Double Act

Chapter 14: Bully For Ethan

A/N: Last time, Kennedi and Kira went on a field trip and were hypnotized into bringing a monster to life. Hayley discovered that Kennedi was the orange ranger, and Kira came close to telling Conner. Conner wants to figure out Kira's secret but knows she can't tell anyone. Ethan is still clueless. Tommy is trapped in his suit. Anton Mercer is substitute teaching. What'll happen now?

Also, I apologize if this is a bit short.

Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the show.

It was a week after the Fossilador incident that the rangers found themselves enjoying a nice day at school. Kira felt a lot better after her conversation with Conner about secrets and the two had been spending a bit more time together. No one really paid attention to it as it wasn't really anything unusual as of the past few months. Kira was excited that the semester was almost over, meaning her sister would be joining them at school soon enough.

At the moment, most of the students were sitting outside, enjoying the nice weather. Ethan was over at a picnic table with his computer buddies. Conner was watching and helping his teammate Derek try and score some goals. Kira stood nearby, watching and waiting for the end of the day. It was almost over and the rangers didn't have much to do after school. The yellow ranger knew she wasn't going to be around tomorrow to help out her team if they needed it, but she was sure they could handle a day without her.

Derek kicked the ball and missed by a lot. Conner set one more in front of him. "Missed again, Derek."

"Oh great," Derek huffed. "Thanks. I appreciate your support, man."

"You don't need support, dude," Conner chuckled. "You need game." Derek rolled his eyes before concentrating once more. He focused on kicking the ball and he did. Unfortunately, it went flying over the net and knocked Ethan's laptop right out of his hands. Derek smirked as Ethan, furious, marched over to him.

"What are you complaining about, geek?" Derek taunted as a small crowd began to form.

"First of all," Ethan began. "My name is Ethan, not geek. And out of this whole field, you had to kick the ball over there? You really do need practice."

"Well, look, Ethan," Derek continued. "This is my field. And I kick the ball where I want to kick it. Obviously everywhere except the net."

"That's it," Derek moved to punch the blue ranger.

Conner, thankfully, stepped in before it could happen. "Hey what's the big deal? Come on, party's over."

"Watch yourself, dweeb," Derek threatened.

"Derek, chill," Conner led the boy away.

Kira had not paid attention to anything that was going on as she got a call from her soon to be stepbrother. She could hear the fight in the background, but assumed the boys could handle it. After all, it wasn't a monster attack, so they didn't need her help to fight their own battles. From the sounds of it, though, it was going to escalate quickly. Ignoring that for now, she focused on the phone call and what Casey was saying.

"You're kidding, right?" she sighed. "When'd that happen?"

"I'm assuming earlier in the week," Casey replied. "When I checked last week, it was still the same price we agreed on."

"So how are we going to scrape up the money?" Kira frowned. She heard the fight being broken up. "I don't exactly have a job to cover my contribution."

"We'll figure it out tomorrow," Casey assured. "You're both still coming tomorrow, right?"

"As far as I know," Kira nodded. "Mom and your dad better appreciate this gift if we have to get more money for it."

"Like I said, we'll work out details tomorrow," Casey rolled his eyes. "Just thought I'd give you the heads up. I gotta go. I have a class shortly."

"Alright," Kira huffed. "I'll think about ideas to get more money." She hung up the phone just as Conner appeared behind her.

"What do you need money for?"

Kira jumped around, startled. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry," the soccer star chuckled. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and the two began walking away. Normally, Kira would shrug his shoulders off, but she welcomed it today. "So what was that phone call about?"

"Nothing too important," she sighed. "Casey just called to say that the gift we planned on buying for my mom and his dad is now higher in price."

"And what are you guys getting them?" Conner wondered. The last bell rang and the two made their way to his car. Their last class had been a free period, in which they could do whatever they wanted as long as they remained on school grounds. It was a course offered only to the senior class and those who played a sport for the school.

"Well, the three of us found out that the hotel our parents are staying at on their honeymoon has a spa," Kira answered. "They offer couples massages, so we figured the four of us would pitch in money to pay for it as a gift to them. Unfortunately, they just upped the price."

"I thought there was only three of you?" Conner frowned. The two got into his car and Conner pulled out of the parking lot, getting ready to drive them to his house so they could finish a project.

Kira shook her head. "Casey has a brother, Alden, who's in grad school. He's been studying abroad in Belgium, so we haven't been able to meet him yet."

"What is he studying?" the red ranger wondered. "Must be something good if he's studying abroad."

"Architecture," Kira shrugged. "But anyway, they upped the price, so now we have to figure out a way to get more money. I mean, Hayley pays us pretty well for gigs, even if it's only every other week. Ken's got her job at Kelly's shop, and Casey has a job at some pizza parlor. His brother has some money he saved from working at a grocery store during school, but I've only got the gigs."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Conner smiled. "So I take it you won't be here tomorrow?"

"More like can't be," the singer groaned. "Mom wants us to meet the rest of Chris's family, so the three of us are spending tomorrow in Ocean Bluff. If something happens, beep me and I'll try and get Ken to ninja streak me back here."

Conner just continued grinning.

The following morning, Kira found herself in Ocean Bluff at her future stepfather's house. She and Casey were the only ones there as far as kids so far. Kennedi was going to meet them later as she had a test that morning she couldn't get out of. No one else from Casey's family was there yet, so the two were just hanging out in the living room. According to the older boy, his brother was returning today and planned to put in an appearance.

"I take it you are not a morning person?" Casey laughed as he noticed she was trying to stay awake.

