Chapter Forty-three

A Ranger Exclusive

"I don't get it," Jason said through gritted teeth, pacing back and forth behind the couch as Billy continued to stare at the TV screen. "How did this happen? We covered all the angles. We were careful."

"Apparently the purse snatcher was some guy named Walter Johnson who went to school with us, and he got a good look at Tommy," Billy said with a sigh. "Most of the quotes are from hospital staff—doctors, nurses…"

"What about confidentiality clauses?" Jason demanded. "What happened to a patient's right to privacy or… whatever?"

"They're not disclosing his condition, they're disclosing what he said about Tommy," Billy pointed out, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Besides, that only works if the patient doesn't want his information to be disclosed. Wouldn't matter here, because it's not a medical problem that they're blabbing…"

"Tommy's going to be ripped to shreds," Jason moaned. "Again. I mean, this would be bad enough on a normal day, but tonight? Three days before Power Rangers Day?"

Billy twisted his hands together. "They're not going to catch me this time. They're not. I don't live on the planet. I don't exist."

"Billy, don't talk like that. We can fix this. We can. Besides, it's still on a local level. Probably won't break nationally just yet, not without confirmation from a more reputable source than a battered wannabe thief. This is irresponsible journalism right here."

"Irresponsible, maybe, but with all the hype all over the city …"

"Okay. Okay. We'll call out the troops. All six of us, brainstorming, right now. We'll have to gather up a list of the times when some of us were somewhere and the others were engaged in a very public battle, instances we can use to prove we weren't around when the Rangers were. Maybe Hayley can put one together using Tommy's footage and email it to us."

"First of all, the six of us shouldn't be seen together anytime soon. Second of all, a list like that might make things more obvious, as it would show which of us were absent when certain Rangers were absent. And finally—email? Too easily breached. It'd have to be hand-delivered, and isn't Tommy's lab kind of totaled at the moment?"

"Argh," Jason growled. "This is ridiculous. We should not be panicking. Tommy can lie his way out of this."

They paused.

"Get your shoes," Jason said with a groan, diving back into his bedroom to get dressed.

Carrie strode across the parking lot towards the entrance to the Angel Grove Inn. She'd been in contact with Jenny all morning, who had been having a few issues with Tommy Oliver. He'd stalked through the lobby like a thundercloud that morning, antagonized people who were trying to use the revolving door, and went stomping around the parking lot and muttering to himself before going into the restaurant. Jenny had been keeping Carrie up to date on all of this, and at last word, he was sitting in the restaurant, annoying a couple of teens that Jenny thought might be his younger cousins. Apparently Dr. Oliver had called the front desk on his first night at the hotel to order an adult film, three burgers and some hot fudge sundaes; Jenny had taken the call, and remembered it well because she'd been awfully suspicious about whether the caller was really Dr. Oliver. Carrie was, too; for one thing, Dr. Oliver had been born in 1979, not 1976 like the caller had told Carrie. For another, Carrie had done extensive research in the process of uncovering his true identity; she knew he was adopted, and had no cousins.

So they were probably the Dino Rangers.

It was the demolition of Tommy's island that had led her to realize who he was. She'd seen his picture on the news, when every coastal city had run a story on the destruction and put out pictures of him and Anton Mercer. She'd thought long and hard about where she'd seen him before, and realized it had been at the first Power Rangers Day. She'd seen him in the other dimension the town's citizens had been trapped in, playing with an old watch that didn't appear to tell time and muttering about helping. It had stuck in her head, because she'd thought it was an odd time to try to set his watch, and the watch was weird and clunky, and if he wanted to help so bad why was he toying with it, anyway? Then she'd seen him again, when the Power Rangers had walked by and shaken hands with him and he'd smiled reassuringly at them. He was the only person to actually touch or speak to the Rangers, and she'd never been able to get that image out of her head… and then there he was on the news. With two teams of known Power Rangers and dozens of other people looking for him.

Then it had clicked that he wore green to Power Rangers Day.

It was after the Green Ranger's first disappearance, she remembered that much. Power Rangers were never far from her mind, not after that wonderfully strange day with the Red Ranger himself. She had brushed up on Ranger history after that day, wondered who they were… but she didn't have much to go on.

