8:04 PM
Command Center
“Damn, damn, triple damn.” Kim sprints to Kat and lifts her off the floor. “Hey anyone care to help?” Rocky suddenly appears next to her and steadies Kat’s lifeless body. Aisha kicks the stretcher toward them, repeating her earlier action. Rocky and Kim settle Kat on it as Billy rummages for the appropriate scanner.
“Billy, catch.” Adam finds it.
Billy runs the blinking device over Kat. “I second Kim’s sentiment.”
“What’s wrong?” Tommy is more alert this time.
“She never actually regenerated.” Billy sighs. “It was an illusion the drugs created.”
“Well, what does that mean?” Rocky is apprehensive.
“It means that she is deteriorating at an increasing rate and I am not sure there is anything I can do to help.” Billy seems shocked at his helplessness.
“So what do we do?” Aisha is scared too.
“I think I have an idea,” Adam shyly puts forward. “It’s not a permanent solution, but it might help.”
“What is it?” Kim speaks up.
“We can put her in a containment unit,” Adam states anxiously.
“That’s brilliant,” Billy exclaims. “It would give us plenty of time to figure out a real solution.”
“English, people, stick to English,” Tommy orders, too dazed to think straight.
“Oh, I know what he means,” Kim responds, “The containment unit will slow down her entire body, almost like slowing time to a crawl.”
“Oh so she won’t deteriorate that fast,” Aisha remarks, the bits and pieces of facts coming together nicely in her mind.
“So do it,” Rocky commands impatiently.
“Let’s go.” Billy leads the way to the Med Room. Rocky and Kim push the stretcher while the others follow. Billy prepares the unit, fiddling with the controls to make sure it’s set to take care of Kat specifically. He nods as the tiny tone lets him know the device is synchronized properly. Adam makes a move to help Rocky move Kat.
“No,” Kim says harshly, “I have to do this.” Adam backs off. Billy activates the unit and Kat is suddenly bathed in a soft violet light. She almost looks like she is just asleep, but the Rangers are heavy with the knowledge that that is not true.
“So…” Aisha whispers, “Where do we look for answers?”
“Look we have plenty of time and I think we all need a half hour to relax,” Tommy declares, asserting his leadership, “so we get out of here and come back in thirty minutes a little more ready to face our problems.”
“I don’t about you guys but I need to get physical,” Rocky states. “Sha, want to join?”
“I’m so kicking your ass, DeSantos.” Aisha flashes a half smile.
“No way Campbell, you’re dead,” Rocky replies.
“Well I’m going to try one of Trini’s meditation katas,” Billy decides. “Tommy, I think you could use it too.”
The idea appeals to Tommy. “You’re on, bro.”
“I’m up for a nap,” Adam resolves.
“I’ll be in the park if anyone needs me,” Kim offers.
They head back to tell Zordon.
~*~
8:31 PM
Command Center
“Ay-ay-ay, take it easy Rangers,” Alpha approves.
“Umm, Alpha I am not a Ranger,” Kim starts and is immediately shushed by everyone within hearing distance.
“KIMBERLY.” Zordon is saddened by her attitude. “YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A RANGER AS WILL JASON, TRINI AND ZACK.”
“Got it.” Kim never argues with Zordon.
“NOW RANGERS, GO AND TRY TO RELAX,” Zordon instructs. The six glance at each other and activate their teleports.
~*~
8:33 PM
Juice Bar
Billy, Aisha, Tommy and Adam walk into the Juice Bar prepared to let off a lot of steam. Aisha and Rocky flash identical grins as they step on a rectangular blue mat. Their fight will be no-holds-barred. Billy and Tommy solemnly take their places on similar green mat. Billy is in front of Tommy, because he is the one well versed in Trini’s katas. The Juice Bar clientele turns to watch, knowing they are in for a show.
~*~
8:33 PM
Angel Grove Park
Kim lands in the park and quickly becomes a pink blur as she runs through one of her floor routines. She finally stops, sweat running down her neck in itchy streams. She settles under a tree and watches the sky glint on the lake.
Suddenly, Kim’s eyes dance with mirth as she jumps up and sprints into the warm California water, fully clothed.
“Kim,” she hears her name. “I didn’t know you were kinky like that.” She looks up to see Adam looking quietly amused at the edge of the water.
“Hey,” Kim calls. “I thought you were going to take a nap.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you.” He holds out a hand, hoping she’ll take the hint. She bounds out of the water and back to the tree, concurrently shaking off water and spraying Adam. “Umm, thanks pal.” He grimaces. She giggles and sits down. He settles next to her. “Kim I know it took an incredible amount of courage to tell us what you did and I feel I owe you the same honesty.” He stares down at the grass, looking nervous.
“Umm ok,” she replies, confused, “if you want to talk I’m here.”
He takes a deep breath. “I’m really sorry for running hot and cold on you so much, but truthfully it’s about me and not you.” He pauses. “Did you know I was the one who read your letter to Tommy?” Kim flinches. “The truth is I feel responsible for him hurting and I also feel responsible because I knew, I just knew, he should go and see you and I never said anything,” Adam adds.
