Chapter Eighty-six

Bomber in the Summer

It had been a long week for Jenny, working twelve-hour shifts every day on very little sleep and very large amounts of chaos. She hadn't gotten off work yesterday until three in the afternoon, thanks to the Black Ranger's impromptu arrival, so she'd spent all night last night dealing with Carrie's friends' chaos on half the necessary amount of sleep. Eating Carrie's share of the Chinese food hadn't helped matters—she definitely couldn't eat like a college kid anymore—and she hadn't been able to crawl into bed until almost two o'clock today, only to be awakened barely six hours later by a desperate phone call from the assistant day manager. Half the security guards were down at the police station in regards to yesterday's violent biker or the attacked bellhops and the day manager was busy being heckled by the mayor about the Black Ranger, and now there were three whack jobs washing an orange monkey off in the pool, and could she please come in early and help out because Harriet's having a panic attack and plenty of people are upset because they were swimming in that pool when the monkey landed and no one knows if it's a diseased monkey or not…

So Jenny had rolled out of bed, tossed on a smelly uniform, tied her hair back without brushing it and stumbled off to work. The assistant day manager, Hal, was sweet, but he was a little too sweet sometimes and he didn't handle chaos very well; he hadn't even thought to call the police until she'd run down the crisis checklist with him over the phone. It also didn't help that they were currently extremely short-staffed; second shift had gotten into some major brawl over the extra shifts available for Power Rangers Day, which had cost them three workers, their second-shift manager and about fourteen customers, and two more people had quit on the spot once they saw how hectic life at the Inn was going to be until after Power Rangers Day.

Now Jenny's day had somehow managed to get worse. Because on top of orange monkeys and sleep deprivation and understaffed employees trying to run an overbooked inn and their third reason to call the cops in the last two days and curious tourists wondering when the Black Ranger was going to show up, on top of all the normal chaos that came with any good-sized hotel, Jason Scott was standing in the lobby lookingworried, apparently giving orders to a cluster of people.

Her eyes darted about Jason's posse, her brain automatically assigning traumatic events to them. Trini, the scary wife. Zack, the Play Doh eater. Kimberly, the stripper's special friend. Billy, the guy who could disable the electronic locks. Ethan, the kid from the cot. The boy and girl who'd been eating in the restaurant with Tommy Oliver when Carrie had come to get her exclusive. And then there was Tommy Oliver himself, better-dressed than she'd yet to see him, looking livid. As if he had a right to complain when her hotel was in shambles!

"YOU!" Jenny bellowed.

Half of them turned to face her, a few grimaces and sighs erupting. Jason muttered something and to her surprise they all scattered, Billy and the unnamed boy into the restaurant, the rest into the pool, leaving Jason alone. She hadn't expected that; she wondered idly if Jason thought that by "you" she meant him, when in reality she was addressing the entire psychotic group as a whole, but she didn't bother to think much about it. She was tired, she was annoyed, and they had left their leader alone and unprotected; she was going to make him suffer.

"What have youdone?" Jenny demanded. "Six hours of sleep, after ninja strippers and ice machines and breaking-and-entering and jealous wives! And now you've got a monkey and—"

"Jenny, I don't have a lot of time," Jason interrupted.

Jenny's entire mind went blank with fury. Jason seemed to realize he'd made a dangerous mistake and he took a step backwards, planting his feet. "You… you… you…" Jenny spluttered incoherently.

"I know martial arts," Jason announced. Jenny stared at him blankly. "Just… thought I'd throw that out there. Now seemed like a good time."

"What the hell are you doing?" Jenny hissed. "An orange monkey? An orange monkey in my pool?"

"It wasn't us. It was these two guys, Bulk and Skull. They've brainwashed Conner… great guy, but easily led… we didn't have anything to do with it."

"Really? And I'm just supposed to believe that? You people caused more chaos in one night than I've seen all year! I'm not supposed to be dealing with chaos, do you understand me? I'm the night manager! There's no chaos on the graveyard shift! My biggest worry is supposed to be staying awake! And there are Power Rangers running all through my hotel and ninjas jumping off my balconies and strippers bypassing my electronic locks and now there are monkeys! Monkeys in my pool!"

"I don't—"

"And it's your fault! Your fault! You crash around my hotel breaking vending machines and eating Play Doh and forget Tanya Sloan tickets, I want Tanya Sloan's soul!"

"Um—"

"You know what? You're out. All of you, you're out!"

"No!" Jason exclaimed, panicked. "No, you can't kick them out, you justcan't!"

"Not them, you! All of you!"

Jason cleared his throat. "Oh, I'm… not actually checked in here."