She knew they were teenagers, of course. Everything about the Red Ranger had screamed "teenaged boy." A unique one, to be sure, but still a teen. The way he'd discussed sports with her, the way he'd drank Red Pop, the way he'd talked to the White Ranger, his defiance and speech pattern and puns and even the way he'd sat on her desk, cross-legged and slouching slightly. But there were a hell of a lot of teenagers in Angel Grove, and far too many who took martial arts, especially after the Rangers showed up.

Tommy Oliver had been her first big break. She'd dug up everything she could on him… which had been a lot. A love of fast cars. A talent for martial arts; he'd even appeared in a commercial for a karate school, and he had tons of awards. And a love of science, which he indulged in on an island with tons of security, plenty of fellow scientists, and one of the most eccentric rich smart people ever to hit the planet.

Well… duh.

She'd tried to discover who all had been searching for him, but by the time she got into gear it was too late; most everyone was headed home, vaguely explaining that "Tommy's not dead, oops." The fact that they didn't continue the search for Anton when Tommy was found was another tell; even though Anton had been missing longer and was thought to have gone to the mainland, and even though Anton was rich and slightly creepy and heading for agoraphobia one day, it seemed odd that the search-and-rescue teams simply packed up and left.

She'd tried to get a name for everyone who'd been involved in the search, but that wasn't easy. There were far too many… and even if she were to get all their names, she'd never be able to figure out which one was the Red Ranger, which—at the end of the day—was all she cared about.

She had been able to discover, through a lucky break with archived local news footage, that Tommy was friends with Billy Cranston, however. Carrie had always thought it was odd that the Red Ranger targeted Billy to disprove the rumors first; she agreed with the editorial saying that Billy was probably not the Red Ranger, but knew a Ranger and was possibly a different Ranger. Once this had occurred to her, it wasn't long before she remembered a choice phrase from the Red and White Rangers' fight—

"You're doing crazy things with B—Blue, for crying out loud! BLUE! The sanest one of us all and you're convincing him to—"

"Hey, he was the one who wanted to do it! He was the lunatic who caused the whole mess!"

—and suddenly it had clicked that Billy Cranston wore a lot of blue.

Every picture of him involved blue. This wasn't overly noticeable at first, because few teens didn't wear jeans on a regular basis… but no matter what he was wearing or doing, there was always blue on him. And the Blue Ranger had gotten the Red Ranger to do something… probably to disprove the suspicions about Billy being a Ranger. What else? During the Ranger Parade, after all, it had been the Blue Ranger who'd let slip the suggestion to search for medical records, so she figured the Blue would have been the most desperate to repair the damage; not to mention the fact that Billy Cranston didn't take the publicity well.

Unfortunately, this didn't help her sort out who the others were. She'd been able to find a fellow reporter who still had a few notes on Billy lying around, but everything dead-ended sooner or later. Three of Billy's best friends left Angel Grove to become teenage ambassadors, well before the Power Rangers disappeared… the White Ranger showed up, yet Billy was hanging with the same group of people…

It didn't matter. She'd figure it out, somehow, through this conversation with Dr. Oliver. If worse came to worse, she could always blackmail him; she had done the same research she'd sent the cops on. In addition to being the Green Ranger, she strongly suspected he was the Black Dino Ranger. A former Power Ranger, living in a city with active Rangers… it was too much of a coincidence. Especially when one considered that Anton Mercer, Tommy's former business partner and fellow scientist, had resurfaced in Reefside, living a low-profile life as much as a presumed-dead rich guy could.

Elsa Randall had been a lucky break in confirming her thoughts. After the woman had reformed, she'd started talking to the press, usually from her boyfriend, Anton Mercer's, spacious mansion while he gripped her hand comfortingly. Carrie had interviewed Randall, who had a most peculiar story—mind control, a teacher walked in on her, she attacked him, but he was a fairly good fighter, though she'd beaten him eventually and returned to her base. She claimed to have known who the Rangers were all along while a minion for Mesogog, and said that they weren't human at all, rather aliens who lived in a secret base in the mountains. Carrie had been almost convinced.

So she'd gotten an old pal to do some illegal hacking into the school files and discovered that Dr. Oliver was absent from school for the same period of time that the Black Ranger was absent from battle, and a good deal longer afterwards. She'd learned a lot of things about him through this research… Frequently late, often absent, good teacher, knew his subject, bit strange, students liked him.

