The rest of the week was not as exciting for Sarah as many would expect. While there was a lot of excitement about the Levi Weston gig, and it was virtually all anyone could talk about to the point that many teachers in the school stopped even bothering trying to stop kids talking about it or even breaking out into random off-key renditions of his greatest hits in the middle of classrooms.
For a girl who had once quite literally passed out in his arms though, Sarah wasn't terribly pre-occupied with Levi. In fact she wasn't thinking about him much at all, most of the week, she was trying to avoid Victor and Monty.
She still felt badly about how Victor reacted to her asking about his dad. While she had since looked it up online and had found out how his father had died while stationed in Basra when Victor was only a kid, and it seemed he had been something of a hero, being awarded the Silver Star for his efforts, Victor had been a child when he died, leaving him with only a memory, an image of a father for all those years.
The fact that he had died a hero was obviously a source of pride for Victor, going by his habit of keeping his dad's dog tags and wearing them while he was winning his many accomplishments, but she also doubted that was of little comfort to him given how he reacted when she asked about him. She didn't even want to think of losing either of her parents.
Then there was Monty, a kid she wasn't sure she could ever look at the same way again. She had known that something had gone down in the past, something that had forged the friendship between Monty and Victor that she could never understand when she first met them.
She knew that Victor had helped him out in the past some time, and it was something that Monty was still grateful for to this day, but in researching to find out about Victor's dad, she had stumbled across an article relating to a bombing in the middle school Victor and Monty had both gone to a few years ago. Monty had always been her chief rival in science at school. She had no problem believing he was CAPABLE of making such devices, hell, creating explosives was startlingly simple if someone was willing to do a little research. With the knowledge someone could gain from the average Grade School library, it was more than possible to cause one hell of a bang. She just couldn't fathom what would drive him to do it.
She had caused her fair share of explosions in her time, including destroying at least one family car, but they had all been accidents. That the article had described his device as a bomb implied that the resulting explosion was his intent. Casting a few glances his way, looking at the scrawny kid with the bow tie and the glasses, it was hard to imagine he had once created a lethal explosive. Monty let out his usual, grunting laugh as Victor said something to him. It boggled her mind, here Monty looked about as harmless as a damp sponge.
"Hmm?" That was the most eloquent response she could come up with as she realised the others were staring at her. Obviously someone had asked her a direct question and they had not gotten an answer.
"Pizza or tacos?" Preston asked her. "We know we don't have to wait in line for the concert, so we were just trying to decide where to go before hand."
"I still say it's a bit of a shame we aren't going to have to queue." Hayley said, drawing Calvin into herself. "Half the fun of a concert is camping out the night before. You know, a few snacks, some hot drinks, all snuggled up in sleeping bags…"
"SEPARATE sleeping bags?" Brody asked, raising an eyebrow.
Calvin just tossed a dinner roll at Brody, who was more than capable of dodging it. Before he could say anything else though, the whole school shook. They all looked around each other.
"Wow, the fault lines are pretty restless." Hayley commented.
"I know, that's the fourth tremor this week." Preston agreed with a little nod. "It's been years since we've seen this many so close together."
"I'm getting quite enough excitement from up above without having to worry about down below trying to get us too thank you very much." Calvin grumbled. Despite the tremor, everyone was relatively calm. Some kids had to gather their things that had fallen out of bags and off tables, but being built to code in California meant the school was petty robust, and the kids were more than a little hardened to it all. Most of them would say that anything less than a 4 on the Richter Scale wouldn't even wake them up. Sarah was a little less used to it, but thanks to her time in Amber Beach she was a little more used to earthquakes now. "Anyone heard from Levi?"
"Nothing other than what every kid hears on the TV." Brody said, somewhat disapprovingly. They all knew the run up to his concert was a busy time for Levi, but he did think he'd make a little bit more of an effort to meet with the team to train and to prepare for any attacks. "He's being interviewed by the local news this afternoon."
"I'm sure once the concert's over he'll be around more." Sarah said defencively.
"Oh, and I wonder why you're defending him." Hayley teased her.
"Come on guys, are we doing this again?" Sarah asked wearily. The bell rang, signalling it was time to start the afternoon classes. "Now that is good timing! I'm off to Shop Class."
"You do know we ALL take Shop Class right?" Preston sniggered.
"Oh come on guys, I only fainted ONCE!" She protested.
"Twice, technically." Calvin reminded her as they headed for class.
The following day, Cosmo was getting ready in his office for the next show. He hadn't been seriously harmed in the attempt on his life, he had seen a few in his time, but he never wanted anyone to get even the hint of any weakness from him. To even appear with minor injuries would give whoever had paid off the would-be assassins the idea that their efforts could actually achieve something. No, it was better for anyone who didn't know about the assassination attempt to remain in the dark, and for the mastermind behind it to know only that it had failed.
