The next day at JKP, Lily, Theo, Dominic, RJ and Fran all ran the restaurant. Casey tried to sleep away yesterday's battle. The others had hoped that Casey would be back to normal today. Theo and Lily were busy in the kitchen preparing 'RJ Specials'.
"Do you think Casey will be back to his old self after a good night's sleep?" Lily asked as she sprinkled cheese on a pizza.
"I'm sure he will be Lily. You worry too much." Theo said chopping pieces of pineapple. "He never should have went off on his own in the first place." He droned on. Lily stopped what she was doing and shot Theo a look.
"Come on, T. We don't know the whole story. Maybe he couldn't reach us, or he didn't want to wreck our day off like Dom said." Lily said. Theo looked up to her.
"Face it, Lil, he just wanted to hog all the glory. All he wanted was to show off-" Theo started, but was cut off by Casey clearing his throat. Casey stood on the stairs leading up to the loft. Bandage still tightly wrapped around his head, wearing a red and black hoodie with blue jeans.
"Am I…interrupting?" Casey asked looking hurt by Theo's words. He didn't know who he was, but he had hoped that he wasn't like what Theo had described.
"No, not at all." Lily said sweetly, "How are you feeling?" she walked to the stairs, wiping her hands on her apron. Theo rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm feeling better. I just…can't remember anything. I know you guys said you are my friends, I just don't recognize any of you. I'm sorry." Casey said feeling guilty.
"That's okay. It'll all come back to you in time." Lily said stroking his hand.
"Thanks…" Casey said wracking his brain trying to remember her name.
"…Lily." She answered.
"Right…Lily." Casey replied. "And…Leo?" he asked pointing at Theo. Theo rolled his eyes once again.
"Theo." He said annoyed. Casey gave a faint nod. As if he didn't already feel stupid enough.
"Right, sorry. If it's alright, I thought I'd take a little walk. Try to remember something…anything." Casey said looking at the floor.
"Sure. We'll tell RJ. Just be careful okay?" Lily said with a smile. Casey gave a weak smile and left the kitchen. Lily went back to where she and Theo were working.
"You're babying him Lily." Theo said bluntly, not even looking at her.
"Am not! He just needs his friends. Imagine how weird it must be not knowing anyone. He doesn't even know he's a ranger." Lily defended. Theo sighed and grinned at Lily. She was the only one that could make him feel guilty.
"You're right…as usual. I am being too hard on him. But what are we going to do, being minus one ranger? Our leader to say the least. And what if his memory never comes back?" Theo asked. Lily didn't know that Theo had so many feelings on the subject.
"It will, Theo..." She said looking at him worriedly, "…it has too." She only hoped that it would. And soon.
It was late in the afternoon and Casey walked through the park. He concentrated hard as he walked, trying to remember something. Anything.
"I hate this! I don't even know who I am!" Casey thought angrily to himself. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a young boy call his name.
"Hey, Casey!" Bruce shouted as he ran from a swing to Casey. Casey looked at the boy, he didn't ring any bells, he had no idea how he knew him.
"Hey." Casey said hesitantly, trying desperately to place the boy, but he had nothing.
"What happened to you yesterday? You were supposed to meet me at four. I waited and waited and you never showed." Bruce said, wanting to be mad, but then noticed Casey's bandage. "What happened to your head? Are you okay?" Bruce asked.
"I had a small…accident." Casey said looking up at the bandage, he didn't have the heart to tell the boy he couldn't remember him. But he tried to be discreet. "What did you say your name was?" he asked.
"Bruce…remember? We met at my birthday party a few days ago. You said that you'd teach me some fight moves. So I could be like the Red Ranger." Bruce explained, he noticed that this Casey was completely different than the one he had met earlier.
"Red Ranger?" Casey said softly to himself. Bruce's words seemed to trigger a memory in his head. Casey put one hand against his head and leaned forward, letting out a small cry of pain.
"Are you okay, Casey?" Bruce asked holding his arm steady. Casey saw in his memories a Red Ranger fighting a variety of monsters, but he couldn't tell who the Red Ranger was. One the pain faded, he opened his eyes and looked at Bruce.
"Ye-yeah." Casey replied shakily. He patted Bruce's shoulder for his kindness. "I'm…sorry about yesterday." Casey stammered, removing his other hand from his head.
"It's okay…we can train another time." Bruce said. He could tell something wasn't right, but he didn't want to pry. Casey smiled at him. Then screams erupted from all around them. People all scurried away from the monster known as Rammerhead. Their fear made him stronger. Casey and Bruce both looked to see what all the commotion was about.
"What is that?" Bruce said with a little fear, but he thought the monster looked cool at the same time. Casey then gave a worried look from the monster, then to Bruce. He may not of known who he was, but regardless, he wasn't about to let a child be injured. So he stood firm in front of Bruce to protect him. It was his instincts. Rammerhead wasted no time making his way towards Casey.
"Well, Red Ranger, we meet again! I have to say, you recovered a lot faster than I thought you would." Rammerhead laughed. Bruce's mouth dropped wide open, he quickly looked at Casey.
"You're the Red Ranger?!" Bruce said, beaming with excitement.
"What?" Casey said softly. The last thing he thought he was was the Red Ranger. He was more confused than ever.
"What's the matter, ranger? Are you scared to face me again?" Rammerhead taunted. Casey was cornered. He had no idea what to do. If he was in fact the Red Ranger, he didn't remember it, so what could he do now? As much as Casey's searched his memories, he came up blank.
