A New Shade of Pink

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Capture and Rescue

For the next couple of days, Liz tried desperately to avoid Conner, though this proved to be a near-impossible task, because not only was he in three of her classes, but he kept trying to talk to her whenever he saw her in the hallway. Liz had to duck inside the girls' room more than once, forcing herself to strike up conversations with girls that she wouldn't have even talked to otherwise.

But she had to. Liz couldn't deny it, not even to herself, that she really liked Conner and she didn't want him to get hurt. Every time that she got close to Conner, she just had flashbacks of her father and Sam right before they were killed in front of her.

She couldn't risk that happening to Conner. And she knew that those things—whatever they were—were here in Reefside. So that meant that the psycho lady was here too and once she found out that Liz was here, then Liz had no doubt that she would track her down.

As Kimberly had said when Liz asked her if she would see those things again, they always stuck around. It was what they did.

Liz had brooded and pondered what had happened in that alleyway, the way that she had somehow magically thrown those creatures away from her like that and she had only been able to come to one conclusion.

That she had somehow developed telekinesis.

And the only way that she could think how was that it was somehow linked to that gem. Certainly, it would explain why that lady wanted it so badly, if it bestowed powers upon someone. Liz couldn't think of anything else that made any sense.

Once she had figured that out, Liz tried to figure out how to use it again, even practiced mental exercises, and it had worked a few times. Granted, it didn't work half of the time—okay, most of the time—but a few times, she was able to do it. And the few times that she had been able, she had struck what she had been aiming for.

Liz sighed as she walked into the apartment after school, shoving her hands into her pockets. She had come here for one purpose and that was to bring that woman to justice. So why was it that all of the reasons why she had come seemed to fly out the window whenever Conner came into the picture?

Sitting down on the couch, Liz ran her hands through her hair as she picked up her book off of the table, trying to focus on the characters' lives instead of her own, but unfortunately, she just managed to see her and Conner as the main characters, which brought her back to what she had been trying to forget about.

"Oh!" Liz tossed her book onto the table. "That's it! I have got to get out of here!" she muttered, going to her bedroom and picking up her purse and jacket off of her bed. Her gaze fell onto her camera, lying on the desk with some of her photographs.

More than anything, Liz loved taking pictures. Capturing a moment in time, preserving that moment for all eternity, she loved it. She had dreamed of becoming a photographer since she was a kid. Sam had planned on becoming a journalist, so they had planned on working together, with him as the writer and her as the photographer. It had seemed like a perfect match.

Liz hadn't taken a single picture since. . . . She just hadn't found the desire to photograph the way that she had used to. Now, however, it was something to get her mind off of things.

Grabbing her camera—which was one of the old-style ones instead of the digital ones that everybody had nowadays—Liz sling it and her purse over her shoulder before she grabbed her keys and headed out the door. She knew the perfect spot where she could photograph.

Heading towards the docks, Liz smiled happily as she found it peaceful and quiet as the river ran by, the quiet stream only broken by the calls of the birds singing. It was perfect, she thought cheerfully as she loaded up the camera to start taking pictures of the beautiful landscape.

Focusing the camera into position, Liz pressed the button to snap, capturing the river as the sun hit it, the way that the trees seemed to turn to gold with the approaching sunset, and the birds flying through the sky, calling for their mate.

Liz smiled as she captured another photograph and another. Everything seemed to melt away when she was taking pictures. She wished that she had remembered that before. With another grin, she poised the camera for another amazing shot when—

"Hi."

A small gasp of surprise escaped from Liz as she spun around, stumbling over her own feet in her alarm and would've gone tumbling into the water had a hand not reach out and caught her, pulling her to safety.

Breathing more heavily than she would've regularly, Liz tried to regain her composure as she looked at her rescuer. "Thanks," she said, looking up to find Conner standing right next to her and her heart lurched in her chest, wondering how long he had been there. "Conner . . ." she whispered, shocked to see him standing there.

"Hey," he said with a smile at her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I saw you down here and I thought I'd come say hi. Haven't seen you in a couple days." Liz nodded, keeping her mouth shut, not trusting her voice as she lowered her eyes, well aware of the way her cheeks were starting to heat up. "So . . . how are you?"

"Fine," Liz said quickly. "I'm fine."

Conner looked down at her, his hands in his pockets. "I don't think you are," he said bluntly. Liz looked up at him sharply. "You wouldn't answer my question the other night, you've been completely avoiding me the last couple of days, and you won't look me in the eye," he added pointedly.

Liz forced herself to look at him directly in the eye so she could make a quick escape. "I have to go," she said, gathering up her stuff, but Conner wasn't about to let her leave.

"Look, was it something about those lizard guys the other night?" he asked. Liz shook her head wildly, not wanting him to get too close. "What happened, Liz? Tell me," he added more gently. "Whatever it is that happened, we can deal with it. I can handle it."

"Yeah?" Liz looked at him sharply. "Well, I thought that my dad and my brother could handle anything. Now they're lying six feet under," she said, not meaning to say that aloud.

Conner's face went pale and his mouth opened slightly, but his shock was enough to let her slip through his grasp and she was almost away from the docks when she heard the same sound that she heard the other night when those freaks appeared in that alleyway.

"Hello, Elizabeth," a dangerously familiar voice said from behind her. Liz spun around just in time to see the woman that she had been so determined to find right behind her.

"Liz, run!" Conner yelled at her, but her feet were frozen on the ground, moving into a defensive position. "What are you doing, run!"

But she couldn't. She couldn't do that, not when she was so close and she could possibly do what she came here to do—

She couldn't.