He was getting make-up done by a kudabot to conceal some of his wounds. Normally he'd get an intern to do it, but kudabots had the added advantage of being able to have their memories wiped once he was finished, so no reports of his injuries would leak beyond the office. Wrench came in, just as the kudabot was finishing off.
"Well Wrench? What news do you have for me?" He asked.
"Those assassins, they're professionals. All I could ascertain was where they're from, but since it's a professional agency there's no way to know who hired them." Wrench told him regretfully. "Maybe if one of them were alive to question…"
"Oh, I'm sorry, next time I'll pull my punches next time someone sends deadly assassins after me." Cosmo interrupted him glibly. Wrench didn't have an answer for that, but Cosmo started laughing. "My boy, I didn't expect to find anything, even if one of them was alive. I meant that OTHER job I sent you on!"
"Oh…um…that's more bad news I'm afraid." Wrench told him. "We…still can't find him."
"You can't find him?" Cosmo shrieked in anger. "The show starts in minutes and you're telling me we don't even have our monster?"
"We gave Ripcon the order to bring him back, but no one's seen him!" Wrench protested. Cosmo just sighed.
"Fine, fine, we'll have to do what we can with a video package." He responded. "But you make sure Ripcon knows that if Stonedozer doesn't show up on camera, he'll have more to worry about than his finders' fee!"
Cosmo left the office and headed for the stage, pulling on his long coat and spinning his top hat onto his head as he went, while Wrench went the other way, aiming to hurriedly put together some kind of introduction for Stonedozer from archive footage. Cosmo strode out onto the stage to rapturous applause as he did his signature dance for his audience.
"Who do you love?" He called out.
"COSMO!" They all called out in response. Cosmo made his way to the middle of the stage as the wind-up act quickly left to give him his spotlight. He started to search his mind for the best way to sell this to the crowd.
"Um…I'm really sorry about this, but we can't seem to find this week's monster anywhere." Cosmo told the audience as Wrench signalled to him to play for time while he made up the highlight reel. "I guess he's so eager to get at the Rangers, he wasn't even willing to wait for his introduction!"
The audience laughed as he said this. SO far, so good, he had covered for the absence of his warrior. Now, all he had to do was win the audience over on why they should care about a monster who couldn't even be bothered turning up for them.
As he was about to continue though, the studio started to shake, and everyone had to grab onto their seats to keep from being thrown around. Cosmo struggled to stay on his feet as the floor started to rise up, before bursting open. Stonedozer broke through the stage, appearing before the audience, who seemed to be enthralled by the destruction. Cosmo looked to the damage and just shrugged. He could always take it out of Stonedozer's fight purse if he won, and if he lost, that just added to Ripcon's tab.
"I am STONEDOZER!" The monster introduced himself in a booming voice, clanging together his scoop hands. "I've been spending days tapping into Summer Cove's fault lines. I'll bring the house down, right on top of the Rangers' heads!"
"Well, you can't fault enthusiasm like that! Which is why we're giving you a special treat. Straight from our laboratory, prepare yourself for the Warrior Dome debut of…the BASHER BOTS!"
Stonedozer watched as a dozen of the new droids ran out onto the stage, lining up behind him. Cosmo just smiled as he hit the teleport command.
"Now go Stonedozer, go and show the Rangers what it means to really ROCK!" Cosmo said, before sending out his Buzz-cams to pick up the fight. "Glory awaits you, go and take it!"
Down on Earth, the Rangers were being escorted into the arena while Levi was talking over something with Tom. The conversation between the two of them looked a little more animated than usual for them.
"Tom, what do you mean you couldn't find them?" Levi asked him. "They went to the same hospital you did!"
"Yeah, and then they checked out before I could get there with the backstage passes!" Tom explained. "We've been trying for days to find them, but…"
"Look…never mind. We'll just have to go ahead without them." Levi sighed, shaking his head. "Man, I really wanted to reward those two for what they did at the signing. Oh well, can you at least find the kid and make sure she's being taken care of?"
"She's down at the merchandise stall as we speak, picking out her free gifts." Tom answered with a smile. "I'll go and get her."
As he left, Levi turned to see the Rangers arriving by another door. They all came over to greet him fondly.
"Levi, you have been a hard man to get a hold of!" Brody said, his tone almost as much of a rebuke as it was a joke. Levi just shrugged as he shook hands and doled out hugs to the others.
"Yeah, I know, I'm real sorry about that." Levi replied. "Tom's had me doing three, four appearances a day all week. I swear, I almost forget what the inside of my hotel room looks like."
"At least you're getting to see a bit of the city then." Hayley said, looking on the bright side.
"Yeah, the inside of TV studios and radio stations, and they're always SUCH interesting places to be." He remarked. The others just stared blankly at him.
"Uh…yeah…I was just saying that." Preston joked. "I mean, once you've seen one TV studio you've seen them all right?"
