Double Act
Chapter 24: Disappearing Act
A/N: Last time, Kira was sick so Kennedi got to do all the fun stuff. The group went on a trip to the museum to study Ancient Egypt (something I am currently learning about in my art history class), and Kennedi had fun pissing off the tour guide. Ethan decided to translate some hieroglyphics, which didn't turn out too well as he ended up cursed. As usual, the rangers defeated the monster and everything is okay with the world. What'll happen now?
Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the show.
A week later, the rangers found themselves at school. Kira, Trent, Conner, and Kennedi trailed behind Ethan, who was walking ahead a bit talking to Cassidy. Kira was playing with Conner's soccer ball, spinning it around in her hands. Kennedi was trying to eavesdrop on the conversation the blue ranger was having with the blonde, hoping to pick up something good. Conner and Trent seemed amused by what they were hearing so far.
"Uh, are we still on for the picnic?" Ethan wondered as they headed for the building.
"Yeah totally," Cassidy nodded. "I thought we could start with a cheese appetizer, and then, for the main course, brook trout almandine."
"No," Ethan denied. "Let me handle everything. You're my guest. I don't want you to lift a finger."
"Oh you're so sweet," Cassidy grinned. "And who says chivalry is dead?" She turned and left, heading over to where Devin was standing closer to the building.
With her gone and out of earshot, the other four teens caught up to him and surrounded him on either side. Conner patted him on the shoulder. "What was I thinking?" the blue ranger whined.
"First date jitters?" Kira wondered.
"I wouldn't know," he complained. "This is my first date ever."
"No way," Trent looked to him, not believing it.
"I think it's sweet," Kennedi grinned.
"You just want to play matchmaker," Conner pointed out.
Ethan shook his head. "Twenty gig hard drive with a five hundred and twelve meg portable backup is sweet. This is pure torture."
"Dude, don't sweat," Conner assured. "We'll put you through dating boot camp. When you're finished, you'll be Cassidy and Casanova, the power couple of Reefside. Right guys?"
"Count us out," Kira shook her head. "We're babysitting Gia tonight."
"Gia?" Trent looked to the girls.
"Our sometimes pain in the ass eight year old cousin," Kennedi explained. "It's her parents' anniversary, so we agreed to go down there for the night to babysit her. So once we're in Harwood County, you're pretty much on your own for monster attacks."
Kira smirked. "Just make sure you take pictures of this dating boot camp."
Ethan groaned, knowing this was not going to end well.
Once school was out, all the rangers were told to report to the dino lab. Conner, Ethan, and Trent found themselves entering the lab, seeing Hayley and Tommy looking at something green and slimy that was in a container. They had no idea what it was or why it was there, but they hoped it meant good news. Kira and Kennedi had already left for the night.
"Well, I guess slime really does pay," Tommy commented, unaware the teens were behind them.
"This is crazy," Hayley looked up at him. "But it just might work."
"So what's the emergency?" Conner called as the three came running in.
"Hey guys," Tommy turned and greeted them. "Hayley thinks she can demorph me."
That received multiple responses as the three began talking at once. "How?" Trent finished.
"With a little help of this slime," Hayley pointed to the slime jar. "It might work as a synthesizing agent that I think can help bring Tommy back to his normal self."
Within a few minutes, Tommy found himself standing in a machine, one Hayley had set up. The slime was meant to pour over him, almost like he was taking a shower in it. The three rangers stood across from him, watching. Hayley took the jar of slime and put it in the appropriate slot in the machine. "Okay. I've input your molecular structure and DNA information. So now to add the slime. I hope this works."
"You're not the only one," Tommy sighed.
"Good luck Dr. O," Conner wished.
"Catch ya on the flipside," Tommy spoke before Hayley flipped on the machine. She stood back with the others as the green slime washed over Tommy, causing the suit to disappear. However, that wasn't the only thing that did. Nothing was left in the machine. Tommy wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"What's going on?" Conner turned to the red head.
"He's gone," Trent realized. Then, not a minute later, a towel on the floor began floating upward. "Look, the towel!"
Conner tried calling out. "Dr. Oliver? Are you there?"
"Yeah I'm here," Tommy replied. They solved one problem only to create another. "Hayley, any guesses on what's going on?"
"Looks like the slime made your dino power of invisibility kick into overdrive," she theorized.
"Great," the black ranger huffed. "I got my body back, but now no one can see it."
Ethan was torn between grinning in amusement and frowning at how the day was going. He settled for the latter. "An invisible science teacher. How cool is that?"
