Volume IV - Nemeses
Chapter 29—Fire and Water
Jay
Beth was shining with an electrifying red glow that made my skin burn in a way I never knew possible—it was like someone had taken all the good feelings I'd ever felt and dumped it on me. I felt incredible.
Though my ranger suit vanished, I could still feel the power of it lingering around me like a protective shield as Beth stepped forward, her armor massive and intimidating. The very ground seemed to hum with life with every step she took.
"Solaris, Technos," Mesomorph snarled commandingly, suddenly not so sure with his new powers. "Take care of this insolent red ranger."
"What's the matter," Beth taunted, "not feeling up to par with your new powers against mine?"
Two bursts of different colors interrupted Mesomorph's response as the Green Technos Ranger and White Solaris Ranger appeared in front of him obediently.
"We are," said Gabriel, the white ranger, confidently. My fists involuntarily clenched.
The moments of apprehension before the fight reminded me of an old western showdown, before Solaris Gabriel took off at Beth at near light speed. A shockwave from the collision exploded out from around them as we got a good look. Beth had only squatted into a firm position and extended her palm out to his chest. At least, that's what it looked like. In reality, she had just open-palm struck him in the chest, and for a second, time seemed to stop before he shook and flew backwards, past Mesomorph and his ranger team, into the dirt far behind them.
Technos hardly hesitated as he slashed at her with energetic shrapnel, but our Gaiatech ranger bounced them off her gauntlets harmlessly. By the time he reached her, he jumped in the air and attempted to kick at her; but, faster than could be expected, Beth grabbed his foot, spun him around, and then kicked him once…twice…thrice…four times!
"Guys, get to safety—the Battliezer's not meant to be used for extended periods of time," Doc Ol said through our communicators.
"Standing by to teleport," Patrick responded, still cradling my best friend, Aaron.
The next thing I knew, we were in Doc Ol's basement laboratory where he was monitoring the fight from his super computer.
"That thing is amazing, Dad, how'd you do it?" Grace asked as she ran up to Doc Ol.
"I didn't."
"What?"
"I didn't make it."
"If you didn't make it, then who did?" Matt wondered.
"Nature."
I exchanged looks with Amy, but said nothing. Luckily, Matt asked my question for me as I watched Patrick get Aaron set up on a med bed.
"No offense, but how the hell can nature make something like that?" demanded Matt in a question full of skepticism.
"Nature's been fueling the Battleizer for years," Doc Ol said, "look at the Fury Rangers. What you just witnessed was nature combining with technology at the highest level imaginable. That Battleizer has the power of all seven of you, with an extra something in there that my scanners can't detect. That extra something, Matt, is the Earth."
"Well, is this going to be like the Fury Rangers where we can all use it?" Grace asked.
"Doubtful," her father sighed. "Earth is the only element of all your own elements that can provide a stable catalyst for such a reaction. Earth can absorb, nurture, and expel any of your elements. Even Light can't do that."
Then he finally noticed Aaron.
"Is he okay?" he asked.
"He will be," Patrick snapped. "I got it."
We all sort of shrugged and ignored the behavior, tacking it up to relationship things we wouldn't understand. But part of me did understand. If that had been Amy on the med bed, and Doc Ol had taken his sweet time explaining a Battleizer instead of helping her, I would have been pissed.
So, I walked over to Patrick and started helping.
"I said I got—"
"I know," I said, softer than I'd intended.
He must have noticed my empathy or something, because his entire icy attitude seemed to melt away, and his eyes were back to a warm grey color.
"H-he's unconscious," he said after a few seconds idly passed by. "I think the blast sent him into shock or something."
"What can I do?"
"Hand me that cerebral scanner," he instructed.
I did my best to assist him, but I knew I wasn't doing that great of a job. But something in me was finally realizing one very crucial fact I'd chosen to ignore.
"You really love him, don't you?"
He looked up, somewhat shocked by my question. "Yeah…I do."
I smiled faintly, picking my next words carefully. "I'm glad Aaron has someone like…like you."
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and for a second, I think I saw a cocky-little grin cross his face.
"Thanks," he said, "I think."
I gave a breathy laugh and shook my head with a small smile playing at my lips. "It was definitely a compliment. You guys are good for each other."
