Chapter 2 β Surviving the Elements, Part 2
The wind was inside me and it felt like there was a storm in my lungs. But it didn't hurt or feel bad. It helped me balance my energy with my breathing. I would need that balance because Derek had just figured out that we were Power Rangers.
"This is ridiculous," Jake said. "I don't want to be a Power Ranger." He looked really upset.
"Why not?" Derek asked him.
"Yeah," I said, "why not?"
Jake said, "That's kid stuff."
"Saving the world is kid stuff?" Jimmy asked him.
"Superheroes running around in colorful tights is kid stuff," he said. "And besides, I'm not the 'save the world' type."
Corey spoke up, "That's because you're too busy worrying about the world ending. Your world, at least. Jake, this could help you. This is something to live for."
Jake grabbed Corey's collar and said, "Shut up. Just keep your mouth shut. I told you not toβ" He let go. "Forget it." He took off the morpher and held it up. "I'm not doin it." He threw the morpher on the ground and started to walk away.
"Jake," I called after him.
The morpher flew off the ground and back onto Jake's wrist. "What the hell?" he said. He took it off and threw it down again. It went right back to his wrist.
"You can't get away," Derek said to him. "Power down." His suit disappeared and he was back to normal. He walked up to Jake saying, "That white light chose us. I think we're stuck with this. Frankly, I like it."
Jake said, "That's you, Derek. You've always wanted to be a superhero and save the world. You want to do good things. I don't give a damn about any of that. I want to live my life in my own way. Do what I want."
"Do you even know what you want?" Derek asked.
After a pause, Jake said, "I don't want this." Then he started to walk away. Corey looked upset, so I walked over to him. But before I got to him, a vine shot out of the woods and wrapped around his neck. Then it pulled him back to the woods hard.
"Corey!" I yelled.
Jake turned around and came back. At least he loved his brother. Out of the woods came another creature. It looked like a green gorilla with leaves and vines all over it. One vine came from its outstretched right arm and it was around Corey's neck.
"I am Worilla," it said with a masculine voice. "Your city is mine!"
"You bastard," Jake said. He walked up to the monster. "Let go of my brother!" He tried to punch Worilla, but it did nothing. Worilla then punched Jake in the chest, knocking him back about eight feet.
"Jake!" Jimmy yelled. He tried to help Jake up.
"Get off me!" he yelled. He got up. "Big mistake, tree-face." He held up his arm and pushed the button on his morpher that Derek had pushed on his. He flashed and he was in a tight suit that was almost completely black. His gloves were white, like Derek's, but his belt was white, where Derek's was black. He had the same jagged visor on the front of his helmet, with a gray outline that separated it from the rest of the black helmet. There was also a silver mouth design below the visor, like Derek's. There was an image of a solar eclipse on his torso.
Jake walked back up to Worilla and punched him in the face again. That time Worilla let go of Corey.
I ran over to him. "Corey, are you alright?"
He was coughing. "I think I'm okay." Jake grabbed Worilla by the arms and threw him towards the playground. He landed hard on the ground. Jake went after him, but Derek stopped Jake and said, "Let's do this together."
Jake stepped back and we lined up like before.
"It's morphin time!" Derek called out. Then Derek, Corey, Jimmy, and I all held up our morphers and pushed the morphing button. Everything went white and I was struck by a tornado. It was the greatest feeling I'd ever had. Then it was all back. I was in a pink suit with white designs on the arms, legs, and torso. I had a black belt, pink boots, and white gloves. I had no clue what my helmet looked like, but I assumed it was pink. Jimmy's outfit was like Derek's and mine, only the helmet and suit were blue, and he had water designs. Corey's was yellow with lightning designs.
"I can take you all!" Worilla yelled.
"We'll see about that," Derek said. He ran at Worilla and the rest of us followed. Derek landed a few punches, but got knocked back. Jimmy and I kicked at his sides, but he grabbed our legs and threw us back. Jake started pummeling his chest, and Corey took a punch at his head. This sent him back a few steps, and Jake backed up in a fighting stance. I stood up.
"Kaila!" Derek called. "Take him from the air!" I ran, leapt over Jake's shoulders, literally flying through the air, and kicked Worilla in the chest with both my feet. He fell back about ten feet. I did a back flip and landed next to Derek. It felt so awesome to fly like that.