Jenny stared at him, mouthing agape, eyes bulging. Jason seized her shoulders, peered into her eyes, and began to plead desperately with her. "No, see, if you kick them out, they'll all end up staying in my house, and that can't happen, not Tommy and Kimberly in the same house, not those four kids at the same time, you can't stick us all together, we won't survive, my home will end up a crater, you can't just—"

Jenny wasn't listening. She was continuing to stare in disbelief. "You're not checked in here," she said suddenly, cutting him off.

"No, I'm not," Jason said impatiently. "Just Tommy, Zack, Kim and the four kids—"

"Oh, god," Jenny whimpered. "There's no escape. If I kick you out, you'll just… just… I can't stop you…"

"I know how you feel," Jason told her sympathetically, patting her shoulder.

Jenny shrugged off his compassionate grip and glared at him. "How are you people even still alive?" she demanded. "If this is what happens to you on a Thursday afternoon, how did you make it this long?"

Jason's lips twitched as if he was fighting off a grin. "Well, you see… we have… hidden talents."

Despite the ungodly amount of idiotic ex-boyfriends that had graced Jenny's life, she had never wanted to smack anyone the way she wanted to smack Jason in that moment. She probably would have done it, too, if not for the momentary distraction of a loud, tuneful series of beeps. Jason jumped and put a hand over the clunky watch on his wrist, smiling apologetically at her.

"Tell you what," Jason said slowly. "I'll remove the monkey kid from the hotel. Okay? I'll take Conner out of here. That should take away a lot of the—"

"No," Jenny cut in. "I want Tommy Oliver gone."

"No you don't," Jason told her, though his tone was slightly desperate. "Conner's an instigator. Tommy's a voice of reason. I know you don't see a lot of that, but… if you leave Zack and those kids here unsupervised… and… please? I'll take Conner out of here, and that'll cut way down on your level of chaos. I mean, we turned our backs on the kid for a second, and look what happened. He kidnapped a monkey and took it swimming." Jason gestured at the doors to the pool, just as they opened and Kimberly dragged an enraged Tommy through them.

"Well, I think it's going to work out for the best," Kimberly said brightly. "We managed to stall Steven and Jarel long enough, and—"

"Wait," Jenny interrupted. "Kidnapped a monkey? You're telling me that's not just a monkey, it's a stolen monkey?"

Jason cleared his throat. "Well…"

"Conner die," Tommy explained, trying and failing to extricate his arm from Kimberly's grip.

A few seconds later the Trini woman came in. "Hello," she said with a nod at Jenny. "Well, Jason, I think we should remove Conner from the hotel as soon as Kira and Ethan get him out of there. Maybe he can stay with us?"

Jason winced and Jenny rounded on him, fury washing over her again. "You bastard! You weren't trying to bargain with me! You were trying to get him out of here for your own reasons!"

"Well, I…" Jason sighed. "Okay. You don't want him to do something to upset security a third time, either, do you?"

"I—" Jenny stopped, frowning. "A third time? Meaning this is the second? What was the first?"

Jason's watch beeped again, the sound magnified as identical watches on Kimberly and Trini's wrists beeped as well. Jason and the two women looked down at them in mild concern, then up at each other.

"What was thefirst?" Jenny repeated.

Jason smiled at her. "Um, well, I might have misspoken—"

Two different cell phones started ringing—Tommy's and Trini's. Trini checked her phone, while Tommy continued to try and free his arm from Kimberly's clutches; he couldn't seem to figure out how to do it without losing his shirt or seriously injuring her. "Adam," Trini reported. "He must be back in town. We'll call him back when we're done here."

"What was thefirst?" Jenny demanded dangerously.

Jason sighed, trying to figure out just how badly she'd react if he told her that Conner had been behind the bellhop attack. "Um… Jenny…"

"Ooh, ooh!" Kimberly exclaimed suddenly. "He ordered room service and porn, remember? And he charged it to Mercer's credit card!"

Jason seemed to sag in relief. "Yeah. He did. Kids, eh?"

Jenny glared at him suspiciously, not sure if she should believe him or not, but before she could say anything yet another member of the chaos clan showed up. This time, it was Zack, who was smiling cheerfully.

"You know, that Harriet chick's not too bad up close," he said cheerfully. "I might actually call her, if things ever calm down enough. By the way, Rocky called—didn't answer, but I used that as an excuse to slip away. So what's up?"

Everyone stared at him for a moment. Finally, Tommy answered him. "Conner die," he insisted plaintively, gesturing at his captured arm.

Kimberly sighed. "Could someone else hold him back, please? I'm going to pull a muscle here."