Carrie was fairly certain Dr. Oliver knew nothing of this interview with Randall; she'd been deliberately vague about who she was, and Randall had been talking to reporter after reporter at the time. Carrie had used her vacation time to stake out Dr. Oliver's home and hangouts… and four kids kept coming to his house, sitting with him at his friend's café, chatting to him before and after school. She only knew one of their names—Trent Fernandez, whose academic performance had suffered greatly when the White Dino Ranger had been evil. She'd first seen him at Anton Mercer's mansion, when he'd walked in and started to introduce himself before bolting once he found out she was a reporter. Carrie had kept her distance while researching them even more after that, but she'd still found out a good deal.

It all added up, but it wasn't what she was looking for. She wanted to know who that guy on her desk was. She'd been deeply affected by that; it had taught her to stop whining about her own life and seize the day, in addition to giving her a new career and a new life. All she wanted was to understand that poor guy drinking Red Pop and chattering about sports to her. Despite evidence to the contrary, Carrie didn't think he was crazy, after all. He was weird, to be sure, but very logical, very careful, and very stressed out. She had the impression that he was just cracking under pressure at the time, not going insane. That was why she'd fought so hard to turn down the heat from the media.

Unfortunately, doing that had made it very difficult for her to get any clue about who the Rangers were.

Still, if Tommy Oliver was in town, she could safely bet the others were too. Walter had ranted about Kimberly Hart a lot, and the cops had told her about Trini Scott and Zack Taylor. Her old notes revealed that Zack Taylor and Trini Kwan were two of the friends of Billy who'd gone to the Peace Conference, along with Jason Scott. With any luck, she'd have her answers in a few moments' time.

She entered the hotel. Jenny nodded at her and flicked her eyes towards the entrance to the restaurant. Carrie smiled and nonchalantly made her way over to the double doors.

There he was, sitting with Trent Fernandez and girl that she recognized from shadowing Tommy back in Reefside a month ago. She'd never been able to find out the names of the girl and the other two boys without drawing suspicion to herself, but she was fairly certain that the girl was the Yellow Dino Ranger, and other boys were Red and Blue. She didn't dwell too much the two students, however; she had eyes only for the man who was almost certainly the Green Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger.

He looked like hell. When researching him, it hadn't escaped her notice that he was good-looking, if a tad young for her. However, Carrie took one look at him today and prayed she didn't get close enough to smell him. He was wearing sagging jeans, a too-small "DANCE MANIA!" T-shirt, green socks that had definitely seen better days, and no shoes. His hair was unwashed, uncombed and un-styled, which—from what she knew—was unusual, and not exactly favorable on him. He hadn't shaved, and his eyes had a slightly bleary look to them, as if he'd gotten very little sleep. He certainly didn't look much like a respectable science teacher at the moment—at least, not like any of Carrie's.

Probably been up all night worried sick about his identity, the poor guy, Carrie thought sympathetically as she approached the table, straining her ears to overhear them.

"Are you sure you're okay, Dr. O?" the girl said as Carrie approached. That confirmed the girl wasn't a cousin; who called their cousin "doctor" anything?

"I'm just peachy, Kira," Tommy growled. "I'm happy as can be. Ask me that one more time, and I'm going to ask you why Kimberly asked me about some ritual bath you took involving Conner."

"What?" Trent spluttered, staring at the girl in horror.

"I'm kind of going through the various stages of grief today, Trent," Kira told him, glaring at Tommy. "Take shower. Brush teeth. Knock Conner unconscious. Make out with boyfriend. Eat chocolate." She paused. "I think I'm forgetting something."

Carrie made a mental note of those odd statements and cleared her throat. The three looked up at her.

"Oh, good," Tommy said. "I'm almost out of pancakes."

"Actually, I, um, don't work here," Carrie said apologetically, eyes darting to his plate, which still sported three large pancakes. "Are you Dr. Tommy Oliver?"

Tommy stabbed his fork into his pancakes so viciously that bits of pancake flew all over the table. "Yes, I am. Of course I am. Who are you?" he demanded.

Carrie blinked. Jenny had warned her that Tommy was a little "standoffish," and Carrie knew the coming conversation would probably upset him, but she hadn't expected him to be rude before she'd even introduced herself.

Seeing her expression, Tommy sighed. "Sorry. It's just… No offense, but every time someone asks me if I'm Dr. Oliver, it ends badly."

