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blucougar.livejournal.com posting in antigwenallies Apr. 26th, 2014 08:57 pm)Title: Adaption
Prologue: From Times Past To Present Day
Author: blucougar57
Summary: A new rift victim proves to be a revelation, and then some, for the Torchwood team.
Rating: T, for now.
A/N: This story is a cross-over of one of my original fandoms, The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, and Torchwood. Please be patient, the first couple of chapters will focus exclusively on the Power Rangers side of things, but will then move to the Torchwood universe thereafter.
This is my NaNoWriMo story from 2013. It’s not finished yet, but I do have a significant chunk already written. I need to get back into the writing groove – it’s been far too long since I had a burst of inspiration.
I am posting this only here for now, because while I don’t consider what I’ve written to be Gwen-bashing, nor is it terribly Gwen-friendly, and there are some major clashes between Jack and Gwen.
The story strongly references “Adrift”. And no, Gwen has not learnt her lesson from the Jonah Bevin incident.
The next chapter or two will follow shortly after this one - I just think it's too much to post in one hit.
Read More
ADAPTION
Prologue: From times past to present day.
Angel Grove was a pleasant, if somewhat innocuous place to live. At least, that had been the case up until approximately twelve months ago. Before then, Angel Grove had been nice, if kind of boring. Don’t misunderstand me, please – no one could honestly claim they were discontent with their lives there. As quiet and boring as the town was, no one was complaining about living in a Californian, beach-side town where it hardly rained, and was warm even in the middle of winter.
It really was one of those stereotypical postcard resort towns that you only ever expected to find on television soap operas, where the men were all bronzed and well-muscled gods, and blonde, buxom goddesses with perfectly botoxed lips and foreheads. The difference was that in this little town, ordinary people resided; people who were not perfect and would probably never make the grade for some vacuous soap opera.
Did they care? Not one little bit.
In this innocuous, yet charming little seaside town, there lived a boy called Jason. His full name, though he rarely used it because he was not overly fond of the middle name his parents had gifted him, was Jason Lee Scott. Even his affinity for the martial arts didn’t change his mind on that account. He was a huge fan of the late, great Bruce Lee but that didn’t have to equate to liking having Lee as a middle name. He was quietly thankful that it was only his middle name and therefore something that he could generally ignore. He didn’t know what he would have done, had his parents called him Lee outright. Then again, he supposed (in the rare moments when the thought fleetingly crossed his mind) that if he had been named Lee right from the outset, he probably wouldn’t have known any different, and would never have cared.
All in all, he acknowledged that it was a pretty trivial pet peeve, and he was happy to concede that if that was his biggest worry, then he was a pretty lucky guy.
Jason lived at home with his mother and father, Sarah and Donavon. He was an only child, a situation he was more than content with, although he occasionally wished his parents would relent and let him have a dog, or some sort of pet. He’d suggested once, years ago, to his father that a dog would be infinitely easier to look after than a little brother or sister, should his parents happen to be contemplating making any such addition to their family. A dog would also be unlikely to make a nuisance of itself by getting into his belongings.
His father had roared with laughter, hugged him fiercely and suggested in a lightly teasing tone that perhaps he didn’t know quite as much about dogs as he thought he did. Jason begged to differ, but he also knew when to back away from an argument that he couldn’t hope to win.
So, he went without a dog, or any kind of a pet, but that was okay because as he got older, his time was increasingly taken up with his friends, school and karate – not strictly in that order.
Despite the appearance of being an outgoing and extroverted boy, Jason was, in fact, quite the opposite. He was naturally reserved and didn’t make friends easily. When he did find a friend, he clung to them with a ferocity that had a tendency to scare people away. He’d always been like that and, consequently, his early years had been very lonely ones. He’d regularly been excluded from the activities of his peers because they misjudged him for being a bully. It wasn’t until young Billy Cranston moved to town that Jason finally found a friend that wasn’t scared off by his exuberance.