He was applying bandages to Aaron's bare abdomen now, and for a second, I almost envied Patrick again. But it passed quickly and I looked away. The small attraction I felt toward males was driving me insane.
"Well, I try," Patrick was saying. "He doesn't make it too hard, though."
"I don't doubt that," I replied slowly, glancing over at the monitor now.
Beth, as Red Gaiatech Ranger, was firing up an explosive looking blast from her chest piece. She was bending backwards as she tried to hold the energy, before it finally sucked her into it and she cried out, "Terra Bomb!"
The ball spread out so far, I thought for sure she had destroyed them all. There wasn't even a trace of them left! I gaped at Patrick, who also seemed more than shocked. A few seconds later, and Beth was in the room. She slumped into a chair immediately, exhausted.
"What did you do?" I barked.
"They escaped," she said calmly, unable to argue. "Mesomorph pulled them out before I even got into the Terra Sphere."
We all relaxed instantly.
"Okay, am I the only one who thinks that was just fucking awesome?"
We all looked to Matt, who was ecstatic about our victory.
"I mean, we owned out there!" he continued
"I gotta agree," Grace chimed in, "we did surprisingly well, especially on the Zord front."
"That was some fine commanding," Amy commended Beth with a broad smile.
"Yeah, awesome job, Beth."
I then added my thanks to our red ranger after hearing Patrick give his half-hearted congratulations as he finished tending to Aaron.
—29—
We'd been attempting to figure out the identity of the other four rangers of the Mecha Squad with little to no luck for the past two hours. Not a single one of us, though, was ready to call it quits. If our classmates were being pitted against us in a battle of superpowers, we wanted to know who they were before we destroyed them.
"The Yellow ranger's a girl, though, and she's a little bit taller than Grace," observed Amy, refuting Matt's theory. "Not to mention, she seemed to be closer with the Red Ranger than anyone else."
"Well, we know the Red Ranger is Kevin," Aaron said, now finally awake and sporting a good amount of bandages in random places. "If she's close with Kevin, then Beth, Jay, and I can find out who she is."
"That solves one out of four, though. The Green, Blue, and Pink Rangers haven't given us any indication of who they might be," Patrick pointed out. "Although…I can definitely say the Green Ranger borders on flirting with me during battle."
The look on Aaron's face would have been entirely comical had I not felt my own twinge of envy.
"What?" he asked, jealousy laced in his question.
Amy and Grace were looking around the room in an attempt to keep Aaron from seeing their grins.
"Dude, it's nothing to worry about; he's a psycho green ranger," Patrick defended.
"You say that like no one's ever fallen for one before," Matt joked. He earned a glare from Aaron.
"I'm not even having this discussion," Patrick said with a half-chuckle. "The relevance of this information is that he either knows me and Aaron well enough to know about our relationship—which is doubtful—or he's gay."
"You can't assume he's gay because of some remarks during a fight," I piped up.
Patrick's eyes were cold as ice again. "Should I assume that he's straight by default?"
I felt like all eyes were on me suddenly and I mumbled out; "Well…I dunno…"
"Okay, guys; I'd say we have enough leads to at least start looking out for anyone who might be hanging out with Sanders, Kevin, or Gabriel—especially females," interrupted Doc Ol as he paced back and forth with an ink pen clicking in his hand.
"Why females?" Amy asked.
"Well, there are 3 females on the team and only one more male identity to figure out. It stands to reason that it'll be easier to guess their identities."
"Agreed," Aaron said.
"Well, guys," Matt said, stretching, "I hate to be the first to bail, but I've got like, 3 college essays I've gotta write. I haven't been accepted anywhere and my parents are flipping out."
We were all silent at the mention of college so close to being present. We graduated in about a month, and so far, only I'd been accepted to a university on an athletic scholarship. Grace was accepted to Lower California University, but she turned it down. She was waiting to hear back from Berkeley, I guessed.
"Right? I've got a couple to knock out, too," Amy agreed, taking my hand and leading me away, signaling that we needed to leave together.
"See you all at school," I said as we headed for the basement door.
—29—
When I got home that night, I couldn't manage to get my head around everything that had happened today. Sanders, Mark Sanders—one of my other best friends—was an evil black ranger. Sanders, other than Amy, had been the only one in the entire world that I had trusted enough to tell about my feelings toward Aaron. Presently, our friendship had evolved, almost. I hung out with him a bit more than I did with any of my teammates, though none of them actually knew.