"Enough stalling! Let's do this!" Rammerhead yelled as he darted full speed at Casey. Rammerhead tried a few crossover punches to Casey's head, but much to Casey's surprise, he blocked the punches with ease.
"Wow." Bruce said to himself as he watched in awe. Then Rammerhead had a hold off both of Casey's arms, he couldn't protect Bruce at the moment. Casey turned to face him.
"Bruce! Go hide!" Casey ordered as he ducked a punch Rammerhead threw. Bruce gave a firm nod and did what he was told. He hid behind a nearby tree so he could watch all of the action.
Rammerhead released the grip he had on Casey and tried a sweep kick. Casey somehow knew what to do and jumped, dodging the attack completely. He tried going on the offensive and threw a hard punch at Rammerhead's abdomen. As much as it shocked him, it connected. RH staggered backwards, clutching his gut.
"How did I do that?" Casey thought looking at his hands. It seemed as if they had a mond of their own for the fight.
"Enough child's play!" Rammerhead shouted angrily. He bent down and began to charge at Casey once more. Casey' eyes grew wide. He didn't know how to dodge this, he figured that he had been lucky before. He threw his arms up to defend himself as the shark grew closer. Just as he was about to make contact, a violet beam stopped him in his tracks and made him crash to the ground.
Casey hesitantly opened his eyes and slowly lowered his arms.
"Stop right there!" RJ shouted, as he and the other rangers all ran in front of Casey. RJ's Wolf Beam had temporarily paralyzed Rammerhead, but it didn't last long.
"You alright, Casey?" Lily asked looking back at him. Casey looked at all of them in their colorful ranger outfits. He thought they were awesome, even though he had no clue who the people were under the suits.
"Um…yeah fine. But who are you guys?" he answered. RJ turned back to answer him.
"We'll explain later, for now just go get Bruce!" RJ ordered. Casey nodded hesitantly. He didn't exactly do a fantastic job of warding off the monster. If they hadn't showed up, who knows what might have happened. But now was no time to ask questions, so he made his way to Bruce.
"Don't move!" Rammerhead said in a booming voice. Casey stopped. "Surrender yourself Ranger, or I'll ram the tree that the boy is hiding behind!" Rammerhead warned. Casey shot his head over to Bruce.
"Bruce, run!" Casey shouted loudly. He was worried that Bruce would be hurt.
"Okay!" Bruce answered and began to make a run for it.
"Oh, we're going to play hard ball, eh?" Rammerhead stated and fired to kelp shots out at Bruce, confining him to the tree he was hiding behind. Bruce struggled to break free but couldn't.
"Casey, help!" Bruce pleaded pulling his arms trying to break them free.
"Hang on, buddy!" Casey replied and ran to aid him.
"You just won't learn will you, ranger?" Rammerhead said and fired a blast at Casey. Casey flew through the air and crashed to the ground, the others ran to help him. "Surrender and I'll free the boy! What'll it be?" Rammerhead asked, he had Casey right where he wanted him.
"Don't do it, Casey! We can take him!" Dominic told him.
"Just trust your instincts, Case!" Theo added. And Casey thought for a mere moment. Then pain rushed through his head once again as he gained another memory. He grabbed his head tightly and hit his knees. He saw himself saving various civilians from all kinds of monsters. He even saw himself saving the rangers at times.
"Casey?" Lily asked.
"Are you okay, man?" RJ asked him.
When the pain finally subsided, he knew what he had to do.
"Well, ranger?" Rammerhead asked in an impatient tone. Casey stood, releasing his grip on his head.
"Fine." Casey said powerless.
"What?!" Dominic jumped.
"What're you doing?" Theo asked in disbelief. It's not that they didn't want to see Bruce saved, they just thought that there was a chance they could defeat the monster. Casey didn't want to take that risk.
"I'm following my instincts, Theo." Casey said walking towards Rammerhead.
"That's what I thought." Rammerhead boasted.
"Casey…" RJ said, he didn't know what to do. If they attacked, Bruce would be injured, all the rangers could do was watch. Rammerhead grabbed tightly on to Casey's shoulder, causing him to wince.
"Guys, I can't take the risk of Bruce being hurt. I'll never really find myself again unless I follow my instincts." Casey explained.
"Oh, how touching." RH said sarcastically. "Let's go!" he ordered, pulling Casey along with him. Casey didn't fight him.
Before the two left completely, Rammerhead turned back to face the rangers.
"I always honor my bargains." Rammerhead said, snapping his fingers, freeing Bruce from the tree. Lily ran to Bruce's side.
"I'm so sorry, Casey!" Bruce yelled sadly. Casey looked at him, and smiled, letting Bruce know this wasn't is fault.
"It's okay, Bruce. I'm doing what I have to do." Casey replied. Then he was jerked away by Rammerhead.
"I'll be back to destroy the rest of you later! Meanwhile, I'm sure Dai Shi will love his new gift!" Rammerhead laughed, so proud of himself.
"You're a monster!" Theo shouted angrily, pointing at RH.
"You got that right!" Rammerhead answered evilly, then he and Casey disappeared into thin air. RJ just stood there and tightened his fist, when he couldn't take it anymore, he punched the ground with all his might. He was furious, but Casey made his choice.
Lily knelt down beside Bruce.
"Are you okay?" She asked sweetly.
"I'm okay, I just hope that Casey will be." Bruce said as he hung his head.
"Me too." Lily said, rubbing his arm. "Let's get you home, okay?" She told him. Bruce gave a sad nod and headed home.