Chapter Eighty-nine

A Test of Trust

Kira looked up as Kimberly burst through the door, slammed it behind her, and flung herself down on the bed, sobbing. "Kim? What's wrong?" she demanded.

"Tommy's an asshole," Kimberly sobbed, burying her face in her pillow.

Kira stared at her, at a loss. Kira had seen Dr. O make Kimberly angry, or exasperated, or embarrassed—but she hadn't thought Dr. O was capable of making Kimberly cry. "What's going on?" she asked awkwardly.

"He blames me," Kimberly moaned. "I never figured he would really do that. I mean, I feared he did, but I always thought that was irrational, and Trini thought so too! How can he blame me?"

Kira sat beside her as she cried, unsure of what to do other than rub her back consolingly and mutter comforting things. Kira didn't have a lot of close female friends; the only person who'd ever cried on her shoulder was Kylee, and Kylee had needed only a hug and a "you'll be famous one day" to cheer her up. This was far more… involved, and Kira was acutely aware of the fact that Kimberly was crying because Tommy, whom Kira respected and cared for, had hurt her.

"Dr. O's a guy," Kira said desperately. "Guys are all stupid, Kim."

"I never should have come here," Kimberly wailed. "This was a huge mistake. I should have put on my suit and gone down to City Hall and pointed out that he wasn't an original! Jeez, White didn't even show up for over a year! I mean, sure, Green was there for a really long time and it was pretty obvious that Green came back as White butstill!"

"…What?" Kira said, confused. Before Kimberly could answer, someone began pounding on the door, rattling it so hard Kira had visions of an elephant with a grudge against a tin shack.

"Let me IN!" Tommy bellowed through the door. "I know you're in there!"

"Oh, god," Kimberly whimpered. She sat up, pulling her knees to her chest and trying to wipe away her tears, which kept coming. "Leave me alone!" she shouted.

"Kim? This isn't over! LET ME IN! NOW!"

"No!" Kimberly yelled back. "Go away!"

"Let me in, Kim, I mean it!"

"God, why won't he leave?" Kimberly muttered.

"I'll break the damned door down, don't you think I won't!"

Kira patted Kimberly on the shoulder comfortingly. "Look, why don't you go throw some water on your face, okay? I'll get rid of him."

"Thanks," Kimberly sniffled, attempting to pull herself together before wandering off into the bathroom and locking the door behind her.

"YOU HAVE UNTIL THE COUNT OF THREE, AND THEN I'M COMING IN!" Tommy roared.

"Go ahead and try! But you're paying for the door! And then you're going to Jason's to sleep on the floor with Conner!" Kira shouted back.

There was a momentary pause as Tommy thought this over. "…Fine! But this isn't over! I'm not going to let Kimberly walk out on me again without a fight! You can't stay in there forever, Kim! You're going to have to stop hiding sooner or later! Face me, for once!"

Kimberly's sobs started again; Kira could hear them through the bathroom door. Eyes narrowing in determination and anger, Kira grabbed her room key, started to tuck it in her pocket, changed her mind and put it in her bra instead. Then she marched to the door.

Tommy had been raising his fists to bang against the door when Kira burst through it, shoved him back, and slammed the door behind her. He stared at her, shocked. She had never, ever shoved him; the Dino Rangers were all fairly tentative about even sparring with him, as a matter of fact. Now, however, there was a look of fire on her face that he'd only ever seen on two types of people before—Rangers when pissed off, and Rangers gone evil.

"Leave her alone," Kira growled, her tone telling him plainly that she was struggling to maintain her cool. Tommy was, after all, her mentor and a legendary superhero; it was difficult to get in his face, especially when he was angry.

"Kira, get out of my way," he said darkly. Some small part of him was looking at her with grudging respect, but the majority of him was ready to knock her unconscious if she planned on standing between him and Kimberly and closure. Once more, he found himself reeling as Kimberly walked away, leaving him confused and upset in her wake, and he wasn't going to do it again, not when there was the smallest chance that he could fix it this time.

