Chapter Ninety-four

House of Cards

Half an hour later, the gang was still at a loss to come up with anything useful. Tommy and Kimberly had been completely silent the whole time as Jason, Trini, Zack, Billy, Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent brainstormed.

Their only accomplishment was to achieve a certain level of organization. Jason went to the garage to fetch every tool Jason and Trini owned. Trini brought down a large dry-erase board from her study and a handful of markers, which she used to list the Secret Chamber's numerous security features and any semi-plausible ideas that struck them. Zack put the dog in the backyard so that it wouldn't escape out the broken front door. Billy dug Jason and Trini's spare Aqua-phone out of their bedroom closet—he had sent one to each of them, before Jason and Trini married—and attempted to link up with the Aqua-phone in the closet, though he had only marginal success.

"Are you sure you don't have the gariska-na for this?" Billy asked with a sigh as he toyed with the Aquitian version of a keyboard attached to the Aqua-phone's base.

"I told you, I gave it to Zack when his broke," Trini replied. "It'd be four hours before he could drive all the way to L.A. and get back here with it, and I'd rather have him here, in case we need him, especially since the Aqua-phone is a long shot, anyway."

"What do we need it for?" Ethan asked, examining the Aqua-phone with interest.

Billy sighed again. "Trini tells me the Chamber's defenses are tied to the computer in the Chamber. We can't disable those defenses from out here."

"I thought you said they were all mechanical, not electronic," Ethan said, looking up at Trini.

"The way they function is mechanical, for the most part," she replied. "However, the computer controls whether or not they're active. It's a failsafe to keep myself from getting locked into the Secret Chamber. From that computer, I can deactivate them, which means it would only be extremely difficult to get the door open, as opposed to insanely hard."

"Can't Dr. O deactivate them, then?" Kira asked. "He's not bad with computers."

Trini shook her head. "The login feature uses voice recognition. Only Jason or I would be able to access anything on that computer."

"Can't we hack into the computer from another?" Ethan asked eagerly. "I'm pretty good at—"

"Trust me—it's not possible," Trini interrupted. "I don't doubt you're a good hacker, Ethan, but that isn't just any computer. It's one of the most advanced on the planet, thanks to Power Ranger technology."

"So what is Billy doing with the Aqua-phone?" Trent asked.

"I'm attempting to connect with the Aqua-phone in the Secret Chamber," Billy explained. "If I can manage to link it to the Aqua-phone in the closet, there's a chance we can create a two-way communication device to allow for bypass of the voice-recognition feature, allowing Tommy to logon to the computer and possibly find a way to bypass the security features." He sighed. "But I suppose it doesn't matter. Linking up from phone to phone would take half a dozen hours at the least; the devices are designed for off-planet communication with Aquitar, not for communicating to others in possession of a phone, and I can't do much without a gariska-na."

"What's that?" Conner asked.

"Loosely translated—something Earth hasn't invented yet," Billy responded distractedly. "What about Rocky? He could be here within a half-hour, couldn't he?"

"He doesn't have a… a garis… whatever either," Jason told him. "His broke not long after Zack's. He usually just uses ours or Adam's."

"Why didn't someone tell me? I could have had a few more shipped down here," Billy complained.

"Billy, it took me seven hours to install that gariska-na in Zack's Aqua-phone," Trini reminded him. "Besides, it didn't seem to be much of an issue. Rocky had easy access to ours and Adam's, and Zack had our spare. Didn't you say the Aqua-phones were difficult to make, anyway?"

Billy nodded, wincing. "Very. But I'm sure I could get more—has anyone else's broken?"

"Aisha's. Since Tanya and Adam live together, Tanya gave Aisha their spare," Jason replied. "Aisha's broke ages ago."

Trini sighed. "Regardless, let's move on. We can't login to the computer from out here, or hack into it. It'd take four or five hours to get a working Aqua-phone and another five or six hours minimum to link the two and we're not even sure it'd work."

"So we should move past the idea of bypassing the electronic stuff and work on popping the door," Jason said.

"Which isn't easy," Trini added grimly.

"We can't just, you know, call a locksmith?" Kira asked.

