Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Jason, NASA wants to know what we're doing.” Zack was creating an orbital insertion with zero help from ground control and apparently he still cared about their questions, which was more than Jason could do. “They also asked if they should be worried about the other ship.”

“What good would worrying do them?” Trini asked. She'd put up every vector they had for objects in Earth orbit, but it would have been a lot easier with a ground-based agency feeding them the information. “Do they have an anti-invasion plan they haven't told us about?”

“Why haven't they used it before now?” Kim added, sitting at her station and tapping her foot against one of the railings. “I've been worried for weeks.”

“I don't think they have an anti-invasion plan,” Billy said. “But it's probably a good idea to tell them the other ship is ours. Maybe not who's on it, though; I'm not sure which laws alien visitors are breaking without government documentation but it's definitely more than one.”

“You weren’t kidding about ground control,” Andros’ voice said in his ear. Or over his shoulder. He sounded like he was standing on the Bridge with them, but when the navigation matrix was active, Jason was the only one who heard him. “Earth doesn’t even have in-system support for vehicles in a planetary orbit?”

“Not for alien vehicles,” Jason said. “Every country has their own agency, and they only talk to each other when they have to.”

“One of them should be talking to us,” Andros said. “Are we just supposed to guess where everyone’s going based on current vectors? What happens when someone changes direction? Who alerts the rest of the traffic?”

“Most of this stuff isn’t manned,” Jason said. He was trying not to throw off Zack’s approach by extending their flight path, but the lack of system response from Earth was making the ship restless. “It’s controlled remotely from the ground.”

There was a long pause, and he was pretty sure that was Zhane talking to Andros in the background. Not that Jason could hear him, but he could imagine the conversation. It was oddly like hearing Zordon’s team standing at their stations instead of his own: bright and obvious and frustratingly hard to understand.

“Interesting,” Andros said at last.

“NASA, we’re coming into a parking orbit and we have friends on approach,” Zack was saying. “We’re broadcasting a cheerful and very non-hostile hello on all frequencies.”

“We are?” Kim said.

“Hopefully we are,” Zack said. “Jason, any chance you can confirm that? Or make the ship do it? Actually, can the Delta Flyer hear us?”

“We can hear you,” Andros replied. “You come up green on every detection system we have. I don’t know what you have on the ground, but I wouldn’t shoot you down.”

“You can hear the ship?” Jason repeated. The ship warned him again about the lack of receiving apparatus or acknowledgment from the planet they were barreling toward, and Jason tried to ignore it. “Or you can hear Zack, specifically?”

“Both,” Andros said. “Zhane wants to know if Earth can shoot down incoming spacecraft. I’m sure he means that in a totally non-aggressive way.”

“That’s really not helpful,” Zack said. “Why can’t we all hear the Delta Flyer?”

“Probably for the same reason we can’t all hear NASA,” Trini said.

“Yeah, why’s that?” Zack wanted to know. “Because I’m pretty sure they can hear everything I say. Right? NASA, do you copy?”

“The Delta Flyer can hear all of us,” Jason said.

He felt Billy get it half a second before the rest of them. Billy caught Trini’s eye and Jason shook his head at Kim just as Zack said, “Yeah, NASA’s reading us loud and clear.”

Which meant that someone on the ground--probably a lot of someones--was hearing more than just Zack’s report. They were hearing a bunch of teenagers make fun of government agencies that so far hadn’t arrested them. They might deserve it, but it wouldn't make cooperating with them any easier.

“Sorry about that, Ground Control,” Zack was saying. “We're still working out what all these buttons do.”

Trini grinned, which almost made it worth it right there. Kim waved her hand dismissively from where she was sitting, but at least neither of them said anything. Unlike Billy, whom Jason could hear say, “Jason. Ask the ship not to broadcast our voices.”

Jason looked at him, because Billy should know not to talk, and also that Jason had no idea how to make the ship do anything. Billy just looked back at him. “The ship likes you,” he said. “Try thinking about what you want.”

Billy wasn't talking.

“I'm thinking at you,” Billy said. Or thought. “It's never worked before, but if the ship can translate languages I don't see why it can't relay thoughts. Trini and I heard you the other day. Can you hear me now?”

Jason nodded. Andros was still talking in his ear--actually talking, probably, but at this point he wasn't sure of anything--and Zack was telling NASA that they had people calculating vectors and switching the engines over and coordinating with the other ship. Which was true, even if it all sounded a lot busier than Kim looked, perched on the edge of her station and kicking her foot into the star charts every few seconds.

Hey, Jason thought, because it was worth a try. Thanks for the ride. Can you keep NASA from hearing anyone except Zack?

“Oh, wait,” Zack said. He put a hand to his ear, then snapped his fingers like he wasn't sure he was hearing on both sides. “My audio just changed. NASA, do you copy?”

“Jason, are you still there?” Andros asked at the same time. “I think our link just cut out.”

“We're still here,” Jason said. “I think the ship might be… adjusting the audio pickup for us.”

He gave Billy a look that was supposed to mean: seriously? The ship was fixing their communication because he'd asked? After Billy telepathically suggested it?

If the ship was actually responding to his requests, stated or otherwise, did that mean the ship thought he wanted to know what Billy was thinking?

Billy just shrugged, and Jason had a moment of panic over the possibility that Billy was now hearing everything he was thinking too. Except he wasn't hearing everything, he reminded himself. Just that one suggestion. He'd definitely thought more compromising things about Billy since they'd been on the ship than what was going through his mind right now, and Billy hadn't mentioned overhearing any of it.

“Our AI does that for us,” Andros was saying. “Maybe yours is just older. Different kind of interface.”

“Yeah, okay,” Zack added. “That's better; they're only getting me now.”

“Oh, sorry,” Trini said without missing a beat. “I thought you said that was better.”

“It's better because we can say whatever we want and Zack can't,” Kim added.

“Why is Zack talking to NASA in the first place?” Trini wanted to know. “You're not busy.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Kim said. “I'm not doing anything, so I have no idea what's going on. What am I going to tell them?”

“Ha ha,” Trini said.

“I'm not kidding,” Kim told her. “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“Keeping Zack and Jason from hitting anything,” Trini said. “And wondering how many times we said each other’s names while NASA was listening.”

“Do you want us to answer any of these calls?” Andros asked in Jason’s ear. “I think I wished for the wrong thing when I said someone on your planet should be talking to us.”

“Probably not,” Jason said. They were barely managing one organization, and they certainly weren't doing it gracefully. “Who else is talking to you?”

“Australia’s pretty funny,” Andros reported. “China’s very serious. I can't tell if the ESA is joking or not.”

Did Australia even have a space program, Jason wondered? He'd taken Camber’s suggestion and done some googling, and he couldn't remember anything about an Australian space agency. He wasn't sure his own team should be talking to world governments, let alone aliens.

“No,” Billy said. “Australia doesn't have a national space program.”

“Okay, stop telling Billy everything I think,” Jason said. He didn't mean to say it out loud, but just thinking things was pretty unreliable so far. “That's not on.”

“I assume you're not talking to us,” Andros said, in a way that made it sound like he wasn't sure at all.

“No,” Jason said with a sigh. “I'm talking to the ship.”

“Is the ship talking back?” Trini asked.

“Not yet?” Jason said. It was more of a guess than he wanted it to be. “Tell you the truth, I don't know if that's good or bad.”

“It can,” Billy said. “The ship can talk back.”

“Uh,” Billy added. “Is that my voice? Because that's not me. Did other people just hear my voice?”

Jason caught his eye across the circle and he knew. Or maybe Billy knew and Jason really could read his mind. He thought it was only fair that it should start going both ways at some point.

“The ship is talking in a voice that's familiar to you,” Billy’s voice said.

“Okay, that's not creepy at all,” Kim said. She folded her arms, but she didn't get up, so she wasn't that worried.

“I find it creepy,” Billy said. “Also, when you say ‘familiar to you,’ do you mean familiar to Jason specifically, or familiar to all of us?”

Creepy, apparently, but not dubious. They all accepted it as true, and Jason had a moment to wonder when they'd become so trusting. Or gullible. Before or after the space witch powered by gold, he wondered?

“The ship is using the voice of its engineer,” Billy’s voice said.

“Oh,” Billy said. “That makes sense.”

“Can you use a voice we don't know?” Jason asked. “That's gonna get confusing, otherwise.”

“Yes,” a new voice said. “The ship can use a voice you don't know.”

“That's slightly better,” Trini said. “Why didn't we know the ship can talk? And why does it talk about itself in the third person?”

“Maybe we have to talk to it,” Kim said, when there was no answer from the ship. “How come we didn't know you could talk?”

There was no answer to that either, and Billy said, “That's a pretty open-ended question. I don't even know how to answer that. The ship might not know what you're looking for.”

“Or maybe it just doesn't like us,” Zack said.

“It likes us,” Jason said. “And don’t confuse NASA.”

But Zack was already saying, “Nothing to worry about, Ground Control. We're five by five on orbital approach.”

“Jason, we’re only hearing you right now,” Andros said. “Was that a yes or no on responding to Earth-based hails?”

“Andros, we don’t know what we’re doing,” Jason replied. “Talk to whoever you want. Billy, how much does the ship understand what we’re saying?”

“Uh, how would I know that?” Billy asked. “Where’s Alpha? Why don’t you ask him?”

“The ship understands your language,” their unidentified voice said. “The ship does not always understand the way you use it. The more literal your question, the more likely the ship will be to answer appropriately.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Billy said. “Okay, so what should we call you? I mean, how do we get your attention, so you know our question is directed at you and not someone else?”

“When you are standing in the circle,” the voice said, “the ship knows when you are addressing it.”

“But we don’t,” Trini said. “If you have a name, we can use it so everyone else knows we’re talking to you and not them.”

“When you’re in the circle,” the voice began, and then stopped half a second before Jason would have spoken over it.

“What about when we’re not in the circle?” he asked. “Can we still talk to you then?”

“Did you just interrupt the ship?” Kim said.

“Be nice or it’s not gonna like you anymore,” Trini added.

“Do you have a name?” Billy asked. “Whose voice are you using now? Does it have a name?”

“This is the voice of the ship’s previous engineer,” the ship told them. “His name is Javan.”

“Can we use that?” Trini asked. “Can we use Javan’s name when we’re talking to you?”

“Yeah, ‘cause that won’t be confusing at all,” Kim said.

“The ship recognizes the name Javan as your preferred method of address,” the ship replied. “The ship will recognize this designation when you’re in or outside of the circle.”

Zack was waving at Jason, the Deaf attention-getting gesture they’d been using most of the weekend, and Jason knew what he wanted even before Zack said, “NASA, standby.”

“Javan,” Jason said. “Can you keep NASA from hearing any of us, including Zack?”

“Yes,” the ship replied. Then, just as Jason remembered the difference between literal language use and the way all of them talked, the ship added, “External communications are muted, with the exception of your intership link with the Delta Flyer.”

“Okay, NASA has a lot of questions,” Zack said. “And they’re really distracting when I’m actually trying to fly the ship. How serious are we about not offending federal agencies?”

“Tell them to shut up,” Trini said.

Jason glanced at Kim, who shrugged. “We’ve ignored most of their questions so far. Do they really expect us to start answering now?”

“Yeah,” Zack said. “Yeah, they do.”

“Jason,” Andros said. “How do you feel about alien visitors on your planet? I assume you don’t have a global customs agency, but Australia says we’re welcome in their country.”

“Andros, stand by,” Jason said, because it had worked for Zack. “Zack, I’m with Trini on this one. Except I don’t think you should actually say ‘shut up,’ just… something that doesn’t make the whole country hate us when NASA releases the transcript.”

“Great,” Zack said. “No pressure.”

“You could try saying you’re not authorized to answer,” Billy suggested. “I used that on national security agents and it worked pretty well. Even when Jason was standing right there.”

“They didn’t know I was the Red Ranger,” Jason said. “It worked, though.”

“What, I can’t answer because my team leader didn’t tell me what to say?” Zack said. “That’s insulting. No offense, man.”

“But it’s true,” Kim said. “He didn’t tell you what to say. You asked, and he couldn’t give you an answer.”

“Pass the buck,” Trini said. “That’s what everyone else does.”

Jason shrugged when Zack looked at him again. “I’d do it if I could,” Jason said. “Actually, maybe I can. You’re the navigator, right? Next time someone wants to know where we parked, I’ll just say our navigator does all of that.”

“Blame someone else,” Zack said. “Okay. Yeah. I see where you’re going with this.”

“Before you go back to NASA and tell them that everything is my fault,” Jason said, “Andros wants to know if he and Zhane can visit Earth. Apparently Australia invited them.”

“What are we, the Earth police?” Trini demanded. “They can do whatever they want.”

“Why hasn’t Australia invited us anywhere?” Kim wanted to know.

“We kind of are the Earth police,” Billy said. “Also, if Andros and Zhane appear on Earth as Power Rangers, without--well, I assume their armor conceals their appearance, is that true of all Rangers? I think that’s true of all Rangers. But if they appear without it, then everyone will know who they are.”

“Who cares?” Zack asked. “They’re aliens. There’s nothing to know.”

“If anyone tries to throw them in jail they can just leave,” Kim said.

“It’s true we don’t have any extradition treaties with non-Earth governments,” Billy said, “but if we’re seen with known Power Rangers, the likelihood of our identities being revealed by association is very high.”

“We can’t hang out with them if everyone knows what they look like,” Trini said.

“Andros,” Jason said. “Earth doesn’t know who we are. You and Zhane can go wherever you want, but if anyone recognizes you, none of us can be seen with you.”

“Which would make us sad,” Kim said, “because we like you. Tell him,” she added, waving impatiently at Jason.

“Kim says to tell you that would make us sad because we like you,” Jason repeated obediently.

“Okay,” Andros said after a pause. “Zhane’s laughing. You said you wear your armor when you’re talking to your people as Rangers, right? We can do that too. Does that solve the problem?”

“If no one knows what you look like?” Jason said. “Yeah, that works. If they morph when they go places as Rangers,” he added, so the rest of them knew what he was responding to. “That’s fine, right?”

“Yeah,” Zack said.

Kim and Trini nodded, but Billy said, “Their names, too. The probability of two unrelated people named Andros and Zhane appearing in the news as Power Rangers, and also in Angel Grove as out-of-town visitors, is pretty small.”

“And Billy says you shouldn’t use your names,” Jason added. “Sorry.”

There was a brief moment, and then Andros’ voice said, “Zhane wants to know if we can use fake names. That’s a terrible idea,” he added. “No, we’re not using fake names.”

Jason closed his mouth just as Andros said, “Because then the next planet to talk to Earth will hear about non-existent Kerovan Rangers.”

“They’re arguing over whether or not to use fake names,” Jason said, in response to Kim’s questioning look. “Zhane says yes, Andros says no.”

“What a surprise,” Kim said with a smile.

“If they get to use fake names, we get to use fake names,” Zack said.

“Why do you want to use a fake name?” Billy asked.

“Because it’s fun,” Zack said.

“Oh, that sounds familiar,” Trini said.

“We’ll use our colors,” Andros said. Then, almost immediately, “Yes I will!”

“They’re going to use colors,” Jason said.

“Zhane says I won’t remember to call him Silver,” Andros reported. “He’s probably right. I’ll try not to use his name, anyway.”

“Yeah, we can’t remember either,” Jason told him. “And NASA’s not stupid; they probably have some sort of voice analyzing algorithm that will have figured out who we are by tomorrow anyway.”

“Your ship should be able to disguise your voices for you,” Andros said. “The armor usually does it by default.”

“I noticed that,” Jason said. “So all the suits do that? How come?”

“Well, Rangers aren’t popular everywhere,” Andros said. “The people we protect usually like us, but then there’s everything we’re protecting them from. If there weren’t so many adversaries out there we wouldn’t need so many Rangers. So the uniforms are repetitive by design, and anonymous by default.”

“Probably not,” Billy was saying. “A database of that size would be impractical to store and impossible to search without narrowing the parameters significantly.”

As soon as Jason wondered what Billy was talking about, he knew: the possibility that NASA actually could identify them by their voices.

Javan, he thought. Did you just tell me what the rest of the team was talking about while I was listening to Andros?

“Yes,” Javan’s voice replied.

No one else looked around, so he assumed that meant the ship's voice was in his head.

“Okay,” Jason said aloud. “Good to know. But there’s one thing we haven’t talked about yet, and I think it’s important.”

