Here's a new story. This story is actually a request from BellaVision and I'm happy to put some of her ideas on paper (or on the web, actually).
Just a bit of back story: This is a crossover between the Ninja Storm and the MMPR season 2 rangers plus Jason. The story will be set during the Ninja Storm season and will include some other former ranger cameos. Pairs: Tommy/Kim, Aisha/Rocky, Blake/Tori.
Enjoy!
Kimberly Hart gazed in amazement at the view from her apartment window. She reluctantly shut the curtains and sat at the dining table with her closest friend in the world, Aisha Campbell.
"I am never going to get tired of that view," Kim said. "I'm so glad we moved here."
Aisha laughed, agreeing with Kim. She poured milk over her cereal. "I know exactly what you mean."
Kim and Aisha moved to Geneva earlier in the year. Following their ranger days, they had fallen out of touch, but reconnected at a chance meeting at a local Starbucks. They immediately got to talking and and Kim told Aisha that she was looking for a place because she had just accepted a job with the United Nations. Coincidentally, Aisha was currently looking for a roommate. She had moved to Geneva a few months prior to seeing Kim at Starbucks and was working with the Red Cross. The two of them missed each other and so they agreed on the spot to live with one another. Neither of them had spoken to or kept in touch with any of their old friends, something that the two of them regretted, in their own way.
Kim moved away from Angel Grove so she could train for the Pan-Global games. While she trained, she realized how cutthroat the world of professional sports is and decided that it wasn't for her. She did a lot of things that she didn't like with her life, the first of which is sending a heartbreaking letter to the only guy that she ever really loved. She's had a few boyfriends since then, but nobody ever captivated her the same way he did. And when she broke up with him, it seemed like she broke up with her other friends, too. She didn't speak to any of them and only got in touch with Aisha on a lucky whim. She missed them, all of them, and wished that she had enough guts to look for them and call them. But she would never just call one of her old friends out of the blue. Especially since she had not seen any of them in years.
Aisha unintentionally cut off all contact with her old friends. After moving to Africa, she really didn't know how to get in touch with her friends. There was too much to think about-the time difference, the rate of snail mail. She wished that the technology that they had now was readily available back then. She would've gotten in touch with everyone and tried her best to keep in contact. She didn't even know if any of her friends were still in Angel Grove. Aisha visited Angel Grove really briefly after deciding to leave Africa. She first moved back to Angel Grove, but left within two weeks after she was offered a job at the Red Cross for her work in Africa. So, instead of trying to seek out her friends, she decided to move to Geneva, where the Red Cross was headquartered. She never imagined that she would ever run in to one of her old best friends and end up living with her. But Aisha wished desperately that she would run into another certain somebody. Someone that she's known since elementary school.
"Today's your half day, right?" Kim asked as she fed herself a spoonful of cereal. "Cuz I was able to take the afternoon off so we could catch that show later."
"Yeah, it's my half day," answered Aisha. "You want to meet up for lunch first? What about that cute little bistro next to my building?"
Kim nodded. "Sounds like a plan." Her eyes widened at the sight of the time. "Oh, I'm late!" She scooped up as much cereal into her mouth that she could and put her bowl in the sink.
"Must've been all that window gazing," teased Aisha.
"Later 'Sha!" called Kim, grabbing her jacket and running out the door.
Tori Hanson slowly swam up to the shore. When she could reach the sand, she stood up and half-carried her light blue surfboard to a safe place a bit further up from the water. She bent over and shook her blonde hair free of water.
So far, it's been a great day. The sky was the clearest shade of blue, the sun was brightly shining, and the waves were great. And the best part: no sign of Lothor or any of his monsters.
A quick glance at Tori's watch told her that she still had a few hours before meeting up with the guys. She detached her ankle from her board and sat in the sun for a couple of minutes. In spite of the great day she was having, Tori couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming.
"Hey Tor!" A voice called, running up to her. Tori shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up. "You done for the day?"
Tori grinned and shook her head. "Not yet. Do you need something, Blake?"
