Wow, I really did not think I'd get this out tonight. When I first started I didn't even have a full page written, but I was able to get everything down that needed to be there. Also, the answer to the last quiz was Dolly Parton's "The Bargain Store". Yes, I know the song is about something totally different, but like I said bargaining is involved. I just figured it'd make a fun quiz question. For everyone that answered, I sent you your prize earlier this evening. I hope you enjoy it! I will need to be making more icons for later on. Never know when I'll need them! Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 27 Torturing Memories
Tommy watched the rear wall in his cell, staring at nothing in particular. His thoughts were elsewhere and focusing on the one thing that had troubled him for the longest time. Once thought to have been over her, thoughts came tumbling back after spending time with her in this cell lately. He missed her, even if only as a friend. She had always been so bright, so cheerful. That bit of light was missing from the team these days. No one could bring about that same bit of pep that Kimberly always could.
A sudden burst of pain brought Tommy back to reality. He glanced down at his chest and noticed that the scabbed over wounds had broken apart in some areas, causing a light bleeding. As Tommy applied pressure he wondered why Kimberly had been taken away by the Tengas. That look she had given him, the sad, defeated look in her eyes, broke his heart. A Ranger never gives up and even though Kimberly was an ex-Ranger, she had already given up the will to fight back. Perhaps it had been her lack of mobility. Perhaps she had had enough of Rita's torture. Perhaps she felt she was better off dead… No thought Tommy. He knew he shouldn't think that way about Kimberly, but he honestly couldn't know how she felt. She had been out of contact with anyone for awhile…
Tommy's thoughts were interrupted by a key slipping into the lock on his cell. He turned around, only to see the maniacal face of Rita Repulsa before him. Behind her stood four Tenga warriors. "Ah, just who I was looking for," spoke Rita.
"What do you want?" asked Tommy, getting to his feet.
"Now, now don't get your morpher in a bundle." Before Tommy could react, a blue light shot from Rita's scepter, effectively knocking Tommy out. "Search him for his morpher," commanded Rita to the Tengas. "When you find it, take away one piece of it. One piece will never allow him to morph."
The Tengas clustered around Tommy, checking everywhere on his body for his morpher. It was found tucked away in his back pocket. One Tenga took part of it, while another Tenga grabbed Tommy's communicator for good measure. Both treasures were handed over to Rita. "Excellent work. Now take him to the room where Kimberly is. I want to see the look on his face when he sees her."
The Tengas nodded at their empress before picking Tommy up. Each Tenga had a limb, but did not carry him gently. In fact, they enjoyed swinging him back and forth more than they did anything else. Tommy finally made it to the room in one piece, but a little more bruised. They tossed him on the ground; Tommy was jolted awake by the motion. Just as Rita was about to follow them inside, she felt a bony hand tap on her shoulder. She gave a look of disgust to no one in particular before turning around. "What do you want now?" she asked impatiently.
Rito shrugged his shoulders. "Just seeing what you were up to. Ed boy wouldn't let me use his staff. Something about how I blew out the hole in the wall, or something like that. Anyway what's going on?"
"Using Kimberly against Tommy," answered Rita briefly.
Rito peeked his head into the room. "Hey, wait a minute… I thought Kim there couldn't walk."
"She can't you dolt. It's just a temporary magic fix. The longer she stays that way, the less chance she has to survive after it's removed."
"Oh I see, I see…" mumbled Rito. "So what's she gonna do to Tommy-boy there?"
"I'd take the trouble to explain, but it's easier if you just stay and watch. You're giving me a headache," moaned Rita as she rubbed her temples.
"Oh goody! I love a good show!" called Rito as he barged past Rita into the room. Rita simply shook her head at her idiotic brother and entered behind him.
Rita walked over to Kimberly, who was looking at Tommy with growing interest. "There's your prey. Now, just bash him up a bit, put on a nice show, but no killing until I give the signal, got it?" instructed Rita.
Kimberly looked at her, eyes flashing red. "I understand."
"Good. Now off with you. Show me what you've got."