Now they were looking at him, and the ship reluctantly confirmed a completed flight path even in the absence of ground recognition. Their own planet stretched across the screen Trini had left on since Eltar, blue and brown and white with clouds instead of rings. It might be awkward and uncertain--or maybe that was just them--but it was home.

“Welcome back to Earth,” Jason said.

He spent Sunday afternoon doing homework. Or at least he tried, because after Zack dropped him off at an empty house it didn’t take him long to unpack, start a load of laundry, and turn on the TV. Every news channel he could find was plastered with old images of the Power Rangers, a pretty picture of light trails across the sky, and some guy standing in front of a microphone with a NASA logo on it.

The scrawls read “Power Rangers return to Earth” and “NASA says ‘Power Rangers’ are back” and “Alien space travel caught on camera.” Jason guessed that was the light trails, credited to someone in Siberia, and he figured being outside in Siberia should get them an award no matter what they were taking pictures of. He wondered if they called it “alien” because the ships were, because they thought the Power Rangers were, or just because it made a better caption.

He didn’t turn the sound on, because he honestly didn’t want to know. He tried Billy’s communicator before he remembered it was probably somewhere on Andros’ ship, and then he texted him instead. What do you think of this guy from NASA?

Billy replied immediately, so maybe his mom wasn’t home either. It was weird going from two days straight of constant company to a silent house.

The one doing the press conference? Billy’s first text said, but he didn’t stop typing to wait for an answer. Pretty careful so far; are you listening?

Just channel surfing, Jason replied. Should I listen?

You don’t need to; I have programs monitoring news coverage and one set to analyze NASA public relations specifically.

Of course he did, Jason thought.

So far NASA says they’ve been in contact with our ship and received reassurances about the other one, and that’s it. They’re explicitly refusing to say what kind of contact it was. Everything else they’re sharing is standard ground-based observation.

Is that good? Jason asked. He almost typed, is that good for us, but if anyone ever read their text messages they could at least pretend to be fans or something.

I don’t know; I haven’t really studied public relations, Billy replied. But I think it’s probably better for NASA and for the Power Rangers if NASA doesn’t try to be too closely associated with them.

Jason wasn’t sure asking why would help, but he still didn’t care that much either, so it didn’t really matter. After being overwhelmed by alien politics all weekend, he’d somehow expected Earth to make more sense when he came back. It didn’t.

If you’re bored, you should search “Power Rangers” and “Australia,” Billy told him. Social media is exploding. For figurative definitions of the word exploding.

That turned out to be a lot more entertaining than trying to figure out if NASA or the US or the world was angry with them. Or about to arrest them. So he spent half an hour following stupid reports of “Red” and “Z” at some deep space complex in Australia, taking pictures with the staff and signing things at the Moon Rock Cafe. It was a little bit hilarious and a lot weird, watching aliens who had asked his permission to visit act like tourists on the other side of the world.

Then his mom and Pearl came home, and he turned the TV off to hug his sister, answer a hundred questions, and promise his mom that yes, everyone had come back perfectly safe.

It was funny how easy it was to tell them about space, after how hard it had been to talk about anything else related to the Power Rangers. He described the ship, and the space station, and the teleportals that transported people from one planet to another as fast as blinking. He told them about the library and the floating platforms and the new ship, and it was easy to talk about aliens without specifically identifying any of them.

Pearl wanted to have her camera back, and then he could talk about all of those pictures. When his mom looked over their shoulders, though, he had to explain that Billy had said they shouldn’t put them on a computer. At least one not connected to the internet. Billy had offered to put copies on flash drives for everyone, and Pearl grudgingly agreed to let Jason keep her camera a little while longer since she’d gotten to see the pictures first.

His mom finally separated them so Jason could do his homework before dinner, and he tried to make it look good while Pearl went through the pictures again and his mom folded his laundry. It was fun to talk about everything they’d done on Eltar, but it was a drag to go back to normal things afterwards. Homework and laundry: not exactly intergalactic space travel.

He did the math anyway, because his mom was doing his chores for him and he could pretend to care about school if it got him out of housework. Spanish was a lot easier than he remembered. But he was supposed to be keeping a political journal for Ms. Appleby’s class, and he had no idea what had been happening in the country for the last two days.

Hey, he texted Kim. Did anything political happen while we were gone?

like i care, she replied. just write abt the power rangers. The next text added, thats what every1 will do.

Jason smiled. It wasn’t the worst idea. It was probably an interesting political question, right? Even assuming the Power Rangers were responsible for the whole world, which they were, who was responsible for them? Who paid for all that stuff they’d destroyed fighting Rita? What if they really did run into something in orbit? Satellites were probably expensive, and it wasn’t like the Power Rangers could replace them. Or the mine: maybe the mine owners in Angel Grove had complained to someone about the Power Rangers messing up their dig site. But who?

The problem was, Jason didn’t care enough to guess. He knew it made him a bad citizen, and definitely a terrible superhero, but he wasn’t any more interested in what the government thought of him now than he had been before he became a Ranger. Except if they wanted to throw him in jail, or harass his family. So he cared on a practical level, if it affected him, but otherwise not so much.

On the other hand, the Rangers they met on Eltar hadn’t seemed hugely noble or self-sacrificing either. Kayatachi had seemed pretty responsible… or manipulative, Jason thought, but maybe that was the same thing in politics. Andros was good at making things happen--also manipulative, and he would definitely say it was the same thing--but otherwise, most of the people they’d met seemed to care about their own teams first and everyone else second.

Was that how Zordon had managed to ruin Earth millions of years ago, Jason wondered? By caring more about Rita than he did about a planet full of living beings? What if Jason’s team caused more damage on Earth than they did good, just because he wasn’t worried about what anyone else thought?

hey, Kim texted. He glanced down at the sound and saw her add, zacks in aus.

It took him a few seconds to figure out what she meant. Not because he didn’t understand the words “Zack’s in Australia,” but because they didn’t make sense. It didn’t help that the words disappeared as he stared at them, replaced a second later with, the black rangers in aus.

Zack liked Zhane and Andros. The ship could teleport them to Australia as easily as it could send them to Angel Grove. And sitting alone at home, trying to do high school homework after they’d been given a fancy spaceship and a party on another planet, felt like a stupid way to spend a weekend.

He got up and closed his door before he called Kim’s communicator.

“Yeah,” she said immediately.

“You want to go?” he asked.

“Let’s see,” Kim’s voice replied. “Do I want to sit around my empty house being angrily sad about how obnoxious Trini’s family is, or do I want to go somewhere where people actually care I exist? Wow, tough call. I’ll wait for you on the ship.”

There was a lot he should probably say to that, but mostly he understood. “See you there,” he said.

He felt a little bad when he told his mom he had to go, because dinner was almost ready and the table was set for three. His dad wasn’t home either, so it would just be her and Pearl if he left them alone. But eating dinner in Angel Grove… or getting his picture taken in Australia?

“Sorry, Mom,” Jason said. “This smells great, really, and I don’t want to run out on you again but I have to go. You know the aliens who brought the second ship back for us? They’re in Australia and--uh, I need to make sure they’re not getting into any trouble.”

“I saw them on the news,” his mom agreed. “They seem like they know what they’re doing.”

“They don’t actually speak our language,” Jason said. “Well, one of them does. One of our Rangers is keeping an eye on them, and she says we might need to--um, smooth some things over. If we can.”

“How are you going to get there?” his mom asked. “They’re in another country.”

“Same way we got here,” Jason assured her. “It just takes a few seconds.” Probably. He was pretty sure. “Are you and Pearl okay here? Want me to bring you anything from Australia?”

“Just you,” she said. “Be careful, Jason. Do you want to take something to eat? When will you be back?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Pretty soon. It’s a school night, right? I won’t be late.”

“You have a curfew,” she said.

“My tracker didn’t go off all weekend,” he said. Because Billy had programmed it to register him within a certain radius of Angel Grove all the time. “It’s not gonna go off tonight.”

“Take a roll, at least,” his mom said. “And a power bar. We’ll save some food for you to warm up when you get home.”

“Thanks, Mom,” he said, giving her a hug. “See you later.”

He took two power bars and snuck out of the house before Pearl could pout at him, teleported to the ship from the garage because he didn’t feel like explaining anything else, and offered Kim one of the bars when he found her waiting on the Bridge. “My mom’s worried we’ll be hungry,” he said.

“Oh, your mom cares you're alive,” Kim said. “Lucky for you.”

“Parents not home?” Jason asked.

“That would be better,” Kim said. “I can’t even call Trini because her parents won’t stop interrogating her. How’s Billy’s mom?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said. “He’s analyzing news coverage, so probably fine.”

“If we have to start caring about the news,” Kim said, “I think I quit. You know they’re never gonna like us.”

“They don’t like us?” Jason asked, tearing his power bar open. “I didn’t notice.”

Kim gave him a weird look. “Are you joking?”

He shrugged. “Everyone hates me right now. I don’t spend a lot of time checking to make sure it’s still true.”

“Angel Grove likes us,” Kim said. “The state’s pissed we need more federal aid during wildfire season, but the rest of the country could go either way. As long as we don’t have to fight anyone in their backyard, they’ll probably forget about us in a few weeks.”

“You think?” Jason finished the first half of his bar and crumpled up the wrapper. “Even with our friends in Australia?”

“Okay, I don’t know what to think about the international thing,” Kim admitted. “Or friendly space aliens. Probably good for us overall, but not memorable if they disappear by tomorrow.”

“Huh,” Jason said. He took another bite of his bar and nodded at hers. “You gonna eat that? If we have stay morphed so no one figures out who we are, we’re probably not having dinner.”

“I already ate,” Kim said. She lifted the bar in his direction and added, “Thanks though. You want it?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. Well, except for the teleporting to another country thing. Do we even know how to do that?”

“Some of us do,” Kim said. “You speak the language and fly the ship; it’s really teleporting that you didn’t pay attention to?”

“To be fair,” Jason said, “I don’t really pay attention to any of it. It mostly just happens.”

She let out her breath in a huff. “Yeah, I guess,” she said. “Well, I’m not complaining about showing the great Jason Scott how something is done.”

“I’m not complaining about being shown by Kim Hart,” Jason told her. “And I’d say the great Kim Hart, but that’s redundant, right?”

She rolled her eyes, pulling her coin out and holding it up. “Funny.”

He put the rest of the bar in his mouth and got out his own coin, tapping it against hers as he swallowed. Their armor slid into place around them at the same time, and Jason said, “I wasn’t joking.”

She didn’t narrate the teleport controls for him, but he’d forgotten he was supposed to be watching until they were actually standing on Earth again. On the other hand, it didn’t seem confusing until he tried to remember what she’d done. Maybe Trini was right: maybe it would come to him when he needed it.

“Pretty,” Kim said, turning in a circle on the hillside they’d landed on. There were some trees, a few buildings, and a view that meant they were either in the middle of nowhere or on the edge of conservation land. Or both.

Probably both, Jason decided, eyeing the massive satellite dishes that loomed over the landscape. They looked like something that only existed somewhere far away from other things. How had Andros and Zhane ended up here?

“Hey!”

Jason was already turning toward the shout when Zack’s voice was suddenly much closer: right in his ear as his comm clicked on. “Hey, guys, what’s up? Couldn’t stay away from the greatest country on Earth, right?”

Zack was up the hill, outside one of the buildings on a patio with a small crowd of people and Rangers. Two alien Rangers, and a group of people who might be happy to think visitors from space liked their country as much or more than any other. Kim thought that if the Power Rangers appeared somewhere other than California, the state would get over its grudge a lot faster.

“That’s right,” Kim’s voice replied in his ear, but it had never been so clear before: he wasn’t hearing her thoughts. He just knew what she was thinking. “Earth is my favorite planet!”

It was the first time he’d actively realized that telepathy might be more than just voices in his head, and it was weird and obvious at the same time.

He didn’t say it out loud. But when she looked back at him, he signed, “I know what you’re thinking.”

Kim signed right back, “Well, that makes one of us.”

“Mine too,” Zack said, loud enough to be heard over the grass and the radios at the same time as they got closer. “Z and Red are willing to give us second place.”

“I think it’s understandable if alien guests consider their home the best,” Jason said.

“No, we can definitely change their mind,” Kim said. She waited until he glanced her way again to sign, “What names should we use? We can’t have two Reds.”

“Why not?” Jason signed back. “Sometimes people have the same name. It happens.”

Zack was waving them around the patio while people held up phones and waved in a more friendly and less practical way. Jason waved back, but it was Andros who caught his eye, signing, “Problem?” while he and Kim joined them.

“No, we’re just lonely,” Jason signed, then added, “You sign?” He couldn’t see Andros’ expression, but he didn’t have to when he remembered. “Of course you do. All languages, you said.”

“Any language someone uses around me,” Andros signed back. “But only when they’re around; it doesn’t stick afterwards.”

“This is my Red,” Zack was saying cheerfully. The radio had cut out again, leaving only the sound of his voice filtered by the helmet. “And Pink, who’s much prettier, but I guess you’ll have to take my word for that. Welcome to Canberra!”

“I love it,” Kim declared, and Jason raised his eyebrows. “This is a beautiful facility. Are you sure we’re not in the way here?”

“Absolutely not,” the woman next to Zack said. “We’re honored to host our first extraterrestrial visitors.”

“This is Dr. Hillard,” Zack said, “Director of the Communications Complex, and Dr. Knight, the Engineering Manager.”

“Hello,” the director said. “Welcome to the Deep Space Network. We’re thrilled to have you here, and if there’s anything we can show you, or arrange for you, just let us know.”

“They gave Red and Z a tour,” Zack added, “so I’m making our friends repeat it back for me, which is the easy part, without telling me how much better their planet is at the same time, which is hard.”

“It’s not hard,” Zhane said. “Your planet actually is more entertaining; you’ve got that on us. The hard part is that no one can understand me, which means they’re denied both my wit and charm.”

“Why can’t anyone understand you?” Kim asked. Only she said it in English, and for the first time, Jason was sure he could tell the difference.

“Because he’s speaking Eltaran,” Jason said, in English, keeping his hands low as he signed to Andros, “Are you interpreting for him?”

Andros nodded.

“Which means you can make whatever outrageous claims you want about wit and charm,” Kim said. “And no one except--no one will even know.”

She was still speaking in English, but whatever Andros was doing was silent and close enough to instantaneous that it didn’t matter, because they could hear the answering grin in Zhane’s voice when he said, “Until now.”

“Exactly,” Kim said. “I’ll be the judge of this so-called charm.”

Jason was watching when she and Zhane linked arms, and he still couldn’t tell which of them had moved first. It was the friendliest he’d seen Kim be since cheerleading. Maybe before. He’d thought she was playing it up for the cameras, unofficial and personal though they were, but here she was treating Zhane like… one of them.

“Your Black Ranger said you went to the moon,” Andros was saying. “I’m told there’s an antenna here that received signals from it.”

That’s what Zack had said, right? That they were going to adopt Andros and Zhane. The Kerovan Rangers had certainly extended their help and protection to Jason’s team on Eltare, but it was strange to think they might be able to return the favor.

“Deep Space Station 46,” Zack said, like he’d actually been listening when someone told him about it. “Formerly Deep Space Station 44 at Honeysuckle Creek, moved to Tidbinbilla, decommissioned, and now an official historic site. I think we should pay our respects.”

If Jason hadn’t been so distracted by things he hadn’t known about his teammates, he might have paid more attention to what he was saying. As it was, he didn’t know where the words came from, let alone why they came out the way they did. “Lunar exploration isn’t dead,” he said.

And damned if everyone in the crowd wasn’t suddenly texting or taking another picture or somehow doing both at the same time.

“Apollo is,” Zack said, and then he either decided not to be a jerk or remembered where they were. “An inspiration,” he added quickly.

“Which way?” Kim asked Zhane.

When Jason thought about it too much, he had no idea what the Power Rangers were doing at a field of satellite dishes in the Australian capital. Except that they’d just returned from space, with aliens that every receiver in the world had probably looked for at some point, and one of those aliens had thought whatever message Australia beamed into space was funny.

There were worse reasons for visiting a country, Jason thought. And maybe Kim was right: maybe their own government would be nicer if they started talking to other ones. Although traveling around the world probably wasn’t the way to get national security off their case.