The spiky-haired Asian took a seat next to her. He started running his hands through the sand. "Nah, I was just hoping to catch you in action for a bit."
Tori rolled her eyes. "Well, you're out of luck cuz I'm taking a break right now. What are you doing here, anyway? I would've thought you'd be down at the track with Hunter and Dustin."
Blake shrugged. "Not my thing."
"Oh yeah." Tori gave Black a disbelieving look. "Not your thing? Yeah, right."
"Okay, truth." Blake looked at Tori and smirked. "I lost a bet to Hunter and Dustin. Or as I accidently called him: Waldo. And then I lost a race to both of them."
Tori smiled. "Oh, I bet he loved that."
"Of course he did!"
Tori was silent for a bit, looking at the sky. A strange light passed over the ocean. Tori narrowed her eyes and jumped up. "Did you see that?" she asked.
Blake followed her lead and stood up, looking at the sky, also. "Nope. Didn't see anything. What was it?"
Tori furrowed her brow and bit her lip, shrugging her shoulders. "Not sure. But I knew I just had the strangest feeling today."
Jason Scott ducked to avoid a flying elbow to his face. He straightened up and threw a right hook into his opponent's jaw.
"All right," he thought to himself. "Nice and easy does it."
A couple of quick moves later and Jason's opponent was lying on the ground. The referee called time as soon as it was up and Jason was declared champion. He took a seat in his corner and doused himself with water. He waited for the crowd to subside before standing up to gather his things and put himself together.
He picked out a towel from his gym bag, splashed cold water on it, and gently rubbed it on his face. Next, he took scissors out to cut the tape that protected his hands. He eased his hand from the tape and dropped the used tape to the bottom of the ring before looking around. He saw a number of people - trainers, family, and friends of the other boxers and waited for all of them to leave. He looked around his corner and saw no one.
Jason was fine with that; in fact, he liked it better that way. Nobody was hovering over him, worrying about him. Although, it was sometimes a bit lonely. He did sometimes miss hanging out with friends and just having fun, in general. He could barely remember the days that he used to spend with his high school friends at a local youth center.
And truth be told, he kind of missed it. Not necessarily the whole giving up your life as a teenager to fight evil, but the whole friends thing. The last time Jason remembered having fun was, coincidentally, the last time he had to save the world. But what he really enjoyed was seeing his old friends and meeting new ones.
But since then, he had run far and fast from that way of life. And at the moment, he could not remember why.
"Ahh! I think you cheated!" Dustin Brooks yelled as he stopped his bike inches away from Hunter.
"I didn't cheat! You cheated!" Hunter Bradley yelled back over the cloud of brown dust surrounding them.
"One more time?"
"Race ya up to the top!"
"Sure thing!"
In another cloud of dust, they kicked their bikes into gear and raced each other to the top of the mountain. Both of them didn't notice the same streak of light in the sky that Tori noticed, miles away from them.
"Don't forget about me up here!" Adam Park yelled as he watched the people bustle busily below. He was hanging from the ceiling by a series of wires and pulleys.
Adam was in the middle of shooting a pivotal action scene against a green screen and figured that they may actually just leave him up in the air as the set broke for lunch. Maneuvering Adam into the wires had pushed filming back an hour and getting him up there took another hour.
"Don't worry, Adam!" called out one of the production assistants. "We'll have some lunch brought up to you."
Adam rolled his eyes and threw his arms to his side. There was nothing he could really do about it. After all, he was just a stuntman for the main character of the movie they were filming. Nobody important enough to be in the spotlight.
"Thanks!" Adam called down as he saw food being brought up to him by another pulley. "That didn't seem so hard," he said quietly to himself. "They couldn't just bring me down and lift me back up later?" Adam looked around again and didn't see anyone on set. He figured they were all in the lunchroom or in their trailers. "Alone again," he thought to himself.
For some reason, he thought about one incident in high school, when he had just gotten back from a family reunion and was given the honor of taking care of his family's lantern.
"Jeez, I have not thought about that in a long time," he thought to himself. Said lantern was currently hanging in his living room until such time to pass it on to the next generation of Parks.