"I don't know what you did to her," Kira snarled, her bravery slowly overcoming her fear, "but you've upset her enough for one night!"

Loosing the last shreds of his patience, he shunted her aside and yanked the door handle. It didn't budge. Growling, he spun back to face Kira, who was teetering wildly as she fought to keep her balance.

"Give me your key," Tommy said dangerously.

"No."

"Kira, give me your key."

"Sorry, Dr. O. I don't know what's going on, but I'm not going to let you go in there and blow up at poor Kimberly."

"Poor Kimberly? Poor Kim? What about me, huh? How about 'poor Dr. O?' How about some freaking loyalty! Do you have any idea what—no. No, of course you don't." Tommy reached out and seized Kira by the shoulders, staring intently into her eyes. "Kira, Kim and I… if I was you and Kim was Trent, would you keep you from going in there and getting Trent back?"

Kira frowned in confusion. "What?"

Tommy threw up his hands, let her go and flung his shoulder against the door; it shuddered but refused to give. With a roar of outrage, he lunged at Kira, grabbed her by the arm, and shoved his hand in her pocket.

"HEY!" Kira shouted, incensed. She had never thought he'd actually try searching her pockets, but she was now very glad that the key was in a much safer place. She kicked and struggled as best she could, unable to believe this act of insanity as he moved on to her other pockets. She shook her head slightly, wondering how she ended up in a hotel hallway in a strange city getting her back pockets searched by her science teacher, and praying for forgiveness from whomever she had wronged to deserve this sort of karma. (Some small part of her was whispering that the whole reason she was on this trip in the first place was because she'd put her hand in Tommy's back pocket to find his cell phone back in Hayley's Cyberspace two weeks ago, but she determinedly ignored that memory.) Appalled, somewhat frightened and not a little pissed, Kira came close to chucking the key at his head and making a break for it, but her loyalty to Kimberly won out in the end.

Tommy managed to search all five of her pockets before Kira could shove him off of her; seconds after he reeled away, Tommy dove at her knees, bringing her to the floor, where he promptly yanked off her sock. She kicked at him with her other foot, unable to come up with a logical explanation for this new twist on an already bizarre day, but she was saved the trouble of puzzling it out when he peered into her sock carefully, obviously looking for the key, then flung the sock down the hall and went for the other foot. Letting out another bellow of frustration, the second sock met the same fate and he released her. She scrambled to her feet and backed up against the wall. Before she could plot her next move, he had her by the shoulders again, glaring deep into her eyes. She could have sworn his irises were tinged with green.

"I'm only going to ask you this once," he growled blackly. "Where is the key?"

Kira stared back defiantly, hoping that she was correct in her assumptions about the key's hiding place and knowing better than to dodge the question again. "It's in my bra." With a tone of pure bitch-slapping challenge, she added, "How much do you like your job, teacher man?"

From the look of rage on his face, he didn't like it all that much, and his fingers twitched for a moment as though it would be worth it, but he just barely managed to hold back and returned to screaming at her. "KIRA!" Tommy shook her violently. "I am not going to just let this go on without resolving anything now that—"

"Resolve it some time when Kim isn't crying her eyes out!" Kira snapped, knocking his hands off of her shoulders. "Will you listen to yourself? Do you really not understand why I'm not letting you through that door? You're acting like a lunatic. You ripped my socks off! If you go in there, it's just going to upset her even more. You want resolution? Then calm your ass down!"

Tommy leaned back, realizing she was right but not liking it in the slightest (and also realizing that Kira was now treating him as if he was Conner, so it was probably time to listen to her). It was just like a Yellow Ranger to spout off some incredibly good advice and annoy him, always so logical when he just wanted to go ahead and bash some brains in…

"Stupid FLORIDA!" Tommy bellowed, making Kira jump and back away. He kicked at the wall, ignoring the pain that shot through his unprotected toes (the sandals had been a bad idea after all). "Stupid Florida with its stupid Gulf and its stupid cities and itsstupid beaches and its stupid panhandle. Why do they even call it a panhandle? Florida looks nothing like a pan. More like a… a… butterfly net or some—"

Tommy utterly froze, forgetting to rant, forgetting to breathe. Suddenly he was far away, reliving the week right after Kimberly's letter had arrived, when Trini had appeared on his doorstep to comfort him.