He had just enough time to bang out a page on politics after he got home and before he went to bed. He warmed up some leftovers from dinner first, and he printed out the picture they’d gotten with the Mars rover replica in the gift shop. Then all he could think to write about was Zack and Zhane bonding over crashed ships, and Andros deciding they should have the Delta Flyer, and Saryn sticking around because no one bothered him when he was with them.

So Jason wrote about how single moments, sometimes just a comment or a laugh, could change the way people and countries and probably even planets related to each other.

Zack wasn’t in school the next day. They were halfway through first period before Jason got a text from Kim that said Zack was home taking care of his mom and could Jason pick up his homework for him? Or at least, that was how Jason interpreted zacks w mom and can u get hw with a heart after it.

Several questions came to mind, beginning with why him? Followed by, why anyone? Zack missed school all the time and he hadn’t been kicked out yet; he must have some way of getting his assignments. None of Zack’s teachers looked at him strangely, though, and when he saw Trini at lunch she offered to drop off anything he couldn’t email.

“Actually,” Jason said. “I was thinking we could train after school. The new ship has a training room, right? You think Zack could make it for an hour?”

“I can’t make it,” Trini said immediately.

“Oh, why not?” Kim asked. “It doesn’t have to be afternoon, right? We could go in the evening if that’s better.”

“I’m pretty sure I said there’s no way in hell I’m gonna train again,” Trini told her.

“Actually you said you didn’t want to hear anything about training from any of us,” Billy said. “Then you refused to talk about it anymore.”

“That’s what I said,” Trini agreed.

“No, it’s not,” Billy said. “Unless you’re agreeing that what I said is what you said, instead of that what you said just now is what you said then. Which I guess you could be.”

“Normal training,” Kim said. “It’s gonna be, like, actual workouts and coordination and stuff. Jason promised we wouldn’t try to kill each other.”

“Jason plays football,” Trini said. “His thoughts on normal training mean nothing to me.”

“Zack and I came up with some rules,” Jason offered. “Rules” was stretching it, but he wasn’t above invoking Zack’s name if it would convince Trini. “No rocks, no pain, no getting kicked in the head.”

“The fact that we even need rules like that,” Trini said, “is exactly why I don’t want to train with any of you.”

“So, maybe this is really obvious to everyone else,” Billy said, “but why not? You were qualitatively and quantifiably the most vicious sparring partner I faced. And your tendency to laugh when someone was unexpectedly injured still puzzles me.”

“Yeah, well,” Trini said. “Maybe I don’t like who I am when I’m sparring. You ever think of that?”

“No,” Billy said. “No, I didn’t think of that.”

“There’s nothing wrong with who you are,” Kim said, and Jason felt a little bad for talking over her but Trini had never had a problem ignoring him before.

“We don’t have to spar,” he said.

When Trini looked at him, Kim and Billy did it too. “Of course we have to spar,” Trini said. “We went hand to hand with those putties and they almost bashed our heads in. We have zords that are neurally linked so we can go all fight club with giant robots. If we don’t learn to spar better we’re gonna die.”

“Well,” Billy said. “That assumes the situation with Rita, or something like it, isn’t a once in a lifetime incident. Which I guess makes sense given the prevalence of Power Rangers on other planets. They do seem to fill a role that’s more like active soldiers than an honor guard of some sort.”

It gave Jason something to focus on other than Trini’s vehemence, so he added, “Yeah, Andros said something yesterday. That there wouldn’t be so many Power Rangers if we didn’t have so many enemies?”

“Great,” Trini said. “First Zordon, now Andros. Jason isn’t magical just because he’s Red. I don’t get why everyone talks to him and not us.”

“Okay,” Kim said, and there was something so deliberately calm about her voice that it made Jason close his mouth. “I’ll understand if you get up and walk away right now. But why are you so freaked out?”

Trini’s sigh was exasperated and she rolled her eyes like she couldn’t stand any of them, but she didn’t move otherwise. Jason wondered if Kim had suggested walking away specifically to keep her from doing it.

“Because Rita bodyslammed me into a wall and told me I was like her,” Trini said. “And I see her on the ship, killing people I assume are her teammates, and wow. For some weird reason that doesn’t make me want to fight you guys and pretend like it’s real.”

“You’re not like her,” Kim said.

“Hang on,” Jason said, frowning.

“You see her on the ship?” Billy asked, before he could finish that sentence. “You mean, you used to see her on the ship, like she snuck on, or you see her on the ship like, you imagine her being there?”

“I see her on the ship like Jason sees dead people in the navigation matrix,” Trini said. “And the comm link. And pretty much anything else we do in the circle. Except I see them when we’re not in the circle, and it’s really fucking creepy.”

Trini didn’t know how to tell them things, Jason reminded himself. Like walking into a darkened room and not mentioning the only thing there. Even when it was huge and unmistakable, she waited until someone else pointed it out first.

“You said you saw things,” Billy was saying. “Ghosts. When we were talking to Zordon, you said you saw things you thought were part of the training simulation.”

“And you said they weren’t,” Trini replied.

“Yeah, not inside the ship, no,” Billy agreed. “I don’t think so. The ship can’t do that. But it can’t do the things Jason sees either. You must both be aware of something the rest of us can’t perceive. Or don’t perceive; I suppose it’s possible that we might someday.”

“Lucky you,” Trini said.

“We don’t have to spar,” Jason repeated. “But we should get familiar with the new ship. Andros and Zhane won’t be here to fly it for us forever.”

“And there’s no ghosts on the new ship,” Kim said. Then she looked from Trini to him and back again. “There’s not, right?”

Jason waited until Trini shook her head to say, “Not so far.”

“Can you tell us when you see them?” Billy asked. “I mean, while it's happening. So far I haven't been able to identify any external or objective indicators that correspond to Jason's ghosts, but having more data could help. Especially if you're seeing them somewhere he isn’t.”

Trini hesitated, and Jason knew. She’d seen Rita at night, both the nights they spent on the ship. She’d been scared to sleep without Kim the night after, in her own house, in case it happened again and she was alone. In case Rita spoke to her again, or touched her.

“Yeah,” Trini muttered. Maybe answering Billy, but she was looking at Jason.

“Ileana and Rita were best friends,” he blurted out. He didn’t know why he said it or where it came from, but he couldn’t tell them things Trini didn’t want them to know, right? If she didn’t want to talk about it, he couldn’t make her.

He shouldn’t make her. Probably. What good would it do the rest of the team to know? If he didn’t have to tell them about the people he saw standing in their places when they were flying, he wouldn’t.

Except he was doing it right now.

“Ileana?” Kim repeated, looking back and forth between them again.

“Rita was your sister,” Trini said. She hadn’t looked away from him, but she corrected herself. “Zordon’s sister.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. He didn’t see anyone but Trini when he looked at her now, and somehow that made it easier to say. “That’s what I think too.”

“Wait, how do you know that?” Kim demanded.

“Ileana was the name associated with Trini’s coin,” Billy said. It was distantly funny that this was what made him look over his shoulder and lower his voice when he said, “The, uh--the Yellow Ranger before you?”

Trini nodded.

“Zordon’s girlfriend,” Kim said, and that finally made Trini look at her. “What? That’s what Jason said when you knocked him out of the circle that time. That he wouldn’t hurt you because you reminded him of his dead girlfriend.”

“Can we stop acting like me and Zordon are the same person?” Jason asked.

“You did say you didn’t feel the things Zordon felt,” Billy said.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m not him,” Jason said.

“Even when we all agreed that wasn’t true and you didn’t contradict us,” Billy continued, and Jason looked at him in surprise. “Just the fact that you didn’t lash out at Trini because of Ileana indicates some amount of parallel perception, if not emotional connection.”

“Whoa, wait,” Jason said. “I didn’t lash out at anyone. Including you, remember, you pulled me out of the circle too and I hugged you, let’s not forget that.”

“Like you did with Trini,” Kim said.

He did try to hug her. That was true. He’d sort of blocked that out.

“Do you feel a similar connection to Ileana’s experiences?” Billy asked Trini. “You were the first person to reach out for Jason when Zordon overwhelmed him. What about Rita? When you see her, do you remember her being your friend?”

“I hate Rita,” Trini snapped. “I hate her, okay? There’s no reality where she’s anything like my friend.”

“Okay,” Billy said.

“She’s a fucking traitor,” Trini muttered, and Jason looked up. Their eyes met, and he could see her thinking it at the same time he did: oh shit.

“She’s a traitor?” Kim repeated.

“Can we not talk about this?” Trini said.

“Why would you say Rita’s a traitor?” Billy asked, frowning. “By definition, being a traitor requires someone to betray a trust. We never trusted Rita with anything.”

“We didn’t,” Kim said. “Zordon’s team did.”

“Okay, whatever,” Trini said at the same time. She’d looked away from Jason, glaring at nothing any of them could see, and she looked like she really might walk away this time. “I feel a similar connection, it sucks, now can we not talk about it?”

Jason caught Kim looking at him and shook his head. He put a hand on Billy’s knee when Billy opened his mouth, and somehow that was enough. “Yeah,” Jason said aloud. “Let’s talk about training.”

“Are you kidding?” Trini had turned her glare back on him, and he almost smiled at her obvious disgust. “I hate you.”

There was a moment, a second, a heartbeat of silence where not saying anything would be awkward and saying the wrong thing could only be worse. It felt like he hesitated. It felt like that one second stretched forwards and backwards in time, maybe millions of years.

But when he spoke his voice sounded normal, even light, not at all like a dead man on trial in another galaxy. “You love us,” Jason told her.

Trini rolled her eyes like he was the most annoying person in the world. “That’s what I said,” she told him.

Jason smiled.

“Okay,” Kim said. “So we’re going to the ship after school? The new ship? Should we tell Andros and Zhane?”

“Yeah, where are they, anyway?” Jason asked.

“Seriously?” Kim eyed him like he was the alien. “Do you even check your phone while you’re at school?”

“I check my phone constantly,” Jason said, unlocking the screen and holding it up. It was a solid wall of words. “I spend most of my time trying not to get caught texting Billy.”

“So set a news alert like a normal person,” Kim said.

“They’re in Paris,” Trini muttered.

Jason thought about letting it go, but he was pretty sure he’d be hearing about this later. From someone. “Should I even ask what they’re doing in Paris?”

“They’re touring the European Space Agency headquarters,” Billy offered. “Zhane said they didn’t want other countries to feel left out. Which might be a valid concern, considering that the Canberra complex you visited yesterday is still a NASA facility, even though it’s managed by Australia, while the ESA represents 22 non-US member nations.”

“And Andros said he wanted to meet someone,” Kim added.

Jason was already looking at Billy, so he pointed at him and said, “I thought there were a lot of NASA logos there,” then looked at Kim and said, “Who does someone from another planet know in France?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have that much time between classes. Keeping up with Power Rangers sightings on social media is a full time job.”

“I thought you were done with social media,” Trini said.

“Yeah,” Kim said. “My social media. The Power Rangers are a lot more interesting. Did you know Jason and I are dating?”

“You mean the Red and Pink Rangers?” Trini said. “That’s insultingly heteronormative.”

“Oh, heteronormative, I like that,” Kim said, picking up her phone. “I’m gonna say that.”

“What are you doing,” Trini said, taking her phone before she could do anything with it. “Last week Billy was purging all your accounts so you don’t have to interact with anyone who’s a jerk, which I don’t know if you’ve noticed but that covers almost everyone, and now you’re getting into internet fights over which of the Power Rangers are dating?”

“It’s way better than all the other things I could be fighting about,” Kim said, trying to grab her phone back from Trini.

“It’s ridiculous,” Trini told her. She tossed the phone to her other hand and held it higher.

“You say ridiculous but all I hear is entertaining.” Kim pinned her other arm and reached for the phone, but Trini just pulled her hand free and passed it off again.

“Where are you following Power Rangers sightings?” Jason asked.

“Everywhere,” Kim said, giving up and stealing Trini’s apple instead.

Trini ignored her long enough to scroll through whatever Kim had pulled up on her phone. “You're using your KimPtera account to comment on the Power Rangers?” she asked.

“Sure,” Kim said. “Can I eat this?”

“Ptera,” Trini said. “As in, pteranodon.”

“I’m still not over pteranodon replacing pterodactyl,” Kim said. “Pterodactyl sounds mean. Pteranodon just sounds big.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason the zords need to have scientifically accurate names,” Billy said. “If you--I mean, if the Pink Ranger wants to call her zord the pterodactyl zord, she can.”

“And that’s why you’re my favorite,” Kim told Billy. Holding up the apple, she added, “After Trini, of course,” before she took a bite.

“Top Five Power Ranger Theories,” Trini said incredulously. “By KimPtera.”

Kim shrugged at the look Trini gave her. “What?” she said. “I’m a fan!”

Trini turned her look on Jason. “What about some kind of official team account,” she said. It was probably a question even though it deliberately didn’t sound like one. “Kim is obviously incapable of staying away from social media, and she needs something to do before the Power Rangers become their own worst enemy.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jason said. Not because he cared, but because Trini had just used the word “team” and he couldn’t remember that ever happening before.

“It sounds like a disaster to me,” Trini said. “But I feel like whatever she’s doing now is worse, so.”

“So I can do it?” Kim asked, reaching for her phone again while she held the apple away from Trini with the other. “Create an official account? Can’t some mysterious government agency trace it to me?”

“Yes,” Billy said. “Yes they can; don’t do anything from that phone. You can use the test phone on the ship if you want; they already know about that one.”

“And they associate it with me,” Jason reminded him.

“Well, technically they probably associate it with the Blue Ranger,” Billy said. “Which isn't counterproductive, assuming your goal is to establish a verified source of representation for the Power Rangers.”

“It will totally be a verified source,” Kim said.

“Are we sure we want her representing the Power Rangers?” Trini asked.

“Hey,” Kim said, and this time she managed to swipe the phone while Trini was distracted. “What are you saying?”

“What I've said before,” Trini said. “There's no way anyone reads the way you interact online as anything other than a socially conscious and technologically capable non-adult.”

“Or as Alpha would say,” Jason added, “a kid who knows how to talk and use the internet.”

Kim looked from one of them to the other. “I was all ready to be insulted by that,” she said.

“Surprise,” Trini told her. “We like you the way you are.”

“Aw.” Kim held up her phone and took a picture of Trini staring back at her. “I love you too.”

“She's not wrong, though,” Jason said. “If we want people to think the Power Rangers are adults, we should think about the voice they connect with the team.”

“Not yours,” Kim said.

“No, it should definitely be yours,” Jason agreed. “Just--maybe it shouldn't be the Pink Ranger’s.”

Kim gave an assessing look. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, so you can do the thing we were talking about,” Billy said suddenly. “Telling people that someone else makes the decisions. So you don't have to answer questions about them.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Jason said. “You said you're a fan. Can you just be, like, a friend of the Power Rangers?”

“You could pretend to be my brothers,” Trini muttered. “I'm sure they'd love to help.”

“Or my sister,” Jason said, and it was mostly a joke until Kim pointed at him.

“I like that,” she said. “I want to be the Red Ranger’s sister.”

“He has a real sister,” Trini protested.

Which Jason thought was a weird complaint, given Trini's suggestion. “You have real brothers,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but she's not a boy,” Trini said, and Jason gave up.

“I don't know what this conversation is about anymore,” he said.

“I'm hoping it doesn't matter,” Billy offered.

“Good,” Jason said, picking up his water bottle to tap it against Billy’s. “I'm with you.”

Chapter Text

“What are you calling the official Power Rangers account?” Zack wanted to know. He was sitting on a weight bench, eating the power bar Jason had in his jacket pocket from the night before. “Can I follow it? I want to hear about what we’re doing from the source.”

“You are the source,” Kim reminded him. “I’m posting about what you’re doing.”

“What, now?” Zack held out his hands and looked down at himself, dressed in street clothes and doing nothing at all that resembled training. “What am I doing? See, this is why I need to follow our account.”

“You’re training,” Kim said. “The whole team is training.”

Jason could see for himself that he and Billy were the only ones training, but since Billy had asked to be taught martial arts moves for their next date, he wasn’t sure what they were doing even counted. “Should I ask how they’re training?” Jason asked Billy.

“We’re reacclimating to Earth’s gravity and atmosphere,” Kim said. “I can say that, right? That sounds space-y.”

“Why are you trying to sound spacey?” Trini wanted to know. “We’re not Space Rangers.”

“Although that would be a better name than Power Rangers,” Zack said. “Can we vote on our team name?”