“Adam, none of that is your fault.”
“Oh come on,” he objects, getting angry, “that letter wasn’t like you and we all knew something had to be wrong. Well I knew anyway. Everyone else was just wrapped up in Tommy’s issues.”
“Adam…”
“No Kim, no more interruptions, comments or denials,” Adam bursts out, “I never said anything and the more time passed the more scared I was to speak up. I am coward and quite frankly so is Tommy.” He tries to calm down, breathing in deeply. “I did not do the right thing as far as you, my friend, are concerned and I feel guilty and I deserve it.”
“Adam…”
“I’m not done yet,” he continues frowning. “It got worse when he started dating Kat.” Kim flinches again. “I should have told him to see go see you, but I didn’t.” Adam sighs. “The truth was I didn’t want to hurt Kat. Then I realized I did want him to go see you because… well because I realized that I like Kat. I’m a jerk Kim.” She pulls Adam into a fierce hug. “I should have told him to go for your sake but I’m selfish and it was all about me. In the end I didn’t say anything,” Adam sobs into her shirt, his voice muffled on Kim’s shoulder. “Kim, I’m sorry… so, so sorry.”
She rubs his back, her face a mask of pain. “Let it go, shhh, let it all go.”
~*~
8:57 PM
Juice Bar
Aisha performs a magnificent spin kick, leaving Rocky groaning on the ground. She steps off the mat and takes a bow. She takes several in fact, with a self-satisfied grin.
“Owww.” Rocky finally gets up. “Next time remind me that you females are just scary.”
“Come on Rocko, I’ll buy you a shake.” Aisha throws her arm around him. People clap. Billy leads Tommy through the last few turns of Trini’s favorite kata and they both look like they’re in a far off world.
“Hey guys, we’re almost out of time.” Aisha’s voice jolts them out of their reverie.
“We’re ready anytime you are,” Billy replies.
“Why don’t we go get Kim from the park, and then pick up Adam from his house?” Rocky suggests, still bent over slightly, but sipping his beverage nonetheless.
“Let’s go,” Tommy states, making an executive decision.
~*~
9:01 PM
Angel Grove Park
The four appear under the cover of trees.
“Ok now if I was an extremely perky, kind, gorgeous and tiny gymnast where would I be?” Rocky quips, stealing a glance at Tommy to gauge his reaction. Tommy growls silently.
“Oh, there she is.” Billy sees something pink peeking from behind a tree. They walk over and discover a sobbing Adam clutching a crying Kim. Aisha clears her throat and the two immediately jump up, quickly wiping their eyes.
“Everything ok?” Rocky has only seen Adam cry twice and the situation throws him.
“Fine.” Kim smiles, struggling to look normal. “Let’s go. We have a friend to help.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to go get Adam now,” Tommy’s voice fails at being lighthearted as he tenses his hands.
“Yeah, I’m good to go.” Adam shakes the grass off his pants.
“Kim,” Aisha exclaims in growing horror, “why are you… soaked?!?”
“Did Adam throw you into the water?” Rocky asks slyly. Billy looks over at Tommy, whose left eye is beginning to twitch.
“Umm no, I just got hot so I umm went for a little swim,” Kim explains, flustered. Tommy’s eye is now twitching uncontrollably and Billy bursts into laughter.
“What?” Kim is confused. “What did I say?”
“No… nothing…” Billy chokes out in between his bouts of uncontrollable mirth.
“Ok… weirdo…” Kim lets it go.
“Can we go now?” Tommy says tightly, at which Billy laughs harder.
“Yeah, ok,” Aisha says. “Let me just kick the giggling freakazoid here.”
“No… no… I’m fine let’s go,” Billy stammers, taking a deep breath. Adam raises an eyebrow. “I’ll tell you later,” Billy whispers in his ear.
Six streams of color leave the park.
~*~
9:19 PM
Command Center
“Hi Zordon,” Kim greets her mentor. “Is there anywhere I can dry my clothes?”
“OF COURSE KIMBERLY, BILLY INSTALLED AN AUTOMATIC DRYER IN THE EMERGENCY LIVING QUARTERS.”
“Kay thanks. I’ll be right back.” She waves at her friends.
“Ok where do we start?” Rocky asks, eager to get through the whole process quickly.
“Hmm what if we run her symptoms through the database?” This idea comes from Aisha.
“That works,” Billy thinks for a moment, “but it’ll take a while.” Kim walks back in, the dryer having worked in seconds.
“I’ll do it,” Adam volunteers. Billy nods and Adam gets to work.
“What now?” Tommy has no experience here. This is Billy’s domain.
“What if we contact that planet…” Kim snaps her fingers, “Aquitar! Yeah that’s it. Anyway they may know something…”
“That’s a logical suggestion.” Billy looks up at Zordon. “How do we accomplish that?”