It hadn’t been an easy friendship to start with. While Billy made other friends, Jason was still on the outer. The breaking point had been a literal one. One of their classmates had brought invitations for her birthday party and handed them out to everyone in the class, except Jason. Billy had been reluctant to go, but Jason had encouraged him to do so despite being bitterly disappointed and deeply upset over both the exclusion and the embarrassment of it happening in such a public forum. Billy went, with deep reservations that were realised when much of the party talk centred on how relieved the invitees were that Jason wasn’t there to ruin it for everyone. He left early, feeling deeply hurt for his best friend, and headed straight to Jason’s home, just in time to be witness to what he thought, at the time, was the worst thing he would ever see in his life.
Jason, in an attempt to distract himself from the disappointment of not being invited to the party, had taken to his bike and was riding up and down his street like a little speed demon. As Billy came in sight, he was just in time to see a car roar around the corner without stopping, and collide with the young boy and his bike, sending both flying several metres down the road. The driver fled and was never caught, leading police to believe it was only someone passing through Angel Grove, and not an actual resident.
Jason, luckily, had a good, strong body thanks to his karate lessons and escaped with just severe bruising. The helmet his mother had insisted he wear saved him from worse than the irritation of a concussion. He was home from the hospital that same day, but unable to go to back to school for a week because of the pain from the bruising that covered his body. The breaking point for Billy was the multitude of snide comments and jokes being made about Jason’s misfortune. In a rare show of outrage and courage, he stood up in front of the entire class and gave not only them but their teacher as well the telling off of a lifetime. In the end, every one of his classmates was looking ashamed but the only one to approach him was the person whose party invitations had triggered the whole incident – Trini Kwan.
Trini had apologised to him for her thoughtlessness and cruelty, and promised to apologise to Jason as well that very day. She made good on her promise, visiting Jason after school to apologise and to bring him a gift of a big, red plush T-Rex. It was a gift that would prove curiously prophetic.
Trini quickly became fast friends with Jason and Billy and, not too long down the track, Zack Taylor joined their group. He’d known Jason through their mutual karate classes, but that was all. Again, it was Billy who brought them all together when Zack stepped in to save the bespectacled boy from the local bullies, Bulk and Skull. Even at a young age, they were terrors, treating other kids like their personal punching bags. Billy’s offence that particular day had been merely to come within their line of sight. It was more than enough of a reason, as far as either bully was concerned.
Jason saw the incident unfolding from a distance but by the time he got there, Zack was already on the scene. He’d already put Bulk on his considerably large buttocks, and was in the process of doing the same with Skull. Jason’s arrival on the scene was enough to send the two boys, who really were cowards of the highest order, running for their lives.
Between helping Billy and laughing about how they’d sent the bullies running, Zack quickly became a fast friend and was soon stuck to Billy, Jason and Trini like glue. It was Jason, though, who snared the final member of their little group.
Kimberly Hart was, arguably, the most popular girl in school, from the time they started grade school, right through to their freshman year of high school. She was a skilled gymnast, a sure thing for the cheer squad, and classically beautiful. Even at a young age, it was obvious she was going to be gorgeous. Girls fell over themselves to be her friend, and boys fell over themselves in an effort to be her boyfriend. She never went anywhere without an entourage of her peers, and she was the last person any of the four friends thought would ever be a part of their tight little group.
At least, Billy, Trini and Zack never imagined that oh-so-perfect Kimberly Hart could or would ever be a part of their group. Jason wasn’t quite so convinced. He’d watched her from a distance for a while and sometimes, when she obviously didn’t think anyone was watching, he saw a sadness in her eyes. It was a fleeting thing, but Jason recognised it because he’d seen it in his own eyes, back before Bill had come into his life and been the friend that he’d so desperately needed.
Maybe, he’d thought, Kimberly Hart was surrounded by people, but she was just as lonely as he had once been. With that in mind, he’d tried approaching her to extend a hand of friendship, only to be rebuffed by her in a way that was both public and humiliating. Jason had walked away with his face burning at the sharp insults that had issued from the dainty Miss Hart’s mouth, and with the laughter of his fellow students ringing harshly in his ears.
His friends were confused, to say the least, and strongly advised him not to waste anymore time on her. Jason was stubborn, though. He believed he was right, and was determined not to quit. His chance came sooner than expected, when he was paired with Kim for a Chemistry assignment.