And I couldn't really get myself to understand why I didn't tell the others about hanging out with him. I mean, I could. I knew why. I just didn't want to admit to the fact that I had crossed a line. And that I had cheated. And that I was so fucking confused.
It wasn't supposed to happen the way it did. It actually wasn't supposed to happen at all. I thought I had made up my mind about my sexual orientation. I was happy with Amy. It was just that sometimes I didn't know if it was what I wanted. Sometimes I wanted something different.
But instead of stopping to think about my actions, I flew on my instincts. On my impulses.
—29—
It was shortly after I saw Gabriel at school again—right after his dramatic entrance and his shitty remark about how Aaron would never love me. I wasn't sure how he knew, but it stung more than I cared to admit. And I knew Amy was hurt by it too. But I figured no one else cared. Because no one else followed up on it.
But I needed an outlet. I needed someone to talk to—someone who knew me well enough, who knew I was a ranger. And Sanders was the only person who came to mind. Because I damn sure wasn't about to tell Aaron I had feelings for him.
So I told him about Gabriel. And about me and Amy. And about Aaron and Patrick. And everything else on my mind.
And he understood.
And then something happened.
It's not like I exactly intended it to happen. I'd never really thought of Sanders in a sexual way. I mean, I did, but not like Aaron. It was weird. I mean, I'd seen him in the locker room, but I never really noticed him. Like noticed-noticed him. Not like I did with Aaron.
But Sanders was there, nonetheless. He was like a consolation prize for Aaron. He was the same height, and they had the same color hair—that rustic shade that was somewhere between brown and dark brown with random natural highlights. Their builds were even nearly identical. The only real noticeable difference was the maturity between them—both physically and mentally. Sanders was a little slow, and Aaron was pretty advanced for all his learning disabilities and stuff; and Sanders' body, though solidly ripped and adult, was smooth and almost childlike compared to Aaron's. Aaron was firm, but soft, and riddled with different patterns of hair dustings .He look 24 instead of 18.
But despite everything I saw in Aaron, and the passion I felt for him (or his body?), Sanders was there. And it was Sanders I went for. When our lips touched, I felt a fear I'd never felt before grip my entire body as I gripped his own for dear life. To my surprise, he did not fight to escape my death grip—he pushed into it. But that feeling of fear stuck with me, and I couldn't even think of separating our lips. Because I didn't know what the hell I'd say once they were free.
His mouth was rougher than Amy's, and he didn't submit to my tongue like Amy normally did; he forced me to relax as he took control, and I was shocked and somewhat scared at how quickly my body responded to it. When his hand roamed effortlessly up my thigh and into my groin, I flinched, but otherwise, said nothing. But he didn't stop. And I shuddered involuntarily. Amy and I had never actually had sex, but we'd come close. She just didn't think we were ready. And though I thought I was fully ready, maybe I was wrong. I'd never actually had sex before. She had. Maybe she knew something I didn't. All I knew was that it was driving me insane.
But here was Sanders—a boy I'd known since elementary school, but a boy all the same—easily offering me a shot at losing my virginity. On the inside, I knew everything I was doing was wrong. On the other hand, I needed this; I needed the closure of sexes. I was tired of being torn between male and female. And at that very moment, I knew which gender was winning—and it killed me.
Sanders was pretty good at making me forget about it.
Before I really knew what was happening, he was pushing me down onto his bed, not daring to break the most intimate skin contact we currently had, and tugging at my shirt impatiently. His was off in seconds, and mine quickly followed. And for the few seconds it took for our shirts—my yellow t-shirt and his black tank-top (how did I miss that?)—to hit the floor, I was terrified he would say something. Or that I would.
He didn't.
He was almost animalistic—aiming hungrily for my swollen lips. It didn't take long for his hands to wander over my body, and I suddenly realized my own hands were stretched over his back and wrenched in his hair. Who the hell was I?
I felt the waistband of my basketball shorts move away from my skin, and I didn't stop him. Why didn't I stop him? I had no clue. The shorts were off, and the thin layer separating us surely didn't last long. And I lay naked before him. He was kneeling over me, as if examining, and I remember feeling my cheeks burn as if I'd just used my elemental powers.
