Chapter Text
Another night in with MTV, AOL chatrooms, and my intrusive thoughts. Prodigious…
… not.
I've got to fix this noise emitting from my Compaq Presario. Until recent, the whirling and grinding from the beige box was a mere hum and helped me concentrate here in my garage AKA my lab AKA my spare parts depot where I pull gadgets from my blue spandex behind by request. But now, the whirling and grinding is louder and currently competing with Billy Corgan for most annoying sound (MTV is playing the Pumpkin's Disarm for the second-time since I turned the counter TV on, and I've yet to see Buddy Holly from Weezer, which honestly feels like nerd erasure.).
Apologies, but today's journal is going to be all over the place because I've been all over the place. The recent escalations from Zedd have been nothing short of challenging, but we somehow survived. I guess Kiba sticking around has helped somewhat.
Pfft… somewhat. Fine, he's helped a lot. I hate to admit it, considering how things have gone with the guy over the last few weeks, but Zedd's monsters have proven far superior to Rita's with a vast amount of strength. We absolutely needed a new Ranger, and now we have one. But not everyone's happy about it—including Tommy. We'll come back to him.
Since Kiba's arrival, I've officially discontinued Project Power Up, the name I gave my investigation into reviving the dead Dragon Coin. As he settled in, it dawned on me that I was trying to restore the coin as much as I was trying to engineer away my bad feelings, and I could never achieve either. Just as well, because for better or worse, we're back to six.
To be perfectly fair, Kiba is trying, but he's new to Earth, so he's getting a pass (for now). And I can only imagine fixing a multi-millennia estrangement with your spectral father isn't a walk in Angel Grove Park, but I see their thaw progressing fine. Every time I beam in after hours to help Alpha with logging and maintenance, Kiba is already there speaking with Zordon in their native tongue (Eltarian sounds like upside-down Spanish, if that makes sense).
I have no idea what they're saying, but I assume they've discussed his messy integration into the team at least once. And I'm don't type this lightly: the guy's a bit of a jerk.
For starters, he doesn't accept why or how his father qualified five teenagers to protect Earth from Rita, even after Zordon explained it three different ways. I only know this because Alpha's a gossip and has literally no one to spill to unless we're alone in the halls. Ay-yi-yi.
Then there's his first-ever visit to Ernie's, where he stared at Zack's chili cheese fries like they were a biohazard. After that, he bemoaned our "strange affinity" for Halloween, explaining it's weird to honor demons by emulating them and demanding treats without a trade offering. Trini smiled politely and gently explained the concept of joy for joy's sake—that when you're a human with a far shorter life span, silly little rituals are what make a planet worth defending. She even offered to help him pick a costume for the upcoming haunted house party Jason's throwing. It was probably the first time Kiba had shut up and listened. Speaking of Jase…
With Jason, there are no Trini-levels of grace. Kiba had just spent centuries on a solo quest, so he has a thing about taking orders. He interprets Jason's tactical calls as light suggestions, probably because he thinks being older and Zordon's son makes him Vice President of the Power Rangers.
"Hey, buckethead!" Jason had yelled over the zord comm in a recent fight. "I'm the leader here! Why don't you chill and let me handle the Megazord formation, alright?"
"The Tiger Megazord would be far more effective over the standard mecha, Jason of Earth! Let me drive!"
"Stop with the Jason of Earth shit already, it's mad annoying," Zack grumbled.
And quickly, before I forget—that thing Kiba almost said the night he arrived: "In my travels, I heard Rita's been banished once again, by your br—"
Jesus. H-Drive. Christ. I ran the linguistic probabilities, and phonetics leaves very few nouns starting with b-r that apply to a personal relationship between two individuals. I have several ideas regarding how Zedd relates to Zordon, and I don't like any of them.
Oh good, Disarm is done and has been replaced by a teaser for the next Beavis and Butt-Head (looks like Beavis may finally find TP for his bunghole). I don't care either way, but those nimrods would be a welcome distraction from making myself journal about Tommy.