He knew what everyone was thinking and so, it seemed, did Kim. The dumb jock and the bimbo – everyone seemed to think it was a sure-fire recipe for failure. Even Billy had suggested to Jason on the quiet that he was there to help if Jason needed it. Except, Jason wasn’t as stupid as many people thought. Being good at sports did not automatically mean he had no skill for academia, and it appeared the same was true of Kim.
Once they finally talked, and she’d gotten past her reticence of him, they discovered that between the two of them, they did actually have a reasonable understanding of the material.
In the end, they breezed through the assignment and scored a well-earned “A”. It was the highest mark either had ever gotten in Chemistry, and they were both immensely proud of it and each other. There, somewhere in the midst of a jumble of chemical equations and theory, a new friendship was born.
It wasn’t long after that when Jason happened upon Eugene Skullovich by the lockers after school, cornering Kim and leering over her like a horny dog. Every time she tried to get past him, he’d block her path and push her back against the lockers. She was on the verge of tears, and Jason saw red. He strode into the fray without a second thought, sending Skull – as the creep was still commonly known – packing. Jason then took a shaken Kim back to the Youth Centre where the others were waiting, and introduced her to them as his friend and little sister.
Quickly getting past the surprise, they hit it off straight away, just as Jason had known they would. Finally, their little group was complete, and Jason couldn’t have been happier. He had four amazing friends, and life could not have been better. He was already a second dan black belt in karate when Kim joined them and within a year after that, he was running beginner karate classes at the Youth Centre with Zack. He had a new dream to follow, to have his own karate school. It was a dream that he knew could be a reality with time and hard work, and he knew he had the patience and the determination to see it happen.
Best of all, he’d put his unwarranted bad reputation from years past well and truly behind him. Now, he was building a positive reputation in the community as a good role model for the younger generation. People trusted him because he was open and honest, and trusted others with respect.
Then came the day of the earthquake.
Okay, so that should not have been such a stand-out event in itself. After all, this was California, and earthquakes happened all the time, thanks to the fault line running through the state. Except, this particular earthquake on this particular day had nothing to do with fault lines or tectonic plates. As Jason and his friends were fated to learn, the quake was caused by one Rita Repulsa –evil space witch extraordinaire – being released from her prison on the moon by a couple of overly-curious astronauts.
It all seemed ridiculously over the top. One minute they were being shaken off their feet in the Youth Centre. The next, they were being confronted by a neurotic robot and a giant floating head in a tube telling them that they had been specially chosen to defend the Earth from the evil machinations of Rita Repulsa by becoming the newest generation of something called Power Rangers.
They hadn’t believed it, of course. They’d said a polite “thanks, but no thanks”, and got the hell out of there as fast as they could. Or rather, the others had. Jason had found himself hesitating. He had wanted to hear more. The character called Zordon had intrigued him, and he felt that they should have at least heard him out. In the end, though, Jason had left with his friends.
The bitter joke was that it hadn’t made one jot of difference in the end. The witch called Rita (really, Rita? A witch called Rita, of all things?) had realised that they’d been summoned by Zordon and assumed that they had already been granted the power of being Rangers, and had sent her goons to attack. That had been a shock to the system. Despite looking ridiculous, the so-called putties had packed quite a punch and had sent the teens reeling to start with. It hadn’t taken long for them to work out how to defeat them, but the numbers kept growing until they couldn’t cope any longer.
When Zordon brought them back to the Command Centre for the second time, they were far more receptive than they had been previously. They’d accepted the power coins he’d offered them on a provisional basis, intending to use them just the once. Later on, they would laugh at their own naivety. Once was never going to be enough. Even if the threat had ended after that first battle, the power was addictive, and they were never going to be able to just give it up on a whim. Jason later suspected that Zordon knew how addictive it was, and he couldn’t help feel angry at that. Still, it was for a greater good, and all that jazz, and it wasn’t as though they went around morphing when they didn’t need to, just for the sake of getting that rush of power. Yes, it felt good, but never once did any of them abuse it.