"I doubt a locksmith could manage it," Trini told her.

"But anything's worth a shot, right?" Kira insisted. "We find a locksmith, and—"

"In the middle of the night? Probably not the best idea," Zack said. "Especially not for a door that leads to a room containing Power Ranger artifacts."

"Especially not when the average suburban home doesn't usually have a door designed like Fort Knox," Jason agreed. "This is Angel Grove. People wonder."

"We could always kill them afterwards," Conner said thoughtfully.

"No more plans from you," Kira growled, glaring at him.

"Anyone know how to pick a lock?" Ethan joked.

"I could take a crack at it," Trent said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. Trent pretended not to notice.

"Attempts to pick the lock could trigger the lock-down, couldn't they?" Billy asked.

Trini nodded. "It's too risky. I selected, installed and modified this whole system, and I wouldn't even try to pick the lock."

"You know how to pick locks?" Kira asked, frowning.

"Oh, of course. When other little kids were playing Cops and Robbers, Billy and I were playing The Difference between Standard Cylinder, Pin-and-tumbler, Wafer-tumbler, and Tubular Locks and the Most Effective Tension Wrenches Capable of Bypassing Each Respective Lock."

"I miss that game," Billy said wistfully. "Remember when we locked ourselves in the elementary-school library just to see if we could escape?"

Trini smiled, nodding. "Good thing we brought snacks."

"And you guys say I was a weird kid?" Zack said, shaking his head. "At least Play-Doh eating isn't training for a career as a cat-burglar."

"Hey, Trini?" Tommy called.

"Yeah?"

"Where's the light switch in here?" Trini started to reply, but Tommy interrupted with an, "OW! What the hell was that for?"

"You are not turning the light on! I'm not wearing a shirt!" Kimberly shouted.

"I don't care about that! I'm just sick of sitting here in the dark!"

"Yeah, right!"

"Hey, at least you're in a closet in your friends' house! I had to go down to the front desk in my underwear!"

"That's what you get for eavesdropping on me!"

"Oh, great," Trini said wearily. "Now they're going to argue about every stupid thing they've done to each other this week."

"And then they'll probably start in on the 90s," Zack added.

"Back to getting them out," Jason said. "We can't pick the lock, and we can't shut off the security measures. So…"

"We could blast the door open," Zack suggested. "You, me and Trini still have our Power Coins."

Billy shook his head. "Your powers are not as strong without the Command Center's ties to the morphing grid, and from what I recall of the Blade Blaster's abilities, they would probably be unable to penetrate the door. We would succeed only in triggering the defense systems and making the task more difficult. The Power Blaster, perhaps, but not the Blade Blaster, and without fully-functional Pink and Blue Power Coins, it cannot be assembled. Perhaps if we placed a flammable substance in front of the door and fired with a Blade Blaster…"

"That could burn the house down," Trini interrupted, shaking her head. "It's far too risky—and even if we managed to get the door open we could seriously injure Tommy and Kimberly."

"OW!"

"Quit it!"

"No!"

"Get off me!"

"Not until you stop struggling! OW!"

"OW!"

"Something tells me seriously injuring them is kind of a stupid thing to be concerned about at this point," Zack quipped.

Hayley groaned as Jason and Trini's house came into view. Though it was almost two in the morning, half the lights in the house were on, including the porch light, and the front door stood ajar. Worse, however, was Tommy's Jeep parked haphazardly in the front lawn, and the mailbox was leaning slightly to one side, as though the Jeep had clipped it on its way over the curb. A blue Mustang was also parked on the lawn, the driver's side door wide open. Hayley ran through a mental list of the cars owned by those friends of Jason and Trini that Hayley had met, and failed to recall anyone owning a Mustang. Great—that meant it was probably Kimberly's.

She parked in the driveway behind Zack's Escalade, her spirits sinking a little further after noting the fact that his vehicle was parked just fine. Hayley knew Tommy's Ranger pals well enough to know that if Zack was the only one to do something normally—even something as mundane as park his car—it was a sign that something unpleasant was happening.