“BILLY YOU CAN SEND A TRANSMITION TO AQUITAR,” Zordon suggests, “THE COORDINATES ARE IN THE DATABASE.” Billy calls up the information and is about to cue the computer to start recording.
“Whoa there, blue boy,” Aisha interrupts, “Morph first. Unless, of course, you want the galaxy to know who Earth’s Blue Ranger is.”
“Oops. Right.” Billy smiles sheepishly.
“NINJA POWER - BLUE WOLF!”
The uniformed Blue Ranger prompts the computer, which starts recording. “Hello Aquitar. I am the Blue Ranger of Earth. We need your help. Our Pink Ranger is sick. We are transmitting the symptoms along with this message. If you have any idea of what is wrong please help us.”
“How’s that?” Billy stops the recording and powers down.
“Great,” Adam replies, “Let me just add the file with Kat’s symptoms.”
“Wait a second.” Kimberly just had an epiphany. “There have to be other planets we can contact, not just Aquitar.”
“KIMBERLY IS CORRECT, RANGERS.” Zordon smacks himself mentally. “THERE ARE MANY OTHERS, LIKE TRIFORIA, RADIJI, KO-35, ELTAR AND MANY OTHERS. CHECK THE DATABASE. THERE IS A COMPLETE LIST OF NAMES AND LOCATIONS OF PLANETS ON THE SIDE OF THE GOOD.”
“Great.” Billy rushes to the computer to call up the list. “Umm wow, that’s a whole lot of planets.” He muses for a moment. “Ok, here’s what we do. Adam, keep searching the database. Aisha, Tommy, Rocky, you guys will also record these messages. Kim, since you have no Ranger suit to hide your identity, you will have to run the computer so the four of us can record at the same time.” Kim flinches at his careless remark, but nods in acceptance. She comes to stand beside Adam and squeezes his shoulder in reassurance before turning toward her task. Adam smiles absently in gratitude, without looking away from his screen. The other Rangers prepare to record their pleas for help.
“NINJA POWER – RED APE!”
“NINJA POWER – BLUE WOLF!”
“NINJA POWER – WHITE FALCON!”
“NINJA POWER – YELLOW BEAR!”
“Go ahead guys,” Kim says as four recording devices train on their individual speaker.
~*~
Sunday
July 30, 1995
12:43 AM
Command Center
Three hours and hundreds, or maybe thousands, of planets later the list is almost done. Adam has left the database to its work twenty minutes ago and has already checked on Kat whose condition remains the same. He is going over a technology report, sitting next to Kim, who is still hard at work. Rocky, Billy, Tommy and Aisha are finishing their last few assignments.
“I’m through,” calls Rocky. Kim nods, without looking up.
“Me too,” Aisha sighs in relief. Kim nods.
“I am finished,” Billy says calmly. Kim nods.
“So am I,” the late hours have taken a toll on Tommy’s voice.
“Power down guys,” Kim throws out, still inputting some commands. They obey.
“Thank God, it’s the weekend,” Aisha sighs.
“Yeah…” Adam is exhausted. “Oh, the computer projected that it should have the results from the scan and our search by the morning.”
“Kay, then we’ve done all we can today.” Kimberly presses the final button to send the messages.
“Let’s bounce,” Rocky exclaims, looking at Tommy.
Tommy draws a hand across his swollen and aching eyes and agrees, “Ok guys, tomorrow, here, at 10 AM.”
“Good night,” Kim says.
“Good night,” a chorus responds.
Six rays of color exit the Center.
~*~
12:45 AM
Park Residence
The phone rings. Adam just got into bed and he has to lunge for it. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Billy,” the voice at the other end of the line sounds amused.
“What’s up?” Adam just wants to sleep, but can’t just hang up on his friend.
“I said I’d tell you why I was so amused at the park…” This arouses Adam’s curiosity.
“Well, what was it?”
“Tommy.” Billy bursts out laughing again.
“Huh?” Adam could not be more confused if he tried, and the sleepy daze that he’s in doesn’t help.
“You should have watched him from the moment we found you guys until we went back to the Center to work on Kat’s problem,” Billy says.
This answer doesn’t satisfy Adam. “Why?”
“Let’s just say Tommy and the little green monster are great friends now,” Bully quips, “and that makes his eye twitch, his muscles tense and causes various other amusing reactions.”
Adam bursts out laughing. “Thanks Billy, I needed that.”
“K. Night.”
“Night.”
~*~
12:45 AM
Campbell Residence
Aisha walks into her room to find Kim dressed in a long white t-shirt, holding a stuffed white tiger. “Tommy?” she asks, indicating the toy.
“Yeah…” Kim affirms, blushing. The girls settle into Aisha’s king size bed and Aisha turns of the lamp.
“Sha?”
“Yeah?”
“Everything’s gonna be alright?”
“Yeah.”
“K. Night.”
“Night.”
~*~
12:46 AM
Location Unknown
“Alright? No my sweet, nothing will ever be alright again.”