"Shake-Up" Chapter 2/5 (PG-13)

[pc32_fics]

Fandom: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Characters/Pairings: Entire first season team, pre-TommyKim
Summary: When Tommy joins the team, the repercussions spiral out from the small group of friends and throughout Angel Grove. The Power Team has to face several challenges - in and out of the spandex.

 

2 - Changes

Tommy got out of his truck and booked it across the park, shrugging his backpack over his shoulders and cursing his bad habit of slapping the snooze button with every step. It just figured he'd be late - it seemed like he was always late.

'Probably not a good trait for a supposed superhero,' he reflected grimly. He passed the wooden bridge where the putties had attacked Zack and Kim when they chased after him and forcibly shoved down the memories.

It didn't take as long as he'd expected to find the group, and he was glad to see he wasn't the last to arrive; Zack wasn't there, either. Jason was performing a slow kata and Tommy stopped to watch with a critical eye. He wasn't sure if his input would be welcome, but he noticed Jason was dropping a shoulder on a spin and took a mental note of it for later.

His gaze traveled over to where the girls and Billy were leaning over a picnic table, books spread around them, paper tucked underneath to keep them from blowing away. He held a breath as he began second-guessing his agreement to come to this little gathering...

Sure, Trini and Jason had been friendly... and the others hadn't seemed to be too angry with him in the Command Center. Billy made him a communicator, and Kim had smiled so encouragingly when Jason asked him to join the team...

But she hadn't been able to meet his eye in the Command Center later that day, and he didn't blame her. He'd been really cruel...

Kim threw her pencil down in a huff, and Tommy bit back a grin. She was awfully cute when she was angry. Trini looked up then and waved; he blushed, hoping she hadn't caught him staring at the Pink Ranger. She motioned for him to join them; he rocked back and forth a moment, uncertain.

"C'mon, slowpoke," she called teasingly, and his lips quirked into a smile. Jason whirled and grinned, jogging over. Billy nodded in acknowledgment; Kim shot him a look over her shoulder before quickly turning back to Billy and apparently asking him a question, ducking her head.

'That's weird.'

"Hey, glad you made it!" Jason clapped a hand on his shoulder, smiling all the while. "Trini said she called; I was gonna but mom was being crazy about the phone and all."

"That's fine," Tommy said, shrugging. "It's just nice of you guys to invite me here."

"You're one of us now, bro. Get used to it!" Jason looked at his bag. "Lots of homework?"

"Mainly physics," he grumbled. "I can't stand it."

Jason pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Billy's a whiz at it; I'm sure he'd be glad to help. In fact, he'd probably be thrilled if you asked," he suggested. Tommy nodded, getting the message.

"Is Zack coming?"

A dark looked crossed Jason's face quickly; Tommy blinked in astonishment and then Jason was forcing a smile on his face. "Yeah, probably. He's running a bit late today... I think he had family visiting."

"Uh, alright..." Tommy wasn't sure what to say. "I'd better get onto my homework. I've got a lot to do."

"Yeah, get to it! We'll probably take a break to spar in an hour or so, 'kay? We're just waiting on Zack."

Tommy nodded and, steeling himself with a deep breath (he ignored Jason's muffled snicker), headed toward the picnic table.

"-I just wonder if he's going to show up," he heard Kim murmur as she glared balefully at the English book in front of her. "It's not like them to fight like this."

"Zack changed the subject when I tried to bring it up last night," Trini said, shaking her head. "Why don't guys ever talk about their problems?"

"Because boys are dumb," Kim declared, putting down her pencil.

Billy looked up, mock-glaring at the both of the girls in turn. "While I agree that the quarrel is both quite out-of-character for both of our companions and could cause great complications in our future endeavors, I'm disinclined to believe it will persist for a great length of time."

Tommy blinked. 'Does he always talk like that?' He hoped not; he felt like his vocabulary devolved just listening to the Blue Ranger speak.

Thankfully, it appeared he wasn't the only one.

"What?" Kim interrupted.