Hayley climbed out of the car, leaving her bags behind, and went to inspect the Mustang. The pink interior and fuzzy pink dice hanging from the rearview mirror backed up her suspicions regarding the car's ownership. Hayley checked to make sure the keys weren't in the ignition, then shut the door, figuring that being locked out was better than a dead battery. She had an errant thought that Kimberly probably didn't deserve any such favors, but she forced herself to reserve judgment. She had come to value the opinions of Jason, Trini and the other Rangers, all of whom held Kimberly in high regard, and the only blemish on Kimberly's record that Hayley knew of was the fact that Kimberly had dumped Tommy, and it wasn't as if Hayley hadn't done the same, even if her reasons had been drastically different.

Skirting around the Mustang, Hayley made her way up onto the porch, stopping dead at the sight of the splintered doorjamb. Someone had broken the door down… but who? And why? Was someone hurt in the house? That would explain the cars parked on the lawn…

Hayley cautiously pushed the door open and peered inside, seeing no signs of life. Not for the first time, she wished she carried a weapon on her person—in fact, life as Tommy's best friend had made her wish this more often than she could count. Settling for the next best thing, Hayley pulled her cell phone from her shoulder bag and scrolled through the listings until she found the Angel Grove Police Department, an entry she'd never deleted after that hectic vacation that had ended in a sunken island and a frantic search for Tommy's drowned corpse. Keeping her thumb poised over the talk button, Hayley crept inside.

To her right, the basement door stood open; to her left, the family room was empty. Hayley moved down the hall, noticing that Jason and Trini's bedroom door was open. Further inspection revealed that it had been kicked in, also. No one was in the room, and the window was wide open. She frowned at the sight of the unmade bed and the clothing scattered on the floor—she knew that Trini liked things neat and orderly. So they'd gotten out of bed in a hurry—why? It didn't make sense. Why was the dresser at such an odd angle, too?

Hayley sighed and headed for the wall closest to the door, where several weapons hung on hooks. The swords were mostly Jason; Trini favored daggers and sais. Hayley didn't know how to properly use either, but she figured a carrying around a sharp object couldn't hurt. She lifted down one of the longer daggers, shifting her cell phone to her left hand, and went back to searching the house. Failing to find anyone, she sighed irritably and headed back towards the front door, at which point she heard shouting coming from the basement. She paused, listening for a moment. Kira's voice floated up to her and Hayley sighed in relief, recognizing the tone of one who was exasperated with Conner.

"Hello?" Hayley called, but no one answered her. Still, she could make out several other familiar voices, and figured she might as well head downstairs and hope for the best. She thought about leaving the dagger behind, but decided against it; years of friendship with Tommy had made Hayley a close personal friend of the random freak accidents that loved to attack him at every opportunity.

She paused on the landing and peered down into the basement. Trini, clad in an extremely baggy red T-shirt, was writing on a large dry-erase board while a blond man that Hayley presumed to be Billy sifted through a toolbox, an Aqua-phone on his lap. Kira, looking extremely disheveled, and Jason, wearing only jeans and a baleful expression, were taking turns berating Conner, who cringed apologetically before them, hands in the pockets of his pajama pants. Ethan, Trent and Zack—also in various sleepwear—were sitting in a line against the wall, talking in low voices. There was no sign of Tommy or Kimberly. A strong sense of foreboding filled Hayley; she was suddenly unable to shake the feeling that wherever Tommy was, he was at the very least not happy.

"What's going on?" she called as she came down the stairs. The others stared at her in surprise, as though they were too focused on their current problem to process her arrival. Hayley stepped off the last stair but did not release the dagger, the cell phone, or the stair railing as she looked suspiciously from one Ranger to the next.

"Hayley!" Kira cried in relief. "Oh, Hayley, it's terrible!"

"What's terrible?" Hayley started to ask, but before anyone could answer Conner came out of nowhere to fling his arms around her. Hayley, startled, dropped her cell phone and almost stabbed Conner on accident; she hastily set the dagger on the banister.

"Hayley!" Conner nearly sobbed. "We were just trying to help Dr. O get laid! I didn't think he'd eat the key! Now he's trapped forever and ever and we can't get him out and I'm so sorry!"

