“Hey!” a usually
gentle voice called out indignantly.
All the former Rangers, except for the still entranced couple, turned to
look guiltily at Tommy’s actual girlfriend.
Kat gaped at the sight before her, fury working its way up. Trini flushed and grabbed Jason’s hand,
suddenly realizing two very important things… she just precipitated events that
led to Tommy cheating on his girlfriend and, more importantly, she couldn’t
seem to scare up an ounce of remorse.
One look at Jason confirmed that he shared both those sentiments. Her arm snaked around his waist and she hid
her burning face in his shoulder. Jason
flexed his fingers, realizing that with both of the so-called guilty parties
barely aware of the outside world, it fell on him to explain the situation –
but goddamn it, he didn’t want to. He
glanced back at Zack and Billy, leaning on the wall and wearing identical
expressions of denial. He turned his
face to kiss the top of Trini’s head and nudged Tanya who grinned and nudged
Rocky, who shook his head and nudged Adam, who blinked and tugged on Aisha’s
hand. She sighed, realizing that all
her friends were yellow bellied cowards, and crouched next to Kat’s chair.
“Kat, you know
this was inevitable,” her words flowed gently over the stiff and enraged girl.
“Bullshit,” Kat
lunged to her feet, Aisha quickly mirroring her move. “He could have stayed faithful.”
Something dark entered her voice and she slammed a hand into the former
Yellow Ranger’s shoulder, shoving her out of the way almost brutally. Aisha stumbled back and reached for the slim
blonde but was too late to prevent her fist from slamming into the side of
Kim’s head. The tiny brunette’s eyes
widened as her head snapped back and she lurched in Tommy’s arms. Tommy spun around, with his back to Kat,
disallowing her any more access to her rival.
The others froze with shock, never expecting the sweet wonderful Kat
they thought they knew to react like this.
“Are you nuts,
girl?” Tanya stood up and faced the young woman she thought was her best
friend. She stalked over and grabbed
her by the shoulders, shaking her roughly.
Kat moved quickly, one moment, held down by her friend’s able hands, the
next, staring down at Tanya, who was rubbing her stricken wrists. She turned to face her straying boyfriend
and found a small but very capable fist flying into her cheekbone. Crack.
She staggered back with her hands pressed to her face. Tommy grabbed Kim from behind, hugging her
to him, in an effort to prevent further violence. She struggled against him but the size difference prevented any
actual rewards to her efforts. It
turned out a bad idea in the end as Kat’s heel slammed smoothly into Kim’s
stomach. Tommy could only watch in
horror as the love of his life bent over in pain. Jason locked gazes with Zack and gently removed Trini off his
shoulder. He spun Kat around into a
very effective body lock, being very careful to keep any vital areas away from
any parts of her that could cause damage and hauled her outside, ignoring her
verbal attacks on his character and the very unusual snarling noises being
emitted from her mouth. Zack followed
close behind.
Trini rushed up
to Kim, with Aisha right behind her.
Adam helped Tanya off the floor and Rocky hailed down a waiter for some
ice. Tommy lifted Kim up into his arms,
careful not to jolt any aching point on her body and sat down onto a chair,
allowing the first two Yellow Rangers to tend to her. The promptly arrived ice was put to good use, as Kim’s delicate
face was already swollen and a bright shade of eggplant purple. Billy grabbed a bunch of napkins and wrapped
some ice to hand to Trini. She
carefully lifted the tank top from Kim’s stomach, finding another growing
bruise there. She clucked her tongue to
the roof of her mouth and gently laid the ice there despite Kim’s fervent pleas
to the contrary.
“Damn that’s
co-old,” the tiny young woman shivered.
She shook her head, her free flowing hair flinging into Tommy’s
face. “I want to talk to Kat.”
“Do you really think
that’d be a good idea right about now?” Rocky inquired, gesturing to the
glaring evidence of Kat’s ire.
Kim carefully
pushed all her nurses away and scrambled to her feet. “We are wrong, you know…” her voice was hoarse, “and that means
we owe her an explanation and an apology.”
She waved away whatever it was Adam meant to say and grabbed Tommy’s
hand firmly. “Let’s go.” He followed her, trepidation evident in
every smooth ripple of his toned body.
She stalked out to the street and found Kat screeching in Jason’s
arms. Zack was dropped into a fighting
position, ultimately convinced that the girl had lost her mind and was armed
and dangerous.
“Kat…” Kim’s
hesitant greeting shocked the blonde into stillness. Her darkened blue eyes bored into her rival, hatred mixed in with
fury. Kim took an involuntary step back
right into Tommy’s steady embrace. The
one-time White Ranger could not help but be afraid by this side of his
girlfriend that he has never seen before.
His arms tightened around Kim, as if to prevent any harm from coming to
her.
“Kim,” the name
was a growl in a voice not entirely her own.
Kat inhaled and suddenly glowed golden.
Zack dropped back in alarm as the glow exploded, throwing Jason back
into Tanya’s parked car. He vacillated
between checking on his friend and watching the blonde, who he wasn’t entirely
certain was Kat. One look at Tommy’s
set face, he sprinted to Jason’s side.
Kat took one
menacing step forward when Kim held up a hand.
“I really am sorry,” she whispered painfully, “I never meant to hurt
you, but you have to know the truth.”
She looked at her erstwhile boyfriend, his loving gaze enough to get her
through the confession. “Tommy and I
never fell out of love because we can’t. We are meant to be.” Tommy nodded his head resolutely looking at
the woman he betrayed.