And he spoke with a slight chuckle.
"Nice."
I burned even brighter.
The only thing I could do was lean forward and busy my mouth—his chest was nearest, so that's what I did. I'd been this far with Amy—it was no different, right? Wrong. His own athletic shorts did very little to hide his…excitement…and that was definitely different. I'd never been near an erection before. Not this close. He must've been impatient, because he just slipped the shorts down. I was way out of my league.
I remember flashing back to when Aaron and I had gone out a couple weeks before while Patrick was at work. I needed to do something to get my best friend's mind off Beth and her memory loss, so we went out to lunch and talked guy-talk. And the topic of sex had come up. And I had insisted it was fine for Aaron to confide in me—after all, I was his best friend, right? But the way Aaron had described it was like magic—euphoria, connection, emotion, patience, gentleness.
There was none of that with Sanders. Everything was primal—bare of emotions, or patience, or gentleness, and there was hardly any euphoria at first. And then it hit. And I realized I had just lost my virginity to Sanders.
And it meant nothing.
—29—
I let the hot water from the shower remove me from my memories and I kept scrubbing at my body. Like I was going to get rid of all the shit I'd done. Normally, a nice hot shower was exactly what I needed to put me to sleep—to put my mind at ease. But it wasn't. It didn't help. All I could think of was how fucked up everything had become. And in less than 4 months, I would be across the country at school in Michigan. And what if we hadn't beaten Mesomorph by then?
Even as I laid my exhausted body into bed, I couldn't sleep. Too many things with too many different details were bouncing around my head at the speed of light, and I wondered if this was what Aaron felt like on a day to day basis.
—29—
"We need to talk," I whispered heatedly to Sanders, who was busy stowing his government book in his locker.
He glanced over at me, standing a few inches above me. "Yeah? About what?"
"What the fuck is with you, dude?" I continued to whisper harshly. "This game you're playing isn't really a game. Do you have any idea of what Mesomorph really wants?"
"I don't care," he said simply, shrugging.
"This is the fate of the world here, and you're siding with evil."
"I'm not siding with anything. Mesomorph wants to recreate the technological world—get people to advance on a genetic level first, and then a technological level. I, for one, don't wanna be in his way." He slammed his locker and prepared to walk away, but added, "And if I were you, I wouldn't want to either."
I grabbed his arm and pulled him back into his locker. "Listen to me," I growled through clenched teeth, "it's not just as simple as getting out of the way. And it's not just a ranger thing. What the…what the fuck are you gonna do if one of us gets killed?"
He looked somewhat shaken now, but remained silent.
"And another thing," I pressed on, "I would never have gotten so close with you if…if I'd known."
He smirked now, then began to all out laugh. "So what? You think because we fucked a few times that I owe you some emotional commitment or something?"
I let go of the collar of his shirt I'd been holding in surprise.
"Get a grip, you fuckin' puss," he spat as he brushed by me.
"What was that all about?"
I spun around to face Aaron, a confused but friendly look on his newly shaven face. I said, "Nothing, I was just…trying to confront him about yesterday."
"I see," the white ranger replied, opening his locker. "Hey, I was wondering; after school, do you wanna head out to the lake like old times?"
"Don't you think we should be finding a way to get the Super Stones?" I muttered, propping myself up on my forearm as I leaned in to speak with him.
"Well, I thought that, but with the Battleizer, who needs the Super Stones?"
"They will!" I said, the answer striking me as obvious. "We've gotta beat them, and Mesomorph, before we graduate, dude. That's a month. And then we're all gonna be in different places. You might be staying to go to LCU, but I'm not, and neither is Patrick."
Aaron nearly dropped the books in his hand.
"Dude…"
"Buck up, man!" I shouted as I stormed off.
So maybe it was all the tension that had built up between Aaron and me. We both sensed our friendship changing, but neither of us spoke about it; and we both disagreed with courses of action when it came to Rangering. But on the other hand, I knew it was the shit with Sanders. And school. And me. I had no idea who I was anymore. Was I just Jay Owens – Yellow Ranger? Was I gay? Was I straight? Was I just a potential U of M football player looking for a way to get away from his past?
My communicator going off answered my question for me. For the moment, I was the first—the Yellow Ranger.
"But for how much longer?" I wondered to myself as I rubbed a hand over my wristband morpher.