"What?" Hayley demanded, trying and failing to pry Conner's arms off of her. "He ate a key and now he's trapped where?"

"Am I glad to see you," Trini said, giving her a thin smile. "We're having a bad night."

"A really bad night," Jason said sourly. "Just when it was getting to be a good night."

"Does someone sane want to tell me what's going on?" Hayley asked as Kira and Trent hauled Conner off of her.

"We locked Dr. O and Kimberly in that closet over there and Conner fed the key to Tommy," Trent explained, now trying to push Conner away; apparently Conner just needed a hug and didn't care who it came from.

Hayley stared at him for a moment. "Somehow, it's still not processing."

"They got some half-baked idea to lock up Tommy and Kim in my closet," Jason clarified. "And they dragged Billy and Zack in on it, too."

"Why would anyone lock Tommy in a closet with Kimberly?" Hayley demanded.

"I don't know!" Jason growled in frustration. "I especially don't know why they'd do it here!"

"I'm sorry," Conner said, looking so pathetic that the Dino Rangers instantly rallied around him; even Kira's annoyance with him seemed to thaw.

"We wanted to help Dr. O work out his differences with Kimberly," Kira said meekly. Hayley gave her a disapproving look; Kira gulped and began to ramble. "They just had a fight, and Dr. O went totally berserk and I had to hide the key to Kim's hotel room in my bra and then he almost went after it! so I put it down Ethan's pants and then Conner convinced Ethan and Trent to steal Zack's car—"

"Stop, stop, stop," Hayley cut in quickly, holding up her hand. "I'm suddenly no longer interested in the back story."

"Point is," Trini said, "they locked Tommy in there with Kim and then gave Conner the task of hiding the key. And he put it in Tommy's—my dog Tommy's—leftover dog food."

"And it all makes sense from there," Hayley said with a sigh. "Well, no, not really sense, but… at least I'm not that confused anymore." She looked thoughtfully at the Secret Chamber's door, then glanced around at the assembled ex-Rangers. Here gaze landed on Billy. "You must be Billy," Hayley said, holding out her hand for him to shake. "Good to finally meet you in person."

"Likewise," Billy said, blushing slightly. "I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Don't we all," Jason muttered irritably.

Billy smiled apologetically in his direction. "Um… we're not sure how to get them out of there. We're working on it, though, and I'd love your input…"

Hayley raised her eyebrows, glancing at the dry-erase board, which was covered in Trini's neat, tiny handwriting. "Hmm." She shook her head as she skimmed the information. Ex-Rangers seemed to only have one way of dealing with a situation. Everything was a battle plan, from saving the world to going to the grocery store. "According to this, it doesn't look so good."

"At this point, I'm getting worried about the lack of food or water in there," Trini confessed ruefully. "This isn't going to be easy."

"I see." Hayley sighed and headed over to the door. "Tommy?" she called.

There was a moment of silence from within, then a tentative response of "Hayley?"

"Jesus, Tommy, I leave you alone for a week…" She shook her head, feeling the familiar rush of affection and exasperation that always came to her whenever Tommy did something bizarre and troublesome.

"It's not my fault! Hayley, what are you doing here?"

"I was invited, remember? Power Rangers Day is the day after tomorrow—"

"Hayley!" Tommy wailed in tones of immense relief. "It's you! Thank god! You'll get me out of here, right?"

Hayley paused. "Um… Tommy… if Billy and Trini can't get you out, what makes you think I can?"

There was a long, horrified pause. "But… but… but you're Hayley!"

"I have my limits, you know."

"But… but… Hay-ley…"

Hayley winced; it was never a good thing when Tommy reached that level of whining. "You know, Tommy, I'm so putting this in the video journal. Hell, I should write a book. Call it 'The Real Secret Lives of the Power Rangers.' It'd be a best seller. You, legendary superhero, stuck in a closet in the middle of the night."

"I believe the correct term is trapped. Focus, Hayley, would you? This wasn't fun from the beginning. It's been at least an hour."

"No, it hasn't, you big baby," said an unfamiliar voice, presumably Kimberly's.