Suddenly a somewhat-damp Ethan burst through the door with a completely-drenched, one-shoed Conner. "Conner die!" Tommy exclaimed in relief, taking a swing at him. Jason, Trini and Zack helped Kimberly push Tommy to the side.

"They got Kira!" Ethan panted, looking terrified. "They've got Kira!"

Jason's eyes widened. "I'll let Trent know. He stands the best chance of getting her out of there." He released Tommy and started to jog towards the restaurant.

"Hey!" Jenny yelled, grabbing his arm. "Don't you dare! You're not going anywhere! None of you… wait, what am I saying? You're all out of here. All of you. I want every last one of you gone! The hotel's overbooked anyway!"

"What? You can'tdo that!" Kimberly exclaimed.

"I can and I will! I've got something on each and every one of you! There's no way a posse of monkey-stealing whack jobs is spending one more minute in my hotel!"

Before anyone could answer, Kira dove through the doors. "We have to get out of here!" she yelped.

"Damned straight you do!" Jenny fumed.

"Hey," Zack said soothingly, stepping towards Jenny. "I know you're upset right now…"

"Upset? Upset? There's a stolen diseased monkey in my swimming pool, half the employees have quit, we're overbooked and understaffed and I am the night manager! The last thing I need is that kid—" she jabbed a finger at Conner— "and his… his… hisaccomplices—"

"Accomplices?" Zack seemed genuinely surprised. "Why would we help him kidnap a monkey?"

Jenny stared at him. That question was both so rational and so completely insane that she couldn't answer him. She just couldn't.

"Look," Zack began, smiling gently and putting a consoling hand on her shoulder, "we'll get rid of Conner for you. The monkey is gone. The Power Rangers took care of it. Turns out it was all some sort of evil spell, so on top of everything else, the hotel will have some more lovely publicity. We'll get Conner out of your hotel, and hey, since you're a manager, you won't even have to worry about the cleanup. You can delegate."

Jenny gazed up at him blankly. Zack slid an arm around her shoulders and began to steer her towards the front desk. "Tell you what. Let's get you settled in for a nice, quiet night behind the desk. Have you even clocked in yet?"

Jenny allowed Zack to guide her away from the group, which was beginning to make hasty retreats. "No," Jenny said dazedly. "I'm off the clock."

"Are you salaried or hourly?"

"Hourly."

"Oh, then we better get you punched in. Come on." Zack led her over to the desk. Towards her chair. Her comfy rolling swiveling office chair. Best part about the job, really—that chair. So comfy…

Zack sat her in her nice cushy chair and continued smiling at her. "I'm going to go grab you some hot tea, okay?" he said, and left, his pace increasing with each step.

Jenny stared mindlessly down at the alcove below the countertop, where they hid the things they wouldn't want the customers seeing—their food and beverages, the mini-TV, and their personal effects. Jenny yawned as her eyes lit upon the framed photo of her and Carrie that she always kept nearby.

Gonna kill her for this, she thought sleepily, and then suddenly everything came crashing back and she jumped out of the chair, prepared to stomp back over to the group and kick some ass—only to realize they'd vanished, every last one of them. And she was willing to bet Zack hadn't gone to get her some tea.

Before she could come up with a next step, two police officers came in from the pool, glancing around. One of them was soaked head-to-toe and the other looked utterly bewildered.

The wet one turned to look at her. "Have you seen three kids come through here?"

Jenny opened her mouth, then closed it. She could give them up. Carrie would be upset about it, but at least they'd stop bothering Jenny. Although if half of them weren't even staying in the hotel, what was the point in kicking them out? They'd probably manage to destroy her hotel anyway. Hell, from the looks of things, the cops weren't even going to be much help anyway; Carrie's friends had already escaped them once. Maybe, just maybe, if she let them take care of things on their own, it wouldn't come back to bite her. Like how she'd let the chaos play out yesterday, when Billy had fixed the ice machine and Tommy and Kimberly had eventually gone to bed and at some point she was supposed to get some concert tickets out of all of this…

"No," Jenny lied wearily, sitting back down in her chair.

The dry, confused cop gave her a suspicious look, but the wet cop nodded. "Good enough for me. We're going to need to ask you a few questions," the wet cop told her. "It's been a while since I've had to deal with the paperwork involved in Ranger-related incidents, and I've only ever done it as a civilian, not an officer, but it shouldn't take long. By the way, do you have a towel?"

Jenny waved her hand at the back room. "Plenty of linens in the room behind me," she said. "Door in the back leads to the service hall; third door from the right is the laundry room, if you want to dry your clothes."

"Thank you," he said, coming behind the counter. Jenny didn't bother to get up. "Hey, Jarel—get started on the report, would you?" he called over his shoulder.