"Is there anything you can do?" Conner wondered.
"This is a tough one," Hayley mused. None of them noticed Tommy standing behind them now. "I have no idea how to counteract that agent."
"Don't worry Dr. Oliver," Trent assured. "We'll figure it out."
Tommy realized they thought he was facing them. "Uh, guys? Over here." They all turned around, spotting the floating towel. "There's nothing you can do right now. Hayley and I will work on it."
"I guess now's a good time to give Ethan his makeover," Conner patted the blue ranger on the shoulder.
"Um…but…" Ethan stuttered, trying to think of an excuse to get out of this. He was led out by the others, leaving Hayley and Tommy to fix this issue.
Kira and Kennedi made it to Harwood County earlier than they planned to. They were supposed to meet their aunt at the hospital where she worked so Kennedi could have a pregnancy test done. As far as they knew, their aunt had no idea the girls themselves were rangers. They had gotten a call from Hayley asking them to meet everyone in the dino lab, but Kennedi responded saying that they were a couple hours away at the moment.
"Aunt Jess said we have to go in to pick her up," Kennedi stated as the girls reached the elementary school parking lot. "And that we're bringing Emma home too."
"Are those two ever not together?" Kira wondered as they headed for the building. The bell was about to ring for the end of the day, but the girls still had to make sure the school knew who they were.
"Hey, they're mini versions of us," Kennedi shrugged. "Just not actually related."
"That's what scares me," Kira muttered.
They made it into the office rather quickly and went through all the stuff they needed to before being cleared. The final bell rang not long afterward and small children flooded the hallways. Parents who were picking their children up waited in the cafeteria while the other kids filed out of the building and onto their buses. Thankfully, Gia and Emma knew to go to the cafeteria today and they managed to find the girls rather quickly.
"So what's the plans for tonight?" Gia asked, looking up at her cousins. "Can Emma spend the night?"
"If both your parents say it's okay," Kira answered. "I don't see why not. But you both need your homework done first."
"Spoil their fun, will you?" Kennedi joked. "No wonder Gia loves me more."
"Are they always like this?" Emma whispered to her friend, slightly confused. The younger blonde nodded her head slowly.
"Come on," Kira sighed. "Let's get you two home."
Kira dropped her sister off at the hospital before taking the two girls back to their homes. Kennedi walked into the building and quickly found her aunt's office. Thankfully, no one but her aunt was in there and she was the last patient of the day. Jessica Moran got right to the chase and wasted no time in having Kennedi take the test. Her sister had already filled her in on everything, and the woman was not happy about the situation.
"Just so you know," she spoke to the younger girl as they waited for the results. Jessica had them rushing to find out. "Your mother told me exactly what happened."
"She did?" Kennedi raised an eyebrow.
Jessica nodded. "As you can expect, Jason was pissed. So was your mother. He's the one who explained things to her, and she explained them to me. I'm sure your mother told you two that we know you guys are rangers."
"She didn't say you knew me and Kira were rangers," Kennedi mumbled. "Does Uncle John know?"
"Not about the ranger thing," Jessica sighed. "He knows the other stuff, though. I didn't go into too much because I didn't want Gia to overhear."
"Speaking of Gia," Kennedi decided to change the subject. "She asked if Emma could spend the night."
"As long as you guys don't mind and it's alright with her parents, it's fine with me," Jessica assured. "Now let's go see if they have the results yet and get out of here."
Kennedi followed her aunt.
The boys found themselves at the closed café, putting Ethan through dating boot camp. Since Kira and Kennedi weren't there, they had to skip over the outfit portion. Conner took it upon himself to teach Ethan how to dance, and Trent found it rather amusing, since the red ranger carried a rose in his mouth while doing so. Following that, they set up a small picnic area near the couches. Trent began teaching the blue ranger proper etiquette.
"Hold it at the bottom," the white ranger instructed as Ethan picked up a glass. "Tip the glass, try not to hit the rim, twist." Ethan gulped down the drink. "What are you doing? First, cheers."
"Well I think our work here is done," Conner declared. "Think you're ready?"
"Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good," Ethan nodded. "Also kind of glad the girls weren't here to see it."
"Don't worry," Trent smirked. "We plan to fill them in on everything later."
"You better not," Ethan shot them a glare before getting up to leave. He made it halfway to the door before turning back. "I can't do this. I can't!"
Conner sighed. "As Kennedi would probably say, just be yourself and she can't help but like you."
