Chapter Sixteen
When is a Ranger Not a Ranger?
Trent and Zack's fight was very entertaining. Their styles were completely different and both were fighting their hardest. While Trent had honed his skills against his father's monsters for hours each day, Zeltrax, Elsa, Mesogog, monsters, Triptoids and Tyrannodrones didn't use moves likely to be found in the latest hip-hop video, and Zack was still in possession of actual Power Ranger gifts, even though they were slightly weakened by the loss of the Command Center.
They finally decided to call it quits when Zack was up about three points, and a sweaty Trent returned to the sidelines to praise from his girlfriend and a grudging "Nice one" from a battered Conner. Ethan, however, ignored Trent entirely and ran out onto the mat.
"Come on, Billy!" he said. He and Billy had been chatting quite a bit over the past two days, and Ethan was slowly starting to idolize the older Blue Ranger. He desperately wanted to prove himself… and to wipe the smug smirk off Conner's face every time he teased Ethan about Conner being stronger.
"All right," Billy said nervously. "I haven't been a Ranger in a really long time, though—so I'm probably off-form—"
"Hey, I only spent a year as a Ranger and I've never done any other fighting," Ethan said with a shrug.
Billy smiled. "All right then. I have been training with the Aquitian Rangers…"
No one had been expecting much of this particular fight. Neither Blue Ranger had been very intense when it came to developing their skills… but apparently, they'd been practicing. Tommy, Jason, Trini, Kimberly, Zack, Conner, Kira and Trent watched, open-mouthed, as one of the most furious sparring matches ever seen blew every Blue stereotype out of the water.
"Where on Earth did Billy learn that?" Kimberly breathed admiringly as he flung Ethan to the mat.
"Not on Earth—on Aquitar. They don't exactly have karate," Trini said with a wry smile.
"What the hell do they have?" Jason asked, gaping at his shy, quiet friend as he fought like an angry Bruce Lee backed into a corner.
"Ethan's holding up well," Trent remarked. Somewhere along the way, the old and young had separated, so that Kira, Conner and Trent were standing several feet away from Jason, Trini, Kimberly, Zack and Tommy.
"He's not doing that good," Conner said defensively as Ethan kicked Billy halfway across the basement.
"Don't worry, Conner," Kira said, patting Conner on the shoulder. "Just because Kimberly totally humiliated you doesn't mean we're going to tease you about it. Much." Conner glared at her.
The fight seemed to go on forever. Blurs of blue and miscellaneous yells punctuated the air as punches and kicks flew. While Ethan had very little background in martial arts compared to Billy, Billy was used to sparring on a planet with a different gravity—never mind the fact that he spent most of his time below water. Neither of them managed to gain the upper hand, and they finally called it a tie before returning to the sidelines a good long while later, on the verge of collapsing from the exertion. Their respective friends congratulated them whole-heartedly.
"Trini?" Kira asked hopefully.
"Of course," Trini said with a smile, taking off her shoes and joining Kira on the mat.
Like Conner, Ethan and Trent, Kira's martial arts experience paled in comparison to her older counterpart. However, Trini was kind enough to make allowances for this, and went rather easy on her. Kira was still a strong opponent… or at least, strong enough not to get slaughtered.
Conner was watching happily, his interest piqued by two pretty girls duking it out. "Dude, all that's missing is a mud-wrestling pit." Trent glared at him and smacked him upside the head. "Ow!"
Tommy immediately turned to Jason, preparing to hold him back if need be, but Jason had sensed that there was no need. The two yellow-clad women turned to glare at Conner so furiously that he instantly began to panic. He pressed himself against the wall and edged towards the stairs to the first floor.
"I didn't mean it! I really really didn't!" Conner wailed, waving his hands as if to ward them off.
Trini gave him a threatening smile. "You know, I think we've been sparring long enough, don't you, Kira?" She turned to Kira, who nodded uncertainly; Kira would have liked to keep going, but she was rather winded and it was obvious that Trini had a plan of some sort. "Why don't you and Jason go next, Conner?" Trini continued.
"Oh, yes," Kira said with a grin, rushing off the mat. Jason grinned evilly. He had never been one to hold back in a fight, save when Kimberly played up the poor little girl act. And Conner had just made a very rude comment about Jason's wife.