"I was not talking to you," Tommy sniped, his tone turning acidic faster than Hayley would have thought possible. "I was talking to the person whose company I actually enjoy. OW! Hayley! Get me out of here!"

"You're the one with the magic powers!" Hayley shouted indignantly, bending down to inspect the keyhole. "Why don't you just bust on out?" Tommy didn't reply. Hayley straightened up, frowning. Hands on her hips, she glowered darkly through the door. "Tommy, where is your Zeonizer?"

Tommy took a deep breath and muttered, with obvious reluctance, "In my sock drawer."

"TOMMY! What have I told you about forgetting to take it with you?"

"I didn't think I was leaving the hotel!" he wailed. "And Adam's butt got set on fire! And—"

"You swore to me, after you finished explaining what that mental patient with the phonebook was doing in your apartment, that you would never leave your bedroom without your Zeonizer and a communicator on your person again!"

"It's been a really long time since I forgot it! I was upset and… and… I didn't mean to!"

"Tommy's getting yelled at," Kimberly said in a singsong voice.

"So help me, Kimberly," Tommy growled darkly, "I am going to find that light switch."

"I have half a mind to leave you in there to rot!" Hayley shouted. "I am sick and tired of pulling your feet out of kitchen sink drains and hosing frozen tomato sauce off your body and trying to de-fossilize you only for you to get yourself in some new bizarre situation! Maybe if I just let you stay in one you'll stop having more!"

"Not likely," Jason said with a snort, but Hayley ignored him.

"If you ever forget your Zeonizer again—"

"I'm sorry, okay? I really am. Hayley, please, scream at me all you want. I'll even let you hit me a bit. Just get me out of here."

Hayley huffed angrily and glared blackly at the door. "This is the last time, Tommy—I mean it. Just once I want to be the rescued one, do you hear me? Just once!"

Tommy muttered something in an apologetic tone as Hayley turned away to look at the others. "Don't you lot still have powers?" she asked Trini. "Couldn't you break the door down?"

"If it was a real door, yeah," Jason groused.

"The entire right side of the door is reinforced," Trini replied. "And any heavy blows or attempts to pick the lock will activate the security features."

"Meaning what, specifically?" Hayley asked.

"Meaning on either side of the door the walls are concealing metal panels five feet long and three inches thick. Any attempts to pick the lock will cause six rods to shoot out from the panel on the right, through strategic locations in the door and hook into slots in the opposite plate, so that even if one vaporized every splinter of wood in that door there would still be bars in place with less than a foot gap between them."

"Whoa." Hayley stared at her in astonishment. "You're good."

"Thanks," Trini said with a smile. "You know, when we get them out of there, I'd love to show you some of the modifications. In particular the sensors I use to detect forced entry—"

"Yes, the door is very cool," Tommy called irritably. "Now can we get me out of here?"

"Tommy, chill," Kimberly said. "We'll get out of here."

"Yeah, well, sometime this century would be nice. I had more hope of escape when I was captured by Mesogog than I do right now—"

"Well, yeah, I'm sure you felt confident when there was a Black Dino Gem staring you in the face—"

"Don't bring that up." Tommy cut across Kimberly with such a serious tone that Kimberly, taken aback, fell silent. After a moment, she tried again.

"I'm just saying…"

"Seriously, don't bring that up. I'm trying to repress."

"…Whatever."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, any one of us would have been proud to take up that stone."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would have. How long were you a Ranger?"

"Everyone told me to follow my freaking dream, okay? Including you. Jerk."

"So I'm a jerk for telling you to follow your dream?" Tommy bellowed.

"No, you're a jerk for trying to use it against me!"

"I'm not trying to use it against you! I'm trying to make a point!"

"Yeah, well, your point sucked!"

There was a moment of tense silence. Then a roar of "THAT'S IT!"

The sounds of a scuffle came through the door. "We've got to work faster," Billy said with a sigh. "It just keeps getting worse."

"Well, if you were trapped in a closet, you probably wouldn't be very calm, either," Hayley pointed out, sweeping a glare over the Dino Rangers, who promptly tried to look remorseful.