"He doesn't think it'll last long," Trini explained with a smile.

"Furthermore," Billy stressed, smiling when Kim shrugged sheepishly for breaking in, "I believe it is an unfair misrepresentation of myself and fellow males to place the onus of their actions on their gender, rather than their personalities."

"We shouldn't say they're dumb just because they're guys," Trini translated quickly. Tommy wondered how often Trini ended up speaking for the Blue Ranger – it seemed like she didn't have a problem with it.

"Well, they are," Kim grumped, sticking her tongue out at Billy. She jumped when Tommy couldn't hold back a chuckle; apparently she hadn't heard him come up behind her. Billy's and Trini's eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Good afternoon, Tommy," Billy said with a nod. Tommy smiled when Trini echoed her friend.

Kim was clearly flustered, looking everywhere but at Tommy before she took a deep breath. "Hey."

Tommy noticed she was a bit flushed and shuffled his feet. "Uh, hey."

"Trini invite you?"

"Yeah." He threw a thankful look to the Yellow Ranger, who motioned to the open seat next to Billy, across from Kim.

"Sit down," she suggested. "You said last night you have homework to do; what subjects do you need to go over?"

"Physics; the rest is busy-work but I just can't wrap my mind around these formulas-"

"You have the class with Mr. Fewler?" Billy wondered. Tommy nodded, and Billy's face lit up. "How fortunate! I've tutored several of his students with his encouragement; if you would like any assistance, please feel free to-"

"Yes," Tommy interjected, throwing an amazing amount of appreciation and hope behind that one word. "...please?"

Trini and Kimberly giggled; Tommy blushed as he began flipping through pages, looking for his folded-up homework.

-xxx-

Jason let out a breath, silently thanking the Power that something had gone right. After a bit of a tense start, it seemed as though Tommy fit in well with the others. Billy was more than excited to lend a hand on homework, and Trini had reached out easily enough.

And hey, Kimberly had invited Tommy to the Youth Center after just a few minutes of even speaking to him before everything hit the fan. It wasn't like her to hold a grudge, so they'd be fine. He straightened his shoulders unconsciously, pleased with himself; if there was anything he could be sure of, it was that Kim would be excited to spend more time with the guy she had gushed over at the karate tournament.

'See?' he thought proudly, 'I can help her rather than chasing away every guy she likes.' He made a mental note to point that out to her in private eventually.

One problem down.

Jason cast a glance around the park again. Zack still hadn't shown up. It wasn't like the Black Ranger to stay angry for long - much less at his best friend - but things hadn't been this strained in a while. He'd just come to the conclusion that Zack wasn't going to show when the teen broke through the trees, heading straight to the picnic table without giving Jason more than a passing glance.

Jason groaned softly, rolling his eyes. 'Figures. Of course, the whole week has been one step forward, two steps back... so hey, why stop now, right?' Resolving to get to the bottom of the dispute, he purposefully made his way over to the group. It hadn't been even a half hour since Tommy sat down, but Jason figured they'd better get a work-out in before getting too involved in homework.

"Let's take a little while to get some other work in!"

Jason watched as Tommy practically leaped from his seat. "Great! I could use a break."

"You've only been working for 15 minutes," Trini teased.

"I told you I hate physics," he laughed in response.

Billy remained silent and began stretching near Trini; Zack stood on the other side of the Yellow Ranger. Kimberly bent over to stretch her lower back and Jason found himself holding back a stern glare when he caught Tommy ogling her.

Jason smirked at the Green Ranger's clear discomfiture when Tommy looked up, met his eyes, and blushed. "So, why do you guys do this, again?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Zack rolled his eyes. Trini gave him a shove and turned to Tommy, hoping the teen hadn't seen. "It's good training, for one. We all have different skills, and learning new things keeps us on our toes."

Jason nodded, "Also, Rita likes to screw around with us. Some of her plans mess with our minds... it's usually something dumb-"

"Yeah, says you. I used a bottle and a half of shampoo washing all the product out of my hair when Billy and I were turned into punks," Kim interjected wryly.