"Come on, rookie," he said to Conner as Trini rejoined her friends.
"That was evil," Zack muttered to Trini, smiling.
"You know, I am responsible if anything happens to him," Tommy told her, torn between wanting Conner to get his butt kicked again and trying to be a responsible adult.
"He'll be fine," Trini said confidently. "Just a little… bruised."
Conner gulped as he stepped onto the mat. He knew he was in for it. Jason was the first Red Ranger, the first leader, and he hadn't lost a step if Tommy's tales of the Red Rangers' mission to the moon were anything to go by. Conner really wished he wasn't such a fan of saying whatever popped into his head.
Conner spent most of the fight on the defensive, blocking whenever Jason got close and then rushing back at the first opportunity. Jason was fast, Jason was strong, and Jason was Conner's idol. Therefore Jason was scary as hell. Conner was flung to the mat several times, and only managed to send Jason to the mat once, by sheer luck. Still, he fought as hard as he could, and the fight wasn't nearly as humiliating as the one against Kimberly.
"Ow," Conner moaned as he returned to the sidelines. He'd gotten off a few good hits, but the fact still remained that Conner had received a crash-course in martial arts from Tommy and a few nifty moves from his Ranger powers, while Jason had taken roughly a dozen forms of martial arts since before Conner was born and he'd spent twice as long in uniform as Conner had. "How exactly did the geek end up doing the best?"
"I've been training since we defeated Mesogog," Ethan said. "Whereas you went back to vegging all day."
"Me? Vegging? This from the king of the video games!"
"Keep talking, Mr. Got-My-Butt-Kicked-by-a-Pink-Ranger," Ethan shot back.
Conner glared at him. In the interest of staving off another argument, Trent turned to the older Rangers. "Why don't you guys show us how it's done?" he asked. When he'd been discussing the sparring idea with Conner and Ethan, they'd mentioned how cool it would be to see the older Rangers go at it.
They all looked at each other. "Let's go," Kimberly said to Trini. She was itching to get back on the floor… and Trini, unlike Conner, might actually be a challenge.
Trini cracked her knuckles. "All right, then. But I'm going to kick your butt, Kim. I always do."
"You used to," Kimberly retorted. "I've been practicing."
"Oh, please, like it'll help."
"And to think, Trini's the nice one," Zack joked.
"We'll see about that," Kimberly said cheerfully, and launched herself at Trini. Trini was definitely more skilled in martial arts, though she wasn't as nimble as Kimberly and didn't use flips and somersaults as much. She was, however, more apt to punch and use her hands; Kimberly relied almost entirely upon her powerful legs.
After about three minutes, Trini managed to pin Kimberly, holding her down with a knee in her back. "Give up?"
"Never!"
Suddenly, Trent smacked Conner upside the head again, while Kira simultaneously pinched his arm. "OW! What? I didn't say anything!"
"You were thinking it," Kira growled.
Kimberly flung her leg up to kick Trini in the back, and Trini rolled off before facing her friend. The two went all out, flinging each other around like rag dolls and putting on one hell of a show. "I wish I had a video camera," Zack said wistfully. "They'd make a great fight scene in the film I'm starting soon."
"What's it called?" Conner asked, obviously thinking that he could stand to watch similar fights, for which he received another pinch and a head smack. "OW! Jesus, guys, I'm bruised enough!"
Trini claimed victory for the sparring match, though it was a close thing; she was tired from her recent fight with Kira and Kimberly wasn't exactly a bad fighter. "You two going next?" Trini asked Jason and Tommy.
Tommy hesitated. He hadn't gotten a chance to spar with Jason in years, what with his job, and being a Dino Ranger, and college and working with Mercer and so on. He'd missed it greatly… but he wasn't exactly in the mood to be taken down in front of his students, and he and Jason had always been pretty evenly matched.
"Come on, Professor Underwear," Jason ribbed, heading out into the center of the basement.
Well, there was no backing down after a comment like that. "I can't help it if your wife likes my boxer shorts," Tommy told Jason loftily, ignoring Kira's gagging in the background. Kimberly giggled, Zack laughed, and Trini winced.