As he left, she looked at the other cop. "Anything I can get for you?" she asked politely.

He shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face. "This has got to be the weirdest day of my life."

She chuckled. "You're not from Angel Grove, are you."

He shook his head again. "Moved out to Stone Canyon from L.A., my junior year of high school."

"I can tell."

"Really? How's that?"

She grinned at him. "No one from Angel Grove has a weirdest day of their life."

"Are you kidding? All the chaos here—"

"That's why wedon't have a weirdest day," she explained. "None of us… could ever pick just one."

"Why do they neveranswer?" Rocky shouted as he hung up his cell phone and prepared to dial someone else. They'd tried beeping the entire gang on the communicators and had only managed to reach Kat, who had whispered that she couldn't talk at the moment before shutting down. No one had answered their cell phones, either. Rocky and Adam were driving as quickly as they dared through Angel Grove, their panic slowly rising as they failed to get in touch with anyone. "I'm running out of people to call!"

"Then just start back down the list," Adam said wearily. He was methodically working his way through his speed-dial settings as he drove.

"Dude, cheer up," Rocky told him absently. "I'm sure no one called a reporter. And even if they did, you can just deny it."

"This from the guy who thought it was funny when all those rumors started that you and Tanya were having an affair."

Rocky snickered, as was customary whenever someone brought that up. "You're not still in denial about that, are you?" Rocky teased. "I swear, me and Tanya are over. You can have her. I'm okay with that."

"Shut up, Rocky," Adam sighed, but without any real annoyance. He felt a little too bedraggled to be angry.

Rocky was just about to dial Jason and Trini's house phone when his communicator beeped. "Billy here," came Billy's harassed-sounding voice.

"Billy, man, what the hell is going on?" Rocky demanded. "No one's answering and someone set Adam's ass on fire—"

"I really can't talk right now, I'm afraid. Spending so long on Aquitar has dulled my memory of the city's layout."

"What?"

"I'm lost."

"Why don't you ask someone for directions?"

"I can't. I'm in morph—what's left of my Ninja morph, anyway."

"Why don't you demorph?"

"Because then there's still the chimpanzee to worry about."

"Oh, so you found Conner?"

Billy sighed. "In a manner of speaking."

"So he's okay and everything?"

"I have no idea. My role was to remove the chimpanzee and return it to the zoo. Only now I'm lost."

"Uh-huh. Where are you?"

"I'm on Main Street heading towards downtown," Billy reported. "I figure if I climb a skyscraper I can probably see the entire city, although I'm not certain if I still have enough power to do something that strenuous."

"Where on Main Street, exactly?"

"Heading north, just passed Seventeenth Street."

"That's not too far from here. We'll come pick you up. Adam, hang a left."

"Thank you," Billy said, relieved. "Please hurry. This creature is quite irate; I believe he was rather unhappy to be removed from his so-called liberators."

"Yeah, well, he needs to get over it. And tell him he owes Adam a pair of pants."

Ethan and Kimberly were given the task of collecting Conner's things from the hotel room; the others headed straight to Jason and Trini's house, Jason and Tommy in Jason's truck and the others in the Escalade, in the hopes that Tommy would be calm again by the time they arrived. Well, Trini, Zack, Conner, Kira and Trent headed straight to Jason and Trini's house; Jason decided Tommy could stand to go for a nice, relaxing drive to a nice, relaxing bar, and called Trini to let her know they'd be awhile.

Kira and Conner bickered throughout the whole ride, while Trent was unusually subdued and Zack pondered the merits of asking out Harriet and Trini tried to figure out if there were any loose ends they needed to tie up, though as far as she could tell there weren't any. No one at the hotel knew Conner's full name, except perhaps Bulk and Skull, and there was a good chance the cops wouldn't bother pursuing it. Angel Grove had laws protecting those who committed crimes while under the influence of evil spells and other forms of coercion from villains—none of them should be in any real trouble after the Black Ranger's testimony, even if it was given from a hotel pool.

By the time they made it to the house, Kira's anger had mostly abated and Conner had managed to coax Ms. Syrian Hamster and Mr. Mongolian Gerbil out from under his shirt collar; the two rodents had already developed strong survival instincts during their time in Conner's company, and they'd crawled up into his shirt the minute he'd hopped into the pool.

"Come on, guys," Trini said as Zack pulled up in the driveway. "Let's order some pizza and hope the others make it back okay."

Kira and Zack immediately gravitated towards the stereo while Conner attempted to get his pets to say hello to Tommy the dog, who sniffed them with interest while they quivered. Trent slapped Zack's morpher back into Zack's hand and wandered off alone.