"Trini… did you drive all the way here from Massachusetts?"

"Well, I made a quick stop first off in that state that kind of looks like a butterfly net, but yeah, that's pretty much what I did."

Tommy felt as if he'd just been smacked with a skyscraper. A butterfly net. A butterfly net! OF COURSE!

Understanding what he had to do, Tommy turned and marched off, leaving a confused Kira in his wake.

Trini had told him several times before that she'd be there for him if he ever wanted to talk. Right now, he had a hell of a lot to say.

Adam had just dropped Billy off and was once-again heading for the relative safety of Stone Canyon when his phone rang. He groaned and answered it. "Hello?"

"Mr. Park?"

"Yes, who's this?"

"This is Carrie Jeffries. I'm a reporter with the Sentinel. Jason told me I should talk to you…"

Adam sighed. Jason had filled them in about Carrie's research during breakfast that morning, how she'd uncovered who Rocky, Adam, Aisha, Tanya and Kat were. "About what?" he asked, glancing at Rocky, who was dozing in the passenger seat; their sleep last night hadn't been very fulfilling, and they'd had a long day. A long day that they'd thought was finally over.

"Well, he said you could elaborate on the incident with the chimpanzee at the Angel Grove Inn. He seemed to think it was related to the fire in the theatre—"

"You heard about that, huh."

"Of course. Jason might've gotten me into the features department, but I've had to earn it since then. Oh, and I was hoping you'd know something about the vandalism at the mall, too…"

Adam fought back a groan. "I wasn't there. Billy filled me in, though."

"I suppose you can also tell me just how you managed to return the monkey to the zoo when the parking lot was full of reporters and tourists?"

"With difficulty," Adam said dryly. "Listen, I'm burnt, I'm sticky, and I'm not wearing any pants."

"…Why are you telling me this?" Carrie asked carefully.

Adam smacked his forehead, realizing just how bad that had sounded. "Eh, my point is, can I call you back? In the morning, maybe?"

"Oh." She sighed. "I was hoping I'd have something tonight; I'm on a deadline. Jason said you owed him a favor, something about being in the theatre instead of dealing with the illegal monkey…"

Adam winced. He'd been concentrating on the guilt about setting Zack's butt on fire rather than the guilt about ditching the monkey search. Besides, they all kind of owed Carrie one; she knew, and she was keeping quiet, not to mention the fact that she was apparently willing to handle the mishap at the theatre for him. The least he could do was give her a story to tell. And, come to think of it, it might be nice to rant to someone. "All right. Look, let me take care of a few things, and then I'll call you back, okay?"

"Thank you, Mr. Park."

"Call me Adam," he replied, and hung up. He sighed again. Apparently the long night wasn't over. Great.

The moment Ethan and Trent had returned to their hotel room, it had finally hit home that Conner was no longer with them. No more snoring, no more sketch pads in the toilet, no more stolen toothpaste, no more cot for Ethan. No more chaos.

Ethan suggested they go straight to bed and actually get a good night's sleep for once, but Trent was reluctant to waste his Conner-free time. They spent about an hour vegetating separately, Trent sketching and Ethan playing computer games on his laptop, before turning on the TV and channel-surfing. Soon they were happily watching a really bad made-for-TV movie on HBO… until someone started pounding on the door.

"Guys!" Kira called. "Let me in, quick!"

"Aw, man, this never ends well," Ethan grumbled as Trent hopped up and went to the door.

Kira burst into the room the moment Trent opened the door and looked around in a panic. "Guys! I need your help!"

"With what?" Trent asked. He and Ethan moved to stand in front of her, forming a loose triangle, instinctively preparing to rally around her.