That first day, though, after all was done and they’d gone their separate ways to go home and reflect, or recover – whichever the case may have been – Jason had retreated to his room and lay on his bed with the toy T-Rex in his hands. He wondered now whether Trini had had some small touch of second sight when she’d given the toy dinosaur to him. Sure, it must have seemed like a logical gift at the time. After all, weren’t all boys into dinosaurs? Now, though, Jason had had to wonder.
At any rate, it was what it was, and Jason quietly revelled in the new affinity he felt for the ancient dinosaur. It all seemed to fit so perfectly – each one of them to their own dinosaur symbol. Now, they were not just a group of friends – they were a team, as close-knit as any could hope to be, and Jason couldn’t envisage anything destroying that.
Then, Tommy arrived on the scene.
* * * * *
Jason didn’t know what to think of Tommy Oliver to begin with. Here was this new kid on the scene, with karate skills to rival Jason’s own, and who appeared to have the wandering eye for Kim. That last one alone was enough to raise Jason’s hackles. In a short time, he really had come to see Kim as a little sister, and he protected her like the big brother that he imagined himself to be. Kim, for her part, seemed to delight in his protective attitude, though she never took advantage of him for it.
Finally, Jason decided to offer the hand of friendship to Tommy, deciding that he could always use another friend. That, and he still had vivid memories of his own time as the odd one out with no friends to do that to someone else. After all, it wasn’t Tommy’s fault that he was new to town. No one deserved to be shouldered out before they’d had a chance, and Jason had always been big on giving chances to people.
At first, Tommy seemed affable enough, and he won points in Jason’s eyes when he scared off Bulk and Skull from harassing Kim at school. Jason truly thought that there was another about to be added to their group. But then Tommy suddenly changed. He turned cold towards all five of them, and Jason could not understand why. He had no time to worry about it, though, because at the same time a new Ranger had appeared on the scene. The Green Ranger, and he was on Rita’s side.
Knowing what he did by then about the power coins and the power in general, Jason did not want to believe that there could possibly be an evil Ranger out there. However, it seemed that was the case when the newcomer set out methodically trying to kill them all.
Jason would personally have nightmares for a long time to come over his confrontation first with Goldar, and then with the Green Ranger in the Dimension of Darkness, where he had first been beaten to a pulp by Goldar, and then almost skewered by the Ranger before being teleported to safety by his friends.
It had been a shock to them all to find out that Tommy was the Green Ranger who was so hell-bent on killing them. At first, Jason had felt betrayed, but then rationality had taken control and they had all realised that Rita had somehow enacted a form of mind control on the new boy. Then and there, they’d vowed to end it, and free Tommy. The welfare of the corrupt green power coin was of no consequence to them, despite the temptation of having a sixth Ranger on their side. All they cared about was freeing Tommy, and saving him from Rita’s clutches.
And save him they did. They even managed to salvage the coin, although its nature was never truly pure, thanks to Rita’s influence. When the green coin’s powers were drained away in an attack later on, it was almost a relief, and the revelation that Zordon had granted Tommy the new White Ranger powers was a joyful moment for all. Even the news that Tommy was to assume command of the team didn’t particularly bother Jason. By then, he’d grown worn by the constant demands of leading the team, and he was grateful that Tommy was willing to take over.
Okay, so maybe there was some minor resentment there, but it was quickly soothed over when it became obvious that Tommy still looked to him for approval and advice. It was less a case of giving up command to Tommy, than sharing command with him. That was something Jason was quite happy with.
And so they had gone, routing one monster attack after another, weathering it all even when a new villain in the form of Lord Zedd came along. Through it all, though, Jason had to deal with the enemy he’d made of Rita’s lackey, Goldar.
The ape-like monstrosity was adorned from head to toe in gold armour, with huge wings which never actually seemed to work, and his face was something not even a mother could love. Somewhere along the line, this evil lackey had decided Jason was his greatest enemy, even disregarding Tommy’s perceived betrayal by turning good, and Jason had suffered the creature’s wrath more times than he could count.
In the end, it was Goldar who would be the catalyst for Jason ending up in the predicament that he found himself in. It was Goldar, whose oath to end the Red Ranger would find apparent fulfilment one cloudy day in the middle of Angel Grove Park.
to be continued...
Prologue: From Times Past To Present Day
Author: blucougar57
Summary: A new rift victim proves to be a revelation, and then some, for the Torchwood team.