Carrie smiled as brightly as she could. "I was just hoping I could ask you a few questions. I—"

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm a reporter with the Angel Grove Sentinel."

"I see. …I'm sorry; I wasn't aware I'd done anything to warrant being interviewed."

Carrie's eyes widened. Well, at least she could soften the blow if she told him before he saw it on the news. "May I sit down?"

Tommy looked torn for a long moment, but he finally nodded. "Yeah."

Carrie took the chair he offered her, spun it around and straddled it, an old habit from the days of trying to blend in with the sports department. "I take it you haven't seen the news lately?" she asked delicately.

"No. I've only been awake an hour. Why?"

"Well… it would appear the city of Angel Grove has taken an interest in you, Dr. Oliver."

She watched him carefully; sure enough, a look of panic flashed across his face before he forced it down. "Why's that, Miss—?"

"Jeffries. Carrie Jeffries."

Tommy's jaw dropped. "The Carrie Jeffries?"

"Well, it's not an uncommon name, but I'd assume I'm the Carrie Jeffries you mean, yes."

"Carrie Jeffries… I know that name…" Trent said, frowning.

"You wrote that article on the Red Ranger!" Kira blurted out, shocked.

Carrie nodded at her. "Yes. I did."

"And you interviewed Elsa," Trent added, realization dawning. "And now you want to interview Dr. O? Why?" His panic was much more visible in his expression than it was in Tommy's.

"Because," Carrie said gently, "most of the city is under the impression that Dr. Oliver is the Black Ranger."

Tommy stared at her, then snorted. "Are you another one of those whack jobs who thinks that just because I know enough martial arts to keep myself from getting killed when my school principal reveals herself to be an evil minion—"

"You misunderstand me, Dr. Oliver. No one's accusing you of being the Black Dino Ranger, or a Dino Ranger at all."

He blinked. "Is that so?"

"It's so. You're actually presumed to be the Black Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger."

Tommy stared at her. Trent stared at her. Kira stared at her.

Then they all burst out laughing.

Jason and Billy emerged from the elevator on the sixth floor and headed down the hall to 603, the door to which was wide open. Conner was humming to himself as he checked his reflection in the mirror over the dresser.

"Hey, Conner," Jason called.

Conner's face lit up. "Hey, Jase. Billy. What's up? Like my shirt?"

"Is that new?" Jason asked suspiciously.

"Yeah. Just got it yesterday, when we went to Wal-Mart."

"Funny. I have one just like it," Jason said dryly, shaking his head. "Wore it Monday, I believe."

"Now I know it's cool," Conner said, looking slightly embarrassed as he turned back to the mirror. "So… what's going on, guys?"

"Nothing. Just came to round up the gang. All I could get out of Trini about this big surprise thing she's planning was that it's in Stone Canyon."

"Which is a good place for us to be right now," Billy said worriedly.

"How far away is that?" Conner asked.

"Not far," Jason said. "We'd better, ah, hurry. Where are Trent and Ethan?"

"Ethan said something about Trent going to get breakfast, but Kira knocked me unconscious earlier and I didn't wake up until after he'd left."

"Kira knocked you unconscious?" Billy repeated in confusion.

"Yeah," Conner said, as though this happened frequently (which, Billy and Jason reminded themselves, it probably did). "Anyway, Ethan's curled up on the bed and refuses to come out from under the blanket."

"Why?" Jason demanded. Conner shrugged. Jason sighed; they didn't have time to waste. He wanted to get them out of Angel Grove, where they could talk about this mess, as fast as possible. He and Billy had already agreed not to bring it up until they were out of the city limits. "Ethan, man, wake up!"

"I am awake. I'm trying to sleep. And you're wasting your breath. This is going to be a bad day, Jason. Bad with a capital… um, bad. I'm not leaving. Nope."

Jason arched an eyebrow. "Is your team psychic or something? I remember Tommy saying something about extra powers…"

"No, I'm not psychic," Ethan replied from beneath the covers, his voice muffled. "I'm just really good at reading omens. I slept really well until Conner came back and woke me up with his snoring, you know. Couldn't get back to sleep. Hit my head trying to hide from Conner. Got in an argument with Trent. Had to watch Trent make out with Kira. Not doing it, guys. Not getting out of bed. Today is not going to be a good day!"