To Trent and Ethan's utter confusion, Kira began fishing around in her bra. The two guys exchanged looks, obviously asking each other what to do. Then Trent leaned over towards Ethan. "Don't think those thoughts," Trent hissed at him. Kira, thankfully absorbed in her search, didn't notice.

"What thoughts?" Ethan whispered back, as innocently as he could.

"Those thoughts." Trent gave him a glare of warning, then added, "Trust me, man—she'll hear you."

Ethan squeezed his eyes shut and screwed up his face as if trying to forcefully rewire his brain.

At last, Kira unearthed the electronic hotel key. Trent stared at her, wondering—as was Ethan, despite Trent's warning—exactly how often she kept important things in her bra. Kira looked around wildly, as though searching for something. Then, without warning, she yanked Ethan's shirt up and tossed the hem over his head, effectively blinding him, though this wasn't her primary goal.

Before Ethan could react, Kira closed her eyes firmly, turned her head away just in case, and pressed the card against his stomach. With her free hand, she pulled the front of his pants and briefs away from his skin and let the card drop.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Ethan yelled, flailing his arms; Trent was forced to duck. "Tell me Kira did not just drop a keycard in my underwear!"

"SHH!" Kira snapped. She stared earnestly from Trent to Ethan and back, despite the fact that only Trent could currently see her. She leaned in closer (both boys instinctively leaned away) and began whispering as quietly as she could. "Now, listen. Whatever happens, don't let Dr. O know you have the key."

"I don't want the key!" Ethan insisted, horrified.

"Ethan, you lose that key and I'll make you beg for death," she snarled. Ethan gulped audibly behind the shirt and Kira continued. "It looks like Dr. O's left the hotel, but he could be back. And it might occur to him to go to you, or it might not. Either way, you haven't seen me since we got back to the hotel, and you don't know what he's talking about if he mentions that key, understand? I'm going to try to sneak back into the room, and if I can't I'll have to hide somewhere."

"Kira, you know you're like a sister to me," Ethan said. "You know I'd do anything for you. But before you say another word, tell me why I have a keycard in my underwear."

"Because this way, even if he searches my bra, he'll never get to her," Kira whispered in serious tones, making the scene all the more ludicrous. "And he'll never think to look in your underwear. …Hopefully. Theoretically, anyway. Now, lock your door, turn off the TV, and don't open the door unless I knock the signal, okay?"

"The signal?" Trent repeated blankly.

She nodded. "The tune of 'Pop Goes the Weasel.' Good luck, guys—I'm counting on you!" With that, she darted out of the room.

Ethan put his hands on his hips and turned his shirt-covered head to Trent. "Trent?"

"Yeah?" Trent asked absently, staring after Kira and trying to puzzle out what was going on.

"Ever get the feeling that we're missing something?"

Zack's tryst with Harriet had quickly come to a rather unfortunate end. As the hotel was booked solid and he didn't have his own room and she lived with her parents and he lived in Los Angeles, she'd pulled him into the hotel's laundry room, taking him through a side door so that Jenny wouldn't notice he was in the employees-only area. They'd barely started making out when the police officer, Jarel, burst into the room. Somehow Zack and Harriet had both missed the fact that Steven was taking a nap on a bench in the corner, dressed in a borrowed bellhop uniform. Steven and Jarel had started arguing—Steven saying he couldn't go anywhere until he was absolutely sure his uniform shirt wasn't stained with orange streaks and Jarel saying that Steven was going to get them both fired and if they didn't go back to the station they couldn't punch out and go home. Zack had tried to slip inconspicuously out the door when Steven had spotted him and called out to him, forcing Zack to make a break for it, only to run into Jenny, who started screaming at him and throwing random office supplies and chasing him across the lobby. He'd managed to lose her in the stairwell after only nine floors and some mild bruising, but that was pretty much the end of Harriet; he doubted he'd be able to adequately explain why Steven recognized him or why he'd felt the need for a hasty exit when confronted with an irate pair of cops or why Jenny felt the need to throw things at him while insulting his friends. Besides, he should probably try to stay out of the lobby until after Jenny got off work tomorrow.