Jason snickered at the memory before continuing, "-but she can get really smart sometimes. If she turns us against one another, then-" He bit his tongue, suddenly realizing just who he was talking to. Tommy had gone pale.

"Aw, man. I'm so sorry, bro. I didn't mean-"

"No, it's..." Tommy licked his lips, not making eye-contact with anybody. "It's okay. It's a good point... I guess I'm proof of that, right?" He forced a laugh and Jason flinched.

"Anyway..." Jason looked around the group quickly. "We should probably just pair off and run through a couple quick sessions. Nothing too rough, since we don't have mats here... but then, we don't have mats really when the putties come, so..." he realized he was babbling and cut himself off, taking a deep breath. Trini put a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Okay. Um, let's see... hey, with six of us, we'll have even pairs!" he pointed out happily. Now it was a matter of whom against whom? He didn't feel like taking on Zack - he was still feeling a bit bitter, if he had to be honest.

"Trini, you'll go against Zack." Zack didn't react at all. The Yellow Ranger nodded, though Jason caught her looking thoughtfully at him and turned away before she could be psychoanalyzing him. Not that it would stop her.

Jason then looked to Billy and Kim; who to pair with Tommy? Tommy was really skilled... after all, they'd tied in the match before Rita mucked everything up. As much as he'd like to take the Green Ranger on again, it'd probably be smarter to wait until they were someplace safer. Besides, Billy and Kim were the two that needed the most work, so there was no real use putting the two of them together.

He wasn't sure if Tommy had taught any lessons before, though. Kim would probably hold her own a bit better, even though Jason was sure Tommy wouldn't just beat his opponent into the ground. He had too much honor to do something like that, especially when his opponent was clearly weaker.

'Hey, it's not like Kim should mind,' Jason told himself. 'Considering how much she drooled over him at the tournament, some one-on-one time would be good for her. Can't have her staring at him when we're supposed to be fighting putties and monsters. Plus, then she can't say I'm being "too overprotective" of her.'

Nodding to himself, Jason looked at Billy. "I'll work with you today." He turned to Tommy, "Will you work with Kim? She's pretty good on defense but could use some work taking the offense."

Tommy shot him a panicked look, catching Jason off-guard. 'What? He was just staring at her ass a minute ago!'

"Is that a problem?" Jason wondered, raising an eyebrow. Great, the first test of his authority was to get Tommy to work with a girl he thought he liked. Why was this an issue?

"I- uh... um," Tommy rubbed the back of his neck, eyes darting around before he gave a quick nod. "No, that's fine. It's good. Offense. Good idea."

Jason turned to look at Kim, who seemed even more uneasy. "Kim?"

"Yeah?"

"You okay with this?"

"Oh... I- well," she fumbled for an answer. "I mean, you know, I'm not really all that great and like, he and you are really both pretty awesome at fighting and so maybe you two should work together and I can be with Billy?"

Jason lifted an eyebrow, a bit bewildered by her suggestion. "No offense, Kim, but you're really not in a good position to be teaching Billy stuff... which is why I'm going to work with him today. Tommy can help you." He winced when Kim stared at him like he'd shoved her in the mud - a mixture of disbelief and upset that he couldn't even begin to understand. He made himself ignore it, smile and add lightly, "What, you think Tommy's going to pound you into the ground?"

"Not exactly, but-"

"Hey, I won't make things too hard," Tommy interjected, stepping forward. "And I'd never hurt you intentionally." Jason threw him a thankful look, clapping his hand on the young man's shoulder as thoughts of the previous week clearly flew through his mind. Seeing that, he shot Kim a remonstrating look; her unwillingness to work with Tommy wasn't just weird... it was making the Green Ranger feel guilty.

Kim shifted from one foot to another, chewing her lip. "Um, okay." She snagged Trini's arm as the Yellow Ranger walked past her to meet up with Zack. "Trini, I just remembered my shoes are in your bag and I really shouldn't fight in heels so... let's go grab them. You can help me put them on."

