Disclaimer: Still don't own Power Rangers.
A/N: Thanks again to all my
reviewers. The end is in sight, but don't worry. There's still plenty
of action and drama left.
"...Sorry. Sorry, I can't tell you," Zack said, shaking his head. It just wasn't worth it. "Our entire operation relies on us remaining hidden from the world. We can't..."
"Begin a trail of evidence," Mayor Garrett finished for him, repeating Zack's thoughts exactly. "You can't afford to have news crews and government agents all in your face."
Zack nodded. At least the guy understood.
"Here. Take these back to where ever you come from," the mayor said, handing him a large stack of papers and envelopes. "Hang them up, throw them out, frame them, use them as target practice. I don't care."
"What are these?" Zack asked as he looked at the top of the massive pile, seeing a fax from the CIA.
"CIA, FBI, NSA...you name it. Even a couple foreign organizations," Mayor Garrett explained. "All wanting permission to set up surveillance equipment inside of Angel Grove. To post men everywhere. To track down, locate, and determine the identities of the Power Rangers."
"We couldn't work like that. We couldn't protect ourselves and the Earth at the same time," Zack said, shaking his head.
"The reason every request has been denied. The reason that stack gets bigger and bigger by the day," the mayor said, leaning forwards now that he was getting to his point. "You give me a name, and it stays between you, me, and the other Rangers. I'll get him for something else, I'm sure he has a criminal record behind that mask. I'll add it on and he'll be brought in quietly. There will be no investigations on the other Ranger identities. The Green Ranger is brought in for something entirely unrelated, but will still suffer all the same punishments." Mayor Garrett now offered his hand out to the Black Ranger. "You have my word. Not as the mayor of Angel Grove or anything like that. As another human being who wants to see an end to the bloodshed.
Zack nodded. He was a politician...and politicians couldn't be trusted. This guy was different, though. Zack could see that he was speaking the truth. The Black Ranger smiled behind his helmet as he reached over and shook hands with the mayor. "David Whaley."
Jason was ready to kill something. Yea, that sounded a little bit savage and a bit like one of Zedd's warriors, but he didn't care. He hadn't had a chance to see any action since...the incident. He still couldn't bring himself to accept his brother's death, despite knowing that he needed to do it soon. He'd worry about that later. It was time to let Zedd's goons know that they'd done plenty of digging for the day. And the rest of their lives. Which Jason was determined to make very short.
Looking up, he saw that Goldar was gone, with Squatt and Baboo having taken his place in the digging. Scorpina was still there, although she looked unbelievably angry for some reason. Whatever. Then there was that monster, the Diginator, working hard at the center of the group. The readouts reported it as a non-combat monster. Still, he had to expect the worst from it. Closest to him were ten putties, hard at work with their shovels, and grouped together very nicely. Numbers were always important, and the less there were, the better he would do. The Red Ranger formed his sword in his hands, and leaped from his hiding place into the crowd of putties. He landed right in the middle of the crowd, and with six swift sword blows, six putties were taken down before he was even noticed by the others.
"Red Ranger!" Scorpina yelled in surprise, drawing her crescent blade. She quickly threw it at him, and it spun in the air towards him.
"I don't know what you're doing here, but you're done!" Jason yelled back, swinging at the crescent blade as it came near him. The blade was knocked to the side, slashing his right arm slightly, but redirected and hit the Diginator.
"What!?" the confused monster yelled, suddenly alerted to the battle.
"Diginator! Retreat!" Scorpina ordered it, picking up her blade while Jason dispatched the final four putties. The Diginator quickly disappeared.
"I'm taking you down!" Jason yelled as he ran towards Scorpina.
Scorpina braced herself, and swung her blade as Jason closed in. Jason swung back, and they locked swords for a second, facing off against each other.
"You should give up now!" Scorpina taunted, although the usual villain smile wasn't coming through. The Red Ranger had been getting in her way more and more lately...and honestly, she was just tired of him.
"You should just tell me what the hell you're doing here!" Jason replied, thinking something along the same lines. Usually he dealt with Goldar, not Scorpina. He was getting just as tired of her as she was of him.
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough!" Scorpina yelled, pushing back on the swords as she leaped upwards. She threw a jump kick into Jason's chest, throwing him backwards. Before he could recover, she vanished into thin air.
Jason slowly got to his feet, looking around carefully. All forces had been dealt with...one way or another. He walked over to the hole, looking down at the large, long steel object in it. There were strange devices planted all over the thing, too. Jason shook his head as he raised his wrist and turned on his communicator.
"Billy...you looking at this?" he asked into it.