He was rather surprised when he reached his room and found the door wide open and Tommy gone, but he figured Tommy would turn up eventually, so he set about getting ready to go to sleep. He was just about to hop into bed when someone knocked urgently on the door.

Zack pulled it open to find a breathless, barefoot Kira in the hallway. He arched an eyebrow at her, looking her up and down; her jean shorts were badly twisted, the front pockets were inside-out, and only half of her bra seemed to be on properly, in addition to her flushed face, messy hair and heavy breathing. "Um… are you okay?" he asked, equal parts nervous, concerned and curious.

"Is Dr. O here?" Kira demanded.

"No, I—"

"Good. Don't tell him I ran through your room to use your balcony, okay?" she said, pushing past Zack and yanking open the balcony door. She pulled the curtains closed before shutting the door firmly.

Zack frowned. What was that all about? Wasn't Kira supposed to be one of the sane ones?

Zack shrugged and headed for Ethan and Trent's room, figuring they'd know what was going on. He found their door shut and locked; he rapped out a cheery tune on the door. After a long moment, it was opened by Ethan.

"Hey," Zack said cheerfully. "What's up with Kira?"

Ethan gave Zack a suspicious look. "Are you in on the plan?"

"What plan?" Zack asked, even more confused.

"Ethan! I'mtelling you, that's not 'Pop Goes the Weasel,' it's 'The Barney Song!'" came Trent's voice from the direction of the bathroom. Zack peered around the corner and thought he saw movement behind the shower curtain.

"It's 'This Old Man,' actually," Zack said slowly. "Want to tell me what's up with Kira?"

Ethan stared at him in a pathetic sort of way. "I have a keycard in my underwear," he said with a sigh, and closed and locked the door in Zack's face.

It suddenly occurred to Zack that this was one of those moments that only happened to people with extraordinary lives. People like him, and Tommy, and Jason and Trini and Kimberly and Billy and all the other Rangers. Zack had been downstairs barely an hour and in that short time he'd lost a hookup, avoided the cops and gotten nailed with a stapler by a disgruntled hotel employee. Tommy was gone, Kira was hiding on Zack's balcony, Trent was hiding in the shower and Ethan had a keycard in his underwear.

As such, there was only one thing Zack could do.

"I wonder if there's anything good in the vending machines," Zack said to himself, wandering off down the hall while methodically shutting off every remotely analytical part of his brain.

Conner was still planning and occasionally ranting to his new pets, which seemed really tired but wary of sleeping even if there was a nice safe cage between them and Conner's pockets now, when the doorbell went off. Conner could hear the shower still going—Billy mustreally miss Aquitar—and he figured Jason and Trini were either still having sex or asleep, so he got up to go answer the door.

"Hayley must drive fast," Conner muttered, checking his watch as he stepped into the hallway. It was only one in the morning; she was an hour early.

He'd just reached the family room when the door flew open and hit the opposite wall with a thundering crash, the frame around the doorknob splintering. Conner automatically dropped into a fighting stance, then straightened up when he saw who had kicked the door open—Tommy.

Conner glowered at him indignantly. "Dude, I was going to answer it."

Tommy didn't answer him. It was then that Conner realized something was wrong. Tommy's face was a blank mask, his fists were clenched—but it was the aura that set Conner's instincts to shouting at him to run, the vibes of dangerousness and determination that were coming off Conner's science teacher in waves.

Tommy started towards him. Conner leaped to his right, into the family room where his back was against a nice safe wall, trying to figure out what was going on… did Dr. O know about The Plan? Had he come to try and stop Conner from putting The Plan into action?

The dog whimpered from the couch. Conner glanced at him, and when he looked back Dr. O was gone; Conner peeked around the corner and found that Tommy was stomping down the hallway. Conner didn't know what to do or say; he had no idea what had gotten into Dr. O. Tommy the dog came over to him, nuzzling Conner's hand with its massive head and letting out a quiet, questioning woof. Conner gave him an apologetic look. Then he heard the shower cut off and breathed a sigh of relief; hopefully Billy would hurry up and get dressed and come handle the scary side of Dr. O for him.