Jason blinked. 'Does it really take two girls to change a pair of shoes?'

He turned back to Tommy, but was interrupted by Billy's confused look. "I don't want to seem like a bother, Jason, and your lessons have always been very well-taught. But I'm curious as to why you've chosen to change a previously successful arrangement. Working with Trini has been most propitious-"

"We can't let ourselves get complacent or used to just one style of fighting," Jason interrupted. It wasn't like he didn't value his friends' input, but he was getting really sick of everybody questioning his decisions. Was this going to be a common thing? Was he the leader or not?

Billy mulled that over for a moment and then gave in - whether out of agreement or realizing that his leader was growing frustrated, Jason wasn't sure.

"I'll be right over, if you want to finish stretching out," Jason said, before turning back to Tommy. The Green Ranger was staring at Kim and Trini with a look of consternation on his face as she slooooooowly changed her shoes, quite obviously babbling at Trini at something close to a thousand words per minute. Jason crossed his arms and cocked his head, raising his eyebrows when Trini looked over her shoulder at them. "Is there a problem, girls?"

Kim looked up, shaking her head quickly. Trini giggled and Kim swatted her. "No, we'll be right over," the Yellow Ranger assured them.

Jason shrugged. "We've been friends forever and I still don't know anything more about girls than I did before I started hanging out with them," he told Tommy wryly.

Tommy grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. "I haven't spent much time with them, truthfully... my family moved around a lot. I didn't have a lot of time to make friends."

"Well, you've got us now!" Jason said, clapping Tommy on the shoulder. "You going to be okay working with Kim?"

"As long as she's okay working with me." Tommy winced, "I don't really blame her for not wanting to-"

"Don't think about, bro. She's just being... Kim. You'll catch on soon enough."

-xxx-

Zack bounced, watching the girls with amusement and waiting for Trini to finish commiserating with Kim so she could come work out with him. Working with Trini was always fun; she was a challenge but didn't place as much importance on winning.

The Black Ranger had been torn between frustration and amusement at Jason's fumbling when it came to dividing them up. If he'd been in charge - not that he wanted to be; in his opinion, leading was a thankless job with lots of stress - he would have put Tommy and Trini together, had Jason work with Kim, and he would have volunteered to spar with Billy. Kim didn't seem comfortable around Tommy just yet; then again, Zack wondered if Jason really knew the mean things Tommy had said. After all the Red Ranger had been in the dark dimension for most of it...

Jason. That's what it all came down to. He was confused by his best friend's attitude... he'd usually been so good about accepting constructive criticism. After all Jason's claims of teamwork and working together and learning for each other, he was being remarkably hard-headed about accepting that he may have made a mistake.

If anything, he could have asked the team first.

"Oof!" He was suddenly staring up at a blue sky from his back. "Not cool, Trini."

The Yellow Ranger leaned over him. "Maybe you'd better start paying attention, instead of getting lost in thought."

"I thought you liked seeing your friends use their brains?" he teased, regaining his feet and taking a defensive stance.

Trini smiled as she moved into a flurry of kicks and punches. "Thinking is good most of the time - sometimes, though, we have to let go and go with our gut instincts." She stressed the last two words, and Zack faltered.

'How does she always know what we're thinking?' Honestly, it bordered on creepy sometimes.

The momentary lapse in concentration earned him a light kick to the stomach. With a grunt he waved, conceding a point to her.

They bowed, and Zack took the offensive.

"I thought you might not show up," Trini said chidingly of Zack's late arrival.

"Yeah, well, family and all that." He danced out of the way of Trini's counterattack and spun behind the Yellow Ranger to pin her arms behind her back. "Besides, this is a team thing, or so you said last night. Teamwork is important."

"It is," she agreed, acknowledging Zack's victory. They moved back into position. "And a big part of teamwork is trusting each other."

There was no accusation in Trini's voice, but Zack cringed nonetheless. "Why wouldn't we trust each other?"

"I never said that."