Corey said, "Let's use our element powers."
We lined up again. Derek said, "Jake, turn him black." Jake extended his arm with his hand open toward Worilla. Worilla was surrounded in a black smoke, and then turned black himself. "Now, let's do this," Derek said. He summoned two fireballs, I swirled the wind around me, Corey charged up, and Jimmy grew a water ball in his hands. Derek threw his fireballs at Worilla, Jimmy threw his water ball, Corey shot lightning bolts, and I blasted him with the wind. The combined attacks and the weakened black state did it. He blew up in a small explosion, and pieces of him scattered all over the ground. They quickly dissipated.
"We did it!" I yelled. I hugged Derek and said it again, "We did it!"
"Power down!" Jake said. He started walking away. "I told you once, and I'll tell you again, for the last time. I'm not doing this."
As he walked away, the park cleaning guy was walking back with a police officer. A few police cars followed. "What happened?" the guy asked.
Jake looked back at us. "Those guys took care of the goons." I realized one of them might notice the morpher, but when I looked at Jake's wrist, there was only a watch on it.
"What about the other kids?" the officer asked.
Jake looked at us for a few seconds, and then said, "They took off when the Power Rangers showed up."
"Power Rangers?" the cop asked. Jake started walking away. The cop said, "Here?"
Derek tried disguising his voice by making it lower, and yelled to the cop, "Everything's fine, officer!" The cop and the police cars came our way. "That line works on TV," Derek said to us. "How do we get out of here without becoming a big deal to the cops?"
"Let's take off into the woods," Corey said. "We might be able to lose them." And we did just that.
We had been running for about a minute when Derek said, "Alright, let's stop here. I think we lost them." We all stopped running. "Let's power down. If they find us, we can just tell them we were walking through the woods and we didn't see anything or anyone." Then we all powered down.
There was a rustling in the trees near us.
"You've got to be kidding me," Jimmy whispered.
"Shut up," Derek said to him. "Act natural."
I leaned against a nearby tree, put a smile on my face, and hid my morpher behind me. Everyone else hid their morphers, too. Two police officers walked over to us. One was short and bald, and the other was as tall as an NBA player.
"Hello, officers," I said kindly.
"Good evening ma'am," the short one said. "Have you kids seen anything out of the ordinary tonight?"
"No," we said in unison.
"Yeah, that wasn't suspicious," I thought to myself. Then I asked, "Like what?"
The tall officer said, "Just anything you wouldn't normally see."
"Not really," Jimmy said.
"Alright," the short one said, "You kids get home. It's late."
"Yes, officer," Derek said. Then they walked off.
I breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close," I said quietly.
"Uh, guys?" Jimmy said. He held up his wrist, which should've had his morpher on it, but there was just a watch. "What happened to my morpher?"
I looked at my wrist, and the same thing had happened. There was just a watch. Derek and Corey each had one, too. They were all different. Mine was a traditional watch. The band was brown and the timepiece was gold. Derek's was a velcro digital watch. The band was black. Jimmy's was the same kind, and it was blue. Corey's was an elegant gold watch.
"Maybe," Corey said, "no one is supposed to see our morphers."
"I saw a watch on Jake's wrist where the morpher should've been," I said. "It was when he walked past the cop and that guy cleaning the park."
"How do you think we get our morphers back?" Jimmy asked.
"I don't know," Derek said. "I have an idea, though." He put his arm down at his side, and stood at attention, as if he was getting ready to fight. "It's morphin time!" All of our watches turned back into our morphers.
"That did it," I said. A couple seconds later, they changed back.
"That's pretty cool," Derek said.
Then I remembered the fire we had seen earlier. "Hey," I said, "What happened to the fire that was out here before?"
"That's a good question," Derek replied. We walked back through the woods, looking for wherever the fire would've been. We made our way to a little clearing. There was a huge black rocks sitting in the ground. The grass, trees, and bushes all around it were burnt. We all stood there, staring at what looked like a small meteor impact site.
We were silent for a few seconds, and Jimmy said, "Why... why did the fire stop? It should've kept spreading, right?"
"There wasn't a shock wave or anything," I said.
