Author's Notes: Sorry this has been taking so long. We actually write ahead a little, and we've finally crossed over into the realm of ideas we outlined three years ago and are now in the process of ripping to shreds due to story shift… or maybe we were just stalling because it's kind of unnerving to realize you've ACTUALLY written a hundred-chapter fic. Whatever. On with the show!

Chapter Ninety-seven

Wild West Rangers

Kira stared morosely at the hideous blouses surrounding her, trying to remember why she had thought hiding in clothing racks was fun as a kid. She'd always had a thing for places one could hide—and as a small, skinny child she hadn't had much trouble finding such places. Something about curling up in a secret spot had always made her feel safe and protected… but things change.

She wasn't that person anymore, the girl who hid from the world and avoided trouble, who needed only a stereo, a guitar, and a notebook to scrawl down song lyrics to keep herself happy. Powers or not, she was a fighter now. She wasn't used to running from conflict anymore, and doing so made her feel worse rather than better.

Still, it probably wouldn't be that bad if she wasn't alone. Yes, Zack was around here somewhere, but the fact that he'd asked her to hide, no matter how smart it was, made her feel oddly small. Just like the civilians must have felt when she'd rescued them from a monster attack and told them to run. Or had they felt relieved? Safer, once the big strong hero had arrived to save the day?

Regardless, she was starting to realize just how much she relied on the guys in a crisis situation. Dr. O's wisdom and experience, and the way he treated monster attacks like nuisances rather than life-or-death situations… it made her feel like they could tackle anything. Trent was always so calm and understanding, Ethan was always so funny and honest… even Conner's presence was reassuring somehow, because despite how ditsy he could be at times, no matter how crazy or difficult or scary things got, Conner kept going. If he was the one sitting in a clothing rack, he'd already have a plan—albeit a psychotic one that no sane person would actually try—to get himself out of this.

Kira's eyes narrowed. She might not have her friends or her powers, but she was still a fighter. What was she doing hiding in a clothing rack? She was better than this. She was stronger than this. She was going to survive.

Carefully she parted the shirts in front of her, glancing around for inspiration. Directly across from the clothing was the health and beauty section.

Suddenly everything clicked into place. She knew how to get out of here. Granted, she wasn't sure what they were going to do when that Steven guy tracked down Zack, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

Pulling out her cell phone, Kira pulled up Zack's number and hit send. "Zack? It's me. I've got a plan."

"I hate this city," Jarel said vehemently as the probably-Zack-Taylor guy careened around another corner.

"Save your breath for pedaling," Steven told him. He was glowering determinedly at Zack's retreating figure. Jarel had never seen him look so dead-set on anything.

Jarel, however, could care less if they caught the guy. He just wanted to go home. They'd both been awake for over twenty hours and they had only agreed to stay for a triple shift in the first place because they'd been assured that pulling a triple would get them third shift tomorrow and off-duty for Power Rangers Day, which was bound to suck for those who had to keep order even if everything went miraculously smoothly. Supposedly Angel Grove didn't have enough of a night life to make the graveyard shift exciting anyway—but that didn't really matter when people went to Wal-Mart and made their own fun with chainsaws and bicycles.

Personally, Jarel wasn't even sure what the point was. He had a nicely developed work ethic, but he needed sleep or coffee very soon if he was going to make it to eight a.m. and the guy hadn't done anything wrong but act suspicious. The last time they'd tried chasing down somewhat-suspicious characters had been the guys with the shovels at the park, and that had gotten them nothing but Steven thrown in a creek, and he'd already fallen in a swimming pool once today. This wasn't even their town and plenty of people owned chainsaws and if Jarel had wanted to be a bicycle cop he damned well would've applied for the job.

"Can't we just shoot him?" Jarel whined. Steven shook his head tersely and didn't reply. Jarel sighed. "What is it with you and this Zack Taylor guy?" he demanded.

Steven shook his head. "It's not about him."

"Then what's it about?"

"What every Angel Grove citizen wants out of life."

"Which is?"

"A reason for the madness."

"…Isn't that the point of madness? That it doesn't have reason?"

Steven glared at him. "Shut up."

They burst out of an aisle and skidded to a halt. Zack was parked roughly twenty feet away, looking back at them expectantly.

"Oh, good. He's surrendering," Jarel said, relieved.