“No,” Jason said. “But we should have a name for the ship. Now that there’s two of them, I never know which one Kim is talking about.”

“So we should pick two names,” Billy said. “One for each ship.”

“Why?” Trini repeated. “There’s the old ship, and there’s the Delta Flyer.”

“How come it’s only Kim that confuses you?” Zack asked. “Not that she isn’t confusing, I mean, I'm behind you one hundred percent there.”

“Careful,” Kim warned him, swinging her legs from the balance beam she was sitting on. “I control our official account.”

“Which is called?” Zack prompted.

“The Official Power Rangers Account,” Kim said. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Zack agreed with a grin. “I like the name. Very descriptive.”

“That’s what I was going for,” Kim said. “Jason’s right, though. We can’t keep calling the old ship ‘the old ship.’ It sounds mean. Plus no one who isn’t from Earth will know what it means.”

“The ship is literally millions of years old,” Trini said. “Everyone who isn’t from Earth probably already calls it ‘the old ship.’”

“I think the old ship has a name,” Billy said. “Or had a name. It’s just hard for English-speakers to pronounce. Which I guess is an argument for re-christening it, as long as no one thinks it will mind.”

It didn’t seem weird that he was looking at Jason when he said it, until he glanced over at Trini too. Trini looked up just as Jason followed his gaze. “What?” she demanded. “It’s a ship. What does it care?”

“Okay,” Billy said, looking back at Jason. “And you don’t think the ship will care either?”

“What,” Jason said, “if we rename it?” He looked at Trini again, and she didn’t glare at him, but she didn’t look interested either. “I guess we could ask it.”

“Can I say the ship has an alien name?” Kim asked. “What’s its alien name?”

Jason recognized the Eltaran when he spoke it this time, but he didn’t know where the answer came from. Why did he know what the ship had been called when no one else did? They weren’t even on the ship, so it wasn’t secretly telling him things. Probably.

Could it communicate at a distance, or was the name of the ship one of those things that came with the morpher? Just his morpher? All their morphers, but he was the only one who recognized it?

“I don’t know how to spell that,” Kim was saying. “I don’t have alien character sets on this phone. Billy.”

Billy looked up. “What?”

“What does that even mean?” Zack wanted to know. “Sorry, I don’t have the brain for Eltaran today. It means something in English, right? Or Mandarin? Or Spanish? Use whatever, as long as it’s from Earth.”

“Nothing,” Kim told Billy. “Actually, can you make an alien character set so we can type in Eltaran? That would be awesome.”

“That would be useless,” Trini said. “No one who can read your texts knows Eltaran.”

“You do,” Kim pointed out. “How long do you think it would take the NSA to crack Eltaran?”

“Star Bird,” Jason said. “That’s the ship’s name in English.”

“What, like the side of the ship?” Zack asked. “Port and starboard?”

“No,” Jason said. “Like, literally, a bird of the stars. An alien bird, I guess.”

“Alien to us?” Billy asked. “Or alien to its original builders? Or crew?”

“To us,” Jason said.

“I guess we could call it Star Bird,” Kim said, but she sounded doubtful.

“We’re not using an old name for a ship that almost destroyed the planet,” Trini snapped. She didn’t sound any sharper than usual, but when Kim looked at her she said more calmly, “I don’t want to use that name.”

“That’s fine,” Kim agreed, holding up her free hand. “That makes sense. Right?”

Jason was already nodding when she looked at him, but it was Zack who said, “Yeah, of course. You know what we should call it,” he added with a grin. “Spaceship Earth.”

“I really expected you to say The Best Ship Ever,” Jason told him.

“What, as the name of the ship?” Zack caught his eye. “The Best Ship Ever, that’s good. You know what’s better? That’s Some Good Ship.”

It took Jason a second to work out the name, but it made him laugh. Even Trini looked less sullen, and Kim beamed at them. “Ship Happens,” she suggested, and Trini cracked a smile.

“Oh,” Billy said belatedly. “Those are all puns, based on the phonetic similarities between the word ‘ship’ and… the curse word.”

“I’ve heard you swear,” Zack said. “Why sometimes and not others?”

To Jason’s surprise, Billy not only knew what he was asking but also had an immediate answer. “Because my brain is biased toward familiar linguistic patterns,” he said. “There are words that I associate more strongly with other words, and when I don’t think about it, those words are more likely to come out in ways I’ve used them before. Or ways people around me have used them.”

“You mimic what you hear,” Trini said. “So what, that’s how everyone learns to talk.”

She didn’t sound mean or dismissive, Jason thought. She seemed genuinely curious. It might even be Trini’s way of being supportive.

“Yeah, exactly,” Billy said. “It’s a lower functioning level of communication, distinguished primarily by being less adaptive because I don’t get the nuances that clue other people when to use certain forms or patterns.”

Jason shook his head. “You communicate just fine,” he said.

“Of course I do,” Billy said. “I’ve carefully studied the social structure of the most common interactions I have, and whenever I have attention to spare I’m aware of the vocabulary, grammatical structure, and intellectual ability displayed by my audience.

“The problem Zack observed is a result of conflicting input,” Billy added. “When the rules of engagement directly contradict the example set around me, or vice versa.”

“We swear when we’re not supposed to,” Kim guessed.

“Well, yes,” Billy said. “But more relevantly, you swear when I don’t expect you to.”

“That makes a surprising amount of sense,” Trini said. “Do you have to explain that to people a lot?”

“No,” Billy said. “I find most people aren't very interested.”

“Yeah,” Trini muttered. “I know what you mean.”

There was a brief moment where no one spoke, and then Kim declared, “Well, I like The Best Ship Ever, if we're voting.”

“I hate to admit this,” Jason said. “But I kind of like Spaceship Earth.”

“Of course you do,” Trini said. “I say we just keep calling it The Old Ship. It's descriptive. And it comes naturally to us.”

“Are we trying to represent Earth while acknowledging the ship’s history?” Billy asked. “Because if so, and this is just a thought, but we could name it after the dinosaurs.”

“Great idea,” Kim said immediately. “Let's call it Pterodactyl. I'll tell the internet.”

“Put that phone down,” Trini said. “Or I'll take it away from you.”

“I think it might be confusing to have the ship share a name with your zord,” Billy said.

“What about Dinosaur?” Zack said. “Just Dinosaur. That's old, and kind of… appropriate.”

Jason caught himself just before he would have questioned what Zack knew about appropriateness. It isn't funny if it hurts, he thought. More things hurt Zack than he let on.

“Dinosaur,” Trini repeated. “That's pointed.”

“It creates a thematic association between the ship and the zords,” Billy pointed out.

Kim set the test phone down on the beam next to her. “So, question,” she said carefully. “I was going to ask, is it rude to name the ship for the life it wiped out, but Billy makes me think: do we tell people on Earth what Zordon's team did?”

“No,” Zack said. “Are you kidding? The government’s pissed that we destroyed Angel Grove. We definitely don't want to tell them the last team of Power Rangers destroyed the planet.”

“Agree,” Trini said. “Bad choice.”

“How is it rude to name the ship for the dinosaurs?” Billy wanted to know. “I mean, I get that naming it Killer would be in poor taste. But Dinosaur? I don't understand why that’s a problem.”

“Well, what if Eltar came along and wiped us out,” Jason said. “If Eltar named a ship after us in the future, I'm not okay with that. But if other humans did it? Here on Earth? I feel like that's okay.”

“Because our people would do it out of respect,” Zack said. “Right? Eltar doesn't get to come in here, do whatever they want, and then pretend like they cared.”

“Well, it's not totally respectful,” Trini said. “Calling the ship Dinosaur is funny.”

Jason looked at her before he realized everyone else was doing the same thing. She glance around at them from where she was sitting on the floor and held up her hands. “Okay, not funny.”

“We do use the word dinosaur to indicate that something is old,” Billy said. “As a humorous or insulting exaggeration of age by comparison. But it's not rude if it's true, right? The ship is actually as old as a dinosaur.”

“That's basically the definition of rude,” Jason said with a smile. “A truth, impolitely stated.”

“Like Killer,” Trini added.

“Oh,” Billy said. “Right. I see what you mean.”

“Here's the problem with not telling people,” Jason said. “About Zordon's team,” he added when Kim gave him a weird look. “I'm pretty sure they'll put it together eventually. Especially if we call the ship Dinosaur.

“Which I like,” he continued, before anyone else could say anything. “It's a little funny, a little rude, but we mean it in a nice way, right? But someone on Earth is going to see a spaceship that's been buried a long time and think, what if that’s what killed off the dinosaurs.”

“It's like the most basic conspiracy theory there is,” Kim admitted.

“And it happens to be true,” Zack said.

“Well, we don't know that,” Billy said. He didn’t keep going, even when they all looked at him.

“Yeah we do,” Zack said at last. “Zordon’s team brought a magical crystal to Earth, the team fought over it, the dinosaurs lost.”

“I accept all of those statements as true,” Billy said, “at least insofar as we can judge historical accuracy this long after the fact. But the association is only correlative at this point. We know Zordon’s team brought an artifact to the planet that’s still here, one we believe to be capable of having a significant impact on the biosphere. We know the team fought, and maybe continues to fight, over that artifact. And we know there were catastrophically negative effects to the biosphere that coincided with the fight.”

“A mass extinction event,” Trini said.

“Yes,” Billy agreed. “We know it happened, and we know our old ship played some role in it, even if it was just bringing the people who caused it to Earth. We don’t know that it was specifically the collision of that ship with the planet’s surface that initiated the event.”

Jason didn’t realize he was looking at Trini until she looked back at him, and Billy added, “Unless you remember something, uh, more detailed than that.”

Trini shook her head. “No,” she said immediately. “I don’t remember anything. I see things sometimes. That’s the limit of my weird. And believe me, it’s enough.”

Jason thought that was a strange way of avoiding the question--but he didn’t know how to explain it either, right? Maybe she wasn’t avoiding it on purpose. Maybe that was really as well as she could describe it.

“I remember,” he admitted. “But I don’t… I don’t know what any of it means. And I don’t know what happened after the fight; it’s all just--there’s nothing.”

No one said anything, and he thought that wasn’t even as clear as Trini had been, so he tried again. “I remember--Zordon remembers the dinosaurs not being dead, you know? I know they are, they always have been. But there’s nothing in between. I don’t know how we got from then to now.”

“Well, you wouldn’t,” Billy said. “Zordon only woke up a few weeks ago, and he didn’t know when he was or what was going on. He doesn’t know what happened because he died before it happened.”

“Hey guys!” Zhane's voice called cheerfully from the open doors of the training room. At least, Jason assumed they were doors. Zhane paused just inside them, Andros on his heels.

“Hey,” Andros echoed, and politely added “hello” in English before switching back to Eltaran Trade. “Nice training room. Very Earth.”

“Yeah,” Zhane said. “Did you stop looking after you found Gym Program 1, or did you come back to it because you couldn't agree on which of the way more awesome programs to use instead?”

“Great,” Zack muttered. “Eltaran again.”

“Excuse you,” Zhane exclaimed. “This is the first time anyone other than Andros has understood me all day! Eltaran is my new favorite language.”

“Is it not your native language?” Kim asked. In Eltaran, although Jason saw her give Zack an apologetic look. “I mean, what do you speak on your planet?”

“Little bit of everything,” Zhane said. “We're a Border colony, so we're full up on random languages from who knows where.”

“A lot of people know Eltaran Trade,” Andros offered. “But most people wear translators.”

“Wait,” Zack said. “Did you say translators?”

“Yes,” Andros said, clapping Zhane on the shoulder as he stepped around him to come farther into the room. “Zhane has one; it just doesn’t work on English yet. Maybe next time.”

“I want one,” Zack said. “How do I get a translator?”

“I can get you one,” Zhane offered. “I’ll bring it next time. It won’t do you much good until it’s programmed for English, anyway.”

“Are we all going to need translators?” Jason asked.

Zhane shrugged. “It depends how much you travel. Eltaran Trade is really common; you got lucky with Eltaran morphers.”

“Zhane would know,” Andros added, wandering around the room to look at the equipment in it.

“Pay no attention to him,” Zhane advised. “I speak great Eltaran.”

“Yeah,” Andros agreed. “Now.”

“I thought you got your own morpher,” Billy said. “Different from Andros’, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Zhane said, but he was looking at Andros. “Some of us had to work for it.”

“Are we interrupting?” Andros asked, stopping beside the beam Kim was sitting on. She’d picked up the phone again and was tapping away at it. “France was fun, and they invited us to Italy, but we didn’t want to overstay our welcome.”

“Plus even Andros gets bored with government tours eventually,” Zhane said. “You do have fun on Earth, right? I mean, you said going to Eltar was like a vacation, but it wasn’t like, the only vacation you’ve ever had, right?”

“It was the only outer space vacation we’ve ever had,” Jason said.

“Right,” Zhane said. “So that means you take vacations that aren’t in space, right? What do you do for fun?”

“Oh,” Zack said with a grin. “Hang on. I got this.”

“You don’t seem to be having any trouble with Eltaran now,” Kim remarked. “Should I ask the internet for suggestions on what alien Rangers should do for fun on Earth?”

“Well, you can,” Zack said, “but I’ve got it covered.” Zhane already looked interested when Zack caught his eye and asked, “You like to go fast, right?”

Zhane grinned, and Jason didn’t want to bring them down so he pointed at Kim before he said, “No. Bad idea.”

She didn’t look up, but he could hear her smiling when she said, “Too late. But don’t worry; I didn’t make them sound irresponsible or anything.”

“Is that what you’re doing?” Andros asked, leaning on the beam to watch her typing with interest. “Talking to your planet?”

“Yeah,” Kim said, tipping the screen toward him. “We have an official account now. It was Trin’s idea.”

“Don’t tell people that,” Trini said with a sigh.

“Is it irresponsible to set a good example of work-play balance?” Zhane demanded. “We’ve been working since we got here. I wouldn’t want Earth to think aliens don’t know how to play.”

“Did you name your ship?” Andros asked, studying the test phone while Kim typed. “The Dinosaur?”

“Yeah,” Kim said. “That’s the location tag associated with the account. You’re quick at this.”

He’s telepathic, Jason thought, but he was careful not to say it and for once, no one looked up and glared at him. So maybe the thought had stayed in his own head after all. Because they weren’t on the old ship?

Even Andros didn’t look at him, but when he told Kim, “It’s the color,” Jason knew it was directed at him too.

“Ha ha,” Kim said. “Don’t tell Trini about how Red’s special; she practices being unimpressed.”

“Yellows tend to treat everyone the same way,” Zhane said. “There’s your unsolicited color commentary for the day. Tell me about going fast.”

“Tell me about how Yellows treat people,” Trini said, before Zack could answer. She made it sound more like a warning than a question, and it probably was.

Zhane shook his head. “No, they don’t all treat people the same particular way, they treat all people a certain way.”

“Not helping,” Andros said, without looking away from Kim’s phone.

“You don’t treat people the same way other Yellows treat people,” Zhane said. “You, as an individual, treat most people the same. As each other. Not as other Yellows.”

“That’s true,” Jason said. “Trini is unimpressed by everyone in exactly the same way.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kim said.

“Okay,” Trini said, looking slightly appeased. “That’s mostly true.”

“Oh my god,” Kim said. “I feel like I should have expected this, somehow.” She was still staring at the phone, but she didn’t say anything else, and Andros didn’t ask. Jason looked around the room, but they were all waiting for Kim to keep going.

“Expected what?” Billy asked when she didn’t.

“The Power Rangers just got invited to Cancun,” Kim said. “And Abu Dhabi. And Disney World. International resorts are actually lining up to host the Power Rangers as we speak.”

“Ooh, Disney World,” Billy said, stepping off the sparring mats and trotting over to the balance beam. “Do they offer an overnight stay? Because Pandora opened in Animal Kingdom a few months ago and it’s the largest-scale permanent recreation of an alien world on Earth. Which, admittedly, doesn’t sound as impressive now that we’ve seen an actual alien world, but I’d still like to see it. For science.”

Trini gave him a thumbs-up, and Jason guessed that answered the question of where he’d heard “for science” before.

“We can’t go to Disney World,” Zack said.

“Why not?” Zhane asked. “Is Disney the name of the planet? Is it nearby, have you been there, and should we go to compare, are the next questions. The answers should all be yes.”