Tommy's been acting strange, and I think I understand why. We're trying our best to make everything feel normal, like he's still part of the team, but he's not dumb and knows we're trying. He's too nice to call it out because Tommy is always too nice, even when things are bad. Remember, this is the guy who pulled an all-nighter to salvage Kim's parade float after the Putties destroyed it. He's also the guy willing to get eaten by a giant mollusk just to annihilate it from the inside, with minutes left on his Ranger clock.
Tommy is and will always be the best of us.
Now, as I always do, I'm going to recount the last few battles, specifically the last three since Kiba showed up. But unlike my past records, there's no happy ending ahead—just another goodbye no one saw coming.
Two Weeks Ago
The weather is just warm enough to make you think summer never stopped, which is why picnicking remains popular, even here in late October. Saturday is the one day of the week where the Ranger teens don't have busy schedules to keep: Jason and Zack aren't teaching karate or hip hop kido, and the school clubs Kim and Trini captain don't meet again until November. As for Billy, baking the perfect quiche for the picnic Kim planned today is his sole objective.
Arriving five minutes early, which he calls being on time, Billy sets his covered dish onto the checkered blanket. Jason, Zack, and Trini are running behind, Kim says, so for now, it's just her, Billy, and an unusually quiet Tommy.
"Ooh, Billy! I finally remembered to bring you the new Cranberries!" Kim reaches into her tote and pulls out a CD. "I'm still obsessing over Zombie."
"Ha, same!" Billy takes the album and examines it, front to back. He considers placing it in the boombox, but Zombie is decidedly too somber for the mood he wants to curate, especially with Tommy present.
While Tommy's dark green henley doesn't stand out, it's a stark reminder for Billy of recent events: his friend's final battle, Jason's renewed guilt over the Green Candle, Kim pursuing a fortune teller for good news about Tommy, and the unexpected addition to the power team.
"Kiba coming?"
Billy looks up at Tommy as he sets the album down. "I did make mention of our scheduled fellowship when I saw him the other night in the Command Center, but he didn't exactly commit."
Tommy nods, then lies back on the blanket, pulling Kim down with him. Her giggle put a smile on his face, which was bordering on sullen the minute prior. Billy knows today was supposed to be a date, just the two of them, but plans changed (Kim's doing, which Billy assumes has to do with keeping her boyfriend included, if not making him feel comfortable around Kiba).
"Guess we'll find out in a second," Billy says under his breath, seeing four figures approach from the parking lot: Jason, Zack and Trini, with Kiba trailing close behind.
Tommy glances over as his expression shifts south. His smile isn't completely gone, because again, he's too nice for that. Instead, he wipes his palms on his jeans and stands to great the newcomer.
"Hey!" Tommy says, cheerfully. "Look at this, the whole crew's here!"
He extends a hand to Kiba, which the Eltarian learned not to dismiss. "Good afternoon. Good seeing you again. How are you?"
"Ha, why so formal?" Tommy cracks, finishing the handshake with a one-arm bro hug Kiba was clearly not expecting. "Glad you came, man."
Kiba smiles politely, then looks back at Trini. "I brought homemade fudge brownies," she announces, handing her yellow Tupperware over to Billy. "My mom's recipe."
"Heck yeah, love your mom's brownies!" Zack says, crouching onto the blanket. He reaches for the radio to pump up the jams. "I brought subs. Ernie's recipe!"
Everyone laughs, including Kiba, who doesn't quite understand why they're laughing. Billy's smile hangs, which Trini clocks after seeing his gaze hold in Kiba's direction. She also clocks the white-and-navy stripe polo Kiba is wearing as Billy's.
Days ago, Billy told Kiba his clothes were strictly on loan, but once he got a look at the fit, he knew they were Kiba's to keep. His broad shoulders, the way the polo hugged his back and chest—it'd be criminal to take them back. Perhaps a trip to the mall Kim's planning will give the 17-millennia-year-old some new options—Something less distracting, Billy quietly hopes. He and Trini trade knowing looks, meaning they will be talking later—in private.