"Ethan, we kind of don't have time for this. We need to get going as fast as possible—"

Conner held up his hand to cut Jason off. "Don't worry, dude. I'll handle this." Conner walked over to the bed, yanked the blankets back before Ethan could react, and, without giving Ethan a chance to reclaim his shield against the world, Conner said, quite simply, "Ethan—Kira knocked me unconscious."

Ethan thought about this for a second.

"I'll be ready in twenty minutes," he said, flinging back the sheets and climbing out of the bed.

Jason and Billy shrugged and went to get Zack and Tommy, but only Zack was in the room, trying to decide on a shirt.

"Black and purple or black and green?" he asked them.

"That one," Jason and Billy said in unison, pointing at opposite shirts. Zack sighed heavily.

"I really do need to reexamine the theory that Rangers tend to lean not only towards the color of their uniform but also to secondary colors containing their color. Or, in the case of Rangers whose uniforms consisted of secondary colors, the primary colors that comprise their color. Not to mention the interesting relation between varying shades, tints, tertiary colors and the Ranger uniform color most similar to their personality when—"

"Billy, it's early, Trini is not here, and I'm preoccupied enough."

Billy frowned thoughtfully, trying to think of a way to reword his question. "My point was, I think Rangers tend to lean towards not just their basic color, but colors that are a mix of their shades and—never mind. Not important. Wear the purple, Zack. It's red and blue."

"Whatever. Where's Tommy?" Jason asked Zack.

"Chased him off an hour ago. Dude, you guys won't believe what happened last night—"

"Later, okay? We want to get going, A.S.A.P. We're going to get Trini and then go grab some muffins or something from the restaurant downstairs; I'm guessing that's where Tommy will be. You know how he gets about coffee."

"Yeah," Zack said with a sigh. "I do."

Trini and Kimberly were next. Kira was absent, but neither of them seemed very concerned.

"She had a bit of a rough night last night," Kimberly said, lifting her leg and shoving her foot in Jason's face. "How do my toes look? Tell the truth."

"Like… toes?" Jason said, confused. Kimberly took extremely good care of her feet, much like the rest of her appearance, but no matter how pretty the foot, it's always prettier when not two inches from your nose.

"The polish, Jason! Not the toes, the polish!"

"Oh. Um. Fi—gorgeous," he amended hastily. He knew Kimberly far too well. "I like the, um, shade."

"Thanks, Jason," Kimberly said happily, removing the foot from his vision. "Hair?"

"Great. I like it."

"I told you so," Trini said absently. She was applying a little makeup of her own; she'd figured she might as well, since Kimberly was taking forever to get ready.

"Is my shirt showing too much cleavage?" Kimberly persisted.

Jason sighed. "This is one of those conversations where I have to compliment every inch of you before you let up, isn't it?"

"Of course."

"No, you're not showing too much."

"Sure I shouldn't button it some more?"

"Kim, I'm not going to have a debate about your boobs, especially when you're probably going to open another button at some point anyway," Jason said in exasperation. "If you want to talk about Trini's cleavage, let me know."

Kimberly huffed and turned to Billy. "Billy—"

"Your attire accentuates your natural curves in a desirable manner."

Kimberly thought about this for a second, struggling to process the big words; she was more used to it than Jason and Zack, as she'd hung around Billy for over a year after Trini had left Angel Grove. "Thanks, Billy! You're a great friend. Much better than some people." She shot a pointed look at Jason, who rolled his eyes and went to sit next to Trini at the table. Kimberly frowned at herself in the mirror and opened another button on the shirt, then turned back to Billy. "Okay. Sexy or slutty?"

Billy shot Jason an annoyed glare for pushing Kimberly off on him. "You look fine, Kim."

"Fine as in 'easier than the woman in the faux fur coat on the street corner,' or fine as in 'I'd like to stare, but I'm too much of a gentleman?'"

Billy thought this over. "Is there a difference?"

"Hey, Jase," Trini said, ignoring Billy and Kimberly as she kissed her husband hello. "I'm glad you're here. Want to go down to breakfast together, or did you already eat? I'm kind of craving whipped cream." She smiled, a distant look in her eye.

"Actually, I want to get going. Let's just grab some chow on the way, okay?"

Trini raised her eyebrows. "Something up?"

Jason nodded. "Could get ugly, but I think it's handle-able. Don't really want to talk about it until we're in Stone Canyon, though; I think we should get out of the city today."

She frowned. "Purse snatcher?"

