Chapter Eighteen
Food Fight
Jason and Trini didn't show up for almost three hours; they came up to the sixth floor and found Tommy and Zack arguing over Tommy's wardrobe, their hotel door wide open. Zack was wearing a pair of jeans and Tommy only khakis while they both shook black shirts at each other like matadors waving flags at a bull.
"Get your own color!" Zack half-shouted.
"You don't have a patent on the color black!" Tommy retorted.
"You've got three other colors to choose from! Wear green or something! None of us were ever Green!"
"Knock, knock," Trini called through the open door.
"Trini, tell Tommy he can't wear that shirt!" Zack said.
"It looks nothing like Zack's shirt!" Tommy said. He and Zack held up a pair of almost identical black polo shirts; the only difference was that one had a chest pocket.
"It's the exact same shirt I'm wearing!" Zack insisted.
"Where is Billy?" Trini asked, ignoring their squabble entirely.
"He went to go borrow clothes from Ethan," Tommy said. "Look at these shirts. They don't look alike, do they?"
"Zack's right, man," Jason said. "Wear a different color."
"Maybe I'll wear red," Tommy said, narrowing his eyes.
"Whatever," Jason said, plopping down on Zack's bed. "Ready to go?"
"Are you okay?" Tommy asked. Jason had always "enjoyed" arguing colors with Tommy as much as Zack now was.
"I'm going to go check on Billy," Trini said, walking out quickly.
"Kay," Jason said serenely.
Tommy looked from the calm, peaceful, cheerful Jason to the space where Trini had been moments ago and made a disgusted face. That explained it.
"Oh, gross," Zack groaned. "I get it now."
"Get what?" Jason asked.
"Nothing," Zack said sourly. He turned to Tommy. "Come on, man. Wear something else, please?"
Tommy sighed and looked at the open dresser drawer full of his clothes. His nostalgic mindset when packing had led him to a lot of green, white and red choices; he supposed he could relent on the black polo. His shoes were black, anyway. "All right, fine," Tommy said with a sigh, fishing through his clothing for something suitable. Zack grinned and pulled his shirt on.
Before he could decide between a white button-down and a green T-shirt, Billy practically danced into the room, looking ecstatic. "Ethan had overalls!" he exclaimed by way of greeting. Billy no longer looked like Santa Claus minus a few pounds, but the expression on his face was worthy of a little kid who'd been Santa's favorite. Ethan had given him a pair of dark blue denim overalls and a light blue T-shirt.
"I thought you got over overalls," Jason said. "You never wore them by the time I came back to be the Gold Ranger. And you rarely wore them by the time I left for the conference…"
"That was because they went so out of style that I couldn't find them anymore!" Billy explained. "Oh, god, I missed these. I haven't worn a pair in ages! They're so perfect. They fit! They're functional, too. They don't slip, so I don't need to wear a belt or worry if my underwear is showing, or if a bully's going to pull my pants down—well, okay, no one really does that anymore, but it's the thought that counts—and they have plenty of pockets, and—"
"Billy, man, you can keep them," Ethan said, coming into the room, sounding both amused and slightly creeped out. "I only brought them because my mom helped me pack."
"Your mom helps you pack?" Conner said incredulously, entering behind Ethan.
"What, like yours doesn't?" Ethan retorted.
"No, she doesn't."
"Yeah, right," Trent said, coming in with Trini.
"She doesn't! Well, maybe just a little. Sometimes my brother, Eric, he likes to slip weird stuff in my suitcase. Some of it even smells." He turned to Jason. "Where have you been? I've eaten all of my reserve snack food. I was about to order room service."
"I'll go get Kim and Kira," Trini said, once more disappearing as fast as possible.
Kim, Tommy thought grimly, turning back to his dresser and digging faster.
"Can I really keep them?" Billy asked eagerly before Jason could reply to Conner.
"Sure. I never wear them," Ethan said with a shrug.
"Ah, overalls," Billy said happily, fiddling with the straps. "I wonder if I could get someone on Aquitar to make them."