Kimberly walked over to where Tommy lay, and grinned wickedly at him. Tommy looked up at her, surprised at what he saw. Kimberly was walking… that wasn't possible. Then it clicked. Kimberly was now under Rita's power. She was doing her bidding, and as an added bonus had been given the ability to walk again. Had she gone willingly though? That, Tommy couldn't decide. She had had that look on her face when he last saw her, and she truly could have been sick and tired of fighting back that she finally gave in to Rita's plans. Tommy didn't want to believe that was the case, but it wasn't something he could dismiss either.
"Get up handsome and give me a good fight. I might just take it easy on you if you do as I say," stated Kimberly.
Tommy rose to his feet, but not because Kimberly had commanded him to. Now that he was no longer confined to a cell, he decided it was time to take things to the next level. Time to go Zeo he thought to himself. "Zeo Ranger V, Red!" he shouted. However, nothing happened. He didn't feel the energy boost that normally came with morphing. As he looked down at his wrists, he only saw part of his morpher had appeared. The other piece was simply not there. It was then that Tommy also noticed his communicator was missing as well. He looked over at Rita, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Looking for these?" she asked as she held up an open box, his morpher piece and communicator inside. Around the box a red glow was seen, and Tommy presumed this to be a force field of some sort to keep him from taking them away from Rita.
"Give me back my morpher and communicator!" he shouted.
"Now Tommy, if I did that, then it wouldn't be any fun to see you and Kimberly fight. If she doesn't have any Ranger powers, then neither do you. However, Kimberly has something you don't."
"And that is?" asked Tommy.
"A partner," answered Rita as Maroon stepped out from the shadows. This time however, she looked different, and unlike Tommy had seen her before. She was an exact mirror image of Kimberly, even more so now that she had added the same cuts and bruises to her body. Tommy knew that once the battle began, he'd have a hard time telling the two apart.
"Miss me?" asked Maroon.
"Not particularly," replied Tommy.
"Oh but after our fun romp, I would have thought you'd think differently."
"I have no memory of you or this "romp" you're talking about," answered Tommy.
Maroon was about to answer, but Kimberly interrupted her instead. "Oh but don't you, Tommy? I remember it clearly, even after I closed my eyes. I know you enjoyed yourself. You enjoyed tormenting me with the display, that's for certain."
"What are you talking about?" asked Tommy. What were Kimberly and Maroon referring to, and why couldn't he remember any of it? He knew his memory was terrible, but it wasn't this bad. He racked his brain, trying to figure out what they meant, but it was useless. He couldn't remember a damned thing.
"Oh what about the making out? Or, I know! What about the sex in front of me? The groans and moans that I continued to hear, even after closing my eyes and ears? What about that, Thomas Oliver?" asked Kimberly.
"Kimberly, I wouldn't have sex with Maroon. That's just… insane," answered Tommy, faltering. Had he? Could she have put some spell on him?
"Oh but you did Tommy… You agreed that it was the best way to torment poor Kimberly here. So we did and you enjoyed every second of it," added Maroon.
Tommy's face paled. No, it couldn't be… Tommy wouldn't have done something like that, not with the enemy, not even in front of his ex-girlfriend… he'd never had sex with her before so why would he have started with Maroon? Maroon simply laughed at Tommy. "Yes, Tommy. I know what you are thinking. Why did you have sex with me? Well, it was quite easy once you were under my spell. You obeyed my every word and agreed to any sensual pleasure I asked about. You were my obedient sex slave, and I can easily do the same to you again if I felt like it."
Tommy didn't even give Maroon the satisfaction of grinning at him. He lunged at her, aiming to grab her by the neck. However, Maroon had anticipated some sort of violence from him and easily stepped aside, causing Tommy to land flat on his face. Tommy rose again and turned, only to find Kimberly standing in front of him. Or at least, he thought it was Kimberly. He wasn't too sure anymore. "Tsk, tsk, Tommy. Out of practice there? Or did you think I'd not be able to see that attack coming?" Now Tommy knew that it was Maroon speaking to him. He didn't see Kimberly though…
A hard kick to the back told Tommy that Kimberly was back. He groaned, and placed a hand on his back, rubbing it gently. He hadn't remembered Kimberly's kick being so powerful. "Kimberly, why are you doing this? Why are you following Rita?"