Rating: T, for now.
A/N: This story is a cross-over of one of my original fandoms, The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, and Torchwood. Please be patient, the first couple of chapters will focus exclusively on the Power Rangers side of things, but will then move to the Torchwood universe thereafter.
This is my NaNoWriMo story from 2013. It’s not finished yet, but I do have a significant chunk already written. I need to get back into the writing groove – it’s been far too long since I had a burst of inspiration.
I am posting this only here for now, because while I don’t consider what I’ve written to be Gwen-bashing, nor is it terribly Gwen-friendly, and there are some major clashes between Jack and Gwen.
The story strongly references “Adrift”. And no, Gwen has not learnt her lesson from the Jonah Bevin incident.
The next chapter or two will follow shortly after this one - I just think it's too much to post in one hit.
ADAPTION
Prologue: From times past to present day.
Angel Grove was a pleasant, if somewhat innocuous place to live. At least, that had been the case up until approximately twelve months ago. Before then, Angel Grove had been nice, if kind of boring. Don’t misunderstand me, please – no one could honestly claim they were discontent with their lives there. As quiet and boring as the town was, no one was complaining about living in a Californian, beach-side town where it hardly rained, and was warm even in the middle of winter.
It really was one of those stereotypical postcard resort towns that you only ever expected to find on television soap operas, where the men were all bronzed and well-muscled gods, and blonde, buxom goddesses with perfectly botoxed lips and foreheads. The difference was that in this little town, ordinary people resided; people who were not perfect and would probably never make the grade for some vacuous soap opera.
Did they care? Not one little bit.
In this innocuous, yet charming little seaside town, there lived a boy called Jason. His full name, though he rarely used it because he was not overly fond of the middle name his parents had gifted him, was Jason Lee Scott. Even his affinity for the martial arts didn’t change his mind on that account. He was a huge fan of the late, great Bruce Lee but that didn’t have to equate to liking having Lee as a middle name. He was quietly thankful that it was only his middle name and therefore something that he could generally ignore. He didn’t know what he would have done, had his parents called him Lee outright. Then again, he supposed (in the rare moments when the thought fleetingly crossed his mind) that if he had been named Lee right from the outset, he probably wouldn’t have known any different, and would never have cared.
All in all, he acknowledged that it was a pretty trivial pet peeve, and he was happy to concede that if that was his biggest worry, then he was a pretty lucky guy.
Jason lived at home with his mother and father, Sarah and Donavon. He was an only child, a situation he was more than content with, although he occasionally wished his parents would relent and let him have a dog, or some sort of pet. He’d suggested once, years ago, to his father that a dog would be infinitely easier to look after than a little brother or sister, should his parents happen to be contemplating making any such addition to their family. A dog would also be unlikely to make a nuisance of itself by getting into his belongings.
His father had roared with laughter, hugged him fiercely and suggested in a lightly teasing tone that perhaps he didn’t know quite as much about dogs as he thought he did. Jason begged to differ, but he also knew when to back away from an argument that he couldn’t hope to win.
So, he went without a dog, or any kind of a pet, but that was okay because as he got older, his time was increasingly taken up with his friends, school and karate – not strictly in that order.
Despite the appearance of being an outgoing and extroverted boy, Jason was, in fact, quite the opposite. He was naturally reserved and didn’t make friends easily. When he did find a friend, he clung to them with a ferocity that had a tendency to scare people away. He’d always been like that and, consequently, his early years had been very lonely ones. He’d regularly been excluded from the activities of his peers because they misjudged him for being a bully. It wasn’t until young Billy Cranston moved to town that Jason finally found a friend that wasn’t scared off by his exuberance.
It hadn’t been an easy friendship to start with. While Billy made other friends, Jason was still on the outer. The breaking point had been a literal one. One of their classmates had brought invitations for her birthday party and handed them out to everyone in the class, except Jason. Billy had been reluctant to go, but Jason had encouraged him to do so despite being bitterly disappointed and deeply upset over both the exclusion and the embarrassment of it happening in such a public forum. Billy went, with deep reservations that were realised when much of the party talk centred on how relieved the invitees were that Jason wasn’t there to ruin it for everyone. He left early, feeling deeply hurt for his best friend, and headed straight to Jason’s home, just in time to be witness to what he thought, at the time, was the worst thing he would ever see in his life.