“You didn’t ask if it’s fun,” Andros pointed out, bracing one hand on the beam and using the other to point at Kim’s phone. “Are they inviting your families? How can they do that if they don’t know who you are?”

“That’s just part of their advertising,” Kim said. “Family friendly. They like it if you bring as many people as possible, because it makes them more money.”

“Not from you, though,” Andros said. “Right? Rangers don’t pay.”

“On Earth, everyone pays,” Jason said.

“Well,” Kim said, turning the phone around and holding it up like Jason could see it from across the room. “They actually do say, ‘enjoy free park-hopper admission and complimentary on-site lodging for the duration of your stay.’”

“What did you tell them?” Trini wanted to know.

“Who, Disney?” Kim asked. “Nothing.”

“Everyone,” Trini said. “Why are people inviting us places? How do they even know it’s us? You just opened that account five minutes ago and everyone already believes it’s the Power Rangers?”

“It is the Power Rangers,” Kim said. “I posted a picture of Jason to prove it.”

Trini gave him an incredulous look, and Jason shrugged. “In armor,” he said. “On the Bridge. With a window behind me.”

“They’re technically not windows,” Billy said.

“Billy made it so you could see Earth in the background,” Jason said. “That phone has a good camera.”

“It’s the HDR setting,” Billy said.

“Someone’s calling us,” Kim said. “Someone is calling the Power Rangers’ phone. Who even has this number?”

“The NSA probably has the number,” Billy said. “I don’t think you should answer it. Also, nobody say anyone else’s name, just in case.”

“Just in case?” Jason repeated.

“They shouldn’t be able to hack the microphone,” Billy said. “But I didn’t disable it, because I expected us to use it as an actual phone before it was compromised. I should fix that.”

“What about the camera?” Kim asked. “You put stickers on it; is that enough?”

“Yes,” Billy said. “No matter what kind of technology they have, they can’t remove a physical obstruction remotely. I use opaque removable tape on all my cameras.”

“Put the phone away,” Jason said.

“Yeah,” Kim said, hopping down off the beam. “Good idea.” She shrugged out of her sweatshirt, wrapped it around the phone, and walked out of the room.

Jason looked at Billy, then Trini. “Any idea where she’s going?”

“Not here,” Trini said. “That official account was a terrible idea, by the way. I hold you responsible for that.”

“It was your idea!” Jason protested.

“And it was a bad idea,” Trini said. “I even said so, and you still okayed it.”

Jason wasn’t sure if they were really arguing over this, but he didn’t think so, so he took a chance. “You know what?” he told her. “I hate you.”

She smiled.

“Really?” Zhane asked, looking back and forth between them.

“No,” Jason said. “That phone doesn’t leave this ship. This probably goes without saying, but no one check your personal accounts on it, either. Or search for anything identifying.”

“Or call anyone,” Billy said. “That’s obvious, though, right? Yeah, that’s obvious.”

“What’s the NSA?” Andros asked.

“National Security Agency,” Zack said. “They visited Jason when he was testing that phone for Billy.”

“My sister had it when they showed up,” Jason said. “I guess she’s too short to be a Power Ranger, so they believed her when she was said it wasn’t hers. Now it stays on the ship.”

“Oh,” Andros said. “That’s right, the tracking thing. KERI fixed your wrist communicator; she can do the rest of them if you want.”

“So no one can trace it?” Billy asked. “Or so it can be used in space?”

“Yeah,” Andros said. “All of that. I mean, it’ll only work over long distances if there’s a hyperboost nearby, and that actually is traceable on a large scale, but it shouldn't narrow things down to more than ‘somewhere on Earth.’ I’ll get it.”

He passed Kim on her way back in, and she held up her hands to show they were empty. Amusingly, Andros copied her, and she laughed as she came over and sat down next to Trini on the floor. “Is this seat taken?” she asked.

“You’re already sitting there,” Trini said.

“So yes,” Kim said. “Thanks!”

Trini just shook her head, and Billy asked, “Where did you put the phone?”

“It’s in my room,” she said. “Door’s unlocked. Take it if you need it; it’s still wrapped in my sweatshirt so it’s easy to find.”

“Yours is the second one, right?” Zack didn’t look like he was kidding. “Why can’t I remember what order our rooms are in? I remember everything about the old ship, even stuff I never saw. Billy just told us about it.”

“We’ve spent a lot more time on the old ship,” Jason said.

“The Dinosaur,” Billy said. “Did you really tell everyone we named it Dinosaur already?” he asked Kim.

“No,” she said. “I just filled it in as the Power Rangers’ location.”

“Which means it’s probably confusing the hell out of everybody,” Zack said.

“I don’t think it’s a giant leap from Jason’s obviously tyrannosaurus-inspired zord to another Power Rangers vehicle named Dinosaur,” Billy said.

“And a pterodactyl,” Kim said. When Trini looked at her, she shrugged. “It’s just fun to say.”

“Pteranodons and pterodactyls weren’t dinosaurs,” Billy said. “But they lived and died out at the same time, as far as we know. I wonder if the old ship has usable environmental records from that time. A lot of people on Earth would be interested in that information.”

“What did you say about vacations?” Jason asked. “If every resort in the world is suddenly trying to get in touch with us, we should probably know why.”

“Why?” Kim countered. “You want to compare offers?”

Zhane raised his hand. “Do any of them involve beaches?” he asked. “I like beaches.”

“A lot of them involve beaches,” Kim told him.

Zhane brightened. “Great! Let’s go!”

“Probably not the same in armor,” Trini said.

“Actually,” Kim said, then stopped. When Jason raised his eyebrows at her, she shrugged. “Well, some of them promise anonymity?”

Trini scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

“Seems pretty unlikely,” Jason agreed. “Someone would have to know.”

“Disney uses remotely programmable cards and bracelets that store account benefits without personal information,” Billy said. “The bracelets can be tracked but the cards can’t. They’re associated with a fingerprint that’s converted to numbers in place of the image. Also not cross-referenced with personal information, just scanned when you first enter the park, connected to your account benefits, and then deleted.”

Kim didn’t waste any time. “Jason,” she said. “Billy wants to go to Disney World.”

“Yeah,” he said, trying not to smile. “I got that. What, you think I’m gonna agree just because Billy wants to do it?”

“Um, let me think,” Kim told him. “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Trini agreed.

“You’re not wrong,” Jason said. “If Disney World wants to give us free tickets in exchange for--what? A photo op?”

“Probably,” Kim said. “They didn’t spell it out, just invited us to come.”

“There aren’t any beaches at Disney World,” Zack said.

“There aren’t any natural ocean beaches at Disney World,” Billy said. “But given that the entire experience is extensively engineered, one could safely argue there’s no natural anything at Disney World. It does have two dedicated water parks with regular and wave pools, as well as a themed beach resort.”

“I’m willing to compromise,” Zhane said with a grin. “Just tell me where and when.”

“How long can you stay?” Jason asked.

“Uh, we can't skip school,” Billy said. “That's not gonna go over well with my mom.”

“You're serious about this,” Zack said. “Are you serious?”

“You went to Australia,” Kim reminded him. “How is this different?”

“I went to Australia while my mom was sleeping,” Zack countered. “I can't leave her alone every weekend.”

No one said anything, and Jason wasn't going to be the one to put his foot in his mouth this time. He wasn't asking how Zack spent all of his time making speed vids and staying in abandoned train cars, missing so much school no one was sure he still went, but couldn't be away from his mom except when she was asleep. It was up to Trini if it was up to any of them.

Andros came back just as Zack muttered, “You guys should go.”

“Go where?” Andros asked, adding, “Hey, Billy,” and tossing the communicator to him when he looked up.

Billy caught it with both hands, which was hilarious after seeing him fling folded paper around Saturday detention with just one. “Thanks,” he said automatically.

“Disney World,” Zhane told Andros. “Apparently it has water parks and themed resorts.”

“Sounds awful,” Andros said. “I assume you talked them into it.”

“Most of them,” Zhane agreed cheerfully. “But Zack can't leave his mom again. Can we bring her with us?”

“No, man,” Zack said. “She's sick. She just started a new treatment. She can't get on a spaceship and go to Florida.”

“Why not?” Zhane wanted to know. “The spaceship has a medical treatment room. It doesn't fix everything, but I'm still alive.”

“Which is more impressive than he knows,” Andros agreed.

“She’s human,” Zack said. “She’s from Earth. What’s an alien spaceship gonna do?”

After living on the old ship for the last three days, Jason thought that was a fair question. They weren’t lizards. And even if the new ship had way more usable plumbing, it barely recognized their accents. What did it know about healing their diseases?

“If we can’t even use your translators,” Trini said, “why would we be able to use your medical room?”

“You can use our translators,” Zhane said. “They just have to learn you. Same as medical.”

“Well, call me when you can fix cancer,” Zack said.

Andros and Zhane looked at each other.

“Linnse’s tour may not have focused on the right places,” Andros said at last. “I mean, it's useful to be able to fly the ship, but we should definitely look at medical again.”

He doesn’t want to talk about it, Trini’s text said a couple of hours later.

Jason caught Billy’s eye while Pearl was getting ice and held his phone up. Check yours, he thought. Check your phone. Billy nodded, but probably not because he could hear what Jason was thinking. The gesture had to be pretty obvious, and they were all waiting to hear if Zack was okay.

Still says she’s been through too many experiments, the next text said. I left him at home, but he’ll probably go back to the train car tonight.

“Oh, that’s not safe,” Billy said aloud.

He’d at least come over to stand next to Jason, but everyone could hear them and Jason’s mom asked, “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Jason said.

At the same time Billy said, “Maybe. That whole area is still settling since the ship took off; it’s geologically unstable and possibly contaminated by magic.”

“What?” Jason’s mom said.

“Contaminated by magic?” Jason repeated. “What does that mean? You think there are more putties?”

“Rita’s creative force was concentrated at the mine,” Billy said. “Putties were seen there first and last, and that’s arguably influenced by observer bias, of course, but they didn’t completely disappear when she did. Obviously.”

“But they’re gone now,” Jason said, catching sight of Pearl’s worried expression. “Nothing to be scared of at the mine.”

“Well, not just the mine,” Billy said, and Jason put a hand on his shoulder.

Stop talking, he thought. Stop talking, Pearl’s scared. Stop talking.

“I mean,” Billy said. “Nothing to be scared of anywhere, actually. That’s why we have the Power Rangers. Right?”

“Right,” Jason echoed. “And you have a Power Rangers watch, so you’ll be okay.”

He was talking to Pearl. It was just his bad luck that Billy, for once, had his sleeves rolled up, and Pearl exclaimed, “Billy has one too! And they’re called communicators, not watches. What color is yours? Mine’s white, like my name.”

“Mine’s blue,” Billy said immediately. “And the many layers of a pearl make them look iridescent, so you could say they’re any color you want them to be. But you probably knew that.”

“A little,” Pearl said. “I like being all colors.

“Why aren’t you wearing your communicator?” she added, looking at Jason. Then she told Billy, “He liked mine so much he got one too. I’m a trendsetter.”

“Yes,” Billy agreed. In the three days they’d been gone, “communicator” knockoffs had appeared all over Angel Grove, which made Zack laugh and Kim sigh. Whatever else it meant, it made hiding their own devices completely unnecessary. “You indubitably started that trend.”

“What does indubitably mean?” Pearl wanted to know.

“It means without a doubt,” Billy said. “There’s no doubt you started the trend. Because you were the first to wear a Power Rangers communicator.”

“Yup!” Pearl was very proud of this. So proud she didn’t even question how Billy knew. “I never take it off! Unlike some people,” she said, frowning at Jason.

“Mine broke,” Jason said. “A friend is fixing it for me.”

“Uh-huh,” Pearl said. Her tone was overwhelmingly skeptical, but there was food on the table and Jason’s dad always told them not to argue over dinner. Ironically, Jason thought, since the rule didn’t seem to apply to him.

Sure enough, his dad said, “Time to eat,” but he added, “If you need to help your friend, let us know.”

Jason didn’t think they’d mentioned Zack, but now he couldn’t remember. Billy said both he and Zack had called each other by name while NASA was listening the day before, and the names had been mysteriously scrubbed from the publicly released transcripts this morning. What it came down to was the fact that they were all terrible at pretending not to have secret identities.

“Thanks,” Jason said belatedly, but it was hard enough getting five people around the table that no one paid too much attention. He was sitting next to Pearl while Billy sat across from them with what passed for elbow room in their dining area.

There was just enough room to shift dishes around the table, as long as one dish moved out of the way in time for the next to take its place. Billy ducked his head and folded his hands while they started serving. Jason had told his mom that Billy always said a brief thank you for meals but didn’t expect anyone to wait for him… but he hadn’t mentioned it to Pearl.

At least she waited until he looked up to ask, “Do you say grace before dinner? My friend does that too. I think it’s nice.”

“My mom and I do,” Billy answered. “We didn’t always; she started saying thank you after my dad died. Because it was so hard, you know, she’d say thank you for helping us get through another day. May I have the potatoes?”

“I didn’t know that,” Jason said. Pearl was taking potatoes for herself before passing them on, so he picked up the beans to clear a space. “You do it at lunch too. Sometimes.”

“When I’m at a table,” Billy agreed. “Not when we’re sitting outside.”

“When we were on the--but when we’re sitting on the floor?” Jason said.

Billy paused. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s true, I didn’t notice it on the--floor. Maybe because we all started eating at the same time. Sometimes it feels right, and sometimes it doesn’t. I can’t always explain why I do things.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, because it seemed like he should. “Me either.” Then he added, “And I can’t explain why Pearl does anything, so. Some things are always a mystery.”

“I can explain it,” Pearl declared. “It’s because we’re amazing. Right, Billy?”

“Yeah,” Billy said, smiling thoughtfully at her. “I think that’s exactly why it is. In fact, I heard your brother say something like that just last week.”

“I’ve taught him well,” Pearl said confidently. “Beans?”

“No, thank you,” Billy said.

“It sounds like you eat lunch together a lot,” Jason’s mom said, putting her glass down. “I’m glad Jason’s finding friends outside of the team.”

“Outside of the team?” Billy repeated, frowning. Jason caught his eye and he added, “Oh, the football team, yes, it’s good that he has friends outside of the team. The football team. I’ve been trying to encourage Jason to bond with some of my friends, since they’re very resourceful and I think they could help him a lot.”

“That’s true,” Jason said, because it was but it probably wasn’t what his mom wanted to hear when it came to his choice of friends. “But mostly I like them because you do.”

Only when Billy smiled at him did Jason realize he might have gone too far in the other direction. Instead of sounding mercenary, now he probably sounded like he had a crush on Billy. Which was also true, but he hadn’t exactly mentioned it to his parents.

He hadn’t even mentioned the possibility to his parents, who were always perfectly happy to hear about the girls he took to games or dances and didn’t press him for much beyond that. He had to practice, his dad said. It didn’t leave a lot of time for dating, and that worked out fine for everyone.

“Are your friends as cool as you are?” Pearl was asking Billy. “I bet they are. Me and my friends have pretty equal levels of coolness.”

“I’d say our social standing is roughly equivalent,” Billy agreed. “Mine’s increased, of course, since I head butted a bully and started hanging out with Jason. Not in that order. Not that those things are related, except indirectly, but overall it’s been a lot more good than bad.”

“No one is as cool as Billy,” Jason interrupted. “But his friends are all right.”

“Your old friends are not the best,” Billy told him. “But your new ones are better.”

“You have new friends?” Jason’s dad asked. “That why I haven’t seen Damo around here lately?”

“I told you I’d been hanging out with Kim,” Jason reminded him. “And Trini Kwan.”

“Don’t know that name,” his dad said. “She new in school?”

“No,” Jason said. “But she gets that a lot.”

“Yeah, too much for it to be a likely statistical coincidence,” Billy said. “Do you think she actively encourages it? That seems like something she would do.”

“What, by not telling people her name?” Jason asked. It was a little weird how many people didn’t know Trini. Maybe she had a personal superpower she hadn’t told them about yet.

“Or by giving them a different name,” Billy said. “She said she made up stories about us, right? Maybe she makes up stories about herself, too.”

Jason frowned. “You think?”

“Are you asking if I think she actually does that?” Billy said. “Because I do, think that I mean, but not because I’ve seen her do it or anything. I don’t have any evidence to support my hypothesis. I did ask her, but she said she didn’t want to tell me.”

“Is Trini like Kim?” Pearl wanted to know. “I like Kim. I bet I’d like Trini too.”

