight, but I know if you say that Putty was different, then it was different."
Adam slouched in his seat, putting his knees up on the dashboard. "Rocky, I'm not so sure now. It could have just been one of those randomly stronger Putties they warned us about. I'm..." He looked away. "I'm off my game today, and I probably let that affect my fighting."
Rocky remained silent. He did that when Adam was trying to put words together, or trying to convince himself that he could say something. Adam always appreciated it.
"I didn't make the soccer team," Adam blurted out. At least he wasn't crying this time.
There was a honk behind them, and they realized the light had turned green and Rocky was going. Rocky flipped off the person behind him after the second horn blast, and then kept driving. "That's ridiculous, Adam. There's gotta be some mistake."
"No mistake," Adam said, sinking deeper into the seat. "I read the list three times."
"Did anything go wrong at the try-outs?"
"Not that I know of. I don't know. Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am."
"Impossible," Rocky said.
Adam wished that Rocky would drop it. Rocky always had to figure everything out, figure out the reasons for every bad thing that happened. He still didn't get that sometimes bad things just happened for no particular reason... such as a randomly stronger Putty.
Adam watched Rocky as he tried to figure things out. He knew that Rocky would push the investigation into Adam's Putty, and he would probably start asking around about soccer try-outs. Adam would probably have to call Rocky down eventually... and maybe Aisha could help. They both had had to stop Rocky from going up to Aaron and giving Adam's brother a piece of his mind. While Rocky could never stand up to his own father, he was more than willing to challenge literally every other authority figure that might possibly be mean to his friends.
"Come on," Rocky said, taking a right to the center of town. "I'm taking you to that coffee shop you like."
"You hate coffee," Adam pointed out.
"They have other things," Rocky said defensively. "We didn't get to plan our classes before, either. Sorry I was late, by the way."
"It's okay." Adam smiled. The day had been horrible, but things were starting to look up.
Things did not continue to look up, Adam mused as he stared into the bathroom mirror. The school bathroom was markedly cleaner at the end of the first day of school, and there were paper towels... but it was just as empty.
The weekend and first day of school had been a disaster. He and his brother had gone back to school shopping, which they always made into a bit of an outing with a movie and a restaurant... but things were still tense between them. Aaron kept looking at Adam's wrist communicator, as if it was going to go off at any moment... which, technically, it could have. There hadn't been any good movies out, so they'd decided to rent a movie. Aaron had tried to force smiles, but Adam could still see the frown behind it. Knowledge that Adam had fought Putties the day before didn't help, for either of them.
The Sunday Ranger meeting had gone even worse. Billy, Aisha, and Alpha had apparently worked on the scanners, and Tommy, Kimberly, and Rocky had gone through the fight footage, but they could think of no explanation for Adam's sudden lapse. Rocky and Aisha kept shooting Adam sympathetic looks, and Adam couldn't figure out if that was better or worse than the more calculating looks the senior Rangers were giving him. He got it. He'd screwed up. He'd have to work extra hard to prove himself... but the training exercises that Sunday had been a disaster. This time, Adam let even more Putties out, and the other Rangers had to work extra hard to keep up with his screw-ups.
And today... that had been humiliating. Detention on the first day of school. He'd have to leave soon so he wouldn't be late, but he just couldn't pull himself out of the room, away from the mirror.
Instead of his reflection, he was watching a scene from his childhood playing in his head. His first time trying out for soccer, and he'd gotten picked last. He'd been small, his limbs too big for the rest of his body. In the middle of the mock game, he'd been knocked down. Every time he tried to play, a boy from the opposite team knocked him down, hoping to get an edge on him. The coach hadn't noticed, and he hadn't gotten on the team. And the other boy had laughed.
It was the last year in junior high... the year before his parents died... that he finally got the courage to try out again. He'd gotten on the team then, and done well, but every time he tried something he remembered that first try-out. Being knocked down. Laughed at. Not good enough.
That was probably why he'd punched Bulk in the face. Right when his brother and Principal Kaplan were turning the corner. Other students had stood up for him... told them that Bulk had tripped him in the hall, while Skull had tried to steal his book bag... so all three of them got detention. And his brother, being the brand new teacher and all, was going to be in charge of it.
Perfect. Just absolutely perfect.
Finally abandoning the mirror, he trudged out of the bathroom and to his brother's classroom, where Bulk and Skull were already installed in the back row. Bulk glared at him, but Adam knew he wouldn't be able to do anything to him while Aaron-Mr. Park-was there. Aaron also glared pointedly at him and then gestured to the board. "Write a 1-page essay on the virtues of non-violence," it said.
Adam looked pointedly at Bulk and Skull, who were thumb-wrestling.
Aaron shrugged. "Tough," he seemed to say. Adam knew that Bulk and Skull were just buying themselves detention until they actually did the essay... so Adam skulked over to a desk near the window and far away from the two bullies. He knew the essay prompt was mostly for him, anyway. Mr. Park, king of passive-aggressive teaching.