Jason, in an attempt to distract himself from the disappointment of not being invited to the party, had taken to his bike and was riding up and down his street like a little speed demon. As Billy came in sight, he was just in time to see a car roar around the corner without stopping, and collide with the young boy and his bike, sending both flying several metres down the road. The driver fled and was never caught, leading police to believe it was only someone passing through Angel Grove, and not an actual resident.
Jason, luckily, had a good, strong body thanks to his karate lessons and escaped with just severe bruising. The helmet his mother had insisted he wear saved him from worse than the irritation of a concussion. He was home from the hospital that same day, but unable to go to back to school for a week because of the pain from the bruising that covered his body. The breaking point for Billy was the multitude of snide comments and jokes being made about Jason’s misfortune. In a rare show of outrage and courage, he stood up in front of the entire class and gave not only them but their teacher as well the telling off of a lifetime. In the end, every one of his classmates was looking ashamed but the only one to approach him was the person whose party invitations had triggered the whole incident – Trini Kwan.
Trini had apologised to him for her thoughtlessness and cruelty, and promised to apologise to Jason as well that very day. She made good on her promise, visiting Jason after school to apologise and to bring him a gift of a big, red plush T-Rex. It was a gift that would prove curiously prophetic.
Trini quickly became fast friends with Jason and Billy and, not too long down the track, Zack Taylor joined their group. He’d known Jason through their mutual karate classes, but that was all. Again, it was Billy who brought them all together when Zack stepped in to save the bespectacled boy from the local bullies, Bulk and Skull. Even at a young age, they were terrors, treating other kids like their personal punching bags. Billy’s offence that particular day had been merely to come within their line of sight. It was more than enough of a reason, as far as either bully was concerned.
Jason saw the incident unfolding from a distance but by the time he got there, Zack was already on the scene. He’d already put Bulk on his considerably large buttocks, and was in the process of doing the same with Skull. Jason’s arrival on the scene was enough to send the two boys, who really were cowards of the highest order, running for their lives.
Between helping Billy and laughing about how they’d sent the bullies running, Zack quickly became a fast friend and was soon stuck to Billy, Jason and Trini like glue. It was Jason, though, who snared the final member of their little group.
Kimberly Hart was, arguably, the most popular girl in school, from the time they started grade school, right through to their freshman year of high school. She was a skilled gymnast, a sure thing for the cheer squad, and classically beautiful. Even at a young age, it was obvious she was going to be gorgeous. Girls fell over themselves to be her friend, and boys fell over themselves in an effort to be her boyfriend. She never went anywhere without an entourage of her peers, and she was the last person any of the four friends thought would ever be a part of their tight little group.
At least, Billy, Trini and Zack never imagined that oh-so-perfect Kimberly Hart could or would ever be a part of their group. Jason wasn’t quite so convinced. He’d watched her from a distance for a while and sometimes, when she obviously didn’t think anyone was watching, he saw a sadness in her eyes. It was a fleeting thing, but Jason recognised it because he’d seen it in his own eyes, back before Bill had come into his life and been the friend that he’d so desperately needed.
Maybe, he’d thought, Kimberly Hart was surrounded by people, but she was just as lonely as he had once been. With that in mind, he’d tried approaching her to extend a hand of friendship, only to be rebuffed by her in a way that was both public and humiliating. Jason had walked away with his face burning at the sharp insults that had issued from the dainty Miss Hart’s mouth, and with the laughter of his fellow students ringing harshly in his ears.
His friends were confused, to say the least, and strongly advised him not to waste anymore time on her. Jason was stubborn, though. He believed he was right, and was determined not to quit. His chance came sooner than expected, when he was paired with Kim for a Chemistry assignment.
He knew what everyone was thinking and so, it seemed, did Kim. The dumb jock and the bimbo – everyone seemed to think it was a sure-fire recipe for failure. Even Billy had suggested to Jason on the quiet that he was there to help if Jason needed it. Except, Jason wasn’t as stupid as many people thought. Being good at sports did not automatically mean he had no skill for academia, and it appeared the same was true of Kim.