"Why don't you just buy a few pairs while you're here?" Trent suggested. "I'm pretty sure we could find some at the mall."
"Do you think so? Oh, wait… I don't have any money," Billy said. "Hey! You know, I need to go see my dad while I'm here… I haven't seen him in a really long time."
"Why don't you call him, once we get the whole gang together?" Zack suggested. "I miss crazy old Mr. Cranston. Haven't talked to him since before you left for Aquitar."
"How exactly does that work, seeing your dad when you don't live on the planet?" Conner asked curiously.
"Well, I came back for my stuff not long after I left, as soon as I was back to being a teenager and teleporting was possible; the circuits were fried right after I got there. Anyway, I explained that I'd gotten a job working with the government, and all that. Then Trini and I worked out a way to hook up the Aquitian communication module to a telephone and actually call him. So I've been using Trini as a relay to my father for years. I don't get to talk to him as much as I like, but I do get to talk to him often enough. He just, um, thinks I'm working for the military and can't talk about my job. Which, technically, is almost kind of sort of true."
"Guys!" Tommy said, trying to keep the note of panic out of his voice. He still hadn't decided on what to wear; he waved four shirts at Jason, Zack, Billy, Conner, Ethan and Trent. "Which shirt should I wear?" He had gone past the green shirt and the white, adding a red polo and a black sleeveless T-shirt.
"I like the white," Trent said.
"Me, too," Zack said hurriedly.
"Nah, go with the red," Conner said.
"No, the green," Ethan said. They paused and looked at him. "What? Someone had to argue for the green."
"In that case, I suggest the black one," Jason said with a smile.
"Guys!" Tommy whined. "You're not helping!"
"What's going on?" Kira asked, walking in with Kimberly and Trini. Then she noticed Tommy wasn't wearing a shirt and walked right back out of the room, shuddering.
"What's up with Kira?" Kimberly asked.
"No idea," Tommy said firmly, looking speculatively at his shirts.
"Are we ready to go?" Trini asked.
"Tommy's having an identity crisis," Jason explained serenely, gesturing at Tommy.
Trini snorted, trying to hold in her laughter at the look on Tommy's face. "Tommy, it really doesn't matter, does it?"
Tommy huffed irritably. "Well…"
"You must have a heck of a time getting dressed every morning," Conner said thoughtfully.
"Remember when he first became the Black Ranger?" Ethan said. "Said he had to go shopping because there was a shortage of black in his closet?"
Jason laughed. "Did you really?"
"Shut up, Jason," Tommy said wearily.
"Tommy, let me teach you what I do to choose an outfit when I'm in a hurry," Kimberly said, stepping forward.
"Oh, this outta be good," Zack joked.
"It's a highly sophisticated, foolproof method," she said seriously. She held up her index finger and began pointing at each shirt in turn. "Eeney, meeney, miney, moe," she intoned.
Tommy laughed and pulled one of the shirts over his head at random. "Thanks, Kim. I'll remember that."
She nodded and grinned, then turned back to the others. "So where are we going?"
"Somewhere good," Conner insisted.
"Seafood?" Billy suggested hopefully.
"No," Tommy said emphatically. They turned to look at him. "Sorry. Recent falling out with calamari."
"Why don't we go somewhere with more variety?" Trini said. "I'm sure we'll all want something different."
Trini was right; they spent a good long while discussing where they should go and twenty minutes later had tentatively agreed on a place and were heading out the door.
Once they were led to their table in the restaurant—well, three tables pushed together in the middle of the non-smoking section—Billy brought up his father again. Trini, who had considered Mr. Cranston as good as an uncle to her ever since she and Billy were first placed in advanced classes together in elementary school, immediately offered up her cell phone, but Billy decided to use Tommy's instead, as Reefside's area code was less recognizable.
Billy swallowed nervously. His father was very smart, and it would take some fast talking to cover his new occupation and residence; he'd had some near misses over the phone. He felt bad that he never got to see his father, but between the hours he worked, the difficulty of scheduling a properly-timed phone call to another planet, and the fact that it was hard to hide his life on Aquitar, it couldn't be helped.