"Don't flatter yourself," Jason growled, kicking Tommy in the stomach before Tommy realized he'd moved. "At least I have a woman."
"Yeah, and you're whipped," Tommy retorted, forcing Jason back with a roundhouse and waiting for Jason to charge at him before nailing him with an uppercut.
"You want to talk whipped?" Jason demanded as he swept Tommy's feet out from under him. "When was the last time you were able to function without Hayley around, eh? The girl organizes your sock drawer!"
"She hasn't done that in years!" Tommy insisted. He and Jason continued to fight, barely noticing what they were doing as they cut each other down, just like old times.
"Right. The last time I came to see you, she was still leaving you little notes so you'd remember to pay your bills on time."
"Excuse me for being forgetful! And Trini does just as much for you. You can barely feed yourself when she isn't around."
"Oh, please! You rely on Hayley way more. Less than two days away from her and you're already getting your butt kicked by Trini and Kim for sneaking onto their balcony with Zack."
"That was Zack's fault!"
"Uh-huh. Sure."
"Hey, at least I'm not whining about it. 'Oh, Trini, when are you coming back, I can't live without you, I'm so whipped it's not funny'—"
"I am not whining!"
"You're totally whining! I've barely mentioned not having Hayley and you're all 'Boohoo, my wife wants to spent ten hours in someone else's house!'"
"Hey, that has nothing to do with how dependant I am on Trini! Just because you're not getting any from Hayley—"
"Do NOT go there!"
"Ha! Struck a nerve, did I?"
"No! But you just made my students want to hurl."
"Yeah, could you pick a new subject to make fun of him about?" Ethan called from the sidelines.
"Please?" Kira, Trent and Conner added.
"Tell me, what really happened when they were using your phone? Did they join forces and kick your butt?" Jason teased Tommy, figuring he might as well humor the students.
"Hey, just because you've never beaten Trini at arm-wrestling doesn't mean you have to take it out on me!"
"I was letting her win!"
"Oh, please. You sound like Conner."
"Hey!" Conner said indignantly.
"Well, Kim's gotten a bit tougher over the years."
"Somehow, I don't think Kimberly's toughness is a factor."
"Maybe she should kick your butt next, then. She used to do it all the time, as I recall."
"Not as often as Trini kicked yours!"
"Name one time Trini kicked my butt!"
"I seem to recall sitting calmly by the lake, enjoying the peace and quiet, when you ran by screaming your head off with Trini chasing you down—"
"I was chasing Richie! That so doesn't count!"
"Yeah? From what I remember, Richie ended up in the hospital and Trini beat the crap out of you for it."
"…I have come to accept that as the price of being too overprotective."
"You mean you actually know you're too overprotective? You had to spend two hundred hours in community service for the Richie thing! How many times a day does Trini have to beat you up for the overprotective thing, by the way?"
"Trini has never once kicked my ass!"
"Oh, whatever," Trini muttered, but quietly; she was a fan of sparing people's feelings.
"Yeah, right! She kicked your ass right after that mission to the moon!"
"She kicked yours, too!"
"She did not! I escaped!"
"Because she was gonna kick your ass!"
"No, no, no. Because I didn't want to have to fight her."
"Tommy, when she first pulled up, you came running back to the rest of us, told me 'She knows,' and dove behind T.J.'s car like a sissy girl."
"Well, I could see her glaring through the windshield when she pulled up! I can't believe you were so whipped that you didn't tell her where you were going."
"I didn't want her to worry!"
"So you told her you were going fishing with me instead of telling her you were going to the moon to fight the last of the Machine Empire?"
"Hey, you were the idiot who wanted only Red Rangers. How was I supposed to keep her from coming once she found out?"
"Gee, I don't know—tell her no?"
"Wait," Zack said slowly, turning to Trini. "Jason didn't tell you he was going to the moon?"
"No, he didn't. And he wondered why I wanted to beat the crap out of him and Tommy for it," Trini said mildly, watching the fight with amusement. "I love how this entire fight's about me."
On and on the two went, arguing playfully as they fought each other, both refusing to give up. They kept it up for over an hour, cracking on each other the whole time. Trini went to get the spectators drinks and snacks, and their attention spans began to wane. At last, when the others had all decided to sit down and were chatting amongst themselves, Jason and Tommy decided to call it quits.