"Yep."

Trini sighed and began reapplying the lipstick Jason's kiss had smeared. "All right. I'll try and kick Kimberly into gear. By the way, have you been feeding the dog?"

"Yeah. Billy laughed his ass off at the Can Opener Song, by the way."

"I told you, letting the dog get all excited every time the can opener went off was cruel. Better he recognizes meal times another way."

"Fine, but did that other way have to involve me singing a dumb poem to him?"

Trini chuckled, but before she could reply, Billy's plaintive wail cut her off.

"I don't know, Kimberly! I don't go to strip clubs! Aquitar doesn't have them!"

"Okay, okay, fine. Do I look good as in—?"

"Kim, leave him alone," Trini interrupted. "You look hot. Not slutty. Now hurry it up; the guys want to get going."

"But I can't decide on this last button!"

Trini rolled her eyes. "You guys go grab Tommy, and see if you can find Kira. I'll handle Kimberly."

"Now I know why I married you," Jason joked, and he and Billy escaped.

Carrie was still waiting for the laughter to die down. They couldn't seem to stop. Every time they got close, they'd look at each other and a fresh wave of giggles would overcome them. She supposed it was pretty ironic. The Black Dino Ranger, accused of being the Black Mighty Morphin' Ranger, when he was in fact the Green Mighty Morphin' Ranger.

"I'm sorry," Tommy wheezed, clutching his side. "It's just… I needed that. Aw, man…"

"I don't find it plausible myself," Carrie replied smoothly.

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "You don't?"

"Of course not." She gave him a meaningful look and his expression hardened; he was no longer laughing.

"How, exactly, did that rumor start?"

"Were you aware that you knew the purse snatcher who attacked Kimberly Hart?"

"How could I be aware? I never met him. I was in the Youth Center when the Black Ranger intervened."

"His name is Walter Johnson. He claims you were the one to knock him unconscious, not the Black Ranger."

Tommy paled. "Walter Johnson?"

"Who's he, Dr. O?" Trent asked.

"Guy I knew in high school," Tommy replied reluctantly. "He… we were friends for a while. Then I went off on his friend because… um… for saying something rude about Kimberly. Walter tried to jump in and I…" He sighed. "I beat up both Walter and Chris. I regretted it like nothing else. I tried to apologize, but they wouldn't listen to me."

"You beat someone up just for saying something rude about your girlfriend?" Trent asked, shocked. If Tommy had let Trent beat up Conner every time Conner had said something rude about Kira, Conner's funeral would have been about six months ago.

"It was a mistake. It was right after I moved to Angel Grove," he added, willing them to understand.

"Oh," Trent said, frowning in thought. "Oh. Oh! Oh, yeah!"

"Wha—oh. I get it," Kira muttered.

"Get what?" Carrie asked lightly, certain that they were both making the connection between the evil Green Ranger's actions and Tommy's.

"Nothing… um… Dr. O told us he gets a little stressed out when he's just moved somewhere," Kira lied, wincing at how pathetic this sounded.

Carrie smiled at her, pulling out her notepad. "May I ask your names? Just in case I quote you?"

Kira and Trent looked at Tommy for direction; he frowned, wishing they hadn't, but he nodded at them all the same. He figured that if there was any reporter in Angel Grove who wouldn't try to completely screw him, it would be Carrie—who had done so much for them in the past that Jason had several of her articles framed on his bedroom wall, much to Trini's displeasure.

"Kira Ford."

"Trent Fernandez."

"You're friends of Dr. Oliver?"

"Uh… yeah?" Kira winced again, not meaning to sound so unnatural.

"He's kind of our… mentor," Trent added lamely. "Like… like…"

"Like an older brother," Kira finished.

"I see."

"Anyway," Tommy interrupted loudly, "what's this about me being a Power Ranger? I mean, there are more martial arts practitioners to come out of Angel Grove than just about any city in America, but other than that—point is, I'm not the Black Ranger." He paused and shook his head. "I'm not the original Black Ranger. That's ridiculous."

"Give me some credit, Dr. Oliver," Carrie said with a snort of derisive laughter. "I'm not dense enough to think you're the Black Ranger. For one thing, I have a friend at the hospital who insists that the whole story is nothing more than the result of a gossip mill running amuck." She stared at him intently, willing him to understand her. "According to him, Walter was simply ranting that you beat him up in high school for something to do with Kimberly, and he should have known better than to try to steal Kimberly's purse."