"Maybe I should surprise him?" Billy asked.
"He might not be home," Trini said. "He could be out of town, for all you know. You should tell him you wanted to surprise him but you'll be by in the morning. Say I'm picking you up at the airport."
Billy nodded and dialed the number. His father answered on the third ring.
"Hello?"
"Dad?"
"Billy! Oh, it's so good to hear from you! Any particular reason you're calling?"
"Well… I was hoping that in the morning you could say 'it's so good to see you.'"
"You're in town!"
"I'm going to be," Billy lied. He hadn't been able to tell his father he was coming into town; there had been a major computer malfunction right after he'd set up the trip and he'd barely had time to sleep, let alone plan, while dealing with it; his only chance to contact Earth had been a few hurried conversations with Trini. He didn't want to hurt his father's feelings by saying that he'd been in town for a few days, but in all honesty he'd been so excited to see the gang and come back to Earth in general that he'd kept forgetting to mention his father once he'd arrived. The gang had a tendency to make him forget everything, even his inventions, and the last few days had been rather hectic, even though it was definitely the good sort of hectic. "Trini's picking me up at the airport tomorrow. I was going to surprise you, but then I thought you might not be home, so…"
"I'll be here! It'll be so great to see you, son. Where are you staying?"
"Well… Trini and Jason have a guest room, so I thought I'd stay with them. Wouldn't want to impose on you. Plus, you know, I'm guessing my old room's still roped off."
"Yes. I kept putting off fixing up that whole in the wall; it's still just boarded over. The scorch marks remind me so much of you! Unfortunately, though, I'm going out of town tomorrow; my plane leans at four. I'm giving a couple of lectures at John Hopkins, but I'll only be gone until Friday. How long are you staying?"
"Until Sunday, at least," Billy said. "So, can I come by in the morning?"
"Of course, of course! Around ten?"
"That should be fine."
"Say, why don't you bring Trini with you?"
"Sure, Dad. She said she missed seeing you. And Jason and Zack—"
"Zack? I thought he was in Los Angeles."
"He's coming back into town for the week. So are Kimberly and Tommy. Er, and some of Tommy's… um… friends," Billy said. There really was no tactful way to describe Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent.
"Bring them all, bring them all! I miss them, too. You kids, wandering around in the garage for hours on end, occasionally blowing things up… good times."
"I didn't blow things up that often," Billy insisted, but without any real conviction.
"Sure you didn't, son. Well, I can hear a lot of background noise—are you busy?"
"Oh, I'm out eating dinner," Billy said guiltily.
"Well, I'll let you go, then. I'll see you at ten, okay?"
"All right." Billy and his father said their goodbyes and hung up. Billy handed the phone back to Tommy.
"What's wrong?" Ethan asked. "You look kind of worried."
"More like terrified," Billy said dryly. "It's really difficult to keep a secret identity from a genius father. I only managed it as a kid because he's so absent-minded."
"Why not just tell him?" Trent suggested.
"Because the more people who know about our identities, the less likely it is that they'll stay a secret," Tommy said severely. Of all of them, Trent understood this the least; his father had known, of course, and now his dad's girlfriend—that is, Principal Randall—knew as well. Trent had no other family, so he was unaccustomed to hiding the information like the others were.
"Then how come you told Hayley?" Conner asked curiously.
"I didn't tell Hayley," Tommy said grimly. "Do you really think I could keep that from her for long? She found out a few months after we moved in together."
Ethan choked on his water. "You and Hayley used to live together?"
"For a couple years, yeah. Our college didn't allow coed roommates, so we rented a house together off-campus. I was sick of getting stuck in the dorm elevators, especially since she wouldn't come up to my room and help me with my homework when the elevator was broken, and she needed someone to go in with on the rent. Hence, roomies."
"Oh, so you didn't live together as in live together," Conner said, nodding wisely. "I gotcha."
Tommy rolled his eyes. "Of course we didn't. Anyway, we all said way back when that we wouldn't tell anyone. It was tough, but it was necessary. I mean, my parents would have flipped if they knew I was fighting Rita and Zedd."