"Whew, that was fun," Jason said, grabbing a towel off the rack they kept in the basement and tossing one to Tommy.
"Good match," Tommy said, getting himself a can of soda and settling down next to Billy.
"Good long match," Conner complained.
"By the way," Trini said, and pinched her husband on the arm.
"OW! What was that for?"
"For reminding me that you were an idiot about that mission to the moon," Trini replied calmly, pinching Tommy as well.
"OW!"
"Must be a Red and Yellow thing," Trent said, watching with amusement.
"It is," Jason said sulkily.
"Just like Kira and Conner," Ethan said with a grin.
"Of course, Kira and Conner have never done any of the other Red and Yellow norms," Tommy said. The tone in his voice was a clear warning that he was taking another stab at Conner.
"Like what?" Kira asked.
"Like getting married," Tommy said, struggling to keep a straight face.
"Just because Jason and Trini—"
"And Andros and Ashley," Tommy interrupted.
"…Well…"
"And wasn't there a little something between Eric and Taylor?"
"Yep."
"Why would anyone marry a Red Ranger?" Kira grumbled sourly.
"Hey!" Tommy, Jason, Trini and Conner exclaimed.
"What? You're all whack jobs," Kira said stubbornly, linking arms with Trent.
"I'd be careful if I were you," Kimberly said lightly. "Trent could be on his way to becoming Red one day."
"Never!" Trent said emphatically, looking horrified.
"I don't know—you're halfway there," Jason said thoughtfully. "That's the exact same route Tommy went. Evil Ranger, White Ranger, Red Ranger. …You color thief," he added with a glare at Tommy.
"Hey, I didn't choose the color," Tommy insisted defensively. "They told me to go on the quest and I went."
"Sure, Tommy. Suuuuuuuure."
"Hey, I didn't want to be Red! They made me! There was no White Subcrystal, and for some reason they gave Adam the Green and Rocky the Blue, and they gave me Red."
"It's cuz you're a show-off like all the other Red Rangers," Kimberly teased.
"Hey!" Tommy, Jason and Conner yelled again.
"We're all show-offs," Billy said fairly.
"Speak for yourself," Jason, Zack and Tommy said, then paused as they thought over the unlikelihood of Billy, of all people, being the only show-off in the group.
"Don't worry, Kira," Kimberly said, taking advantage of the silence to console the younger girl, who was now squeezing Trent's arm so hard his fingers were going numb while she glared at Conner. "Your team has already deviated from tradition quite a bit. You didn't even have a Pink Ranger."
"Neither did the Ninja Rangers," Kira said worriedly.
"Ha! The Ninja Rangers," Tommy growled. "They had a Yellow guy and a Blue Girl!"
"What!" Trini and Billy demanded, looking offended.
Tommy nodded. "I know! That's what I said. Well, that's what I thought, anyway. And they had Crimson and Navy Rangers! What is that? And Cole's team was weird too. They had a girl as a White Ranger!" He snorted, then realized he was being a bit too defensive of the color scheme and cleared his throat. "Well, are we done down here? Maybe we could head back upstairs?"
"I want to go again!" Kimberly exclaimed, hopping back out onto the mat. She scanned the crowd for a likely sparring partner. "Jason?"
"I don't think so, Kim. I'm wiped," Jason said apologetically.
"Oh, come on! The day is young! I wanna kick someone's butt! Again!"
"How much caffeine have you had today?" Zack asked Kimberly incredulously, looking at her empty drink can suspiciously.
Trini saw her chance and took it. She stepped on Zack's toes as inconspicuously as possible while poking Billy in the side. "I am too," Trini said innocently.
"Zack?"
"I'm tired, too," Zack said, trying to look more exhausted than he was.
"Why don't you go, Tommy?" Billy suggested casually.
Tommy hesitated. He didn't really want to face Kimberly… on the other hand, he did want to face someone. He'd forgotten how much fun it was to train with his friends; it was absolutely exhilarating. Still…
Tommy had a sudden vision of accidentally unleashing his repressed anger with Kimberly all at once and beating her to death. Shaking his head, he said, "I don't think so."