“They're not much like each other,” Billy said. “But they're both very likable.”

“Are you dating Trini?” Pearl asked. “Is that why you and Jason are hanging out together? Because the girls you're dating are friends?”

“No,” Billy said, then he looked at Jason. His expression was thoughtful, but he didn't say anything else.

“Actually,” Jason said, and he hadn't given this enough thought but no one had cared all weekend. He hadn’t forgotten that his family would. He just… hadn’t thought about it. “That’s not the worst idea. You think they’d go on a double date with us?”

He expected Billy to take this at face value, and he did. “I don’t have enough data to make a reasonable prediction,” Billy said. “In our favor, they like us and it would be efficient. Against us, there’s the fact that the four of us are historically unable to agree on any single activity, and also it excludes Zack.”

“Zack, which one is he?” Pearl asked. “Do I know who Zack is?”

“Are you and Kim dating now?” Jason’s mom asked.

“No,” Jason told her, and then to Pearl he said, “He’s the one who does the videos.”

“I heard the Red Power Ranger is dating the Pink one,” Pearl said, out of nowhere. She grinned at him, and then she added, “Also the best thing is that the Power Rangers sign! Now everyone at school wants to learn!”

“Your friends want to learn to sign?” Jason asked, because that seemed safest.

“No, everyone,” Pearl told him. “You’re going to be so popular! I’m teaching everyone in my homeroom.”

“Good,” Jason said, smiling back at her. “Everyone should sign.”

“It was very nice to see the Power Rangers using multiple languages this weekend,” Jason’s mom agreed.

“Yes,” Billy said. “Seeing alien Power Rangers traveling around the planet was also very educational. It raises a lot of questions about the Rangers’ decisions on behalf of Earth when they’re not here. And who’s responsible for their actions when they are. Or aren’t. I guess that’s the same whether they’re on Earth or in space; their actions could affect people here either way.”

“They’re the Earth police?” Jason suggested.

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that,” Billy said, “and they are, aren’t they? To everyone who isn’t from Earth--the Power Rangers are soldiers and ambassadors at the same time.”

“Sounds like a big responsibility,” Jason’s dad said.

“Um, yes,” Pearl said, “but can we talk about the signing? And the dating? I think the Power Rangers should do interviews so we can ask them questions about things.”

“Like signing?” Jason said, because he had a bad feeling that they weren’t going to get through this meal without clearing up the dating thing. But he didn’t want to just give up, either.

“And dating,” Pearl said promptly. “Do they see each other when they’re not working together? How long have they known each other? Do they want to get married?”

Jason looked at Billy, who said, “Trini says that assuming the Red and Pink Power Rangers are dating is heteronormative,” and Jason thought thank you at least three times in a row.

“What’s heteronormative?” Pearl asked. “And I didn’t assume; they signed it at the space center in Australia.”

“Did they sign that they were dating?” Billy asked, glancing back at Jason.

“I guarantee you they didn’t,” Jason said.

“Okay, good,” Billy said, and then he told Pearl, “Heteronormative means assuming that men and women being together is the normal or default state of romantic relationships. Like heterosexuality is normal and conversely, that everything else isn’t.”

Jason hadn’t realized exactly how that would sound until he did, and he was sure both his parents were staring at him but he didn’t dare look. Instead he asked, “Is assuming the Power Rangers don’t sign anglonormative?”

“Oh, like making English the only normal language?” Billy got it immediately. “It could be. I mean, the Power Rangers were first seen in California, and English is the most commonly used language in the state, but I could make the same argument about the relative frequency of heterosexuality versus homosexuality and then Trini would get angry with me. I think the ‘normative’ part is more a value judgment than a statistical observation.”

“So I can call people anglonormative if they won’t sign with me?” Pearl asked. “Or if they act surprised that the Power Rangers sign?”

“Yes to the second one,” Billy said. “I think the first one is just mean. But I’ve found that calling people names rarely makes them more likely to do what I want them to do. Trini’s sort of an exception to the rule.”

“Hey,” Jason said. “Why do we assume the Pink Ranger is a woman? Isn’t that male-normative?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a gender stereotype based on the color,” Billy said. “Ironically, since a hundred years ago the color-gender associations were reversed. Pink was a strong color for boys and blue was a gentle color for girls.”

It had only been a few weeks, but Jason didn’t think of any color as gentle anymore.

“On the other hand,” Billy was saying, “assuming that the Red Ranger is a man might be male-normative.”

This was a hilariously bad conversation for his parents to witness, and Jason almost didn’t care. He couldn’t even keep up with all of the things he’d probably be hearing about later. “Remind me why I invited you over,” he said, shaking his head.

“Because my mom’s working and you didn’t want me to eat alone,” Billy said. “I usually eat alone when I’m at home, but I still appreciate what was probably a considerate thought.”

“I can’t tell if it makes me sound better or worse to say I just like hanging out with you,” Jason said. “My parents haven’t seen a lot of me lately either, so this way I get to formally introduce all of you, keep you from eating alone, and also make myself happy. It’s a triple threat.”

Billy’s communicator beeped.

Before he could do anything about it, though, Pearl lifted her hands in an ASL clap. “Oh my gosh, I knew it!” she exclaimed. “I’m brilliant! You’re mean,” she added, pointing at Jason.

Then she lifted her own little white communicator up to her face and said, “Hello! You’re a Power Ranger! Why didn’t Jason tell me!”

Every word came with a tinny echo from the blue communicator on Billy’s wrist.

“I probably should have muted that before I came over,” Billy said. “In my defense, most of the people who have complementary devices wait for me to acknowledge before speaking.”

“Most of the people who have complementary devices aren’t wearing them right now anyway,” Jason said.

“Yeah, why aren’t you wearing yours?” Pearl wanted to know. “Billy is. He’s obviously the responsible one.”

“They’re being upgraded,” Jason said. “Billy’s was first, so he already has his back.”

“Billy,” Jason’s dad said. “Are you a Power Ranger too?”

“Uh,” Billy said. He looked at Jason, and it was hard to tell if he was looking for permission or just checking to see if he’d missed something. Pearl had just said he was, after all. Jason was pretty sure it didn’t occur to Billy to ignore someone based on their age.

He nodded anyway, and Billy echoed it. “Yes,” Billy said. “Yes I am.”

“Jesus,” his dad blurted out. “Is everyone on that team a kid?”

“Sam,” his mom said.

“No, Dad,” Jason told him. “None of us are kids.”

“Are the other Power Rangers your friends too?” Pearl asked eagerly. “What about Kim, is she a Ranger? She could be the Pink Ranger. That would explain why you’re dating.”

“I’m not dating Kim,” Jason said. “And we agreed not to talk about each other’s identities, okay? The Power Rangers aren’t really popular with the government right now, so we’re trying to keep their names out of the news. Our names,” he corrected himself, because it was weirdly easy to get used to talking in the third person.

“We’re not the news though!” Pearl protested. “I won’t tell anyone! The Pink Ranger signed, anyway, so I bet it’s Kim.”

“The Red Ranger signed too,” Jason pointed out. “The other Red Ranger, I mean. How do you know that wasn’t Kim?”

“Both the alien Rangers are boys,” Pearl said. “Which is very disappointing. Do you think you could get a girl alien to visit us?”

“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” Jason’s dad said abruptly. “Telling the government who you are.”

Jason very carefully set his fork down, because dropping it in disgust would make him look like the one who started the argument. “No,” he said. “It is. We talked about it.”

“You and Billy?” his dad asked. He sounded just as deliberately neutral, and Jason had known that the newfound peace with his dad couldn’t last. As soon as they started talking to each other again, it was over.

“Uh, no,” Billy said. “The whole team. The problem with government oversight is that it would give the United States unprecedented military capability, weapons of war and surveillance that no other country has a chance of defending against. It would upset the balance of power at the very least, provoking violent and potentially preemptive retaliation, and at worst it could be too great a temptation for our own leaders, with the US annexing the entire world under a dictatorship supported by alien technology.”

As soon as Billy had said “the problem with government oversight,” Jason went back to eating. He’d known how this would end. He hadn’t known it would sound quite that impressive but he wasn’t surprised. Having something in his mouth meant he could just point at Billy and give him a thumbs-up without looking like he hadn’t understood half of that.

Instead it was his mom who had to deliver the understatement of the year. “Well,” she said. “It sounds like you’ve given it serious thought.”

“Well, yes,” Billy said. “It’s a serious subject, and Jason got input from everyone before he made a decision. I think it was the right one. The world benefits from a defense force that’s politically neutral, and the easiest way to be neutral is to be anonymous.”

That sounded a hell of a lot more convincing than whatever conversation they’d had about future employment and whether or not they’d have a criminal record when they were applying to colleges. It also gave Jason way more of the credit than he deserved. He thought about letting it stand for almost an entire second.

“I agree with all of that,” he said, “but let’s be fair. You came up with well-reasoned arguments for and against, and I compared it to football.”

“That sounds more like you,” Pearl remarked.

“We came up with arguments and you helped us reach consensus,” Billy said. “That’s the role of the team leader. Also, I think we should consider visiting other countries more. Australia and France really seemed to like having a Ranger presence.”

“Do the alien Rangers know who you are?” Pearl wanted to know. “It’s funny that the Silver Ranger goes by Z. Is that his name? Do you know?”

“I do know,” Jason said, “and I’m not telling you. Billy just got done explaining why the Power Rangers have secret identities.”

“But why do aliens have to?” Pearl complained. “No one knows who they are. They don’t live on Earth, so they don’t have a country. They’re already neutral.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, “but Billy and I might want to take them out for ice cream or something. And if people see us with aliens, they’ll connect us to the Power Rangers pretty quickly.”

“If people see you with aliens then of course they will,” Pearl said, frowning at him. “You think no one will recognize them if you don’t say who they are? Do they not look alien? Have they been here before? Have I already met them?”

“Maybe,” Jason said.

“Are they cute?” Pearl demanded. “What if I made friends with them; would they take me into space?”

“Probably not,” Jason said. “They haven’t kidnapped anyone yet. That I know of.”

“What if I want to be kidnapped?” Pearl asked.

“Try not to be,” Jason told her. “I’d just have to come rescue you. It messes up my schedule.”

She made a face at him. “I bet alien Power Rangers would rescue me.”

“Alien Power Rangers didn’t identify countries of origin,” Billy said suddenly.

“Right,” Jason said, looking back at him. “Just planets. Same as us.”

“Yes, it’s interesting that as soon as we left Earth we didn’t bother with further localization than the planet itself,” Billy said, “although I guess the fact that no one else we met had reason to know about our geopolitical boundaries was a contributing factor. But even on Eltar, did you notice that? The Eltaran Rangers didn’t identify themselves as being from a particular part of the planet.”

“So Rangers on other planets aren’t anonymous?” Jason’s mom asked. “They don’t keep their identities a secret?”

“No,” Jason said. “At least, not the ones we met.”

“All right,” his dad said. “I was still out last night, so I didn’t get any of the interesting space stories. If everyone here knows, and we’re all talking about it, I want to hear about flying on a spaceship.”

“Oh, Jason did most of the flying,” Billy said quickly. “I mean, he figured out how to get from one place to another. Then--uh, other members of the team made sure it--well, worked the way it’s supposed to. But Jason’s the pilot.”

“You’re the pilot?” his dad repeated. “Where’d you learn to fly a spaceship?”

“It’s a work in progress,” Jason said, looking over at Billy. “Couldn’t do it without the team.”

“What about the new ship?” Pearl wanted to know. “Do you fly that too? Everyone says it’s really new; was it hard to learn? Or was the old one harder because it’s like, from when there were dinosaurs probably?”

“You know, we actually gave the old ship a name today,” Jason told her. “We’re calling it the Dinosaur.”

“Like the T-Rex?” she said. “That’s a funny name. But all of your machines are kind of funny, so I guess it fits.”

“What about this planet you went to,” his dad said. “To register the ship. The old ship, or the new one?”

“Uh, the old one,” Jason said, looking at Billy again. They’d kind of registered it, right? Everyone on Eltar knew they had it, and the Eltaran Rangers let them keep it. So it had been registered. “It’s from Eltar, so we took it back there.”

“To get it switched over to our names,” Billy said, and Jason pointed at him.

“Right,” he said. “It has our names on it now. Instead of the Eltarans who used to fly it.”

He probably should have expected his dad's next question. “What happened to them?” his dad wanted to know.

Jason looked at Billy, who managed to sound believably scientific when he said, “We don't know for sure. They lived tens of millions of years ago, which apparently is a long time even by the standards of their people, so no one on Eltar could give us a definitive answer. They were almost as surprised to meet us as we were to meet them.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, because Billy shouldn't have to do all the work. “As far as we could tell, they wrote the ship off as lost a long time ago.”

“And you just… found it?” his mom asked. “Out in the hills behind Angel Grove?”

“Yeah,” Jason said again. “Weird, huh? Eltar agrees it’s ours, though, and they felt bad enough about the Gold Killer thing that they gave us another one, just in case.”

“Just in case?” his mom repeated. “In case another Gold Killer shows up?”

“Just in case we decide to make a big deal about it,” Billy said. “The Gold Killer was one of their people, and I think they’re afraid we might sue them over it. I mean, not legally sue for damages like we would on Earth, but whatever the equivalent is on their planet.”

“Can we do that?” Jason’s dad asked. “I mean, can you do that? Aliens with that kind of technology could do a lot of good here.”

“And a lot of bad,” Jason said. “The Gold Killer was one of them. I think we want to keep aliens like that as far away from Earth as possible.”

“But there are good aliens,” Pearl protested. “You said so. The other Power Rangers are good, right? I bet they’d help us.”

“They are helping us,” Billy said. “They showed us around Eltar and they introduced us to people who made sure we could keep our ship. And get the new one. So we could use them to defend Earth if any other, uh, less helpful aliens show up.”

“Is that likely?” Jason’s mom asked.

Jason looked at Billy again, but Billy just shrugged. Like any of them knew.

“Hope not,” Jason said.

“That’s what you told NASA,” Pearl said. “You hope you won’t have to defend Earth again. Does that mean you think you will and you don’t want to say so? Or you think you won’t but you don’t want to get in trouble if you’re wrong?”

Jason looked at her, then back at Billy. “Wow,” he said. “I don’t think I realized how much talking to her is like talking to you.”

“You mean awesome?” Pearl said. “Yeah, we are.”

“Yeah you are,” Jason agreed with a smile.

“But you didn’t answer the question,” Pearl said. “Does he ignore your questions too?” she asked Billy.

“No,” Billy said. “But you asked a second question before he answered the first one. Sometimes when people do that to me I forget about the first question, or I think they don’t care about it anymore.”

Jason couldn’t help laughing at that. “Billy, you ask like fifteen questions at once all the time!”

“Well, yeah,” Billy said. “Because asking questions makes me think of more. I try to stop after the most important one so you have time to answer.”

“Oh, so that’s how I know which one is most important,” Jason said. “I just wait until you stop?”

“My question is important,” Pearl interrupted. “Are you going to have to fight more aliens?”

“I don’t know,” Jason told her. “But not that we know of, okay?”

“I guess,” she said, frowning at him.

“Do other Power Rangers fight a lot?” Jason’s dad asked. “The ones you met on the other planet?”

“Eltar,” Jason said. “We met a bunch of people there, and at least three different teams of Power Rangers. I couldn’t tell if they’d ever fought anyone, really. Andros--” Damn it. He was terrible at secret identities. “One of the Red Rangers we met, he mostly talked about meetings and government politics.”

“Oh, and planetary relations,” Billy added. Jason could almost hear him thinking, and flying battleships and crashing into enemy fighters, and maybe he really could hear him thinking that. But Billy didn’t say it, and for that Jason thought thank you again.

“Right,” he said aloud. “We saw a lot of talking and diplomacy and ceremonial stuff. We met another Red Ranger who’s supposed to be really important in politics or something, and he spent a lot of time hanging out with us and trying not to get involved in other people’s arguments.”

“There was a lot of arguing,” Billy said thoughtfully. “That surprised me. I can’t tell if we saw it because our presence caused more arguing than usual, or if they were making an effort to be polite around us so what we saw was actually less than usual.”

“That’s a weird thought,” Jason said.

“Well, Saryn did mention that both Andros and Tobin share a similar strategy of yelling in order to get what they want,” Billy reminded him. “That doesn’t align with our experience, but maybe what we saw was anomalous.”