"Join the club," Zack muttered.
"Hey, it was straight from Zordon that we never tell anyone," Jason pointed out. "Besides, it's not like we want a whole lot of people to know."
Zack thought of the female population of Los Angeles. "Speak for yourself."
"We'd be treated like celebrities," Trini said in disgust.
"Why is that bad?" Conner asked, looking thoughtful.
"Read a tabloid sometime," Tommy said darkly.
"Besides, it wouldn't be fair if I got to tell my father and no one else did," Billy said.
"Yeah, Trent," Conner said loudly. "It wouldn't be fair, Mr. Never-had-to-explain-why-I'm-sneaking-in-at-two-in-the-morning-to-angry-parents-who-were-really-worried-when-they-discovered-I-was-gone-because-there-was-a-monster-attack. Do you have any idea how many times I had to give my brother hush money?"
"Well, excuse me for having a temporarily evil dad," Trent said mildly. With a slight edge to his voice, he added, "Mr. Never-had-to-live-in-a-cyber-café-because-I-was-afraid-of-getting-killed-in-my-sleep." Conner considered this, and gave Trent an apologetic look. A tad annoyed, Trent added, "Do you have any idea how many times I had to jump out of Kira's bathroom window in a towel?"
Far from strengthening his case, this made everyone give him shocked looks. Conner was too busy gaping at him to try and puzzle out any other meanings this statement might have.
Trent and Kira's faces both burned brightly as they realized what everyone was thinking. "Because she used to let me borrow her bathroom," Trent clarified in a pathetic sort of tone, "back when Dad was evil and I wasn't."
"Oh," everyone said awkwardly.
"Hang on," Conner said suspiciously. "We didn't know Mesogog was Mercer for a long time. Kira wouldn't have known you couldn't go home."
"I told her Dad and I had a disagreement about my drawing and he kicked me out of the house," Trent replied defensively. "I didn't go to her place often, anyway. Tried to make due with public restrooms, the truck stop shower by the highway, and the locker rooms at school. Especially after the first time her parents almost caught me."
"How long were you not going home?" Tommy demanded. "You should have told me."
Trent shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. I managed."
Ethan slapped his forehead. "Oh, so that's why you were taking home economics—so you could use the washer and dryer and eat the food."
Trent shuddered. "Don't remind me of that class. There's nothing more frightening than cooking with Conner."
"You took home ec?" Jason asked Conner incredulously.
"I did, too. Great way to meet women," Zack said before Conner could open his mouth.
"Exactly!" Conner said.
Trent snorted. "Just about every girl in that class hated him by the end of the first month."
"Did not," Conner said woundedly.
"Surprised it took them a month," Kira teased.
"Hey!"
"Anyway," Trent said loudly, determined to get off the subject of his son-of-Mesogog days, "what's good here?"
"Oh, yeah, we might wanna look at the menus," Tommy muttered; none of them had bothered yet.
"Um… I like the steak here," Zack told Trent.
"The fish is good, too," Trini said.
"Where's our waitress, anyway?" Conner asked, looking around hopefully. Their orders hadn't even been taken yet.
Two waitresses, meanwhile, were standing at the hostess station, arguing over who would be the one to wait on the ten athletic people who looked like they'd be loud, messy and extremely needy. It didn't help that not one of said people was over thirty, and younger people tended to tip less.
"You do it! It's your section!"
"Hey, I covered two different tables in your section today! And I haven't had my break yet!"
"I'm not doing it. Will you look at them? They'll probably eat half the kitchen and ask for seven refills each."
"Well, I'm not doing it, either."
"I'll do it!" said a third waitress eagerly, and the two looked at her oddly. "What? The guys over there are all really hot. And in case you haven't noticed, there are seven guys and only three girls. Some of them have to be single."
"That's okay, Ann, I'll do it."
"No, I'll do it!"
"No, me!"
"Come on, guys! There's seven of them. Plenty to go around."
"Fine. Me first."
"No, me first! It's my section!"
"You covered two different tables in my section today! And you haven't had your break yet!"