"Oh, come on, ya old fogey," Kimberly teased, her tone holding a slight note of challenge that she knew he'd pick up on. "Going soft in your old age, are you?"
"Oooh!" Zack crowed. Jason smirked. Great. That meant they'd tease him forever if he backed out. The Dino Rangers would too, probably; seeing Dr. O backing down from a challenge would probably make their day, particularly Conner's.
A moment of careful consideration later, Tommy stepped forward, handing his drink to Jason. "Keep talking," he said with a grin, "while you're still conscious."
Kimberly laughed and moved into position, giving him a slightly nervous smile. "Don't go too hard on me, okay? I'm kinda tired."
"It's not going to work on me, Kim," Tommy said, trying to sound more certain than he felt. "I know that trick."
"It's not a trick," she insisted. "Ready?"
He nodded and she launched a feeble punch at his face. Tommy blocked easily and she spun around, fast as lightning, to elbow him hard in the gut.
"OOF!" he yelped, doubling over. Cackling evilly, Kimberly danced behind him and kicked him playfully in the butt; he went sprawling on the mat.
"GO KIM!" the four teens cheered from the wall. Tommy rolled over, not bothering to glare at them.
"One," Kimberly said simply, giving him a smug smile.
"Oh, that's it," Tommy growled good-naturedly, springing up. "You're going down, little girl."
"Bring it," Kimberly retorted, sticking out her tongue.
Suddenly, just as it had with Jason, the world fell away. He was seventeen again, hanging out with his friends in the Juice Bar, feeling the rush of adrenaline and the spark of pure energy that came from a good fight, combined with the contentment of having his friends around him. He forgot about his relationship with Kimberly, he forgot about its ending; he forgot about everything except the fight.
Kimberly seemed to be feeling it also; she slipped easily into the banter they'd often indulged in back in Ernie's exercise area. "Come and get me, Tommy," she teased as they circled each other. "What's the matter? Too chicken to—"
Kimberly broke off as Tommy rushed her, faking a kick at her head only to knock her legs out from under her a split-second later. Kimberly hit the floor with a startled yelp.
"You were saying?" Tommy said coolly.
Kimberly's foot lashed out, striking him a few inches below the collarbone and knocking him back as well. She rolled to her feet. "Sloppy, sloppy," she chided, backing away as he flipped up.
"Right back at you."
"You're losing again, little boy. Where's your brain today, Tommy? Forget it at home?"
"No, did you spend yours on new shoes?"
"OOOOOH!" the gang chorused. "That was cold!" Zack howled as they all dissolved into laughter again.
Kimberly glowered at him. "Mock not the shoes!" she shouted and then they were flying at each other, fists and feet striking out and never connecting as they fought with a ferocity that was too fast to follow. Just when Tommy was about to throw her down, she vaulted over his head with a very impressive flip that had won her many points with gymnastics judges.
"No fair," he joked as he turned to face her.
"You know what they say," Kimberly replied, "'White Rangers can't jump.'"
"Hey!" Trent said indignantly.
Kimberly and Tommy ignored him. "Let's prove them wrong," Tommy said, leaping into the air. Kimberly ducked but had to drop to the floor to avoid him; Tommy landed and pinned her before she could move. "That's tied again, Pinky."
She lurched upwards and he rolled off. "Oh, that so doesn't count!" she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah? How 'bout this?" Tommy asked, getting behind her and pinning her arms to her sides, then throwing her down. She hit lightly but returned to her feet quickly; still, it was enough to count, according to the rules they'd set down as teenagers.
"Oh, the absent-minded professor actually has a few moves left in him," she mocked.
"Like I haven't heard that one before," Tommy retorted. "You should work on your material, Kim. You really are getting rusty."
"Please. You haven't had a good comeback since the early Green days, buddy." Once again, they met in a whirlwind of kicks and punches before Kimberly got behind him and kicked him, making him stumble. "By the way, whatever happened to that evil laugh of yours?"
Tommy twisted around and managed to knock her down with a kick to the side. Then he cut loose with a purely wicked "Mwahahahaha!" He smirked at her as they began to circle again. "That the one?"