“I think he was joking when he said that,” Jason said.

“Who’s Saryn?” Pearl wanted to know.

“Another Red Ranger,” Jason told her.

“Wow, how many Red Rangers are there?”

“A lot,” Jason said. “I guess. We don’t know, but we met a bunch of them.”

“Quantifiably more Reds than any other color,” Billy said. “Trini would say that doesn’t make you special. I would disagree of course; it just came to mind and I said it without thinking.”

“Trini thinks nothing makes me special,” Jason said. “I think she enjoys pointing out all the reasons no one should listen to me. Also, maybe we met more Red Rangers because they’re the leaders, the representatives for their team. They’re probably the ones that get sent to things like that when the whole team can’t go.”

“Red is good at tactics,” Billy said, and Jason recognized what Zhane had told them even without the source. “Sometimes it translates into diplomacy, right? That’s what we were told. And, uh, Andros’ teammate said he didn’t care about the meetings, which might make sense for his color.”

“Makes sense for his personality,” Jason said.

“Which could be related,” Billy added.

“Wait, personality and color are related?” Pearl asked. “Is that what you said? What’s the Red Ranger’s personality? Is it friendly and bossy at the same time?”

“Oh, here we go,” Jason said. “This is my fault; we were warned about this. Not to link personality and color.”

“Uh, I think we were warned that everyone does,” Billy said.

“What about Blue?” Pearl said. “Is the Blue Ranger’s personality the nicest and most awesome?”

“Yes,” Billy told her. “Yes, I believe it is.”

“You’re not blue,” Jason told Pearl.

“No, I’m Pearl,” she said with a bright smile. “I’m whatever color I want to be! Billy said so.”

“Thank you,” Jason said, but he couldn’t not smile at Billy. The best part was that Billy would hear it as sincere, which it was. He was only pretending sarcasm when he said, “You’ve made this so much better. Really.”

“You’re welcome,” Billy said. “Thanks for inviting me over.”

Before Jason could say anything, his mom replied, “You’re welcome here any time, Billy.”

“Sure are,” his dad added. “I haven’t heard Jason talk this much in years.”

“He sets a good example,” Jason said.

“I can see that,” his dad agreed.

Jason wasn’t sure what that meant, but he hoped it would turn out to be more good than bad. Right now--for once--he didn’t feel like arguing.

Chapter Text

The next day it was Trini who texted him, which was unusual enough that he forgot to hide his phone under his desk and got snapped at by the teacher for looking at it.  He apologized loudly, since then at least he couldn’t also get in trouble for mumbling, and waited until she looked away again. At least Trini’s texts were short.

Can you check on Zack in study hall, was all it said.

He and Zack didn’t share a study hall, and he was pretty sure Zack wasn’t in school today either way.  Zack had told his mom about the ship, and Trini had told everyone he didn’t want company. What that meant, Jason had no idea, but when he asked Kim he just got a shrug emoji in return.

Was Zack’s mom on the ship?  Could alien technology cure her?  Would any of them know if it could?

Was Zack trying to figure it all out on his own?

Yeah, Jason texted back.

He waited until the bell to tell Billy, Going to check on Zack.  Is it okay to text from where he is?  He didn’t actually know Zack was on the ship--either ship--but they’d agreed to keep texts as non-incriminating as possible.  So far texting from the ship on their personal phones hadn’t come up, since they were usually there together.

Where is he? Billy replied, which Jason had expected but didn’t know how to answer.  Luckily the next text said, Oh, you probably can’t tell me.  Which means no, it’s not okay to text from there.  Probably. You could call if you need something, though.  Just not with your phone.

Billy must hate indirect messages more than any of them, but he was trying.  

Okay, thanks, Jason said.   Will do.

Can you let me know when you’re back? Billy asked.   So I don’t text you before then?  I’ll tell the others too.

That was a whole other level of compromise that Jason hadn’t thought of.  What if Pearl texted him? Or… anyone? I’ll leave my phone here, he said.   Does that solve the problem?  I’ll text you when I get back.

Yeah, that’s a good idea, Billy said.   We probably shouldn’t take our phones anywhere we can’t text from.  Which is inconvenient in a lot of ways, actually, but I’m not sure there’s anything I can do about it.  I’ll ask someone else if he can help.

You don’t have to fix everything, Jason told him.

No, that would be impractical, Billy agreed.

Jason smiled.   See you after next period sometime, he said.

Billy's text came back immediately.   Understood.

Seniors were still allowed to leave campus during study hall, so Jason made it out to the parking lot without any questions.  He headed down the sidewalk like he was planning to walk somewhere and veered off for the tennis courts without looking over his shoulder.  Just taking a shortcut. Nothing to see here.

The half court had a wall that could hide even teleportation, and the emergency button on his communicator still took him directly to the old ship.  To the Dinosaur. Billy said they could redirect now, thanks to the new ship’s hyperboost signal, and Jason had listened when he explained it. He couldn’t remember it to save his life.

Well.  Maybe to save his life.  Jason had found a lot of things were clearer when he was fighting for his life, and anything that fell into the category of “how to get the hell out of this situation” tended to be one of them.

For now, he was fine with teleporting to the Dinosaur.  It gave him a chance to make sure Zack wasn’t there, anyway, and to test out Kim’s explanation of teleporting.  Would it be weird if he could remember hers and not Billy’s?

“Hello, Jason.”

He didn’t jump.  He did stop moving, and his Power Coin was in his hand without him having to think about it.  Or pick it up, or pull it out of his pocket, or any of the normal ways things got into someone’s hand.

“Hello,” he said carefully.  He turned around, but of course there was no one there.  “Javan.”

The ship had never greeted him before.  At least not out loud, and not that he’d noticed.  He wondered if it had always been there in his head, strange and foreign and part of the way he always felt like they were being watched.  By the old team, he’d figured. Or the ghosts of the old team, their psychic imprints or whatever.

Maybe it had been the ship all along.

It didn’t say anything else, and maybe there wasn’t anything to say.  But Jason had a question, and he might as well see how far the ship’s knowledge--and willingness to share it--went.  “I’m looking for Zack,” he said. “Any idea where he is?”

“Zack is on the Delta Flyer,” the ship answered.  “Currently in a lift between Decks Two and Three, headed for the Bridge.”

“Okay,” Jason said.  “That’s… specific.”

The ship didn’t reply, which was probably fair.  He’d asked a question, after all, and the ship had answered it.  Now he was complaining about how thorough the answer was?

“Thank you,” Jason said belatedly.

“You’re welcome,” the ship replied.

It was easier to teleport himself somewhere when he was distracted, and Jason didn’t know what that said about him.  Or his relationship with the ship. The Dinosaur. He should have asked Javan what he thought about renaming the ship.

Had they already done that?  Maybe Javan was the ship’s name now.  Maybe they’d just renamed it twice.

He didn’t think about the fact that he was arriving on the Bridge of the Delta Flyer until he was there and Zack was just stepping through the doors.  Zack actually stopped when he saw Jason, which was pretty much the same reaction Jason had just had when the ship spoke to him, so he figured they were all harder to startle than they used to be.  Maybe he should have warned Zack he was coming.

“Hey,” Zack said warily.  “Something wrong?”

Trini hadn’t given him anything to go on when she said “can you check on Zack,” so he figured the truth was as good as anything.  “Trini asked me to check on you,” he said.

Zack didn’t look any less skeptical.  “Seriously?”

Jason went for his phone automatically, but it was in his locker at school.  “I have the text to prove it,” he said instead. “Which reminds me, Billy says we probably shouldn’t text from the ship.  Or to it. Or carry our phones when we’re here.”

Zack shook his head.  “I have to have my phone,” he said.  “In case my mom needs me.”

Jason wasn’t going to argue something they’d never worried about before, so he shrugged.  “Billy says maybe Andros can do something.”

Zack raised his eyebrows, reaching for a chair and swinging it around.  “They’re gonna take over the world, you know.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, kicking the chair nearest him around too.  If Zack was sitting, he wasn’t running away, and who knew Trini’d be right when she guessed he wanted to talk?  How did she even know things like that? “I guess it could be worse.”

“Yeah, it could be anyone other than Billy,” Zack said.  “How is he so cool? All the shit he must deal with, and he still thinks people are good and everyone’s gonna do the right thing.”

Jason sat down, watching three consoles light up just because he looked at them.  Or got close to them. Who knew. This wasn’t the ship he had a psychic connection to, and he didn’t know how anything on that one worked either.

“Beats me,” he said.  “Maybe he gets it from his dad or something.”

“Crazy Girl tell you about that?”  Zack swung a leg over the chair he’d moved, sitting backwards in it and ignoring the lights that came on behind him.  “She likes you.”

“Tell me what?” Jason asked, since he was pretty sure Trini only liked him as much as she could count on him.  Which was all they needed, as teammates, but they never would have been friends. Everyone knew that.

“Billy’s dad,” Zack said.

That was all he said, so apparently Jason was supposed to know and recognize that he knew just from that.  Something Billy had told Trini about his dad? Something he hadn’t told the rest of them? The two of them did hike together a lot.

“The ghost thing?” Zack prompted, making a face when Jason shook his head.  “Oh, come on. I thought you bonded over your visions or something.”

“Look, you don’t have to tell me,” Jason said.

“No, I kinda do,” Zack said.  “Whatever, it’s fair, right? She asked you to check on me, I tell you what she said about Billy’s dad.”

“Does Billy know?” Jason asked.  “Whatever… Trini says? About his dad?”

“Honestly,” Zack said.  “No idea. She’s told him, but she says--look, his dad’s ghost follows him around.  I guess. She told him, and he just said yeah, he knows. She’s not sure he gets that it’s literal.”

“Wait,” Jason said.  He wasn’t sure where to start, so he just went with, “What?”

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “I know. He’s the only one, if that makes you feel any better.  I’m not sure it does, really, but she says the fewer ghosts the better.”

“Trini,” Jason said, just to be sure.  “Sees ghosts that aren’t… dead Rangers.  Okay,” he added, “I get that that doesn’t sound any more normal.  Now that I’ve said it.”

“The seeing dead Rangers part?” Zack said.  “Yeah, no kidding. But we were used to that, with you.  The other ghosts thing was new to me too.”

“So it’s not just BIlly’s dad?” Jason asked.

Zack actually laughed.  “What, that’s not enough for you?”

“I’m a big picture kind of guy,” Jason said.

“I think it’s ghosts she has some connection to,” Zack said.  “Not sure. But definitely more than just the old Eltaran Rangers and Billy’s dad.  She mentioned her grandmother?”

“Okay,” Jason said slowly.  “Ghosts. That’s…”

“Right?” Zack said.

“Yeah,” Jason said.  He thought about it for a second, the voices and the faces he saw in the command center, and the way Trini said she saw people all over the ship.  And the way Billy had answered when Trini asked if anyone else saw ghosts.

“So when Billy talks to his dad,” Jason said.  “You think he’s--?”

“Actually talking to him?” Zack said, when Jason didn’t finish.  “I don’t know, man. Who the hell knows how Billy thinks.”

Jason shook his head too, but Zack must have taken it the wrong way because he apologized.  “Uh, sorry,” he said. “I love him, you know? I mean, not like--I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Jason said quickly.  “Trust me. I totally get it.”

“Hey, it’s not like I know how you think, either,” Zack said.  “It’s not because he’s different or anything.”

“I’m not really that complicated,” Jason said.

Zack scoffed.  “Whatever you say, man.”

The lights on the console above and next to Jason dimmed, but the one in front of him remained stubbornly bright.  He wondered if they had some kind of auto power down, and if so, what made some of them change when others didn’t. They reacted to Power, Andros said.  Like the old ship, reacting to what they were thinking?

“Speaking of weird,” Zack said.  “Zhane can do this thing, uh, moving stuff around without touching it?  He’s been teaching me. Might be useful someday.”

Jason looked over at him.  “Moving stuff without touching it?”

Zack pointed at the empty chair beside Jason, then made a circle with his finger.

The chair turned in a circle.

“What the hell,” Jason said.

“I know,” Zack said.  “Great, right?”

“Can you do that with anything?” Jason asked without thinking.  Then, “Can you do it when you’re not on the ship?”

“Yeah, I thought of that too,” Zack said.  “It works everywhere so far, but mostly on stuff in a certain size range.  Zhane says it takes practice.”

“Zhane can do it too,” Jason said.  “Is it… a Ranger thing?”

Zack shrugged.  “No idea. I mean, he says it isn’t, but he says Andros’ telepathy isn’t either.  And you got that when you leveled up, so. I don’t know what to think.”

“Zordon says the Power doesn’t make us something we weren’t already,” Jason said.

“Bullshit,” Zack said.

It made Jason laugh.  “Yeah,” he said with a grin.  “That’s what I think, too.”

“But for the sake of argument,” Zack said.  “The Power picked people who were like the people it knew, right?  That’s what Zordon said. The Red Power was more likely to pick someone who’s telepathic?  What are the chances it gets you? That it gets all of us, if we’re all what it’s looking for?  That’s some long term karma or destiny bs, right there.”

Jason considered that, watching the consoles that had lit up when Zack spun the chair start to dim again.  “Or whatever it’s looking for is more common than we think,” he said.

“I guess,” Zack said, surprising him.  “I mean, if I don’t buy the destiny thing, then this is all just chance, right?  Some weird coincidence, or cosmic joke or something. Maybe it’s better to think the Power wasn’t unlucky, it just had a lot of options.”

Jason nodded.  “What do you think Billy would say?” he asked after a moment.  “A lot of good options? Or destiny?”

“No clue,” Zack said.  “You’d know better than I would.”

“I wish,” Jason said.  

“What does that mean?” Zack wanted to know.

“It means I don’t know what I’m doing,” Jason said.  “What else is new.”

“You and all the rest of us,” Zack said.

It was funny, Jason thought.  A few weeks ago that would have frustrated him, made him more angry or afraid.  Now it just seemed kind of… it made sense. It sounded right. Reassuring, even.

“You know,” he said aloud.  “That probably shouldn’t make me feel better.  But I think it does.”

“We’re all in this together,” Zack said.  “You got the hard job, but we’re with you.”

Jason looked at him in surprise.  “I didn’t expect you to say that,” he said at last, because he didn’t know how else to answer.  It was a very Billy way of replying, he thought. He was learning from all of them, and it was probably about time.

“Which part?” Zack said.  “That you’re the leader? Or we’ll follow you?”

“Either,” Jason said, but even as he answered he knew that was what Zack meant.  It was the same thing, in his mind.

Zack shrugged.  “I still don’t get you,” he said.  “But you make it work, you know? That’s worth a lot.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jason told him.  “I’ll take it, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t get you either.  Any of you.”

“So what,” Zack said.  “It’s worked so far. We all do plenty of stuff we don’t understand.  Pretty sure it’s not a prereq or anything.”

“What, understanding?”  Jason had to smile. “I guess I’d never do anything if it was.”

“Exactly,” Zack said.  “Speaking of that. What’s the word on the Disney trip?”

Jason didn’t know what it said about Zack’s mom that he was asking: he wanted to go, he wanted to distract himself, he wanted to tell his mom to give her something else to think about?  So he just said, “Friday night at Epcot, probably. Something about the world, and fireworks, and probably pictures. Kim and Billy are talking to them.

“By email,” he added, when he saw Zack’s expression.  “I guess. They’re having fun, so I’m staying out of it.”

Zack shook his head.  “I don’t know if that’s smart or stupid,” he said.

“No kidding,” Jason said.  “Not sure there’s anything we can do about it either way, so.  Someone might as well have a good time.”

“Just Friday?” Zack asked.

“So far,” Jason said.  “Do I think it will stay that way?  No, I’m sure they’re going to turn it into the entire weekend.”

“What about Zhane and Andros?” Zack wanted to know.  “They staying?”

“They better,” Jason said.  “They started it.”

Zack smiled at that, and Jason added, “Andros said something about visiting other planets tomorrow, but they’ll be back.  Kim hasn’t promised them to Disney World yet, but Billy says she included them in the resort count.”

“The resort count?” Zack repeated.

“She’s negotiating terms in exchange for the photo op or whatever they want,” Jason said.  “I’m pretty sure it includes separate hotel rooms for everyone and as many parks as she thinks we can see in three days.  Billy’s advising her on privacy and security, I think.”

“By email,” Zack said.