Tommy reached Jason and Trini's bedroom door. He put his hand on the knob and tried to turn it. It didn't budge.

Tommy backed up, shifting his weight to his left leg. Conner winced and covered his ears. One sharp kick, and the door burst open.

"What the hell?" Jason roared. Trini yelped. Conner could hear a thud, a crash and an "OW!" from inside the room as Tommy stepped through the former doorway.

"What was that?" Billy shouted from the bathroom.

"I need to talk to Trini," Tommy announced in an oddly calm tone.

"She's busy right now!" Jason told him indignantly.

"This can't wait," Tommy replied, still sounding utterly serene.

"Well, it's going to have to wait until I'm no longer naked!" Trini snapped. "What's gotten into you?"

"Kim," he explained. "Kim's gotten into me. And you said you'd be there for me if I ever needed to talk. Well, I want to talk."

"'Oh, Jason, you're just being paranoid!'" Jason mocked in a high voice. "'No one's trying to sabotage our relationship!' Sure, Trini. Sure."

The bathroom door opened and Billy came out, soaking wet with a towel around his waist. "What's going on?" he asked, glancing around in confusion.

"I am not leaving until I can talk to Trini," Tommy said calmly.

"Why is the front door kicked in?" Billy asked. "I left it unlocked for Hayley." He spotted Conner hiding behind the corner. Conner motioned to him urgently. Bewildered, Billy headed over to him, leaving a trail of wet footprints on the hardwood floors.

"Fine! Fine!" Trini growled. A moment later she stomped out of the bedroom, wrapped in a red sheet. Tommy followed her out of the room. "It's not like I was busy or anything. Let's talk about you and Kim! Again! Obviously you can't wait one more minute to settle something that happened eight years ago—"

"Trini!" Jason wailed plaintively from the bedroom. "Come back!"

"What's going on?" Billy whispered to Conner as Tommy followed Trini to the kitchen.

"I don't know. Dr. O's gone crazy. But…" Conner stopped. Duh. The Plan! This was a perfect time to implement it!

"Billy, listen to me," Conner said intently. He grabbed Billy's shoulders, then immediately wished he hadn't. He wiped the water off on his pajama pants and continued. "It's very important that you do exactly what I tell you. I don't have time to explain, but I will later. I mean it, Billy—this is a matter of life and death."

"Okay," Billy said solemnly, unnerved by Conner's seriousness. "What do you need me to do?"

"First, go put some clothes on. Then meet me in the guestroom." Billy nodded and hurried back to the bathroom. Conner dove back into the guestroom and pulled open the bottom dresser drawer, where he'd put all his clothing. After a moment of rummaging, he found what he was looking for—the fuzzy red handcuffs Trent and Ethan had used to chain him to the bench at the mall.

He poked carefully at his communicator, making sure he was only contacting Ethan and Trent and not Dr. O, Kira or Hayley. "Yeah?" came Trent's voice. There was a slight echo, as if he was sitting in an empty bathtub.

"Kira?" Ethan asked hopefully.

"No, it's Conner. Operation Get Dr. O Laid is back on schedule!"

"When did we start calling it that?" Ethan asked.

"We didn't," Trent told him dryly. "Look, Conner, we're a little busy right now. Something weird happened with Kira and—"

"Guys, I'm serious. It's happening. Now. I need you to get Kim here; I've already got Dr. O."

"You completed Phase One?" Trent demanded incredulously.

"Yes," Conner lied. "And it's working perfectly so far. All I need now is Kimberly. Talk to Kira; she can probably get Kim to come by. Are you with me?"

There was a moment of silence. Then a reluctant, "We're with you," from Ethan.

"Good. Hurry." Conner tiptoed to the door and back into the hallway. Tommy was ranting about Kimberly; Trini was kneeling on the floor with a screwdriver and hammer, repairing the door while she listened. Conner could hear Jason muttering darkly from inside the bedroom.