Once they finally talked, and she’d gotten past her reticence of him, they discovered that between the two of them, they did actually have a reasonable understanding of the material.
In the end, they breezed through the assignment and scored a well-earned “A”. It was the highest mark either had ever gotten in Chemistry, and they were both immensely proud of it and each other. There, somewhere in the midst of a jumble of chemical equations and theory, a new friendship was born.
It wasn’t long after that when Jason happened upon Eugene Skullovich by the lockers after school, cornering Kim and leering over her like a horny dog. Every time she tried to get past him, he’d block her path and push her back against the lockers. She was on the verge of tears, and Jason saw red. He strode into the fray without a second thought, sending Skull – as the creep was still commonly known – packing. Jason then took a shaken Kim back to the Youth Centre where the others were waiting, and introduced her to them as his friend and little sister.
Quickly getting past the surprise, they hit it off straight away, just as Jason had known they would. Finally, their little group was complete, and Jason couldn’t have been happier. He had four amazing friends, and life could not have been better. He was already a second dan black belt in karate when Kim joined them and within a year after that, he was running beginner karate classes at the Youth Centre with Zack. He had a new dream to follow, to have his own karate school. It was a dream that he knew could be a reality with time and hard work, and he knew he had the patience and the determination to see it happen.
Best of all, he’d put his unwarranted bad reputation from years past well and truly behind him. Now, he was building a positive reputation in the community as a good role model for the younger generation. People trusted him because he was open and honest, and trusted others with respect.
Then came the day of the earthquake.
Okay, so that should not have been such a stand-out event in itself. After all, this was California, and earthquakes happened all the time, thanks to the fault line running through the state. Except, this particular earthquake on this particular day had nothing to do with fault lines or tectonic plates. As Jason and his friends were fated to learn, the quake was caused by one Rita Repulsa –evil space witch extraordinaire – being released from her prison on the moon by a couple of overly-curious astronauts.
It all seemed ridiculously over the top. One minute they were being shaken off their feet in the Youth Centre. The next, they were being confronted by a neurotic robot and a giant floating head in a tube telling them that they had been specially chosen to defend the Earth from the evil machinations of Rita Repulsa by becoming the newest generation of something called Power Rangers.
They hadn’t believed it, of course. They’d said a polite “thanks, but no thanks”, and got the hell out of there as fast as they could. Or rather, the others had. Jason had found himself hesitating. He had wanted to hear more. The character called Zordon had intrigued him, and he felt that they should have at least heard him out. In the end, though, Jason had left with his friends.
The bitter joke was that it hadn’t made one jot of difference in the end. The witch called Rita (really, Rita? A witch called Rita, of all things?) had realised that they’d been summoned by Zordon and assumed that they had already been granted the power of being Rangers, and had sent her goons to attack. That had been a shock to the system. Despite looking ridiculous, the so-called putties had packed quite a punch and had sent the teens reeling to start with. It hadn’t taken long for them to work out how to defeat them, but the numbers kept growing until they couldn’t cope any longer.
When Zordon brought them back to the Command Centre for the second time, they were far more receptive than they had been previously. They’d accepted the power coins he’d offered them on a provisional basis, intending to use them just the once. Later on, they would laugh at their own naivety. Once was never going to be enough. Even if the threat had ended after that first battle, the power was addictive, and they were never going to be able to just give it up on a whim. Jason later suspected that Zordon knew how addictive it was, and he couldn’t help feel angry at that. Still, it was for a greater good, and all that jazz, and it wasn’t as though they went around morphing when they didn’t need to, just for the sake of getting that rush of power. Yes, it felt good, but never once did any of them abuse it.
That first day, though, after all was done and they’d gone their separate ways to go home and reflect, or recover – whichever the case may have been – Jason had retreated to his room and lay on his bed with the toy T-Rex in his hands. He wondered now whether Trini had had some small touch of second sight when she’d given the toy dinosaur to him. Sure, it must have seemed like a logical gift at the time. After all, weren’t all boys into dinosaurs? Now, though, Jason had had to wonder.