"They're usually kind of slow here," Jason was saying absently back at the table. "Worth it, though. And the waitresses are nice."
"That's cuz you're hot," Trini muttered darkly. Kimberly giggled.
"So their fish is good, Trini?" Billy asked.
"Very. And their calamari—"
"Wouldn't do it, if I were you," Tommy interrupted with a small shudder.
"What is it with you and calamari?" Zack asked.
"Doesn't agree with me," Tommy said firmly.
"I can see three waitresses arguing over there," Ethan said, squinting over at the hostess station. "Oh, wait, one of them's coming this way."
The winner of the waitress war took their orders, which took a considerably long time, and promised to return with their drinks and a bread basket. "Hey, she was kind of cute," Conner said once she was out of earshot.
"Eh, I like blonds," Ethan said.
"Good, then I'll take her," Conner replied cheerfully.
"Wonder whatever happened to Tori," Ethan said thoughtfully.
"Last I heard, she was very happy with Blake," Tommy said with a sarcastic smile.
"Aw, man," Conner and Ethan complained.
"Guess you'll have to give up that dream of finding someone with the same color scheme, Ethan," Trent joked, clapping him on the shoulder.
"Yeah," Ethan said with a sigh.
"How come there aren't any female Red Rangers, Dr. O?" Conner asked.
"I don't know," Tommy said with a shrug. "They're always Yellow and Pink, except for Alyssa and Tori."
"That's so sexist," Kira said with a sniff. "And how come we didn't get a Pink?"
"I never found a Pink Gem," Tommy said, shrugging.
"Couldn't you have looked harder?" Kira whined. "Much as I love these three idiots, I could have used another girl."
"Hey!" Trent, Conner and Ethan complained.
"Two idiots," Kira amended with a teasing grin at the guys.
"To be honest, Kira, I was planning on having two girls," Tommy said. "You stole Trini's Gem. And Ethan stole Hayley's."
"What?" Ethan demanded. "Trini and Hayley were going to use the Gems?"
"No one was planning to use the Gems. At all. Ever. But once I found them, I couldn't just leave them for someone like oh, say, Mesogog to find. So I figured if I needed them, I'd call out the old gang. White for me, Black for Zack, Red for Jason, Yellow for Trini, and Blue for Hayley, since Billy wasn't on Earth. That's why I was so prepared."
"He found them right around the same time he got that job with Mercer," Jason said. "He called us up, and we all started talking about it. We weren't going to go back to active duty, but we'd be able to fight if we needed to. We all still have morphing abilities, 'cept Kim and Billy, but we don't have zords or bikes or anything. So he and Hayley worked it all out, with Trini helping and Billy occasionally giving advice over the Aqua-phone."
"Anton funded the whole thing. He walked in on a choice conversation, and offered to fund all sorts of things; we were looking for a new project, after scrapping the Fossilador. He contributed some brilliant work, too. But I was never going to use the Gems," Tommy repeated sourly. "I was going to store them. Preferably at Jason's. Once I had all the kinks worked out, I was going to ship them off to someone else's house and I was going to… the World Series."
"What?" Ethan asked.
"The World Series. You know, baseball. Gotta love baseball. Not as good as football, but still a nice, normal sport. Yep."
"Huh?" Conner stared at him, confused. "What's up with the abrupt subject change, Dr.—" A glass of Coke landed in front of him and he jumped, realizing a waitress was standing behind him. "Oh." He smiled brightly at the waitress as she dished out their drinks and set them up with bread plates. "Yeah, we're talking about football."
"I used to play football. Back in high school," Tommy said desperately, nodding.
"Did you?" the waitress asked with a broad smile, looking him up and down.
"Yep," Tommy said, returning her grin. She turned her smile up a notch before leaving.
"It's about time," Zack muttered, tearing into the bread.
"That was a different waitress," Conner said, watching her walk away. "Not as hot."
"Is too," Ethan said. "I like her better."
"No way. She has glasses."
"I like women with glasses."
"…Why?" Conner wrinkled his nose.