Ethan and Kimberly arrived fairly quickly with as many of Conner's possessions as they could scrounge up and the entirety of the slightly-damaged Spencer's merchandise, which Zack, Trini and Kimberly immediately began sorting out. Ethan handed the pet store supplies to Conner, who immediately began trying to play soccer with the hamster balls, then went over to Kira, who was sifting through Jason and Trini's CD collection.

"Hey," he said. "Where's Trent?"

Kira frowned. "I don't know."

"I wanted to ask him what it was like to be an original Ranger," Ethan said, disappointed. "Did he say anything about it?"

"No… Come to think of it, he didn't talk much in the car." Kira stood up. "I'll go look for him."

"Ethan!" Conner called. "Wanna play hamster race?"

"Hurry," Ethan muttered to Kira, sighing.

Kira checked the basement, bathroom and kitchen before poking her head out the back door and peering into the yard. "Trent?" Kira called. She finally spied him leaning against the wall, staring off at the sky with a pensive look on his face. "Trent?"

Trent turned his head to look at her. "White," he responded, sounding a little blank.

"What?"

Shaking his head, the glazed expression disappeared from his eyes. "Nothing," he replied before beckoning her over.

She let the door fall shut behind her as she walked over to him. "Something wrong?" Kira asked, choosing to ignore the irony of her question.

He was silent, simply looking at her. His gaze wasn't distant at all, it was appraising, intense and it always made Kira shiver whenever he looked at her like that. It made her remember those days when they were fighting each other but were forced to function as members of society and she would catch him looking at her like that in school. Instead of being frightened like most would be and she might have been more normal had she been, it only made her tingle and desperate to help him that much more. She always wondered about that day he came to her about his evil alter ego. Why did they meet there, instead of some tragically secluded place? Why out in the sunlight, beside the water, sitting so close together?

Leaning forward, Trent threaded his fingers through hers and pulled her to him. His lips found hers as he pulled her arms around him, then slid an arm around her waist, stroking her cheek with his freed hand. Kira's eyes fluttered close as she kissed him back, her hands sliding through his hair, down his neck and shoulders.

She broke the kiss a few moments later, about to say something, but Trent shook his head and leaned back in, smothering her words with another kiss, pulling her tighter against him and stroking his hand into her hair, touching lightly, his other hand tracing along her lower back. Kira let her hands slide back up, trailing along his neck, his jaw and back into his hair before dipping down to run over his chest and back up. She settled her hands over the racing pulse in his neck so they would match, her fingers playing over the skin.

It was Trent who broke the kiss this time, though more time had passed. He didn't pull away, instead resting his forehead against hers, breath falling heavy on each other's cheeks. "I love you."

It was quiet, but not whispered. Kira opened her eyes to look into Trent's. "I love you too." Her thumb found the corner of his mouth and slid over his cheek before they met each other halfway, wrapping their arms fully around one another. It seemed as if they suddenly decided they refused to be separate entities and were trying to swallow each other whole.

There was nothing else, not then, not as far as Kira was concerned. The world was standing still. There was only Trent.

Until a red hamster ball flew out of the window and bounced off her head.

"OW!" Kira shrieked.

"MONGO!" Conner bellowed from inside the house.

Kira glowered in the direction of the window and bent to pick up the ball, which contained an exasperated Mr. Mongolian Gerbil. Before she could straighten up again, Trent was grabbing her waist from behind, yanking her back against the wall and out of the way of Conner, who came flying out the window head-first.

Kira's eyes narrowed. She marched over to Conner as he started to get up and planted her boot firmly on the back of his skull, pressing him to the ground. Conner held still, warily waiting for her to let him up and hoping she wasn't about to crush his head. "Um… Kira?" he asked tentatively.

Kira removed Mr. Mongolian Gerbil from the ball and held him out to Trent, who took the little rodent and stroked his head to calm him. Kira tossed the ball carelessly over her shoulder, narrowly missing Ethan, who'd come out through the back door to help Conner recapture his pet.

Kira removed her boot from Conner's head. "You have five seconds to run."

"Kira, I'm really sor—"

"Four. Three. T—"

Conner took off as fast as humanly possible. Kira quickly decided a head start was no longer necessary and rushed after him. Fortunately for Conner, he was taller, stronger, and far more used to sprinting. Unfortunately for Conner, Kira wasn't going to let that stop her from trying.

Trent watched for a moment as she chased him around the backyard, then looked down at the gerbil in his hand. "So," he said conversationally, "rough day?"

Trent couldn't be sure, but he got the distinct feeling that Mr. Mongolian Gerbil was glaring at him.