"Climb off the bike and get your hands in the air!" Steven commanded.

Zack grinned. Then he began pedaling down the aisle between the health and beauty section and the women's clothing.

"Damn," Jarel groaned as he and Steven wearily followed.

They picked up speed as they rounded the corner. Zack wasn't going too fast, and they started gaining on him. Soon he was only ten feet in front of them. Then five. Then three.

"NOW!" someone shouted, and suddenly Zack flipped himself off his bicycle, flying over the handlebars and landing safely several feet away. He'd twisted the handlebars as he went, forcing the now-unmanned bike into Steven's path.

Jarel kept going determinedly even as Steven crashed into a center display of Nilla Wafers. It only took him a moment to realize that something was wrong. Zack was just standing there, grinning, waiting for… what?

Jared found out a split-second later when he crashed into several nearly-invisible strands of dental floss strung across his path. They caught him just below the collar bone, snapping him back while his momentum tore the bike out from under him. He landed flat on his back with a muttered curse, grimacing from the pain of his impromptu landing and the bright florescent light now glaring directly into his eyes.

He lifted his head just in time to see Zack snatch Jarel's bicycle and fling his leg over it like a cowboy mounting a horse, grinning like any good outlaw. The girl hopped on the handlebars, and Zack began to pedal for the front doors.

Jarel sighed. "I hate this city," he groaned, as Steven attempted to dig himself out of the avalanche of bright yellow cookie boxes.

"Great plan, Kira," Zack said as they biked towards the exit.

"Thank you," Kira said proudly, practically glowing. It felt amazing to contribute and execute a plan, even if it did mean two annoyed police officers were lying in a pile of Nilla Wafers somewhere. It was almost like having her Dino Powers again.

"All right, now we just have to worry about getting out of here. It's possible that's their car blocking the exit; if not, we'll have to run like hell to avoid backup. Don't go for the Escalade, and if we get caught, don't tell them your name."

"Not a problem," Kira said cheerfully, idly wondering if this was what it felt like to be Conner.

"OW!" Zack shouted. The bike swerved and Kira clutched at the handlebars for dear life. A moment later, the bike tipped dangerously to one side, and Kira was forced to leap off or fall. She went into a shoulder roll, popping back up to her feet as quickly as she could. By the time she did so, Zack had the bike back under control, and he skidded to a halt and waited for her.

Kira started to run to him, but a bright yellow box came out of nowhere, narrowly missing her head. She ducked back behind a shelf, then peered out from around it to see Steven stomping towards them, murder in his eyes. In one hand he held a box of Nilla Wafers; in the other, he held the sleeves of a blouse, which he was using as a makeshift harness to carry his ammunition.

As she watched he hurled the Nilla Wafer box at Zack's head, Frisbee-style. Zack ducked just in time, but before it had even reached him Steven was pulling another box out of the shirt. Zack blocked the second attack with his forearm, causing an explosion of Nilla Wafers.

"Kira! Come on!" Zack yelled.

Kira started to, but no sooner had she stepped out of hiding than the third box hit her full in the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. She shrank back, wincing.

"Run!" Kira shouted at him. "Save yourself!"

"Nuh-uh! I'm not leaving without you!"

Another box of Nilla Wafers soared towards Zack. This time he caught the box and flung it back at Steven. Steven caught it effortlessly and hurled it back at Zack. Zack caught it again, threw it to Steven, who threw it to Zack, who threw it to Steven, who—

"You have the right to remain silent."

Kira yelped. Jarel was standing behind her. Before she could blink, he had her by the arm, and he twisted it behind her back in the time it took her to process his arrival. Instinct told her to lash out, fight him off—but logic told her not to assault a police officer. Jarel continued to blandly read Kira her rights as he methodically handcuffed her behind her back.

"Run!" Kira shouted to Zack, who was still playing catch with the Nilla Wafers.

Zack didn't take his eyes off the Nilla Wafers box, and as such he'd yet to realize that she was being arrested. "I'm not gonna abandon you!" he shouted. "Tommy would kill me!"

"Yeah, if he ever gets out of the damned closet!" Kira retorted.

Jarel grabbed her by the bicep and marched her out into the aisle. Wordlessly he snatched the box out of the air mid-flight. Zack blinked, startled at the sight of Kira in handcuffs.