"Doesn't matter," Trent said in the hopes of getting them to shut up, mostly because he knew Kira was annoyed by it. "She was flirting with Dr. O, anyway."
"Ew," Conner and Ethan groaned.
"She was not!" Tommy insisted, his face burning as Jason, Trini, Zack, Kimberly and Billy laughed.
"What are we doing for the rest of the day?" Kira practically yelled, trying to change the subject. "And tomorrow?"
"Well… the day's mostly over," Trini said. "We were in the basement for a really long time."
"Yeah, and you and Jason were somewhere else for a really long time," Zack mumbled. He received a sharp kick in the shins. "OW!"
"OW!" yelled Trent, who was sitting next to him.
"Sorry!" Trini exclaimed. "I was aiming for Zack."
"Don't worry, I got him," Jason told her. Zack muttered something about "uncalled for attacks."
"Anyway," Trini said, "there won't be much left to do tonight by the time we leave here; there's no point in paying for any sort of attraction for just a few hours, I don't see the ten of us agreeing on a single movie, and the mall closes at nine and will be packed. Maybe we could go back to Ernie's, though."
"Yeah!" Kimberly said. "I want to go see him again."
"The guy does make a killer smoothie," Conner said.
"Yeah, I miss him," Jason said. "I started going to that Juice Bar as soon as I was old enough climb up on the stools. Took my first karate lesson there, too. Ernie was like a father to us when we were growing up."
"Speaking of fathers," Ethan said thoughtfully, "aren't the rest of you going to go see your parents while you're here?"
"Jason and I see our parents all the time, since we live here," Trini said.
"My folks don't live here anymore," Zack said. "Moved out to San Diego."
"My mom lives in France," Kimberly added. "And I just saw my dad a couple weeks ago."
"Mine are on their second honeymoon," Tommy said. "My dad just got early retirement, and my mom's a school teacher, so they'll be gone for most of the summer."
"So it'll probably be just Mr. Cranston," Trini finished. "Pity he's going out of town. Maybe you can stay longer, Billy, spend some more time with him."
"I hope so," Billy said, looking around the crowded restaurant wistfully. "I really do miss this place. Earth, I mean. Not to mention all of you. And you know, while I'm here, I'd kind of like to see the others. Rocky, Adam, Aisha, Tanya, Kat…"
"Tanya and Adam should be in L.A., and Rocky's still living in Stone Canyon," Tommy said. "But Aisha's in Africa, so that might get difficult."
"And Kat's back in Australia," Jason said without thinking.
Tommy paused and tried to look nonchalant, noticing Trini giving him a look out of the corner of her eye. Kimberly looked down at her silverware awkwardly.
"Well, I can at least see Rocky, Adam and Tanya, if not the others," Billy said hastily. Jason looked apologetic; Trini pinched him in the arm while glaring at Billy for bringing Kat up in the first place.
Tommy fought back a sigh. Mentioning Kat around him wasn't exactly forbidden or anything. They hadn't ended on bad terms, really; she'd gone to London, he'd said he didn't want to do the long-distance relationship thing. She had screamed and ranted and stormed off, to be sure, but she'd come back and apologized and asked him to reconsider. He'd said no, though he'd truly been sorry about it, but he could tell she'd taken it hard. They'd promised to stay friends, but that hadn't worked too well, either. They simply hadn't had much to say, though they tried to chat on occasion and he'd seen her a few times since. When it came down to it, he wished her the best, and he was pretty sure she returned the sentiment. So it wasn't that Kat was a taboo topic around him—but he knew fully well that the others were freaking out about the fact that she'd been mentioned around both Kimberly and Tommy. That wasn't just awkward, it was annoying; he didn't want the others thinking that he was trying to do anything other than repair his friendship with Kimberly. It also sparked a bit of that buried anger within him—after all, she had left him. Why shouldn't he have dated other girls?