Kat’s face
twisted in fury. “Damn you, you pesky
Rangers.” With these astonishing words
her visage began to morph, delicate Caucasian features going to exotic Asian
ones and back over and over again. The
gold glimmer spun about her and suddenly a dark fog began to rush from her
body. Jason, supported by Zack’s arm,
leaned up and stared open-mouthed at the display. Tommy maneuvered Kim half-way behind him, willing to take the
brunt of whatever it was that was happening.
The dark fog floated, concentrated, to Kat’s left as she crumpled to the
ground. The dark form began to gather
solidity and the gold aura knit itself about it like armor. It was armor, Scorpina’s armor. Zack blinked, rubbing his eyes with one
hand.
“Hello Rangers,”
she smirked, “did you like my little spell?”
“Spe-ell…” Tommy
choked out.
“Aha,” she nodded
smugly, “I found a lovely little spell around the time when the little gymnast twit
dumped you. It allowed me to merge with blondie over here, with my mind and her
body taking ascendancy. I’ve been slowly corrupting you to the Dark side but
she…” She paused to point at Kim with
venom in her eyes. “She just had to
mess it all up.”
“I love her,”
Tommy interjected calmly and suddenly a tiny spurt of dark fog exploded from
his chest, throwing him back against Kim.
She stumbled and fell against the wall of the club, Tommy’s body
slamming into her painfully. The dark
fog-let whizzed into Scorpina and disappeared.
She shook her head with disappointment and waved a hand around herself.
“I’ll be seeing
you Rangers.” She dissipated into the
air, leaving the sound of menacing laughter to chill the small group. Zack pulled Jason up carefully and they
rushed to the eerily still blonde. Kim
pushed at Tommy, groaning as his massive weight lifted off her tiny body. Tommy straightened and offered his love a
hand. She grabbed on and stood up. They watched with a deepening sense of worry
as the guys lifted Kat gingerly. Zack,
as the only uninjured one, cradled her gently in his arms and led the way back
into the club.
Tanya was the
first to notice them. “Kat! What
happened? Kim… You didn’t?”
Kim winced. “No, wasn’t me.”
Aisha bit her lip
and picked up the last bits of un-melted ice to press against Kat’s face. A tiny groan escaped her lips and Zack
smiled with relief. The blonde opened
her eyes hazily and looked around.
Suddenly she moved as if she was jolted by a low-set Tazer. “Oh my god,” she cried out, “I’m so sorry…
I’m so sorry.”
Kim moved to lay
a warm hand on her shoulder. “It wasn’t
your fault.” She turned to face the
others. “Scorpina took over Kat’s body
a few years ago… right after my letter.”
Murmurs of ‘poor
Kat’ and ‘oh my god,’ sounded throughout the group.
“You don’t… blame
me?” she whispered incredulously. At
their emphatic denials she smiled. “I
never meant any of this… I never even wanted to date Tommy.” She frowned at him apologetically. “Not really anyway.”
“It’s ok,” he
replied, blushing. Kim grinned and slid
her arms around his waist.
“Hah, so our
fearless leader isn’t irresistible!” Adam exclaimed.
“Nope.” Billy
winked at Kim, “It’s just shorty who’s a sucker for the guilt-ridden broody
ones.” She stuck her tongue out at him
and laughter exploded all around them.
“So when’s the
wedding?” Jason’s amused voice cut through the ruckus as he made his way back
to his girlfriend.
Kim looked up at
Tommy whose own gaze was speculative. A
huge smile spread over her face and she looked back at their friends. “Pack your bags, Las Vegas here we
come.”
Trini
sighed. “This is why I brought a
cocktail dress with me.” Her
resignation with the situation set of more giggles.
“Shopping,” Aisha
cried out. Tanya nodded and Kat
mentally counted how much she could afford to spend.
“Wait, wait,” Kim
interrupted, “We have uneven numbers of guys and girls. Trini is with Jason and
Tanya is with Adam so you’re no problem, but…”
“I would love to
be Kat’s date,” Zack stated. The blonde
looked up in shock and smiled shyly.
“Actually…”
Aisha’s voice was unusually timid, “Rocky and I have been dating for several
months.” The said guy clasped her hand
and looked down guiltily.
Kim narrowed her
eyes and started to snicker. “Tri, you
owe me twenty.” She held out a hand for
the money and the original Yellow Ranger handed it over, grumbling about nosey
psychic little twerps.
“That still
leaves Billy alone,” Zack mused.
“Actually…” That word had everyone picking up their
glasses of water, ready to punish him for holding out on them. He edged backwards and held up his hands in
defense. “Calm down, guys…” The glasses got placed down and he sighed in
relief. “Well, I’ve been dating Emily
for a week.” Water splattered all over
his light blue shirt. Giggles ensued.
~*~
Jason smiled as
his friends prepared to make their vows.
Tanya gripped Adam’s hand, her lower lip trembling.
“Do you, Kimberly
Ann Hart, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?” the Elvis
look-alike asked.
“I do,” Kim
replied firmly, her eyes shining with tears.
Trini nudged Emily who smiled and handed her another tissue. She turned to check on Billy and had to hand
him one too. He smiled in thanks.
“Do you, Thomas
Sean Oliver, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do,” he
declared, his face softened with deep emotion.
Aisha sniffled and Rocky hugged her tightly. Kat snuggled into Zack’s shoulder.
A faint voice can
barely be heard over the wedding music, “Be happy my children.”