"Kira," he whispered, horrified. "OW!" he added, when Steven clocked him with a fresh box of Nilla Wafers. Several more boxes followed while Zack was trying to recover from the first hit, and as he threw Steven approached, until he was out of boxes and within tackling distance of Zack. "Tommy's gonna kill me," Zack said glumly as Steven cuffed him.

Kira started to glare at him, to yell at him, to berate him… but suddenly she couldn't. Suddenly Zack's pitiful expression and the pile of battered yellow boxes and the cookies strewn about in a ten-foot radius and the triumphant cop and everything else all just seemed… funny. For the first time in her life, Kira understood what it was that made Conner so damned cheerful all the time.

Perspective.

"Well, at least it isn't boring," Kira quipped as Jarel marched her out of Wal-Mart.

"Stop yawning," Adam told Rocky as the two of them reached the Wal-Mart parking lot. "You're a Zeo Ranger, for crying out loud."

"I'm a Zeo Ranger who's had very little sleep," Rocky shot back. "Tell me again why Zack has hostages at Wal-Mart?"

"I don't know why."

"It doesn't sound like something Zack would do."

"Are you forgetting his and Conner's last stand at the ring toss game?"

Rocky snickered. "Oh, yeah. That was cool."

Adam rolled his eyes behind his helmet. He and Rocky had ditched the car two blocks away, morphed, and begun the trek to Wal-Mart as inconspicuously as two Power Rangers could, which was fairly inconspicuous given the late hour, if one didn't count the three tourists who'd asked to take pictures (and were possibly following them, but they figured that wasn't too important as long as they kept their voices down).

"Now, remember the cover story."

"Uh-huh. Something about a chainsaw, right?"

Adam sighed. "Let me do the talking."

"Okay. Hey, isn't this something you could do yourself?"

"Could? Probably. Would? No. I'm not going anywhere near this mess without backup."

"Okay, but you owe me a cup of coffee when this is over."

They were still a few dozen yards from the entrance when they heard a woman's voice calling, "Hey. Adam."

Adam stopped and glanced around before remembering he was in morph, so no one knew who he was. He started walking again, but the woman called out once more. "Adam! Over here. It's me. Carrie."

Adam jumped and finally spotted her, standing between two SUVs and waving urgently at them. He grabbed Rocky's arm, ducked between the two cars, and whispered, "Power down!"

"Power down," Rocky added sleepily, then grimaced as his bare feet touched the dirty pavement. Adam hadn't allowed him the time to get dressed properly, which was just as well, as Rocky had been slow to wake up and Adam's Zeonizer had somehow gotten buried amongst his luggage and they'd had to drive from Stone Canyon and neither of them had remembered how to find the Angel Grove Wal-Mart, so it had taken them nearly an hour to get to there as it was.

"Whoa," Carrie breathed, staring at them. "That's amazing."

"My pajamas?" Rocky asked blankly.

"No, that… that. What you just… powering down? It was… wow."

"Oh, yeah. Cool trick, huh?" Rocky said. "I'm Rocky, by the way."

"Carrie," she said distractedly, reaching out a finger to poke experimentally at Adam. "The suit just vanishes at will?"

"Carrie, we, um, we don't have a lot of time," Adam reminded her.

"Oh. Sorry. I just… figured it was like being Superman or whatever. You know, that you had to put the costume on or you wore it under your clothes or… something."

"Nah. Totally instant," Rocky said. "Good thing, too, eh? Don't see a lot of phone booths these days."

"We actually have to go rescue Zack and—" Adam began, but Carrie interrupted.

"I know. That's why I stopped you. You're too late."

"What?" Rocky demanded, instantly alert.

"They were caught. Arrested. You'll have to the police station now, but they probably won't be arraigned until morning…"

Rocky swore. Adam sighed. "Great. That's all the way across town. We'd better get going."

"You can ride with me if you want," Carrie said eagerly. "I'm headed that way anyway; need to get a few statements from the arresting officers."

"That'd be great, actually," Adam said.

Rocky nodded. "Keep us from having to ditch the Mercedes somewhere and find a place to morph downtown."

"Morph. Right," Carrie said, still looking a bit spellbound. "Come on. My car's this way."

"Better call Jason," Adam said. "He'll want to know what's going on."

"Oh, great," Jason grumbled as Adam completed his update. "More good news. All right, thanks, man."