Tommy's expression darkened, almost frighteningly so. "He targeted Kim on purpose?"

"Focus," she said quietly.

Tommy blinked, startled, then smiled slightly. "I guess he was right about you."

Carrie felt a rush of warmth and pride at this statement; praying it meant what she thought it did, she continued. "My friend has also assured me that no reporters have gotten to speak with this Walter fellow. But if Walter's story… stays the same as last night…"

Tommy's eyes widened, catching her meaning. "I'm certain he was probably just disoriented from being clobbered by a Ranger. After all, I was in the Youth Center. It wasn't me who hit him."

"Can I quote you on that?"

"Of course." Tommy smiled. Figuring that she was on firmer ground, she continued their game of say-more-than-you-mean.

"Now, I already have statements from the arresting officers, and Walter himself, in addition to the hospital staff. It won't be difficult at all to discount this ridiculous tale, but of course I wanted a quote from you first."

Tommy regarded her thoughtfully, almost coolly. "All right. Now tell me what you really want."

Carrie grinned. "The Red Ranger."

Tommy laughed. "Sorry. No can do."

"You have to understand—"

"I do understand. At least, I'm pretty sure I do. And I appreciate what you're doing for us. And I'm sorry. But I can't help you."

Carrie's face fell. "You don't know the half of what I'm giving you," she replied pleasantly. Allowing a frosty edge to creep into her voice, she added, quite simply, "Green."

Tommy stared her down, as if trying to tell if she really had a royal flush or was about to bluff him into folding the best hand he'd ever had. Carrie had an incredibly good poker face, but now… now that he had admitted just who he was, just what he was, her resolve was ebbing away. There was something awe-inspiring about this disheveled science teacher now; he was a Power Ranger, after all…

"Hey, Tommy!"

Carrie jumped and spun around to see who was interrupting, glad for the reprieve from his maddening stare. Her jaw dropped as she recognized Billy Cranston—he was older, his hair longer, but there was no mistaking the face, the glasses, and the overalls, especially considering that Carrie had numerous pictures of him left over from way back when. According to rumor, he'd gotten a job with the government just after graduating high school and had completely disappeared. Carrie had never found another address, phone number, or financial record of him. Ever.

She tore her gaze away from Billy, but the shocked look remained. Next to Billy was a muscular guy with brown hair, Jason Scott if she remembered her Ranger conspiracy theory research correctly… wearing a red shirt and drinking a twenty-ounce bottle of Red Pop.

They were only ten feet away when Carrie jumped up without realizing she was moving. It was him. The Red Ranger! Carrie couldn't think, couldn't begin to try; all that filled her head was the fact that now she finally knew.

Billy and Jason saw her. Jason froze, wide-eyed, Billy stopping next to him and looking in puzzlement from Carrie to Tommy to Jason and back.

"It's her," Jason said in a strangled voice.

"Her who?" Billy asked worriedly.

Jason didn't reply, looking at her hesitantly. "Carrie?"

She nodded feebly. Suddenly Jason leaped forward and charged right at her. Carrie yelped, terrified that she was about to be murdered by an unstable Red Ranger; there was no hope of escaping, she was only human after all… but instead of attacking, he simply flung his arms around her.

"Carrie! Oh, man, you have no idea how grateful I—"

Jason broke off abruptly even as a stunned Carrie hugged him back. He'd caught Tommy's gaze, and Tommy was glaring and shaking his head warningly.

"Sorry!" Jason fairly yelped, his face bright red as he dove backwards. "I thought you were someone else."

Carrie took a deep steadying breath and smiled warmly at him. "Still drinking Red Pop, I see."

Over Jason's shoulder, Carrie could just glimpse the look of increasing panic on Billy's face as he worked out who she was. Suddenly he spun around and ran flat-out for the elevator.

Jason, too, was looking fairly panicked. "What Red Pop?" he demanded in a tone of desperate innocence, and flung the bottle over his shoulder, where it smacked—hard—against the back of a man's head. The man turned around angrily; he was a beefy middle-aged man in a motorcycle jacket with a do-rag on his head; everything about him just sort of screamed "biker."

"HEY!" the man shouted. "Who threw that?"