Adam thought about how the lantern was turned into one of Lord Zedd's evil monsters and remembered the devastation he felt at losing his family's heirloom. "Way to bring up the worse of the past, Adam," he said to himself.
He knew that at the end of the day, he had learned something and felt better about losing the lantern even though he recovered it at the end. But he could not for the life of him remember what it was. Instead, the same feeling of hopelessness washed over him and stuck with him.
Shane Clarke adjusted his helmet and opened and re-closed the elbow pads he wore. He waited at the top of the ramp before jumping on his skateboard and riding down. He dodged other skaters and reached the other side in no time.
"Looking good out there, Clarke!" someone called out to him.
Shane raised a hand and grinned. "Thanks! I could be better though!" He turned away and looked back at the ramp. "No time to practice anymore."
Instead of going down the ramp again, Shane took a seat on the edge of the ramp, closer to the end. He didn't want to be in the way of the other skaters, so he tried to be out of the way as much as possible. He watched the other skaters go up and down the ramp, taking note of their moves and tendencies.
About twenty minutes later, Shane jumped up and started practicing what he had observed from the other skaters. While passing through the valley of the ramp, he happened to look up and noticed a strange light passing through the sky. Shane stopped in the middle of the ramp, still in motion and stared up at the sky.
"What the heck was that?" he asked himself.
"Move!" someone yelled at him.
Shane snapped out of his thoughts and jumped out of the wave. He used his foot to kick the skateboard up to his hand and he ran off the ramp.
Rocky DeSantos lifted a spoon to his mouth and immediately spit out what he had tasted. "What is wrong with me?" he thought. He looked over at the student next to him and asked him to taste it. He also immediately spit out Rocky's concoction into a napkin.
"I've tasted better from you, DeSantos. What's it supposed to be?"
"Chicken marsala," Rocky answered in exasperation. He took a seat at his desk and put his head in his hands. What was he thinking? What was wrong with him? He didn't like this. He used to have fun with food and enjoyed it. He knew he always loved eating. Then he found that he enjoyed cooking it even more.
But now, he wasn't enjoying anything.
His life had suddenly become a monotonous predictable routine. Wake up at 7. Breakfast at 7:30. First class at 8. Second at 9:30. Third at 11. Break till 1:15. Fourth class at 1:30. Work from 4-10. Home and asleep by midnight.
He didn't do anything anymore. He didn't want to hang out with some acquaintances from his classes because being around them brought up bad memories and feelings. Well, not necessarily bad memories and feelings, but thoughts that he did not want to live through. Honestly, they reminded Rocky of some of his old friends. And Rocky missed them, but no longer spoke to any of them. There was no big falling out, but he had been keeping his distance.
The guy sitting next to him, John, reminded Rocky of his old best friend, Adam Park. Rocky and Adam had known each other for years. They met in preschool, went to elementary school, middle school, and high school together. They'd even move to Angel Grove at the same time. But like Adam, John was quiet, but very outgoing. He also enjoyed soccer and held his family in high esteem. But what reminded Rocky of Adam most were their mannerisms. John kept to himself, but was always there to offer a friendly sarcastic comment or lighten the mood. He also seemed like he would be one of the most loyal people in the world.
Lynnette reminded Rocky of Aisha Campbell, another friend that he had known since elementary school. Like Adam, she and Rocky also went through every school year together and even moved to Angel Grove at the same time, also. Rocky wished that he had the guts to tell Aisha about how he felt for her when he last saw her. Granted the last time they had seen each other, they were turned into kids and when they retrieved the Zeo crystals, Aisha had already given hers to Tanya Sloan.
But Lynnette reminded Rocky of Aisha because of their love of animals and life, in general. Lynnette always said that if she didn't want to be a chef, she would've been a veterinarian or a doctor. Rocky once asked her why she chose to be a chef and Lynnette told him that she could not handle the sight of blood. So she decided to become a chef.