"What's up?" Hayley asked as Jason hung up the phone.

"Zack and Kira have been arrested. Adam and Rocky are on their way downtown with Carrie to—"

"Carrie?" Trini interrupted, frowning.

"Yeah, she was covering the 'Wal-Mart Hostage Situation,' as Adam called it. Hopefully it won't be a big story by tomorrow, what with Power Rangers Day on the way and everything…"

"I wonder what we'll do if we can't get them out by Saturday," Conner mused, looking thoughtfully at the door.

"Shut up, Conner," Trini said wearily. "I'm sure we'll have them out by then."

"Yes. We will."

They turned towards the stairs. A disgruntled Trent stood on the landing, glaring at them.

"I had a dog once," Trent announced. "His name was Hezekiah."

"Hezekiah?" Conner repeated incredulously.

Trent ignored him. "See, like Tommy, he was a smart dog. A bit eccentric, you might say. And he had heartworms."

"What's your point?" Jason asked blankly.

Trent began descending the stairs. "My point is, he wouldn't take his pills. So the veterinarian told us to hide the pills in a bite of dog food. But Hezekiah was too smart for that. Hezekiah knew what was going on. Hezekiah wasn't about to be tricked."

Trent reached the bottom of the stairs and began stalking purposefully across the basement. "So every time we slipped a heartworm pill into his food, he would somehow figure out which bite had the pill in it. He'd dig that bite out of the mushy dog food and push it out of the dish and keep on eating. Only it took us a while to figure this out, because when he ate? His dish would slide across the linoleum a bit. And it would slide right over that pill. We wouldn't figure it out until the next morning, when we picked up the dish and found the pill underneath."

They stared at him as he came to a stop in front of Jason, Trini, Billy, Hayley, Ethan and Conner, all of whom looked rather blank. "So, um… how'd you get him to take the pill?" Ethan asked slowly.

"Simple. He liked cheese slices. We rolled it up in a slice of cheese and tossed it to him like a dog treat."

"Uh… huh," Jason said, bewildered. He was starting to wonder if Trent had finally cracked.

"But that's not the point."

"What is the point?" Trini asked impatiently.

"The point is," Trent said, holding out his fist, "Tommy struck me as a smart dog. A smart, weird dog who'd know better than to eat a key hidden in his dog food." He opened his fist. The silver key lay in his palm, shining quite brightly thanks to a thorough wash in the sink. Trent smiled triumphantly. "It was under his dish the whole time!"

Trini smacked her forehead. "Of course! He always pushes the vegetables out of his dish when we try and feed him the healthy dog food. I can't believe we didn't check under the dish!"

"I assumed Zack did," Jason said, shaking his head. "But Zack hasn't had a pet since his iguana escaped; it's not the sort of thing that would occur to him."

"So we can open the door now!" Hayley exclaimed in relief. No one moved. She glanced around. "What are you waiting for?"

"The security features," Trini explained. "It'll be twelve hours before they're inactive again. It was… what? One in the morning when you threw them in there, Conner?"

"Yeah."

"But the security features didn't go off until after they were both in there," Ethan said. "It was right after Hayley got here."

"About two, two-thirty," Hayley said with a sigh. "So… they're stuck in there until then."

Trini nodded. "And the only way to deactivate them is to hack into the computer in there, which—"

"No, it isn't," Billy said suddenly. "Trini—my idea about linking up the Aqua-phones. Using them to bypass the voice-recognition login feature."

"I told you, Billy, without a gariska-na—"

"We don't need a gariska-na!"

Trini stared at him in shock for a moment as realization dawned. Then, slowly, she approached the Secret Chamber.

"Guys?"

"What?" Tommy called listlessly. Kimberly only snuffled in response.

"I've got good news and bad news."

"Do you have to give us both?" Tommy asked.

Trini ignored him. "The good news is, we've found the key. It wasn't in the dog after all. The bad news is, the security features won't reset until maybe two in the afternoon."

Tommy sighed heavily. "It's, what, five in the morning by now?"

"Four thirty-six," Ethan called.

"Oh, good. Only nine and a half more hours to go," Tommy said sarcastically. Kimberly let out a sob.

"Here's the thing. There's one small, small chance we can get you out of there before then."

"Yeah?" Tommy said, not daring to hope. "What's that?"

"Tommy… does one of you have a communicator?"