Conner, Trent and Kira exchanged confused looks as the others lapsed into silence; Ethan, however, had the same slightly-panicked expression that Jason, Trini, Billy and Zack did. Tommy looked at him thoughtfully, even though he knew that there was no logical explanation for Ethan finding out about Kat. But then again, logic didn't seem to like Tommy very much. In fact, logic seemed to have chewed him up and spit him out. Violently. Leaving him a gooey mess on the floor for chaos to step on repeatedly. With spiked heels.
"Do you guys need anything?" asked yet another waitress, appearing out of nowhere behind Billy.
"Refill," Tommy said quickly, even though he'd only had a sip of his drink. "And, uh… an appetizer! Yeah. Do you have any… um… potato skins?"
"Sure," she said, looking at him oddly for a moment before letting it go. "Anyone else?"
They gave her a few random orders and she left. "Now that's a good waitress," Tommy said gratefully.
Conner stared at him. "She was ugly."
"Yes, Conner, because ugly people can't be good at waiting tables," Kira growled, rolling her eyes.
"Anyway," Tommy said loudly in the hopes of getting everyone's attention off the fact that he'd been ready to hug the waitress for interrupting at the right moment, "what were doing tomorrow, again?"
"Well," Trini said hurriedly, "like I said, I had something planned, but it was really more of an outdoor thing and I think it's possibly going to rain until tomorrow afternoon; it's been raining off and on all day today and a storm's supposed to hit tonight. We should probably push it back to Wednesday."
"What is it?" Kira asked.
"It's a surprise," Trini said, smiling. "But regardless, Wednesday's supposed to be a really nice day, so I think we should just wait until then. Besides, we can go see Billy's dad tomorrow, and stay there a few hours. You guys will like him."
"We won't be imposing, will we?" Ethan asked.
Billy shook his head. "My dad was always welcoming random teenagers to my house before I moved to Aquitar. He couldn't step into the garage without finding a friend of mine. He used to say that my friends were over so often that it was like having a lot of talkative houseplants."
"Oh, so that's why he talked to your plants occasionally," Zack said, smacking his forehead. "I thought he was crazy."
"Just absent-minded," Billy said defensively.
"Like Dr. O," Ethan said, nodding.
"I am not absent-minded," Tommy said firmly.
Everyone stared at him for a moment.
"Not that much, anyway," Tommy said, sighing heavily. Then he clammed up, knowing that it would go worse the longer he tried to defend himself.
"If you say so," Jason said, obviously struggling not to laugh. Then his expression turned thoughtful. "You know… after we go see Billy's dad, there's something I kind of wanted to do."
"What?" Kimberly asked.
Jason glanced around the table for eavesdroppers and then motioned to everyone to lean in. This would ordinarily have alleviated suspicion, but ten people gathered around three tables in the middle of a busy restaurant all suddenly leaning in as close as they could to each other is bound to look strange.
"I sort of want to go see the ruins of the Power Chamber," Jason said quietly. "See if it's still there and all."
"I went back, just before grad school," Tommy whispered. "Wanted to see what worked. Took Hayley with me; she'd already found out by then. It looked… well, you know how the Power Chamber was rebuilt from the ruins of the Command Center? The building's gone, and there are huge chunks of stone all over it, and sand. I broke in through the entrance to the basement chamber where they made me the White Ranger. Some of the equipment is still there. Hayley was able to extract a lot of files from the computers. It's damaged, but it's there."
"I never did get to see the Power Chamber," Trini said, her fingers twitching as if longing to type on some unknown keyboard for a powerful computer. "Neither did Zack or Kim."
"Wasn't as cool as the Command Center, anyway," Tommy said.
"Question," Conner said. "What are you talking about?"
"Our old base," Kimberly explained.
"The Command Center was around until the days we—well, I, and later Jason—became Zeo Rangers," Tommy explained. "Then it got blown up. The Power Chamber was the next level, built in the same place. A few months after I passed on my powers to T.J., the Power Chamber got blown up, too."
"And now our headquarters has been trashed by Zeltrax," Kira said. "You'd think secret hideouts would last longer."
"Um," said a new voice, and they all jerked back in their seats, "am I interrupting something?"
Tommy cursed himself for ordering potato skins as the first waitress held them out uncertainly.