Just then, Billy ran past the man, and, figuring Billy was the guilty culprit, the biker gave chase. Carrie stared at them as Billy dove through the restaurant doors, rushed across the lobby and jabbed the button and flew into the elevator, seconds before the man behind him.

The man grabbed the doors before they could close and pushed them apart, shouting at Billy that he was going to pay. Billy shoved him back. "I didn't do it! Go away!" Billy yelled.

"Sure you didn't!" the man roared, jumping in between the motion sensor again.

"I did not! Please, leave me alone! I have to get out of here!" Billy pushed him as hard as he could; trouble was, the guy was on his way to three hundred pounds, and Billy still wasn't used to Earth's stronger gravity (his panic wasn't helping him, either), so he was unable to drive the biker back very far without seriously injuring him.

"You're not going anywhere, pal!" the man screamed.

"Please! I don't want to hurt you!"

"Go ahead and try, buddy!"

"Isn't that Billy Cranston?" Carrie asked Jason faintly. The shock of discovering who the Red Ranger was hadn't worn off, and seeing a biker play a game of elevator dodge with a guy who was mistaken for the Red Pop-throwing culprit led only to becoming more startled.

"Who?" Jason asked, communicating silently with Tommy over her head.

"Billy Cranston. Your friend from high school. Who everyone used to think was y—the Red Ranger."

"Oh. Billy. Haven't seen him in years. Ever since my wedding."

She looked at Jason. "He's not coming into town any time soon, is he?"

Jason squirmed. If he said no, and someone who knew them spotted Billy and she found out, who knew what Carrie would do? As it was, Ernie and Mr. Cranston already knew he was back…

"He's coming in later today," Jason said finally. "In fact, I just came by to pick up Tommy and everyone so we could head on out to meet him."

"Funny," Carrie said dryly, "that looks an awful lot like him." She gave Jason a teasing smile and returned to watching Billy fight with the biker. A manager, a few janitors and two security guards were rushing towards the scene, while behind the front desk Jenny was frantically dialing the cops. Seeing the approaching people and unsure if they were backup for him or for the biker, knowing only that they would impede Billy's escape, Billy sighed and kicked the biker in the gut, just in time to send him careening into the reinforcements with the speed and precision of the freshly-buttered side of a slice of toast heading for the floor.

"I told you I didn't want to hurt you!" Billy screamed wildly, wringing his hands as the elevator doors slammed shut.

Conner stepped out of the hotel room, Ethan right behind him, only to almost be knocked over by Billy. "Billy! What's wrong, dude?" Conner asked in concern.

"Come on!" Billy yelped, bolting down the hall to Zack's room and diving in through the open door, scaring the crap out of Zack. Billy immediately slammed the door, nearly removing a few of Ethan's fingers in the process; Conner pulled him clear just in time.

"Billy, man, what's up?" Zack asked nervously, clutching his heart.

"It's Tommy," Billy whimpered, breathing heavily. "And Jason. And Kira and Trent and Carrie!"

"Carrie who?" Zack asked blankly.

"Carrie the reporter! And I just beat up a biker!"

"Way to go!" Conner said, deeply impressed.

"Not the time, Conner," Ethan said dryly.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Carrie the reporter, as in the one Jason talked to while morphed?" Zack demanded.

"Yes! She happens to be physically present within this institution!"

"Billy, this is no time to talk like Billy!"

"She's here! She's here, and she was talking to Tommy, and I think she knows something, because she had this look on her face and Jason was drinking Red Pop and guys, the news, last night… it's all over TV that Tommy's the Black Ranger!"

"They found out our identities?" Ethan hissed.

"Not yours! Zack's! Or rather, they think Tommy is Zack! The purse snatcher recognized Tommy and knows it wasn't the Black Ranger who decked him so they think it's Tommy who's the Black Ranger and I think she saw me, I think she knows me!"

"Calm down! If you think she knows you, then we've got to get you out of here," Zack said firmly. "We can handle this. Let's just all make a mad dash for the front door."

"I can't! Security was coming to break up the fight I engaged in when that unsympathetic man in the leather jacket refused to acknowledge that I was not the culprit for whatever slight he perceived as being inflicted upon his—"

"BILLY!" Zack yelled.

"He said security is looking for him because a biker tried to pick a fight," Ethan said quickly.

"Oh," Zack said. "Then we'll have to smuggle you out. Give me some time to think…"

Conner's face lit up. "Don't worry, gang. I've got a plan."