Kimberly refused to answer him and instead backflipped away from him while Maroon moved in and began to torment him again. "Don't you know that once your girlfriend breaks up with you, she can do whatever she pleases? It's her life, not yours so stay out of it. If she wants to become evil, then she can and you have no say in the matter. Find yourself a new girl, or, if you want, I'll be glad to make you my sex slave again," said Maroon.
Tommy delivered an upper cut to Maroon's chin before getting up again. "I will never be your slave again," he swore. "I can promise you that."
"Well, you never know what you'd say under my spell again. I'm willing to be that you'd come back to me eager for my body before you'd say no to such a tempting pleasure."
Rita had been watching the entire scene with amusement. She should have done this ages ago. Teaming Maroon and Kimberly up had been a brilliant idea, even though it was last minute one. Maroon had simply been hiding in the room, watching the earlier exchange between Rita and Kimberly. When Rita had seen her against the wall, she had explained a new idea to Maroon, who readily agreed to it. After all, Maroon wasn't going to turn down a fight with Tommy. She enjoyed his company way too much for that. Rita turned to her brother, who had somehow gotten ahold of popcorn and was munching away. "What do you think of my plan?" she asked him sweetly.
Rito turned to his sister and began to answer her, popcorn spilling from his mouth. "Seems like a good one. Why didn't Ed get involved?"
"Chew with your mouth closed you moron! Zedd preferred to enjoy his retirement instead of helping me destroy the Rangers this time around."
"I knew Ed was old, but I didn't know he was that far over the hill… Sheesh."
"Tell me about it," grumbled Rita.
"So when do I get to see the good stuff? Blood, guts, and gore?"
"Be patient. Tommy's being tormented slowly. He'll die eventually."
"What about Kimberly?"
"Well, she's pretty useless after she kills Tommy. After all, I can't keep her walking for too long or she'll die and she wouldn't make a good minion being dead."
"Then what's going to happen to her?"
"I'll simply have Maroon kill her, but not quickly. Slow death is better."
"What if you have Maroon do to her as she did to Tommy? Then she can kill her."
"Rito, I don't know how, but you've actually come up with a decent idea for once. Although, I will have to have Finster alter the Desire potion and create a female version, but it should work out nicely…"
Rito grinned before pounding his chest. A kernel of corn had gotten stuck in his throat. "Help…. Please…." He gasped. Rita whacked him on the back with her scepter and the kernel flew from Rito's mouth.
"You're such an idiot."
"Hey, I can't help that."
"Go tell Finster this: Create a female version of the Desire potion. And don't screw it up either. You must tell him exactly as I said."
Rito saluted. "Gotcha sis," he called before crossing the room to walk out the door. He stopped at the fighting trio. Both girls were currently attacking Tommy from either side.
"Get a move on you bonehead!" yelled Rita. Rito sighed before heading out the door and to Finster's lair. Good help wasn't appreciated, and certainly not by his sister, that was for sure. Rito found Finster in his room, stirring away at some greenish concoction.
"Message from Rita," spoke Rito.
Finster jumped, before looking up at Rito. "Don't scare me like that! You could have ruined my entire potion! The ingredients in here are rare and…."
Rito cut Finster off. "Dude, chill out. Rita only wants you to create a female version of the Desire potion. She has some plan for it. Whatcha cooking?"
"It's none of your business! Now get out so I can concentrate on my work. You are hindering the process!"
"Whatever," muttered Rito as he left Finster's. Yes, good help was certainly not appreciated by anyone.
Okay so orginally Rito wasn't in this chapter, but I figured out an interesting way to include him, as you just saw. He's fun to write, what else can I say? Question is, could he end up ruining everything?
Next time on Windmill into the Fall: Jason and Katherine arrive at Master Vile's but nothing is going as was planned. Tommy and Kimberly are nowhere to be found and Jason is running out of ideas. Will he and Katherine be able to work together to find the room? Or will they get caught up by one of Rita's minions?