"Yea," Billy responded into it, sounding confused. "I have no idea what it is, though. See if you can get one of those things on it."
Jason nodded, and started climbing into the hole. Before he made it down, though, the objects started glowing, and the entire thing vanished. Jason just stared in confusion. "Huh..."
"A teleporter. They took it back to the moon," Billy concluded as Jason climbed back out of the hole.
Jason just stood there, looking around for a minute. A cold wind passing by brought him back to reality. "I have a bad feeling about this..."
"Come on back to base," Billy said, and Jason slowly nodded before he teleported out.
Tommy slammed his controls forward, causing the Tigerzord to step forwards and take a large swing at the Dragonzord. The Dragonzord went reeling backwards, and Tommy turned his attention to Goldar, turning the PA back on.
"You want to continue where you left off!?" Tommy yelled into it, although he knew it wouldn't work.
"Nice try, White Ranger! The distraction has worked, though!" Goldar replied with a laugh.
"What!?" Tommy yelled, instantly worried about all five of the other Rangers, but Goldar simply disappeared in a flash of light. "Goldar!!!"
Missiles from the Dragonzord slammed into the side of the Tigerzord, causing Tommy to turn his attention back to the smaller, third party of this war. The party he didn't have time for. He quickly steered the Tigerzord right at the Dragonzord, and began an attack, pummeling his old Zord with sword blow after sword blow. David tried to put some distance so he could use his missiles, but Tommy kept it close. He had found the solution. He knew how to beat David now. About time.
David couldn't keep up. The Dragonzord's shorter arms and slower reflexes were being dominated by the top Zord of the Power Rangers' fleet. He knew it, too, and quickly pressed a few buttons, telling it to retreat. He didn't waste anymore time, and teleported out.
Tommy saw the streak of green light leave, but he wasn't about to let the Dragonzord escape. Unfortunately for him, though, the Dragonzord seized that opportunity where he wasn't paying attention, and swung a fast blow, knocking the Tigerzord aside. Tommy tried to move back in, but the Dragonzord had already turned and was fleeing. Tommy cursed under his breath, but hit the retreat codes in his own Zord. With that done, he pulled Saba from it's slot and teleported away.
Trini slowly opened her eyes, taking in her new surroundings. The Command Center. She was in the Command Center! It wasn't a dream, Zack had really rescued her! Excited, she sat up.
"Trini!" Alpha yelled happily as he ran over.
"Alpha!" Trini replied, looking down at the IV in her arm as Billy walked over and pulled it out.
"So glad you're alright!" Billy said, now that the IV was gone he picked her up off the table and gave her a huge hug. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
"I promise, Billy," Trini said with a smile, her eyes lighting up as Jason appeared.
"Trini!" Jason yelled as Trini ran to him. Their argument from the last time they talked forgotten and behind them, the almost siblings embraced in another hug.
"What happened to Kimberly?" Trini asked when Jason eventually let her go, walking over to her friend.
"She will be alright," Zordon announced as Tommy appeared. "Hopefully she'll be waking up soon."
"Commander," Trini said with a salute and a smirk as Tommy silently pulled her into a hug.
"You had us so worried," Tommy told her.
"Now you know how it feels," Trini replied. After a few seconds they let go, and Tommy went over and took a kneel by Kim as Zack appeared last, setting a huge stack of papers on top of a console.
"Alright, Rangers," Zordon said, looking between the three who had just come back from field work. "Report on what you have."
"David retreated," Tommy said. "The Dragonzord couldn't compete with the Tigerzord, though, not up close. With Goldar there it could have gone either way, but one on one I tore him up."
"This is good news. I happened to pick up some interesting radio transmissions, as well. David seemed to be very affected by your conversation," Zordon said, and Tommy nodded. "Something similar happened when Jason battled him earlier. Anyway, continue."
"The Diginator got away, and they teleported whatever they were digging back to the moon," Jason said, shaking his head.
"Alpha, begin scans of the moon base," Zordon ordered, and Alpha got right to it. "Maybe that will allow us to find whatever it is they're doing. What about you, Zack?"
"David's going down, hard," Zack answered. "I took a look at his file, this kid's crazy. Trini's not the first person he's been accused of kidnapping. There's lot of assault charges, too. The kid's gotten away with everything in the past because his dad's got connections up top."
"He thinks his kid's perfect," Jason noted, remembering that night.
"He's got more heat on him than ever before, now, though," Zack said. "And there's nothing to lead back to us."
"What's all this?" Tommy asked, looking through the stack of papers.
"A peace offering," Zack answered. "War with the government is over."