"I still don't see what we can do to get them out of there," Trini said with a sigh. "Perhaps if we could saw through the door without jarring it too terribly…"

"I think Tommy and Kimberly are going to jar the door pretty badly if this keeps up," Hayley remarked, startled at the ferocity the thuds from within the Chamber implied. "It sounds like they're fighting to the death in there."

"All bets are off in a Ranger-to-Ranger battle," Trent said. Everyone turned to look at him. "What?" he said defensively.

"They know to be careful of the door; hopefully they'll remember," Trini told Hayley. Then her eyes widened. "Oh, god, they're fighting to the death in there!"

"OW! OW!" Tommy confirmed.

"My computer!" Trini wailed, diving at the doorknob.

"You bit me!" Tommy shouted, incensed.

"Hey, maybe it's starting to work again!" Conner exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at him. He sighed. "Or not."

"That's what you get!" There was a pause. "When was the last time you showered?"

"Hey, don't even go there! I shower! I shower plenty!"

"Apparently not with soap."

"Well maybe not with your flower-scented crap that stank up our bathroom like nothing else!"

"Your bathroom smelled like a barn! I was just trying to help!"

"Well I don't need my bathroom to smell like a perfume store exploded!"

"You don't need it to smell like manure, either!"

"It doesn't smell like that!"

"This is a very interesting fight," Ethan said. Everyone looked at him. "What? It is."

"And anyway, even if it did smell bad, it's Zack's fault!"

"Hey!" Zack complained. Then he paused, now on the receiving end of everyone's odd looks. "All right, that's fair."

Kimberly was silent for a moment, and suddenly Tommy shouted, "HA! Got you with that one, didn't I?"

"Shut up! And no, you didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"No you didn't!"

"I did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"OW! See, every time I get you, you always resort to violence!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" Tommy bellowed.

"Oh, like that's really gonna help!" Kimberly snorted.

"You could try doing something useful, for once!"

"Like what? Screaming and distracting everyone who's trying to concentrate?"

"Look," Jason said, "the way I see it, we only have two options at this point. We can either leave them in there until the dog passes the key—and who knows how long that will take—or we can pick the lock and hope for the best."

"I told you, I'm not comfortable trying," Trini said. "It could trigger the security system."

"Yeah, it could, but they reset after—what, seven or eight hours?"

"Twelve."

"So at the worst, we'd just have to wait for them to reset and make another attempt when they did," Billy said thoughtfully.

"There's no way to shut them off from out here?" Hayley asked.

Trini shook her head. "Why should there be? They only activate if someone tries to force their way in. I never anticipated needing to do that, and if I'd put the deactivation system outside the chamber, then anyone trying to get in could do it, and anyone trying to get out couldn't." A little defensively, she added, "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"I think it's worth the risk," Billy said. "Twelve hours would give us more time to theorize, anyway, and the veterinarian's office should be open by then."

Trini sighed. "All right. Do you want to do the honors, Billy, or shall I?"

"You," Billy said. "I haven't picked a conventional lock in years, being on Aquitar—the lock at the hotel required a keycard."

Trini dug a set of picks—kept around for emergencies, honest—from her toolbox and headed for the door. "It'll be a shame to do this," she said as she knelt before the doorknob. "I know it's necessary, but I worked so hard to make this system foolproof, and I've damned near succeeded, if I do say so myself—"

"If I hear one more word about how cool that door is, I'm going to beat you all to death!" Tommy bellowed.

"Jeez, you'd think he'd never been kidnapped before," Zack muttered.

"OW! What the hell are you doing?" Tommy shouted.

"You stole my shirt, I steal yours!" Kimberly declared.

"Let go! They're both mine!"

"Not anymore they're not!"

Trini selected a long, thin metal bar and carefully inserted it into the lock. "Hold your breath," she muttered to the group clustered behind her. She took a shaky breath and began to twist the pick… just as something heavy crashed into the door.

"OW!" Tommy complained.

"HA!" Kimberly shouted.

"NO!" Trini yelled.

There was a deafening grinding noise and a thunderous CLUNG that sounded utterly final.