He grumbled under his breath, pressed to the breaking point by her subtle pokes and prods. "I didn't feel like talking about this last night, and I still don't," he insisted.

She stopped, placing her hands on her hips and pinning him with a glare. "Zack-"

"Sorry! I'll see you guys tomorrow or at school!"

The duo turned to see Kim scampering off, bag thrown hastily over her shoulder - her homework still scattered on the table. Tommy looked bewildered.

Jason was pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright..."

"What happened?" Zack demanded. Kim could be a bit flighty, and she often tried her best to get out of things she didn't want to do... but he was surprised to see her actually physically running away.

Tommy shrugged, eyes still on where Kim had taken off to in the trees. "I-I dunno. I was showing her a combination and we were doing fine. She has really good form," he said as an aside to Jason, who nodded his agreement. "Anyway, she was having trouble with a block, so I went to move her into position. Out of nowhere she ran over to the table, looked in her bag, grabbed it and took off."

Trini sighed and rested her face in her hand, counting backward just loud enough for Zack to hear. Jason tilted his head back, staring at the sky as if searching for answers. Tommy still looked bewildered, and Billy just shrugged.

Zack chuckled. 'What a mess.'

After a moment, everybody seemed to pull themselves together. "So what now?" Zack asked rhetorically. They were back to the five-person team... surely Jason would have Tommy go over and help with Billy.

"Okay," Jason sighed, "Trini, why don't you come and work with Billy and me? Tommy, you'll take on Zack."

Zack's shoulders dropped and he bit his tongue to keep from making a snarky comment; Trini elbowed him sharply and he straightened.

"Alright. Let's do this," Tommy said, passing Trini. Zack sized him up quickly. When they'd fought before, both had been powered-up. However, Tommy had been a match with Jason at the tournament, and Zack knew that made Tommy rather dangerous. He knew what he was doing... but how would the Green Ranger handle his Hip Hop Kido? After all, they hadn't done much hand-to-hand combat in their battles.

Tommy and Zack bowed before Tommy took a defensive stance, silently inviting Zack to make the first move. He grinned and pulled himself into a spin, dropping suddenly to swipe his legs at Tommy's feet. He leaped over them and retaliated with a swift kick and punch, both of which Zack avoided with a backflip. He landed with a smooth couple steps back, just enough to throw Tommy off-balance, and moved forward to catch Tommy on the shoulder with an open palm.

"Point?"

Tommy nodded, a smile slowly making his way across his face. "Where'd you learn that? That move was awesome."

Zack couldn't help it; he preened a little. "Thanks. I call it Hip Hop Kido. I took karate lessons with Jason when we were younger, but ended up taking dance classes later. I've mixed the two, kinda like what Kim did with her gymnastics."

The Green Ranger nodded as they slid back into position. "That makes sense. I'll have to spar with you more often, see if I can't pick something up."

Zack blinked. 'From me? Tommy's a top-class martial artist...' He shoved the stray thought to the back of his mind as Tommy came at him. From there, the two continued an easy one-on-one session. As Tommy came over to help him reposition his arms for a better arm-bar, the Black Ranger began to feel the first stirrings of guilt... at least toward Tommy. He'd been really quick to judge the Green Ranger - not that it'd been difficult, considering his attack on Angel Grove and all. But still, he seemed really repentant, eager to make friends, and even a little shy.

That didn't excuse Jason's actions any, though. They were a team, and Tommy's attack, no matter how much it was influenced by evil aliens on the moon, really rattled their spirits. Inviting him to join them right away should have been a group decision. Jason wouldn't even listen to Zack's reasoning, and it rankled in him to see that his best friend seemed to be brushing off his concerns... even worse, the Red Ranger seemed to resent them.

"Hey, you in there, man?"

Zack twitched, pulled out of his thoughts as Tommy stared at him. "Yeah, sorry about that." He forced a laugh. "Just doing some heavy-duty thinking. Wanna see if I can do this without breaking my arm?"

Tommy nodded, unquestioning, and the day continued.

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