Two things happened at the same time. The first thing was that Conner was running at her, shouting a warning to her, taking down as many of those dinosaur freaks as he could while getting to her. The second thing was Liz felt a sharp pain explode in the back of her head and she saw dots in front of her eyes before everything went dark.

--

Groaning slightly as she slowly moved back into consciousness, Liz tried to make sure that all of her limbs were intact and in one piece before she thought above moving. Flexing her fingers and toes and shifting her arms and legs slowly, Liz began to sit up, opening her eyes as she did so.

She almost wished that she had stayed unconscious, because the second that she opened them, she found herself in a very small and very dark cell, with only one source of light coming from a look-see in the door.

"Man, I really am starting to be just like Aunt Kim," she muttered, getting to her feet as she looked around at her surroundings. Or at least, she tried to. It was really hard to see in that dark cell and she half-hoped that it would stay dark, because she didn't want to see what was going on around her.

Liz felt in her pockets and inhaled a sigh of relief when she felt the gem still remained in her pocket. Either they didn't search her or they couldn't take it without her permission, but either way, Liz didn't care. All that mattered was that she still had it with her.

Taking a deep breath, Liz got to her feet and moved towards the door so she could peer through the keyhole and see what was going on outside. The corridor outside was strangely quiet, but there was one guard outside, one of those dinosaur guys.

"Okay, Liz, think, come up with a plan," she muttered. "You can't just sit here and play the damsel in distress." Plan, plan . . . there was either two choices, both of which were plausible.

One, she could trick the guard into coming in here and knock him unconscious, thus leaving her unguarded and free to escape. Or two, she could break down the door and escape the hard way. Either way, she was going to have to knock out the guard, but that didn't seem too hard. These guys were hardcore, it seemed like, but they weren't too smart.

Liz peered out the door, making sure that it was clear besides that one guard, before she made her decision. Now was as good a time as ever to try her powers again.

Closing her eyes, Liz pressed her fingers to her temple, plunging into the depths of where the gem's power was stored inside her.

It roared with power and Liz felt something strange and primordial surge through her as she thrust out her hand and the door in front of her went flying off of its hinges, startling the guard outside as Liz stood in the doorway, looking down at the destroyed cell door weakly.

"Okay, I didn't mean for it to be that loud," she commented, kicking the dinosaur guy backwards and flipped upwards, landing gracefully in front of him and moving instantly into another kick, sending him down. "All right, now I just have to get out of here," she muttered, hurrying down the corridor.

But how was she going to get out of this place? She had absolutely no idea where she was and even if she did, then there seemed to be no end to these hallways, with no way to get out of this place.

Was Conner all right? she thought anxiously as she raced through the corridors, searching for the exit. Had they captured him too? No, no, they were just after her . . . please, please, don't let Conner be here? she prayed to whatever higher power might be listening. Let him be fine and away from this place. Let him be safe.

Liz let out a strangled cry as the lady that had haunted her nightmares suddenly appeared in front of her, with about twenty or so of those dinosaur guys and she skidded to a stop, backing up only to find twenty more of them right behind her.

"Uh-oh," she muttered, looking around desperately for an exit through them and finding no escape route. "This could potentially be a problem."

"Well, Miss Summers, I must say, I'm a little bit disappointed," the lady informed her. "As the niece of the original Pink Ranger, I was expecting something a bit more impressive."

Liz's head shot up as she heard the part about her aunt and the blood drained from her face. "How do you know about my aunt?" she asked sharply and the lady only laughed mirthlessly. "You know, you've really got me at a disadvantage. You seem to know a lot about me, but I really don't know anything about you. Oh," she added, "besides the fact that you're a murdering, conniving, psychotic lunatic."

But the woman's sneer only deepened. "My master calls me Elsa," she answered smoothly. "And I believe that you know what we want."

"You're not getting it," Liz said flatly, taking another look at her surroundings. "I don't know what it is about this gem that is so important to you, but there is no way I am just going to hand it over to you just like that. And there's no way that you're going to get it from me, because there's a big difference between now and our last meeting."

"And what might that be?" Elsa inquired.

"Now? I've got nothing left to lose," she said harshly. "But you do." Elsa's dark eyes went wide and Liz used the moment to plunge into the depths of her power and use all that she had inside her to telekinetically move them out of the way, throwing them to either side.

Once they were out of the way, Liz didn't waste any time racing past them and down the hall.

"After her!" she heard Elsa scream and she ran as fast as she could, desperate to put as much distance between them and her as was humanly possible. Where was the way out?

Just when Liz was about to give up all hope of ever finding the way out of this place, just when she was ready to stop and fight, she heard a strange sound and without warning, three multi-coloured masked figures appeared out of nowhere, aboard motorcycles.

"What the . . .?" she began as the Power Rangers landed behind her, creating a blockage between the dinosaur guys and her. The one in red turned his mask head right towards her.

"Get on!" he ordered her.

Liz shook her head wildly. "No way, I'm not going to just get on some motorcycle with some guy I don't even know!" she protested just as those freaky dinosaur guys came around the corner with Elsa. She looked up at them, then back at the Red Ranger. "All right, maybe I am."

Moving towards him, she climbed on the back of his bike, hearing Elsa's cry of, "Stop them!" as she did so.

Her arms wrapped around his waist and she felt something oddly familiar go through her as she sat behind him on his motorcycle. It was a feeling of safety and protection, something that she had felt recently, but that had been with . . .

"Conner?!" she whispered in disbelief. She felt his ripple of surprise, but there was no time for that discussion. Not now. There would be time for that later, if they survive this.

All she knew was that the Red Ranger was Conner and as they drove forward into a flash of green light, she knew that she was safe.