Chapter 7

Little Rangers Arrive (Or at least a few of them)

Kim stared into the empty space around her. Why had she asked Tommy to make her a ranger again? It was hard enough he'd had to make three of his students rangers. She knew, even though she hadn't seen him in over 8 YEARS, he wouldn't give her the power.

(Tommy?)

(Yeah, Beautiful?)

(I want to be a ranger again.) She'd said, meeting his brown eyes.

He'd frozen. He didn't know how to answer. And then he'd turned around and she heard the distinctive sound of slight, extremely well hidden sobs.

And it had made her want to cry too. She shouldn't have asked.

And then she turned around and got in a fight with him over why he hadn't told her about the Dino Thunder Rangers.

She probably should leave now. Except there was only one problem with that thought. She stood about 5'8", 17 years old, had brown hair, purple eyes, and was so fiercely protective of her parents that if either of them tried to leave she'd be on them like stink on a warthog.

"Kim?"

"Billy?" She said. "Aren't you still on Aquitar?"

"Would we be standing here if we were?" The woman next to Billy said.

"Trini?" Kim asked. She hadn't seen either of the former rangers since roughly four years ago, when Billy'd come back and Trini had latched onto his waist and refused to let go until the former blue ranger had agreed to take her back to Aquitar with him. Although he'd agreed within ten minutes of her latching on to him, they'd kept up the charade for almost three days, before the others had seen her let go. They'd admitted 'their attraction' then.

As if the others hadn't noticed it before. It's not like you let someone hang off your waist for three days because you were stubborn. Their Little Ranger Andy had spent most of those three days laughing behind his hand. He had, after all, been only 12 at the time.

And anyway, Little Rangers didn't appear unless there was something more than friendship between two rangers.

"Welcome home!" Kim said, wrapping both former rangers in a hug. Their Little Ranger Andy ducked out of the embrace and went to find Kimmy.

Trini looked over her shoulder. "Andy-"

"I know mom!" He replied. "Be careful."

Kim released Trini and Billy. "She's serious, Andy. You never know when Mesogog might attack."

"Aunt Kim, I'm just as much of a ranger as your daughter." He said. "And Little Rangers know how to take care of themselves."

"And we know when we ought to work together too, Andy." A voice said.

"Cathleen?" Andy murmured.

Jason's 21 year old daughter steeped out of the shadows. "In the flesh. Andy, you know when there is a main enemy we never go anywhere alone."

"Kimmy sure as hell does."

"Kimmy's sure as hell a lot stronger than you too." Cathleen told her partner in crime. Or crime fighting.

Whatever.

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Kimmy stood in the tallest tree in the neighborhood. It gave her an almost unobstructed view of the area around Reefside. Her purpled eyes were staring out, searching.

"Where are you, Timmy?" She mumbled. "You were supposed to have been here by now."

"Kirana slowed him up." A voice said. Kimmy dropped out of her tree and landed on the owner of said voice.

"Jacob Davis Collins, you little PITA child." She said, grabbing a hold of his shirt. "What the hell do you think you're doing, running around without a partner?" Kimmy growled. Jake may have spent enough years in the future to come back sixteen, but the 3001 rangers had it easy compared to the rest of them.

"I had a partner." Jake choked out. "Cathleen came with me." Kimmy opened her mouth to complain. "Andy, her partner-"

"I know who her partner is!" Kimmy spat out.

"Her partner is here now." He said, apparently unfazed by her sudden snappishness. They hadn't been within ten miles of each other in over almost a year. Jake expected her 'Crummy Leader' attitude. But even though to most she was the nastiest person they'd ever work with, Kimmy would never leave a man behind. The huge mass of scar tissue that was her back proved it.

Kimmy looked confused, then enraged. "Andy is here?!?!? He should be with his-"

"They came here from Aquitar, Kimmy." He said, shifting to throw her off him.

She held on, her grip suddenly becoming steel. Jake Froze under her, very abruptly aware that trying to throw Kimmy was not the smartest thing he'd ever tried. He put his hands where she could see them and muttered their code phrase, the Marine Corps Motto.

"Semper Fidelis."

"Always Faithful." Kimmy replied, loosening her grip. She stood, pulling him up by the front of his shirt. "Sorry, Young Love." She said, automatically shifting her right arm to show the morpher.

Jake nodded, showing his own morpher. The silent symbol was shared throughout the Little Rangers. "Apology almost accepted." He said, then kissed her. "Now it's accepted."

Kimmy rolled her eyes.

BTW, PITA is Pain In The ASCII.

Review Please! Sorry about the wait.

Kalika