Adam just started his introduction, hoping his brother would let him go after he finished the essay and he wouldn't have to just sit there, when his communicator went off.
Adam looked up at Aaron, wondering what he would do. Bulk and Skull didn't seem to have noticed, as they were currently making loud sumo sounds in their thumb-wrestling match. This was something they'd talked about. If there were any emergencies during school-or even detention-hours, Aaron would have to cover for Adam and any of the other Rangers. Billy's mom had said he'd agreed to do this... but this was the first time it was actually an issue.
Aaron folded his hands, his lips thinning. "Turn your watch alarm off, Adam."
Adam stared at Aaron incredulously. Even Bulk and Skull looked up from their thumb-wrestling, hoping to see the new kid, the guy who had punched Bulk, get in more trouble. Adam realized, as Aaron stared at him unperturbed, that his brother was doing exactly what he'd said he'd do. He attributed Adam's communicator beep to a watch alarm. He was protecting his identity... without allowing him to leave.
Adam stared down at his paper, wondering furiously what he was supposed to do. Right now, the rest of the Rangers would be congregating in the Command Center, being briefed on the latest attack. They would soon wonder where Adam was... or maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they would decide that they could face the attack better without him.
Seconds ticked by. He had to leave, but his brother was sitting right there, as if daring him to make a move. Adam was starting to consider the repercussions of just up and running out of the classroom... when the monster siren started to sound.
Aaron frowned. Adam knew that his brother couldn't keep the three of them in the classroom. Not even detention allowed for that in an emergency.
"Okay, you three, we're headed to shelter," Aaron said, grabbing his briefcase. "You can make up this detention tomorrow."
Bulk and Skull were already leaving, old hats at taking shelter during monster attacks. Adam hung back so he could teleport out of there. He caught his brother giving him one last pained look as he left. He didn't look forward to tonight.
Adam teleported into the Command Center, and after a few words with Zordon, morphed right to the scene of battle. It was near a child's soccer game, and the Putties were currently terrorizing the players and parents. At the center of it all, a monster was fighting Tommy and Aisha, while the rest of the Rangers were taking care of Putties and trying to direct the children and parents out of there. It was hard to look at the monster; it was patterned after a mirror, and it kept reflecting the direct sunlight and blinding everyone around it.
Something itched in the back of Adam's brain, as if he'd just noticed a clue in a mystery novel, but couldn't figure out what the clue indicated.
"Glad you could join us," Tommy said into his helmet speaker. "Take the group near the far goal."
"Right," Adam said, snapping out of his reverie. He couldn't help but hear the sarcastic edge in Tommy's voice... but he also couldn't do anything about it, either. Children were in immediate danger, and he was not going to let any kid get hurt if he could help it.
Adam launched himself toward his objective. Three Putties were harassing two girls and a slightly older boy who wasn't wearing soccer gear... possibly a sibling of one of the players. They were the furthest from the rest of the fight, and they were the furthest from any of the parents, who were currently trying to grab as many children as they could and run.
Keeping in mind that the energy feedback from a destructing Putty could hurt the children, he simply threw one to the side by the arm before it could react. The boy took the opportunity to push the two girls out of immediate danger, and the two girls ran for it. The boy, however, was blocked by one of the remaining Putties from making his own escape.
"Wait for me to say 'run,' then run," Adam said to the boy shortly while blocking the attacks of one of the Putties. The boy nodded, but the Putties seemed to have understood, because they redoubled their efforts to keep the kid trapped and Adam busy. The Putty that Adam threw rejoined the fight, and pretty soon Adam was starting to get overwhelmed.
"Black Ranger... I can't get out!" the boy said. "I'm scared!"
Adam was about to answer when he let a roundhouse from a Putty in. It hit his helmet and felt not unlike getting hit with a baseball bat. Adam staggered, and then fell.
In his mind, he was suddenly nine, picked last for team soccer try-outs, and had fallen on the field for the third time. He looked up at the smirking face of the boy who had tripped him, knowing there was nothing he could do against him, no way he was ever going to succeed, no matter how much he tried, he would let everyone down...
And that smirking face turned into the face of a Putty, who kicked Adam in the stomach one... two... three times. Adam gasped, trying to pull himself up, trying to get to the boy...
The boy was lying on the pitch, his eyes closed, his leg at an odd angle. That was the last sight Adam saw before the Putty kicked one more time, and then he blacked out.
Sound came back to Adam before he could open his eyes, and the sound only came back in snatches. He forced himself to breath. He realized he was in the Command Center-there was always a distinctive electric hum about the place-and that he was no longer morphed. He had no idea how long he'd been unconscious.
"Adam?" Aisha's voice was close to him. "You okay? Did that serum really work?"
Adam slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on a bed in what he realized was the science lab in the Command Center. So not the main chamber. He wondered why there was a medical bed in the science lab, and whether injuries were that common. Or if it was just him.
"I'm good," Adam said slowly, pulling himself up. Aisha steadied him. "The... the boy?"