"Trust me, it isn't always that glamorous. The last interview I did last night was for a student radio station at the local college…I swear it stank so much of weed by the time I left I was feeling light-headed!"
"Well, just as long as you're on top form for your fans." Sarah replied, popping him on the shoulder. "Just think, 20,000 fans all here to see you!"
"Yeah, we're sold out. It's a long way from a barn that holds a couple of dozen." Levi answered cheerfully. "It should be a great show."
"The audience certainly seem pumped for it." Brody answered. "I heard some people queued out all night!"
"Yeah, that happens. I usually have people pass out water and stuff just to make sure no one faints." Levi stated. Sarah rolled her eyes and crossed her arms defiantly. "Don't worry, that's the only one I promise you."
"It really does look like you're going all out." Brody commented. "I'd say this concert's going to be epic."
"Yeah, well it's Tom that sorts out most of the logistical stuff. We've been working so hard on this world tour, it should be great." Levi continued. The Rangers all looked to Brody who just sort of blinked hearing this. There were a few exchanged glances before Hayley spoke up.
"World tour?" She asked. "H…how long are you going to be gone?"
"Oh, only three months." Levi answered. "I figured if I left my Zord that should help you guys out, and hey, if you really need help, it shouldn't take me too long to get back."
The Rangers didn't answer straight away, none of them really knew what to say to this. Levi had only just come onto the team, they were all expecting to have an extra pair of hands and a little more firepower from now on, and now he was planning to leave? Before any of them could answer though, a cry split the air.
"LEVI!" A little girl, the winner of the backstage pass called out.
"Your biggest fan just came to say hi." Tom told him. Levi went to go and greet the girl, leaving the Rangers more than a little conflicted on how to feel about this turn of events.
"Three months?" Brody asked. "Did any of you know he was going on tour for three months?"
The four of them kind of shuffled a little uneasily. They had all been Levi Weston fans, and all of them knew, as did everyone with an internet connection that had even HEARD of Levi Weston, that he was going on a world tour. He was planning on visiting dozens of cities all over the world in a tour that would be practically non-stop for three straight months. Eventually Sarah managed to say something.
"Well…it…was on all his websites." She said, shuffling a little as she tried to find a way to express her thoughts. "But…when we learned he was a Ranger, I always just…kind of assumed he'd cancel it or re-schedule or something."
"We just got the Gold Power Star, we just got our Gold Ranger…and now he's leaving for three months?" Preston asked. That's…that's a little messed up!"
"So what are we going to do?" Calvin asked. Brody was clearly not happy about this, but he just looked to them and shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess it's not like we can FORCE him to stay or anything." Brody commented. "I guess we'll just have to do the best we can for three months."
Just then, the whole arena shook. They all struggled to stay on their feet, while a scream from a little way off alerted them to Levi, who was holding onto the girl that won his fan contest. Brody looked to the others.
"OK, this week has been weird, but even for California, this isn't natural!" He put down flatly. "That's the fourth earthquake TODAY!"
"Mick, this is Sarah, can you read me, over?" The Pink Ranger said into her Ninja-comm. Mick appeared on the screen.
"If you're calling about the earthquakes, I am way ahead of you." Mick told them. "They're all focused on an area of mountains not far from the arena."
"We should check it out." Sarah responded. They all headed over to where Levi was on one knee, talking to the girl, who looked a little shaken, but none the worse for wear.
"Levi, can we talk to you for a second?" Brody asked.
"What is it?" Levi asked him.
"We need to check out something about these earthquakes." Brody told him, tapping his Ninja-comm to communicate with Levi that this was Ranger business. Levi nodded, but looked between the Rangers and the girl.
"Can…uh…you guys handle it?" He asked. "My concert's about to start."
The team was not at all prepared for that answer. None of them could say anything, and instead only stared at Brody. None of them could imagine what his reaction would be if one of them told him 'sorry, not right now' when they were called to Ranger duties. Brody didn't look angry though, instead he just looked disappointed.
"Well…if you have to I guess." Brody replied. "We'll be back as soon as we can."
With that, they all ran off. Levi turned his attention back to the girl and smiled.
"Now that smile is the kind of thing I like to see. You are one brave buckaroo if you want to stick around after that Mary." Levi complimented her.
"It weren't nothin'." Mary answered, mimicking his accent. "If you can ride a bull a little old earthquake should be nothin'."
"I thought that radio interview would be on too late for someone like you to still be listening." Levi laughed as he recognised his own words. He pulled out a device that looked a lot like a cheeseburger. "Want to take a selfie?"
"Cool camera." She replied, coming beside him as Levi held her close.
"Does my biggest fan know my favourite food?" He asked her. "1, 2, 3…"
"Cheeseburger!" They chorused together as he pressed the button, taking their picture.