Chapter 27

Just after four in the morning, Jason, Billy, and Zack arrived at the football field.Where Kimberly,Trini and Alexander was waiting for them.

Zack saw Trini wounds and questioned"What happened?"

Trini answereed"Rita."

"She is coming for the Zeo Crystal," Kimberly added. "She seems to testing us."

There was already a faint hint of light in the east.

"Where is she?" Alexander asked.

"She said to meet her where the dead ships live," Trini said.

"Okay. That's the salvage yard by the docks," Alexander said. "Let's go."

No one moved. Alexander was shocked. "Are you serious? No one?"

"Alex, we're not even Power Rangers yet," Trini said.

"I say we go back to Zordon," Billy added.

Before Alex could say anything, Jason spoke up, "Zordon thinks we're a joke. He said it to my face."

Visibly upset, Billy asked, "So this was all a lie?"

"Of course it was a lie, Billy!" He saw he was upsetting them and he didn't care. "What, am I hurting your feelings? Grow up. We failed. Let's stop being delusional about being a team of superheroes."

"No," Alex interjected, his tone cutting through the murmurs of dissent. "Zordon isn't mocking us. He's facing reality. Can any of you honestly say you'd trust a group of amateur warriors, barely out of training, to take on someone like Rita? Who wiped out seasoned warriors, on Zordon team."

There was silence, when everyone thought about it Zordon was kinda right to doubt them.

"We are going it make it, we are the power ranger," Billy said, emphasizing we. He pointed to everyone in the group but Jason."We are a team!"

"We are?" Jason snapped. "We don't even know each other."

"No," Billy fired back. "The only person in this circle we don't know is you."

Whoa, Jason thought. Billy Cranston draws blood.

"You wanna know me? Fine. You think that's gonna change anything?" He laughed, solely out of frustration.

"You wanna know the deep, dark secret about Jason Scott? People expect me to do great things." He adopted his father's voice. "C'mon, Jay! Get it done. It's on you now! It's all you, you got this!" Then he was himself again. "I'm so tired of being what everyone else wants me to be! So I burned it all down. One crazy stunt after the next. When those cops were chasing me, I knew it was all over. I flipped that truck, crushed my knee. The pain was insane, but all I felt was relief."

He hadn't meant to reveal so much, but now that he had, Jason saw he was speaking to friends.

Then Alex added," Also we cannot just sit around and watch everyone die, okay? We are all screwups. But can we at least go and do the one thing that's been asked of us and kill Rita? This is a go or die situation."

With a smile at Alexander, Kimberly said, "You know this is a bad idea, right?" "The worst," he said. "Let's vote. Show of hands." Five hands rose in the darkness.

They got to the salvage yard while it was still dark, scaling and leaping over boats toward a large open building in the middle of the yard.

Zack took chains as his weapon from the yard, Trini had what looked like Japanese sickle, Billy took an iron pipe.

While Alexander, Jason and Kimberly did not take any other weapons.

They soon reached the spot looking around, found a barrel fire burned inside, and a figure slumped in a chair near the barrel. They went inside, looking past the barrel to the docks and the harbor beyond. There was music playing. When they got closer, they saw that the figure was a homeless man. He was bound and gagged.

Billy's heart raced as he stepped closer,"We'll, untie him."he said urgently, his eyes fixed on the man's terrified face.

He reached for his iron pipe and handed it to Kimberly. "Hold this," he said, determined to free the helpless man.

But Kimberly stopped him in his tracks. "No,no,no." she said firmly,"Let's just think about this, okay?"

Alexander's instincts kicked in as he surveyed the scene from afar. His eyes narrowed as he studied the bound man, who looked pale and terrified. "She's right," he said, his voice low and steady. "Something's not right here."

Trini moved closer to the man, her heart pounding in her chest. As she got closer, she could see that he was trying to communicate something to her with his eyes. Suddenly, a drop of water landed on his cheek, followed by another. Trini's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, shit," she muttered, looking up.

In an instant, Rita descended from the air, her staff glowing with green glow. She landed with a deafening crash, creating a shockwave that sent everyone flying backwards. The bound man whimpered in fear as Rita approached him, the sickly glow of her staff illuminating his terrified face.