Aisha looked away. "He's okay... He's at the hospital. Broken leg, and they're keeping him for observation just in case of a concussion, but..."
"Dammit..." Adam said under his breath, his eyes filling with tears. He looked up. "We can't use the serum on him, can we?"
Aisha shook her head. "I already asked. Gotta be a Power Ranger, or with enough Morphing energy to make it work. Last time they tried that was Skull, apparently, and he's still got the Morphing energy. Can't risk it on anyone else."
Adam started getting to his feet. "I have to..."
"Rest?" Aisha said. "Or plow into the main chamber and do... what?"
That made Adam hesitate. "Is it bad?"
Aisha crossed her arms. "Tommy's being a complete ass about the whole thing. Rocky's in there defending you, by the way." She snorted. "I just couldn't stand being in there anymore."
"And how is Tommy wrong?" Adam said grimly. "I let a kid get hurt."
"It was a mistake..."
"None of you guys made that mistake," Adam pointed out. "Did any other kids get hurt? Or just the one I was protecting?"
Aisha crossed her arms even harder. He'd seen her like this before. She would defend her friends to the last breath... including defending them from themselves. "Look, something weird is going on. Just because we can't find anything in the scanners doesn't mean that there's not another reason for those Putties beating up on you. I mean, I know you didn't make the soccer team, which makes no damn sense, but..."
"Rocky tell you that?" Adam said.
Aisha looked away. "I was worried about you, so I checked the list myself. I didn't make the Girls' Chapter either, when I was Vice-President of the Girls' Chapter at Stone Canyon..."
"But you didn't let it affect you so much, you got a kid hurt."
"Not my point," Aisha said, bristling, "and if you'll stop interrupting me, I can tell you that..."
But Adam didn't want to hear it. He loved his friends. Rocky and Aisha always stood up for him. They'd supported him and covered for him and he had no idea how he could have gotten through his parents' deaths without them... but this was his responsibility. It was something he'd done. And he couldn't just let his friends keep making excuses for him. He left the room before Aisha could finish, headed to the main chamber. He heard Aisha make a frustrated noise behind him, and he heard her follow him, but he was too concerned with what he would say once he got to the main chamber.
He rounded a corner just as he heard Tommy say, "And if he's going to cut it as a Ranger, he can't do this. We need people we can count on out there, not people who are going to fold at a Putty attack..."
Tommy stopped when Kimberly grabbed his arm, and everyone in the room suddenly faced Adam. Adam felt the stares, felt Tommy's words cut through him like a knife. He knew he'd screwed up, but he never thought they'd start talking about whether he should be a Ranger or not.
But that's the conversation they should be having, the voice inside Adam's head told him. That nasty voice that always told him he wasn't good enough, that he didn't belong, that if he'd been better, the boy wouldn't have been injured, that they wouldn't have died on that slippery road...
Adam staggered, and then felt Aisha guide him to sitting on the step leading up to the computers. He waited, ready for Zordon to go ahead and tell him to turn in his Power Coin, that he was done, and cursing himself for not being brave enough to stand up while the hammer fell.
Zordon did speak, but no in the way Adam was expecting. "Tommy, that is enough," Zordon said. "You've more than made your point, and you're not being fair to Adam. Or do I need to bring up tapes of your own mistakes. Perhaps the fight against Dark Samurai?"
Adam was startled to see Tommy turn pale, his eyes growing wide. He bit his lip. "God, I'm... I'm so sorry, Adam. I wasn't thinking, and I wasn't fair."
"You're right, though," Adam said, his voice quiet. "I got someone hurt. I couldn't even get to the battle on time. I'm not fit to be a Ranger."
"And if perfection were a requirement of being a Power Ranger, we'd all be out on our butts," Kimberly said, giving a pointed look at Tommy. There was a moment of silent communication between Kimberly, Tommy, and Billy, the implications of which Adam couldn't begin to fathom.
"I refuse to accept that Adam's misfortunes have been entirely natural," Zordon said. "Alpha, conduct a body scan of Adam, paying close attention to any spells or influences Zedd may have implanted in him. Adam, I want you to recount everything that has happened to you since Friday morning, as that is when the attack started. Billy, you help Alpha. Aisha and Kimberly, go over the surveillance scans from the past seven days, just so we don't miss anything, either in Angel Grove or the Moon Palace. Tommy and Rocky, you're to review the two Putty fights again."
He looked sternly at all of them, including Adam. "Lord Zedd has managed to target one of our own and lay seeds of doubt. I want to know how he did it. I expect full reports from everyone tomorrow."
A bit shocked by Zordon's stern orders, the six Rangers got moving, breaking up into groups for their various tasks. Adam followed Alpha and Billy back to the science lab, wondering if this wasn't all just a wild goose chase. It was nice that even Zordon had faith in him, but... what if he was wrong? What if Adam was still that little boy who'd been knocked down at soccer try-outs, and couldn't get back up?
NOTE: For the "Dark Samurai" reference, read my story Spells and Illusions, chapters 4-5. Tommy is a super screw-up in that.