As stealthily as he could, Conner slipped into the family room and headed for a shelf full of dolls. Trini had mentioned earlier that an antique troll named Mr. Ticklesneezer was her favorite doll, and after searching half the house for the key he'd thought to check underneath Ticklesneezer. Scooping up the key and carefully replacing him, Conner darted around the splintered wood all over the floor and dashed down the steps to the basement. He jammed the key in the lock on the Secret Chamber; sure enough, it opened.

"Yes," he hissed, pulling the door wide open and running back across the basement and up the stairs, tucking the key in his pocket as he went. Trini was now replacing the doorknob on her bedroom door while Tommy went on and on about blame and Florida.

Conner dove into the guestroom before either of them could spot him. Billy was already there, dressed in his new clothes and toweling off his hair. "What's going on?" he asked Conner nervously.

Conner took a deep breath. "Are you ready to embark on the most dangerous, most important mission you've ever embarked upon?"

Billy stared at him. Then he sighed. "Oh, great."

Kira breathed yet another sigh of relief as she landed safely on balcony number seven. Only three more to go.

"How does Dr. O do this every three minutes?" Kira grumbled to herself. She'd never been afraid of heights, especially not after becoming the Yellow Dino Ranger. This, however, was a bit much; it had taken her nearly a half-hour to get this far. She was acutely aware of the fact that she couldn't just yell "Dino Thunder, Power Up!" and if she fell. Maybe that's why Tommy and Zack hadn't had any issues—they still had their powers.

Kira glanced down at the pool patio far below her, feeling a pang of wistfulness for the days when she wouldn't have thought twice about leaping from one sixth-floor balcony to the next. It had felt so amazing to go flying in her zord—or standing on top of it. It wasn't just beautiful and thrilling, it had made her feel alive.

Come on, she told herself. Don't go feeling sorry for yourself; you've still got Kimberly to deal with.

She sighed and hopped to the next balcony, clutching at the railing as she landed. God, this sucked.

Kira was just about to hop to the next balcony when her communicator beeped, startling her so badly she yelped. She covered her mouth with her hand, glancing suspiciously at the balcony door next to her. Then she glowered down at the communicator. The damned thing never did have good timing…

For just a moment, she considered not answering it. It was probably Dr. O, and she was still mad at him, not only for making Kimberly cry but for giving Kira the bright idea to follow in his footsteps and go balcony-hopping… but maybe he was calling to apologize. Maybe he wanted to make it up to Kimberly. Regardless, she couldn't not answer it; no self-respecting Ranger could ignore their communicator's call.

She raised it to her mouth. "Hello?" she whispered.

"Kira?"

"Trent?" she asked, startled. Her eyes widened in horror. "Oh, no, did he find the keycard?"

"No, no, forget about that. Kira, something's come up. We need you to get Kimberly to Jason and Trini's house."

"What? Why?"

"We can't explain right now," came Ethan's voice. "Just trust us, okay?"

Kira's eyes narrowed. "Guys, look, whatever psychotic nonsense you're planning, save it, okay? Kimberly's had a rough day, and—"

"Kira," Trent interrupted. "I know it's asking a lot. But it's important, okay? Please, just… I know we've done some stupid things lately. I know you're looking out for her. But we're your friends, Kira—your team."

Kira sighed. "So help me, if you guys are planning some harebrained scheme—"

"We're not. Just… listen to us, okay?"

"I didn't ask questions when you threw a keycard in my underwear," Ethan pointed out.

Kira bit her lip. That was a good point. "Okay, I'll do it. But you better not be planning something stupid."

"We're not. And hey, if she's having a rough day, seeing Trini should help, right?"

Kira thought this over. "True. All right. I gotta go; it's weird enough I'm standing on someone else's balcony—probably shouldn't be talking to my bracelet, too. Later, guys."

Kira dropped her arm, got a running start, and leaped for the next balcony, already planning how she was going to get Kimberly to Jason and Trini's house… and praying the guys knew what they were doing.