At any rate, it was what it was, and Jason quietly revelled in the new affinity he felt for the ancient dinosaur. It all seemed to fit so perfectly – each one of them to their own dinosaur symbol. Now, they were not just a group of friends – they were a team, as close-knit as any could hope to be, and Jason couldn’t envisage anything destroying that.
Then, Tommy arrived on the scene.
Jason didn’t know what to think of Tommy Oliver to begin with. Here was this new kid on the scene, with karate skills to rival Jason’s own, and who appeared to have the wandering eye for Kim. That last one alone was enough to raise Jason’s hackles. In a short time, he really had come to see Kim as a little sister, and he protected her like the big brother that he imagined himself to be. Kim, for her part, seemed to delight in his protective attitude, though she never took advantage of him for it.
Finally, Jason decided to offer the hand of friendship to Tommy, deciding that he could always use another friend. That, and he still had vivid memories of his own time as the odd one out with no friends to do that to someone else. After all, it wasn’t Tommy’s fault that he was new to town. No one deserved to be shouldered out before they’d had a chance, and Jason had always been big on giving chances to people.
At first, Tommy seemed affable enough, and he won points in Jason’s eyes when he scared off Bulk and Skull from harassing Kim at school. Jason truly thought that there was another about to be added to their group. But then Tommy suddenly changed. He turned cold towards all five of them, and Jason could not understand why. He had no time to worry about it, though, because at the same time a new Ranger had appeared on the scene. The Green Ranger, and he was on Rita’s side.
Knowing what he did by then about the power coins and the power in general, Jason did not want to believe that there could possibly be an evil Ranger out there. However, it seemed that was the case when the newcomer set out methodically trying to kill them all.
Jason would personally have nightmares for a long time to come over his confrontation first with Goldar, and then with the Green Ranger in the Dimension of Darkness, where he had first been beaten to a pulp by Goldar, and then almost skewered by the Ranger before being teleported to safety by his friends.
It had been a shock to them all to find out that Tommy was the Green Ranger who was so hell-bent on killing them. At first, Jason had felt betrayed, but then rationality had taken control and they had all realised that Rita had somehow enacted a form of mind control on the new boy. Then and there, they’d vowed to end it, and free Tommy. The welfare of the corrupt green power coin was of no consequence to them, despite the temptation of having a sixth Ranger on their side. All they cared about was freeing Tommy, and saving him from Rita’s clutches.
And save him they did. They even managed to salvage the coin, although its nature was never truly pure, thanks to Rita’s influence. When the green coin’s powers were drained away in an attack later on, it was almost a relief, and the revelation that Zordon had granted Tommy the new White Ranger powers was a joyful moment for all. Even the news that Tommy was to assume command of the team didn’t particularly bother Jason. By then, he’d grown worn by the constant demands of leading the team, and he was grateful that Tommy was willing to take over.
Okay, so maybe there was some minor resentment there, but it was quickly soothed over when it became obvious that Tommy still looked to him for approval and advice. It was less a case of giving up command to Tommy, than sharing command with him. That was something Jason was quite happy with.
And so they had gone, routing one monster attack after another, weathering it all even when a new villain in the form of Lord Zedd came along. Through it all, though, Jason had to deal with the enemy he’d made of Rita’s lackey, Goldar.
The ape-like monstrosity was adorned from head to toe in gold armour, with huge wings which never actually seemed to work, and his face was something not even a mother could love. Somewhere along the line, this evil lackey had decided Jason was his greatest enemy, even disregarding Tommy’s perceived betrayal by turning good, and Jason had suffered the creature’s wrath more times than he could count.
In the end, it was Goldar who would be the catalyst for Jason ending up in the predicament that he found himself in. It was Goldar, whose oath to end the Red Ranger would find apparent fulfilment one cloudy day in the middle of Angel Grove Park.
to be continued...
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I once swore I would never again venture into that fandom, but this cross-over was too tempting not to try. And I like the original characters from the original series because, as someone once eloquently stated, they had the depth of a bathtub and we took great pleasure in giving them a three dimensionalality that they never had in the show.
And boy, am I having fun mixing Jason with the Torchwood crew!
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