On his first day of school, Rocky was paired up with a girl named Katherine. Of course, she immediately reminded Rocky of Katherine Hillard because they even shared the same light blonde hair and bright blue eyes. This Katherine was a lot shorter than Kat, though and he soon saw that she was more like Kimberly Hart. She loved shopping, just like Kim and also competed in gymnastics when she was younger. But those weren't the only things that reminded him of Kim. She has had a gigantic heart and loved to garden. Rocky wondered if Kim was still into gymnastics, nowadays. He kept an ear out to hear her name every four years during the Olympic games, but had not heard anything since she left Angel Grove.
What first reminded Rocky of Tommy Oliver was Phil's hair. Rocky had first seen him from behind and for a split second, thought he was Tommy. When he had actually met and gotten to know Phil, he saw that the two were more alike than just the hair. If anybody needed help with anything-notes, homework, rides, or whatever-Phil was often the first to help. He was also the one that people called if they needed anything.
Brad reminded Rocky of Jason Scott. When Rocky first met Jason, they didn't get a chance to really get to know each other since a few weeks after they met, Jason was one of the chosen to go to a Peace Conference in Switzerland. He was glad that Jason came back to Angel Grove and the two of them were able to become friends. Good friends, even.
And Brad seemed just like Jason. He was big on martial arts and also big on keeping his friends close and together. He's an all-around athlete with his mannerisms being the same as Jason's, also.
They were the first and only people that Rocky had even considered becoming friends with, but once he got to know them, he backed off a bit. Hanging out with them was just a little too painful for him. He missed all of his friends and even considered reaching out to them, but had no idea where to find them. Or even if they wanted to hear from him. Rocky had heard about a red ranger mission and was hurt that he was not even asked.
Cameron Watanabe sat in front of his screen, typing away quickly. Shane stood over his shoulder and waited for answers.
"Can you get a read on what that thing was?" asked Shane. "It was odd. And weird. It didn't fit in with the rest of the sky."
"I'm not getting anything at the moment," Cam answered. "Maybe we should call the others."
"Yeah, let's do that. I wonder if they noticed anything, too."
"Why doesn't the clock ever move when I'm watching it?" thought Tommy Oliver. He sat in his class listening to his professor drone on and on about...something that he wasn't quite sure of. "I see the seconds go by, but how come the minute hand never moves?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, remembering the long hair he used to have so long ago. Tommy looked down at his notes and back up at his professor. "It's already shaping up to be a long day. I shouldn't have even come today."
Tommy started doodling absentmindedly in the margins of his notes. He knew he really should be listening and paying attention, but at the moment, the Jurassic period could not hold his attention.
And he knew why.
The night before, his parents, in the process of moving houses, sent Tommy some of his old boxes from Angel Grove. And for some reason, Tommy thought it would've been fun to go through them and take a trip down memory lane.
What a horrifying trip that was.
Before going through the box, Tommy looked back at his high school years with fond memories of having good, close friends and fighting evil monsters. Now, he was filled sadness, bitterness, anger, and regret. He was sad that he no longer spoke to or seen any of his old friends anymore. Tommy thought that after the red ranger mission, he and Jason would've at least been in touch, but there's been nothing. He hasn't even heard from Andros in a while, so the whole thing was kind of starting to feel like a wishful dream.
He was bitter because he had found an old letter, one that he wished he had lost. A letter form an ex-girlfriend, the only woman who ever stopped him in his feet. The only woman who ever challenged him, who ever made his heart beat out of his chest. He angrily thought about the cowardly way she broke up with him and the fact that she may be married with kids to this phantom letter guy.
And then Tommy felt regret. He regretted not being better at keeping in touch with his old friends and he regretted not knowing how to return to regular life after being a anger for so long. He barely knew how to make new friends and as a result, he barely had any. He regretted staying away from his old girlfriend and desperately wished that he had the guts to call her or even visit her after he got that letter. He regretted the way he treated the only girlfriend he had after the one who wrote him the letter and somehow knew that she would never speak to him again.
Most of all, he regretted that he just didn't seem to care anymore.
There's that chapter! Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!