"Remind me again why my mom thought it was a good idea to be here at the crack of dawn?" Kira grumbled. It was nearing noon, but they had been there for a little while already. "Besides, your family isn't getting here until what? Mid-afternoon?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Casey shrugged. "Didn't you say you had something to talk to me about anyway?"

Kira nodded. Yesterday, Hayley had found something that would help her out with getting Kennedi on their side. The red head was surprised to hear Kira knew about the Stone of Resistance and the legend, but figured she must've heard it from her sister or a ninja sensei. However, Hayley had managed to find out where it was located. She didn't get specifics, but she knew enough to get her by.

"Yeah. How well do you know the woods in Ocean Bluff?"

"Pretty well," Casey replied. "Alden and I used to go hiking through there when we were kids. Why?"

"Because I'm doing a project for history on local legends," Kira answered, lying. She couldn't exactly tell him the real reason. "And I found one about a stone that's hidden somewhere in the woods here. I was wondering if you could help me find it."

"When do you wanna search for it?" Casey frowned.

Kira grinned.

By the end of the day, Conner was standing on the field part of a giant circle of students. He, Ethan, and Tommy had to handle the fight against Zeltrax and his monster all on their own. Kira had gotten the call but had no way of getting there without being noticed or in time to help them. He really wished she had been there to help out, since Ethan had not only managed to get detention for being late to class thanks to Zeltrax, but he also managed to somehow get in a fight with Derek. Unfortunately, all that had happened in the day and right after school. Now, everyone was meeting to see Derek and Ethan face off. Conner was worried about what would happen to both of them.

"Okay," Ethan began, speaking first and wanting to get this over with. "Here's the deal. I could fight you, but what would that prove? Instead, I'd like to make you a proposition."

"You're bailing?" Derek raised an eyebrow.

Ethan shook his head. "I think I can improve your game. If I do, you promise to back off me and my friends." Derek hesitated for a moment, thinking it over. Someone handed Ethan his laptop and he began to pull up what he needed. An image of a soccer player appeared. "This is a computer image of you kicking. I superimposed it against an image of a pro player from Manchester."

"How'd you do that?" Derek asked when it finished playing.

"I'm a computer geek, remember?" Ethan scoffed. "Look, see where you're booting it? It's just that one little hitch in your kick."

It took a minute, but everything had been set up for Derek to try and score a goal. After a moment, Derek took a running start before kicking the ball. Doing what Ethan suggested, he kicked it so that in soared into the goal and past the goalie. "I can't believe it worked."

"I told ya," Ethan shrugged.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Derek wondered.

"The net," the blue ranger answered. "Well, the internet that is."

"That's pretty cool," Derek nodded. "And…I'm sorry about before. I just thought, you know, a guy like you…you know, smart and all, wouldn't want to talk to a guy like me. I guess I was wrong."

Ethan shrugged again. "It's a brave new world out there, my friend."

The blue and red rangers walked away, leaving everyone else to depart from the fight. While he had been worried Ethan was going to do something drastic like use his powers, Conner was glad his friend had more common sense than he did. They were planning to meet up with Kira and her sister at the café when they could make it down.

"So," the blue ranger began as they headed for the parking lot. "What's the deal with you and Kira? You guys seem friendlier than normal."

"What do you mean?" Conner frowned.

"You two seem closer than just friends since that creepy bone monster," Ethan pointed out. "It's like…you're above just friends but not exactly dating yet. What gives?"

"Honestly," Conner sighed as they reached his car. They got in and Conner drove off, heading for the café. "I have no idea. She seems…full of secrets recently, and I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. She can't exactly specify anything."

Ethan turned to him, confused. "What do you think she's hiding?"

"Something that could affect us as rangers, but I'm not exactly sure what."

Kira and Kennedi were sitting in the café waiting for the boys to arrive. Kira had told her sister about the way to remedy the evil encoding in her dino gem and Hayley was helping them out. After the holiday break, Kira was going to be in Ocean Bluff to find the stone with Casey, who still thought she was doing research for a paper. The girls had come back here after the party, Kennedi planning on spending the night with her sister. The café wasn't too busy yet as school had got out a few minutes ago.

"I can't believe you're transferring after Christmas break," Kira huffed. "That's like, barely before the semester ends."

"Well, I won't officially start until next semester," Kennedi stated. "But I'm going to be in the school getting caught up with everything and finishing up paperwork."

"What are we talking about?" Conner asked as he and Ethan came up to them. The two boys took the remaining seats at the table.

"This," Kennedi pulled a paper from her bag and showed it to the boys. "Will be in effect when the break ends."

Kira nodded. "Now if only we can get her to transfer to Reefside's softball team before the playoffs…"

"Not gonna happen," Kennedi denied. "I may be living back here by then, but I promised them I wouldn't come back to this team until the season was over."

"So you're finally transferring back here?" Conner realized. "Awesome! And we have the same schedule!"

"Which just gives me more time to help you out with our little deal," Kennedi smirked. "Or did you forget about that?" Conner simply glared at her while the other two were confused.

"Deal?" Ethan questioned. "What deal?"

"It's nothing," Conner answered quickly. "More of a bet, really."

Kennedi laughed. "Yeah right! Dude, you and your brother both suck at lying!"

"I wanna know what this deal is now," Kira looked at both of them. "Or is it something I don't wanna know about?"

"It's better for you not to know, at least right now," Kennedi smirked.

Kira shrugged and accepted it while Ethan became even more confused. "Okay, not I'm lost. What exactly is going on?"

"Dude, when it comes to them, don't question their logic," Conner advised.

A/N: Kinda a weird ending, but what's going to happen next? Next update might take a while. Thanks for your patience!