The picnic continues on, and Jason and Zack are now in the field showing Kiba the basics of football, with Kim and Trini playing cheerleader off to the side. Tommy opts to stay back with Billy to help with clean-up, prompting Billy to ask if everything's fine.
"No, not really," Tommy answers. He picks up several empty cans of soda and pitches them into the recycling bag Trini supplied (Clean Up Club forever!).
"Oh… You wanna talk about it?"
Tommy shrugs as he turns back to gather some other trash, then pauses. He looks up at Billy with a type of sadness rarely seen.
"I'll be real with you, bro," Tommy says, stepping closer. "Kim mentioned you were trying to experiment on my coin, to figure it out."
Billy feels a lump form in his throat and nods. "Affirmative. It's true."
"It means the world to me, but… let it go, really. You don't have to stay up all night and… and… fuck, bro…you've got a full team right here."
Tommy gestures to the field where Kiba is throwing the ball across the field toward Jason, though it goes too high and winds up lodged in a tree. Zack collapses in laughter.
Billy chuckles, but when he looks back at Tommy, he sees sad resignation staring back, causing the lump in his throat to double. "I, um… I recently shut the project down. I've hit way too many walls and spent way too many hours I had no business spending at the Command Center. And, you know… with Kiba here and all—"
Before Billy can finish, the air over the field cracks with a jagged flash of crimson. Energy bolts rain and hit Kim's purse by the picnic blanket, and within seconds, two grotesque figures materialize—one with a head shaped like a purse and the other a walking tube of Siren Song Red lip stick.
"We've got picnic crashers!" Jason barks as surrounding civilians scream and scatter.
Muscle memory is a cruel thing, because as Z-Putties start to appear around Zedd's gruesome twosome, Tommy is already flipping his way toward the action, landing cleanly beside the team, ready to rumble. Billy, still by the benches, cringes on the inside.
A clay brain lunges at Tommy, and Tommy easily drops it with a spinning kick to the Z. Pop goes the Putty. "Ha! Still got it!"
Jason starts to smile, but when he sees the army spread, leader mode kicks in. "Tommy, protect the civilians! We've got… whatever the hell those things are."
"Roger that, I—"
"Wait, no!" Kiba cuts him off, stepping squarely between Tommy and the advancing monsters. "You're out of power and have zero protection. You must seek refuge with the other non-combatants."
The words hit Tommy harder than any Putty could, right as Billy joins. Frozen on the lawn, he sees Jason and the team reach for their morphers.
"Kiba, he's fine! Let's go!" Jason shouts. "It's morphin' time!"
Tommy rolls clear, just in time for the surge of power bursting forward.
"White Tiger!"
"Mastodon!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Triceratops!"
"Saber-tooth Tiger!"
"Tyrannosaurus!"
Back to Present Day: Billy's Garage
Tyrannosaurus finishes its echo as the CRT monitor flickers against Billy's glasses, while the cursor blinks rapidly at the bottom of the prose-heavy document, as if drumming along to Basket Case.
Before Billy can continue chronicling Zedd's surprise two for one, a familiar chime cuts through the grind of his beige box. It's a new instant message, propping itself front and center.
Saber-tooth-77: Y up so late?
Billy smirks as he considers an ornery reply to Trini's inquiry.
TriceraGeek: Why are YOU?
Saber-tooth-77: Diarrhea! U FINALY ready to talk about Kiba?!
From the TV, Armstrong sings about melodramatic fools, which Billy almost takes personally. He grimaces at the music video, then his chat with Trini. Switching windows, Billy scrolls up and reviews his admission about the polo shirt and broad shoulders. Anyone else on the team would question his word choice, but not Trini. She's the sole keeper of his secret, the one safe space outside his journal.
Billy slowly exhales as he reaches for the keys, types three letters, and hits Enter.
TriceraGeek: Yes