"Something she told you many times about Kira?" Trent took a shot. Conner gave him a look.
"Yeah how come you haven't asked her out yet?" Ethan agreed.
Thankfully, he was saved by their morphers going off.
Jessica brought Kennedi back home and found Gia and Emma doing their homework at the kitchen table while John was finishing getting ready. Kira was working on her own homework with the girls. Kennedi set to doing the same. Both teens were helping the younger girls when they needed it. Jessica went to get ready with her husband. It wasn't long before they actually left for the night, the two girls in charge. When they finished their homework, Gia and Emma went in the living room to play, leaving the teens to take care of the other work.
"What the hell do you cook for an eight year old vegetarian?" Kira wondered as they got started on dinner. They knew Emma was the only vegetarian out of the four of them, so it was a little problem with cooking.
"Veggie burgers?" Kennedi shrugged. "How should I know? Did you ever think of asking her what she wanted?"
"Can we just order a pizza or something then?" Kira asked. She picked up the phone and began dialing the number. Once the order was placed, she rejoined her sister at the table. "So did you get the results?"
Kennedi sighed. "You get to kill him. But let's not talk about that tonight in front of the kids. Any word from the guys?"
"Nothing…" Kira was interrupted when her phone rang. "Speak of the devils…" She answered it and put it on speaker so Kennedi could hear. "What's up boys?"
"Figured you'd want the play by play on Ethan's date," Conner's voice called back. "How's babysitting?"
"Peaceful," Kennedi replied. "Her friend Emma is over, so they keep each other occupied. How'd the boot camp go?"
"We finished it just before a monster attack," the boy reported. "Though we didn't get to go over outfit options, since that's more your territory."
"And you are spying on the date from the lab?"
"How else could we give you the play by play?" Trent answered. "So far they've only set everything up."
"And he's making some big points with conversation so far," Conner added.
Tommy's voice could be heard. "Looks like I'm not the only excellent teacher around." The girls suppressed laughter at this.
"Has he gone into…"
"Geek mode?" Conner cut Kennedi off with a groan. "He just did. I specifically told him not to go into it!" There was a brief pause. "And now he's having a complete meltdown."
"This is so sad to watch," Trent sighed. "Dr. O, is there anything we could do to help him?"
Kira didn't wait for a response. "Maybe if you have popcorn while watching it, it won't be so bad."
"Where'd he go?" Conner ignored her, not hearing a response from the teacher. "This invisible thing is really creepy."
"What invisible thing?" the girls questioned.
With the day finally over, everyone could relax. The girls had gotten one last call from the boys filling her in on the rest of Ethan's date and saying they handled the monster no problem. When their aunt and uncle returned, Kira and Kennedi left. They made it back before noon, so they decided to head to the café. As expected, they found the boys there, Ethan on his computer as usual. Smiles on their faces, they walked over to them.
"Dude, what are you doing here?" Conner asked the boy. "Shouldn't you two be finishing your big date?"
"Oh, that," Ethan shrugged. "Well, Cassidy's great, but I found that we really don't have much in common."
"We could've told you that," the girls piped up.
"Plus, I'm a ranger," Ethan added. "I got to be ready to go whenever duty calls. I don't know how I'm going to tell her it's over. I think she really likes me."
"Better think of something quick," Trent warned, seeing the blonde walk over to him. "I'm going to go see if Hayley needs some help in the back."
"Oh, I'll come with you," Kira offered. "I need to talk to her about something anyway."
Kennedi grabbed Conner's arm and dragged him away. "Come on, McKnight. We got things to discuss."
Cassidy and Ethan were left alone.
A/N: Here's the next chapter. And yes, Kennedi is pregnant, but this story will only show up to her fourth month (as in, she'll be roughly sixteen weeks along by prom, if that helps with the timeline of the story. She's five weeks by now).
Also, I got to admit that my mind is full of stories and I find it really hard to write when that happens. I could be working on one story then get an idea for a completely unrelated one and be working on a new one the next minute, so I do a lot of jumping back and forth between stories I'm writing. Most of the ones I'm writing are sequels in series and a bunch of ones not in series that I haven't posted yet. Anyway, I get a lot of ideas stuck in my head and I have trouble focusing on one particular story at a time.
Another thing: In case I haven't mentioned it, December 26 - January 3 I will not be posting/writing anything as I will be away on a trip for my school. After that, I am on winter break until the 20th of January, so I hope to do a lot posting/writing then.
And thanks for your patience with everything!