"Of course not," Conner said cheerfully, smiling brightly at her. "We were just admiring that flower thingy in the center of the table. It's very beautiful. And, um, healthy."
"It's fake," the waitress replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh. Still, it's very, um, nice-looking."
"Fake and nice-looking. Like you, Conner," Ethan cracked.
The waitress grinned and left. Conner elbowed Ethan sharply while the others laughed.
"Back to the Power Chamber," Jason said quietly, deciding against leaning in, "do you guys want to go?"
"Yeah," Zack said. "I want to see this place."
"I want to see it, too," Kimberly said. "Especially if there's old stuff out there regarding poor Zordon and Alpha. But… how are we going to get out there?"
"Yeah, where's the sinkhole we have to fall into?" Conner asked.
"Sinkhole?" Billy asked.
"That's how they broke in to my basement lab and ended up with the Dino Gems," Tommy explained. "They found my escape tunnel."
"The Command Center and Power Chamber were out in the mountains," Jason said. "Above ground."
"It was this huge building," Zack added. "We had to teleport out there, or else take the RADBUG."
"So how are we going to get there?" Kimberly repeated. "It's a bit far, from what I remember."
"The RADBUG should still be in my garage," Billy said thoughtfully. "It might take a little work to make it fully operational once again—I would assume it has deteriorated in my absence. Still, with Trini, Jason and Tommy around, we should be able to get it off the ground again."
"What's a RADBUG?" Trent asked.
"Flying car," Zack explained cheerfully.
"Awesome!" Conner breathed. "How come we never got a flying car?"
"Hey, I gave you enough toys," Tommy said indignantly.
"Well, even if we don't have the RADBUG, we could probably find it by driving," Trini said. "Tommy, you drove out there, didn't you?"
"Yeah. Took me forever to find it, though."
"Well, if you remember where it is—"
"That's a pretty big if," Jason couldn't resist saying with a smirk.
"If we can't get the RADBUG going, we could always take our cars. Probably Zack's, Tommy's, and Jason's; they would go off-road better then the Mustang or my Nissan."
"The Power Chamber," Tommy mused, feeling a pang of longing for the old days. "We should definitely go."
"I want to see it," Kira said. "It's probably a lot cooler than Dr. O's basement."
"Hey!" Tommy said indignantly. "Didn't stop you guys from coming over all the time!"
"Well, we kind of had to," Ethan pointed out.
"You definitely needed more snacks around your house, though," Conner said wistfully. "Speaking of which, where's our food?"
Author's Notes: We apologize for the fact that there's not a lot of movement in this chapter; we're having fun with the banter, and the restaurant idea… well, it's fun to show them in natural settings and point out just how weird the rest of the world must find them. The next chapter has a bit more in the way of interesting things, and will be up VERY soon, and after that should be flashbacks to incredibly funny things like Bulk and Skull attempting to attack Jason, plus some more Ernie appearances. Oddly enough, Power Rangers Day itself is probably going to be sixty million chapters away… but these past couple chapters of extreme dialogue are winding down. Still, this fic is not really about Power Rangers Day… it's about the hazards of getting to Power Rangers Day.
Sorry for the length of this chapter. Despite the fact I'm saying that a lot lately, still, don't get used to it!
Coming up in Of Love and Bunnies: Goat trucks, Hayley, hair bows, bad dreams, flashbacks galore, and Jason hitting himself with a mop. Bonding between younger Rangers and older, and maybe a few more balcony problems, you never know…
Freyja and I have won a Guardians of Earth Award for this fic. Thanks to all those who voted for us, and to the one who nominated us.
Just out of curiosity… Freyja and I are thinking of writing another story, a little something along the lines of "Trent's Survival Guide for Children of Evil Super Villains," about all the perils he'd have to go through living with Mesogog, including some of the things mentioned in this chapter. Would anyone be interested in reading a story like that if we do write it?
The story of how I met Chris Violette, Monica May and Alycia Purrott (Sky, Z and Syd of S.P.D.) is up on my livejournal, for those of you who'd like to read it.