"There's the wannabe badass I remember," she said with a mock-serious nod.
"Dr. O… laughing maniacally," Kira remarked, staring at him in shock.
"I never thought I'd say it," Ethan said, "but Dr. O has a killer evil laugh." Kira, Trent and Conner stared at him. "What? He does."
"Then why not form a fan club for it?" Conner said mockingly. "I can see it now—'Young Lads and Ladies Who Gather for the Wondrous Noise That Is—'"
"All right, you made your point. If anyone needs to work on their material, it's you," Ethan interrupted.
"It is an awesome laugh, though," Kira said fairly. "Kind of like Trent's evil glare."
"Why do people keep comparing me to Dr. O!" Trent demanded. He was becoming quite exasperated with it all; he'd heard a lot of it before, but hearing it so often over the past few days had begun to seriously creep him out.
Back on the mats, Tommy and Kimberly were getting more and more animated. The light banter was flying back and forth as often as the punches; it was amazing to watch the pure chemistry of it all. It was a good long while before either of them got close to bringing the other down; after what seemed like ages, Tommy finally managed to grab her from behind again, but Kimberly swung her head about as fast as she could and her ponytail whipped over his face. His eyes stung.
"Ouch!" he yelped, leaping back. "Hey, no weapons!"
"What's the matter? Mad that you can't retaliate? Shouldn't have cut your hair, Tommy."
"Oh, here we go." Tommy dropped his stance and held his hands up, folding them a few times in the classic "bring it on" gesture. "Come on, Kim. Throw out a crack on my hair I haven't heard before. I dare you. Go ahead and try. It can't be done."
"Gee, let me think," she said, dropping her stance also and putting a finger on her chin. "I seem to remember a little something about pink bows and these cute little braids…"
Jason, Trini, Billy and Zack died laughing while Kira, Trent, Conner and Ethan looked at them wide-eyed, wondering exactly what the story behind that one was. Tommy gaped at Kimberly in disbelief, unable to fathom that she had just delivered the ultimate burn.
"No you did not just go there!" he roared.
"Oh, I so went there, Cinnamon Buns."
There it was, the one thing that could have made Kimberly's previous comment any worse. Jason fell over from laughing so hard. Billy clutched at Trini for support. Zack bent double and slapped his knee, pointing at Tommy, whose face was now the color of Jason's shirt. Kira took one look at the collapsing older Rangers and pulled a small pad of paper and a pen from her back pocket.
"Kira, this is no time to write a song," Conner told her. "It's just getting good!"
"I'm not writing a song," she replied. "I'm making a list."
"Of what?" Ethan asked.
"All the things I'm going to get Kimberly and Trini to tell me about later."
"You'll fill us in, right?" Trent asked eagerly.
"Of course I will."
"Hey," Ethan said, "put down all that stuff Jason and Dr. O were talking about, too!" Kira nodded and made a few more notes.
Back on the mat, Tommy was still staring at Kimberly. "No you didn't."
"I did," she said calmly.
"You wouldn't. You didn't!"
"I would and I did! Deal with it, Tommy—I win."
"Like hell you win! You want to talk hair? What about you, with the three-foot-tall bangs?"
"Not even close to on par with the mullet, never mind the bows. You've lost, Tommy. Sorry for you."
"The bows were your fault! I did not lose!"
"I won. I won, you lost, witness me victory dancing."
With a roar of frustration laced with amused mortification, Tommy threw himself at her. She was ready for him; the next thing anyone knew they closely resembled a ball of cartoon dust such as those seen on Looney Tunes, only with blurs of black and pink thrown in.
Jason, Trini, Billy and Zack laughed themselves sick for the next fifteen minutes; they were soon piled together on the floor as Kimberly and Tommy continued to go at it, Kira occasionally making more notes. It was the sort of fight where no one could pick out all the moves, even if they taped it and played it in slow motion and paused every other frame. Soon the two of them were breathing too heavily to tease each other much; the spectator Rangers only caught the occasional word like "morph," "hair," "Bulk," "white" and "shirtless," none of which made much sense but seemed to egg Tommy and Kimberly on even more.