Derek said, "It must be the light. I can't wait to see what they say about this on the news tomorrow." After a few seconds, he added, "Let's get out of here." We walked out of the woods and through the park. Once we were far enough away from the police, who were still investigating the site, we started talking again.
Jimmy asked, "So why do you think that light chose us? Why not give the police these powers, or the president, even? If anyone is concerned with the safety of the Earth, it's them."
"Well," Derek started, "giving the president these powers would make things worse. Can you see Obama in tights?" We all started laughing. "Seriously," he continued, "politicians would abuse the power. Most adults would. What do teenagers want to do? Have fun with our friends. And what's more fun than kicking some evil alien ass?" We laughed again and he put his arm around me.
"Speaking of the evil aliens," I said, "What do you think they want here in Evergreen Park?"
Derek responded, "I think they want the light. Because the light said we have to protect the power. Maybe this 'X's Army' is trying to get that power."
Corey added, "Repskell did say that they need to get rid of all the goodness here. We stand in the way of that. As long as we're here, they can't get rid of all the goodness."
"Wow," Jimmy said, "that's a big load."
"We can handle it," Derek said. "If we couldn't, the light wouldn't have chosen us."
"If only Jake would realize that," Corey said. "I'm worried about him."
"He'll come around," Derek said.
Corey replied, "No, Derek. A lot has changed since we last saw you. You heard me before. Jake is suicidal. He's always talking about death and dying. If it weren't for me, he wouldn't be alive."
We were all silent for a few seconds. Then I said, "Being a part of this team would help him. Having friends would help him."
"That's what I tried telling him before," Corey replied.
"Actually," Derek said, "think about it. The light obviously gave us our elements based on our personalities, like how I love fire and how Jimmy's on the swim team. Don't you think that getting darkness would be a slap in the face to Jake?"
"I see what you're saying," Jimmy said, "but darkness is what Jake thrives on. When he morphed, his punch to Worilla was a lot stronger than before he morphed. Maybe the fact that he feels so dark will compel him to use his powers effectively, and then, in turn, overcome the very darkness that consumes him."
Kaila, Corey, and I stopped walking, and stared at Jimmy. He stopped, turned to us and said, "What?"
"Didn't you fail English last year?" Derek asked him.
"Hey," Jimmy said, "just because I suck at school doesn't mean I'm stupid."
"Apparently," I said.
"He has a point," Corey said.
Jimmy said, "Thank you." We continued walking.
"Corey," I said, "where would Jake have gone?"
"Home," Corey replied. "He goes to the garage when he gets mad." After a pause, he added, "Which is a lot. I should go and talk to him." Jake and his parents lived in a house on the side street that we were passing.
I gave Corey a hug and said, "Good luck."
"Yeah," Derek said, "good luck."
"Thanks," Corey replied. He turned and started walking down the side street.
"Wait a minute," Jimmy said. Corey turned back toward us. "Do we tell our parents about this? I mean, they're going to notice when we disappear whenever there's some kind of attack."
"I can tell my parents," Derek said.
"I can tell mine, too," I said, "They may not believe me, but hey, I've got proof."
"My aunt and uncle would be cool about it," Corey said, "but I'm gonna wait until I get Jake on board before I tell them or my parents."
Jimmy said, "I don't know what I'm gonna do. My dad would probably be accepting about it, but I think I'll wait."
"We still have a lot to figure out," Corey said. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Bye," we said to him.
"I should get going, too," Jimmy said. "We passed my house a while back, and I told my dad I wouldn't be too late."
"See you later, Jimmy," I said.
"Later," he replied. "Bye, Derek."
"Bye."
Derek and I walked on toward my house. He still had his arm around me. "What time is it?" I asked him.
"Quarter to twelve," he replied after looking at his new watch. I hadn't thought to look at mine.
"That's good. I told my mom I would be home before midnight."
After a few seconds, Derek said, "Do you realize how big this is?"
I thought about it and said, "Yeah, I do. But we can handle it."
"I know we can," he said, "but this is the biggest thing I've ever done. I'm partially responsible for saving the world." He stopped walking and looked into my eyes. "We are responsible for saving the world." He leaned down and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed back. After a few seconds, he stopped kissing me and hugged me tight. When he let go, he said, "Alright, let's get you home."