"Excellent work," Zordon said, and Kimberly suddenly started to wake up. Tommy was instantly back by her side.
Kimberly opened her eyes to look right into Tommy's, and couldn't help but smile. "Hey there."
"Hey Beautiful," Tommy said as he held her hand. "Remember the deal we had? I'm the only one allowed to make those stupid maneuvers."
"Thought I'd mix things up a little bit," Kim replied, that smile on her face just growing bigger as Tommy's lips got closer and closer to hers. Just as she closed her eyes...
"AWWW!!!" Zack said way louder than necessary, causing both of them to jump back a little bit. "Isn't that cute?"
"But it's wrong," Billy finished up, causing everyone except Kim and Tommy to laugh. Tommy just sighed, once again reminded that he was dating their little sister.
"So, Kim," Jason started as walked over and sat on a console next to the stack of papers. "I thought it was established that I'm the Luke Skywalker of this team."
"Really?" Kim said, sitting up and dropping her legs to the floor while Tommy took a seat right next to her on the bed. "I always saw you as more of a Chewbacca."
Jason smiled at that one. "'Cause I'm big and strong?" he asked, a bit of pride in his voice.
"No, more like always screaming stuff no one understands into the radio," Kimberly said, holding back her laughter as Jason's jaw dropped. It was quiet for a minute before Zack suddenly started cracking up laughing.
"Oh my God! That's exactly what he sounds like!" Zack said, drawing the conclusion now.
"Wait...wait a minute I don't want to play this game anymore," Jason said, shaking his head with a frown on his face.
"We never noticed because we were always in the cockpit with him," Billy said, thinking about it. "I mean, we rarely used the Dinozords independently. But these past weeks either in the Mega Tigerzord or just back here at the Command Center...Zordon, how do you understand what he's yelling?"
"Oh, I don't," Zordon casually answered. "I always assumed he just yelled to yell."
"Now you guys know what it was like for me back in the Dragonzord," Tommy said, grinning from ear to ear. "Always hoping he wasn't telling me a plan the whole battle depended on."
"You guys suck," Jason said, pointing to each individual Ranger, then Alpha and even Zordon as all of them were laughing. "Every last one of you."
"So Kim's Luke, huh?" Zack said. "Who's that make Tommy?"
"Kim and Tommy have to be Han and Leia," Trini said, nodding her head. "They just have to be."
"You're right," Billy replied. "So that makes Kim Han."
"What!?" Tommy yelled in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that one.
"Right," Trini agreed. "And that makes Zack..."
"Say Lando. Say Lando, I dare you!" Zack challenged, cutting her off. That just sent the entire team into another round of laughter.
"What are we talking about?" Alpha finally asked, and the six Rangers looked to him wide eyed.
"You've never seen Star Wars!?" Zack asked in disbelief, causing Alpha to step back a little bit.
"Oh. My. God!" Kim screeched, falling a bit back into her valley girl ways from excitement. "We're so totally having a movie night here next Friday!"
"Next Friday's the big football game. You know, state?" Jason reminded her while making a paper airplane out of a top secret FBI document.
"Oh, right," Kimberly said, frowning for a minute. She knew the mention of the football game would remind Jason exactly what had happened to the star quarterback, so she quickly kept going with her own subject, trying to keep him in a good mood. "Saturday night then! Movie night in the Command Center on Saturday! We'll like, hook it up to the viewing globe!"
"Why don't we teleport in a big screen for the night?" Tommy suggested, and Kimberly quickly nodded.
"Well, I need to ask my parents," Trini said with smile, and then her eyes widened. "My parents! I have to get home!"
"That is a good idea, Trini," Zordon said. He had been quiet because of how he loved to watch the Rangers have their fun like that. "We've done enough work here today Rangers, I will contact you if anything else comes up."
"I'll go with you, Trini," Zack said with a nod.
"Thank you, Zack," Trini answered with a smile. She wanted someone to come with her, but hadn't said anything. She was glad Zack had volunteered.
"Let's go to our spot by the lake," Kimberly said, looking to Tommy.
"That's a great idea. I've been missing it." Tommy agreed.
"Well, I'm going to get home and do some homework," Billy said, fully aware that it was a Saturday.
"I'm going out on a run, then," Jason said, feeling the need to work out some. It was a good way for him to clear his head.
"Very well, go now, Rangers, and may the power protect you," Zordon told them, and they all teleported away. Zordon just smiled as Alpha got back to work. They were well on their way to recovery, and soon this whole mess would be behind them. At least, he hoped so.
A/N: David's still on the loose, and don't forget Zedd's big time master plan he's still working on. More soon!