At last, Tommy flung Kimberly to the mat and pinned her. After a brief struggle, she reluctantly lay still… and just like that they were back to being an ex-boyfriend and an ex-girlfriend from a messy breakup who were trying to repair the damage, instantly losing the magic that had reverted them back to their happier, younger selves. They stared at each other, neither knowing what to say, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Tommy was only vaguely aware of the fact that his friends had stopped laughing, and some small part of him kept suggesting that he should get off of her, but his body didn't seem to agree. So he lay there on top of her, catching his breath, which was proving more and more impossible as time wore on. His eyes left hers for a moment, flicking down to her mouth for a fraction of a second, but Kimberly caught the movement all the same.
"Good match," Tommy said awkwardly.
Kimberly smiled at him brightly and without warning he was flung up and over to land bodily on the mat, Kimberly straddling his chest before the shock of the movement could register. Her smile turned into a smirk.
"You, too," she said smugly. "But I still win."
"Oh, yeah?" Tommy challenged.
Thus began one of the most unusual sparring moments in Ranger history—Tommy and Kimberly locked in some sort of vicious rolling fight, where all they did was flip each other around and make the occasional comment. Conner, Ethan and Trent watched avidly, while Kira, Trini, Jason, Zack and Billy looked on without seeing the moves… only the sparks.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Zack said to Billy and Trini.
"Dude," Jason said, overhearing him, "everyone's thinking what you're thinking."
Trini, Billy and Zack looked at him sharply; Kira, Trent, Conner and Ethan looked from Jason to the others curiously. Before anyone could make another comment, however, Tommy and Kimberly returned to their banter and everyone instantly began paying attention to them again. At present, they had each other by the shoulders and were rolling from one end of the basement towards the other.
Kimberly broke Tommy's grip on her shoulders and flung him to the mat, holding him down. "I bet those spikes you got going on could still hold a few bows," Kimberly said with a tone that meant it was unmistakably a threat.
Using his legs and sheer body weight, Tommy reversed their positions. "I'd like to see you try, Ms. Bunny Pajamas!"
"Those pajamas were cute!" Kimberly insisted, tossing Tommy into the door of the Secret Chamber and then, realizing she was free, getting up to run. Tommy, however, dove on her before she could get far. She ended-up face-down with Tommy on her back.
"I know the Goat Man really liked them."
Kimberly drove both of her elbows into his chest and flipped them both over; now they were facing each other again. She jabbed her finger into his chest, hard. "The Goat Man is off-limits! We made that rule ages ago!"
"Yeah? The bows were off-limits too!" Tommy kicked her over his head and flipped back on top of her.
"You shouldn't have brought up the shoe thing!" Kimberly retorted. She attempted to throw him off, but Tommy dug in and was able to stop her.
"HA!" Tommy roared. "I think I feel another evil laugh coming on. Looks like I win."
"Do not!" Kimberly snapped.
"You're pinned. You can't move! I win! Mwahahahaha!"
"That's really starting to get creepy," Conner muttered.
End Notes: I JUST MET SKY! I JUST MET SKY! Oh, and I met Z and Syd and Greg Argo… um, what was his last name? Greg… Aronowitz! Writer or something. No idea. He was cool though. But I got autographs! And I stole Sky's Sharpie after he left. Whoo… I was going to chase their car as they drove back to Toronto but I didn't want to seem TOO creepy and I didn't want them to crash trying to escape and the Canadian customs agents are apparently on strike and I didn't want to spend the next week in a Customs holding cell but I have autographs! And I took a couple pictures of Sky's butt when no one was looking, shh! At least, I think no one was looking… he's really goofy, you know. Not at all like Sky. It was hysterical to see them all interacting and everything… I'm probably going to make a big livejournal post about it in the near future. I MET SKY! AND SYD AND Z! And I got autographs and pictures and I'm trying to shut up but I MET SKY!
P.S. If there are any grammar or spelling mistakes, or any other sorts of errors in this chapter, it is because we've worked on this chapter so thoroughly that me and Freyja are sick of looking at it, though we do still love it, and I hope y'all do too. But most importantly, I'm sorry if none of this makes sense, but it's all because I JUST MET SKY! …Okay, I'm done. (Freyja has been threatening to kill me if I don't shut up.) …And… um… I JUST MET SKY!