“Would you believe they’ve printed it out and keep passing notes and drafts between classes,” Jason said.  “I should just give the whole team my locker combination. You’re literally the only one who isn’t using it for something at this point.”

“Well, I eat your snacks,” Zack said.  “So food storage.”

“Anytime,” Jason said.  “36-9-24. Let me know if you catch anyone harassing Kim.”

“Before or after Crazy Girl runs them out of town?” Zack said.

“Preferably before anyone gets suspended or expelled,” Jason said.  

“Oh, low bar,” Zack said.

“Yeah,” Jason said with a sigh.  “I know it.”

“Can I ask you something?” Zack wanted to know.  “It’s weird.”

“Sure,” Jason said.

“We’ve been to another planet,” Zack said.  “We’ve flown spaceships. We met aliens, and they don’t hate us.  You ever think about what that means?”

“SETI’s been looking in the wrong places?” Jason said.

“Yeah, out there,” Zack said.  “We really never looked for alien signals here on Earth?”

“Or alien technology,” Jason said.  “It’s hard to believe a giant spaceship never looked weird on someone’s scan of the planet somewhere.”

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “But here’s the thing.  The rest of the universe doesn’t hate us.  At least as far as I can tell. You ever think about leaving?”

“Leaving what?” Jason asked, and it actually took him a couple of seconds to catch up.  

“Here,” Zack was saying already.  “Earth. Just taking off, finding another place.  Somewhere else. On some other planet, I mean.”

“No,” Jason said.  Then he remembered Sunday night, after they got back, when he was sitting around trying to do his homework while Zack walked around Australia with Zhane and Andros.  “Okay, yeah,” he said. “But I have stuff to do here. My dad’ll kill me if I don’t at least graduate.”

“I guess,” Zack said.  “But it’s not like it would matter.  To aliens. Whether or not you graduate high school.”

Jason wasn’t stupid.  He knew what Zack was saying, and he knew there were a hundred wrong answers.  He wasn’t sure there was a right one. He wasn’t even sure there was an answer he liked, or would want to hear, since he’d thought the same thing.

“Not gonna lie,” he said at last.  “I did think about it. But I think I’d miss Earth.  And we’d miss you if you left without us. Coming back might be easier if we weren’t coming back to high school, you know?”

Zack raised his eyebrows, but after a few seconds all he said was, “You practice that?”

Jason had to smile.  “Should I?”

“Probably,” Zack said.  “Not cause it's bad. Just.  Kim's probably gonna need it too.”

Jason's smile faded.  He'd expected Trini, maybe, but not Kim.  “You think?”

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “That’s not one of the things you talk about when she sneaks in your window at night?”

“What we’re gonna do with our lives is pretty much at the bottom of the list,” Jason said.

“I get that,” Zack agreed.  

Neither of them said anything for a moment, and finally Jason said. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I have to go back eventually.  And someone’s going to ask me about your mom.”

Zack shrugged.  “She likes the ship,” he said.

“Yeah?”  Jason had to smile.  “Good.”

“It probably won’t help,” Zack said.  “But she’s having a good time, so. It’s worth it.”

“Good,” Jason said again.  “Probably a better use of the ship than anything we’ve done with it so far.”

“Sure,” Zack said.  “Entertaining our families.  Tell Crazy Girl, maybe she can have the ship babysit her brothers for her.”

“Her brothers would figure out the ship in five minutes,” Jason said.  “And disappear with it in ten. If they visit, it’s the old ship or nothing.”

“You don’t think they’d figure out the Dinosaur?”

“I think the Dinosaur would laugh at them if they told it to do something we said not to,” Jason said.  “Silently. The same way it refuses to do anything we say that Alpha disagrees with.”

“Oh, there’s a hierarchy,” Zack said.

“There’s definitely a hierarchy,” Jason said.  “We don’t beat out Alpha, but I’m pretty sure we win against anyone else.”

“Where is Alpha, anyway?” Zack wanted to know.  “I haven’t seen him since we got back to Earth. I thought maybe he was studying the new ship or something, but he hasn’t turned up over here either.”

“He’s probably working on some project,” Jason said.  “He’s still not used to having us around all the time.  I’ll ask the ship before I go back to school.”

The ship actually did tell him where Alpha was, and Jason thought that was an improvement over Eltar.  Especially since Alpha wasn’t on the Dinosaur at all, but on the Delta Flyer. How far could the ship track them, anyway?

Zack was right, Jason thought.  He’d have to remember to tell him.

Or maybe Zack would stumble over Alpha in the hangar bay all on his own.  Alpha was supposedly chatting with the fighters Andros and Zhane had stowed there, and they’d be taking the ships soon if they were planning to visit Earth’s neighbors for the rest of the week.  They should probably warn NASA about that too.

Jason wondered how close their “neighbors” could be if Andros and Zhane knew them without knowing anything about Earth.

He barely made it back into the building before the bell rang--for the end of the period, he hoped, not the beginning of the next one, but it had to be because everyone else was in the halls too.  Stopping at his locker slowed him down, but he texted back to Billy and he’s ok to Trini before he headed for class.

Which he spent remembering one question after another about the ships, about the medical facilities and neighboring planets and their families and who could track what, and then remembering them all again--unanswered--one right after another.  It felt like his brain was on a hamster wheel. He couldn’t even text without thinking about all the people who might or might not be seeing it.

Hey, he finally wrote.   Can teleporting scramble my brain?

Billy’s reply was a lot less reassuring than he’d expected.   How would I know that?

I don't know, Jason admitted.  But Billy had asked that a lot lately, so he added, You know a lot of things I can't explain.  So I keep asking.

Oh, Billy replied immediately.  Then, That makes sense.

At least something did, Jason thought.

Do you feel like your brain is scrambled? Billy asked.   Whatever that would feel like?  Unpleasant, probably. Does your brain feel unpleasant?

It feels like there's so much in my head I can't keep a train of thought, Jason replied.  He'd totally given up on class at this point, but he was pretty sure the feeling was mutual.  If everyone left him alone, that was as much as he asked.

I feel that way all the time, Billy said. Maybe asd is catching.

It made Jason smile, and even more when Billy added, That was a joke, it's not contagious.

Too bad, Jason wrote, then deleted it.  That was probably rude, or insensitive to say he’d like to try it just so he knew how Billy felt.   I know, he said instead, because he had to say something and with Billy he couldn’t be too literal.  He felt like he was going to shout at the next person to ask him for something. This could be a problem.

Why? Billy wanted to know.   Stop thinking about those things for a while.  Rita’s gone, her putties are gone, and the government’s not trying to arrest us for anything yet.  I think we’re doing all right.

Yeah, Jason wrote.  He was pretty sure his dad would disagree.   Maybe.

I probably shouldn’t have written that down, Billy said.   I’m going to delete that, okay?  Are you just stressed out, or are you having some kind of psychic premonition?

For some reason, that made Jason smile again.   How would I know that? he typed, even as Billy’s text about putties disappeared.  It was probably innocent, right? Everyone in Angel Grove was worried about putties.  Maybe they weren’t all worried about getting arrested, but there was a precedent for Jason at least.

Chad jostled his arm, giving Jason enough warning to drop his phone into his bag and stare at his textbook like he wasn’t paying attention for a reason.  He also managed not to punch Chad for doing it, or glare at a teacher who was just doing her job. So he was still keeping it together.

It was nice of Billy to think he was having a psychic premonition, Jason decided.  Which was weird all on its own, but it was cool, right? That his first thought wasn’t “Jason can’t handle this,” which was definitely Jason’s first and possibly second and third thoughts too, but instead “maybe Jason has a supernatural reason for freaking out.”

Jason didn’t think he had a supernatural reason for freaking out, but maybe he wouldn’t know.  Or maybe if he did have a supernatural reason for freaking out that was just more evidence for the fact that he couldn’t handle it.  Being the leader of a team of ambassador-soldiers from a planet that barely even had spaceflight, going up against aliens that could turn the ground into monsters that crushed you and lived for millions of years at the bottom of the ocean.  Awesome.

He made it to the end of the day by doing what Billy suggested and trying not to think.  But he was out of it enough not to notice Billy waiting for him in the hall after the final bell, and he almost jerked away when someone grabbed his arm.  He dropped his bag off his other shoulder and was ready to raise his fists when he realized who it was.

“Hey,” Billy said, “hey, I didn’t mean to startle you, but I think that thing you can do when we’re--not here--really is contagious, or it goes two ways, or something.  Unless you’re not really freaking out, in which case it’s probably me--that’s not unusual, but because it’s not unusual I’m usually better at recognizing it than this. In myself.  That’s why I think it’s you.”

“Billy,” Jason said.  “What are you talking about.”

“I can hear you thinking,” Billy said.  “About not being able to handle this. Or more accurately I think you think you can’t handle this and I’ve never thought that before, and considering how often we’ve all responded to something you’ve been thinking lately it seemed like a bad idea to ignore the possibility of it happening now.”

“Great,” Jason said, because he’d gotten the gist of that and it wasn’t good.  “Something else to freak out about: you can hear what I’m thinking. For the record, I don’t want any kind of telepathy, but I really don’t like the kind where everyone else knows what I’m thinking instead of the other way around.”

“I can see why that’s unexpected,” Billy agreed.  “But I’m not sure it accurately describes the situation.  My observations suggest that you notice other people responding to your thoughts significantly more than you notice yourself responding to theirs.”

“Why don’t you have a power?” Jason wanted to know.  “Everyone else has a weird thing, lately, but you’re just… you.  In a good way. I totally mean that in a good way.”

“Maybe I was already weird?” Billy said.  “Wait, what’s Zack’s thing?”

For whatever reason, that was what made Jason care that they were standing right outside a mostly empty classroom with a teacher who might or might not care inside and students who definitely didn’t care passing them in both directions.  “I’ll tell you later,” Jason said.

Then he realized what was wrong with the question.  “Zack, what about Kim? Does Kim have a thing?”

“Everyone says she does,” Billy said.  “We just haven’t seen her do it yet.”

“Oh, the--”  Jason hiked his bag up onto his shoulder again and made little finger guns, and Billy nodded.  “You think that’s her thing?”

“You do,” Billy said.  “I mean, you think it’s her thing.  And so does the--uh, Javan.”

Jason rubbed at his eyes, but the world didn’t make any more sense when he opened them again.  “This is really weird,” he muttered.

“Hey,” Kim’s voice said.  “You managed to pry Billy out of a classroom before me, congratulations.”

Jason pressed one hand over his eyes again, but he pointed at Kim without looking.  “Zack says I should tell you to stay in school,” he said. “Not for the good of the world or anything.  Just because it’ll make running away easier later.”

“Uh, okay,” Kim said.  “Are you all right?”

“Why do you keep covering your eyes?” Billy asked.  “Does your head hurt? Or is it just a stress reaction, in which case us asking questions probably isn’t helping.”

“No,” Jason said, except his head did hurt and he hadn’t noticed until Billy asked.  “Actually, yeah. I have a headache, I guess. It’s fine.”

“I have ibuprofen,” Kim said.  “Don’t tell anyone. Want some?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, because saying no seemed stupid at this point.  “Thanks.”

Trini caught up with them while Kim was getting it out of her bag, and the first thing she said was, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” Jason said.

“He has a headache,” Billy said.  “Could you tell that just by looking at him?”

“No,” Trini said.  “I psychically guessed.”

“That’s weird,” Billy said.  “Me too.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s joking, Billy.”  Jason got out his water bottle and let Kim tip a couple of gelcaps into his hand.  He hadn’t had a headache without getting his head beaten against a rock since he’d become a Ranger.  

“I wasn’t,” Trini said.

At the same time Kim said, “You psychically guessed--”  She looked from Billy to Trini. “Wait, you both psychically guessed that he has a headache?”

“Well, that he’s stressed,” Billy said.  “I could tell from another room, which seems to indicate some level of psychic communication.”

“I could tell by looking at him,” Trini said.  “Which probably isn’t psychic at all, since Kim was getting painkillers out of her bag at the time.  You’re not supposed to have those,” she added.

“It’s a stupid rule,” Kim said.  “Any girl who gets through the month without painkillers is a girl who’s suffering unnecessarily.”

“Thanks,” Jason told her.  “Is someone going to check on Zack again?  He didn’t really seem like he wanted to be alone, earlier.”

“I thought we were all going up to the--where Zack is,” Kim said.

“You should have told me training was a one-shot deal,” Trini added.  “I would’ve agreed sooner.”

“I can’t,” Jason said.  “I have to run some errands for my parents.  You should go, though.”

“Okay,” Billy said.  “So, I worry a lot, according to some people, but you’re psychic and I think we’ve established that you may be communicating telepathically with us without realizing it.  Which should make what I’m about to say at least as likely to be rational as not. Not that I’m saying those are good odds, but I don’t think you should be alone right now.”

Jason looked at Billy, who was looking at him earnestly, and then at Kim, who was also looking at him.  “Me?” he said. “Why shouldn’t I be alone?”

“I’ll drive you,” Kim said.  “To do your errands. Then we can check on Zack too, which should be enough to drive him completely crazy.”

“You say that like he has so far to go,” Trini said.

“No, I don’t,” Kim said.  “I don’t say it like that at all.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Jason said.

“Tough,” Kim told him.  “If we keep an eye on Zack, we keep an eye on you.”

“Billy says we have to,” Trini said.

“That’s not exactly what I said,” Billy protested.

“I have my bike,” Jason said.  “I can’t leave it at school; I’ll need it tomorrow.”

“You can get your bike home the same way you get you home,” Kim said.  “Or I can come pick you up in the morning. Your choice.”

Taking her car would be a lot faster, so he didn’t have much reason to argue.  Billy and Trini went down the hall toward the side door, which would take them on a more direct route to the tennis courts, and he and Kim headed for the front of the building.  “Thank you,” he told her.

“Sure,” she said, watching her phone as they walked.  “Locker?”

He shook his head.  “Not unless Zack’s hungry.  Still following the Power Rangers?”

“Our alien friends have been disappointingly quiet today,” she said without looking up.  “Almost like they’ve disappeared from the face of the earth.”

“How alien of them,” Jason said.  

“Ha ha,” Kim said, but he could hear her smiling so she must have meant him to.

When they got outside, he glanced toward the bike rack automatically.  He didn’t know if it was psychic communication or something about the way he walked, but Kim looked up and followed his gaze.  “Oh, hey,” she said: familiar, but under her breath. Like she recognized the person by the bikes without trying to get their attention.

“You know them?” Jason asked quietly.  He didn’t, which was weird. He knew everyone who biked to school--or he had, until now.

“New kid,” Kim murmured.  “Tommy Oliver. Agender martial artist.  Just started last week.”

“Moved?” Jason asked, watching the kid fiddle with a lock.  Not a bike he recognized, either, so probably their own. “Or just switching schools?”

“Dunno,” Kim said.  

Tommy looked up, straight at them, and Jason’s fists clenched reflexively.  He felt Kim’s hand on his, but it was Karis’ voice that called hello. To Rita, all those years ago, welcoming her aboard the ship and onto the team with open arms.

He didn’t hear what they said to each other.  He felt Kim pulling him away. He could open the passenger door and get in, but sitting in a car was strange, like the technology wasn’t what it was supposed to be.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kim said, as soon as her door slammed shut.  “You’re the last person I thought would be weird about someone like that.”

“Tommy knows Rita,” he mumbled, bracing his elbow against the door and pressing his hand to his forehead.  His head was pounding, and he didn’t think ibuprofen was going to do anything for this. “I’m pretty sure someone’s trying to read my mind right now.”

“What?” Kim hissed, suddenly quiet like they might be overheard inside the car.  They might, but Jason didn’t think whispering was going to help. “Are you serious?  How do you know that?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said, squeezing his eyes shut.  Something Billy said came back to him, and he offered, “I’ve never thought it about anyone else?  If that counts for anything.”

“You speak Zordon’s language and you fly a spaceship and you read our minds,” Kim said.  “Anything you say counts.”

He tried to smile.  “All of you do all of those things too.”

“Well, anything we say counts too,” Kim informed him, starting up her car.  “Do we get out and fight, or do we drive away?”

Fighting was a terrible option for so many reasons, and Kim must know it too.  “Drive away,” Jason said anyway.

She was already pulling out of her space, but she reached over and fumbled for his wrist.  “Call Billy,” she said, before he realized she was tapping his communicator.

“And tell him what,” Jason said, pulling away from her to rub at his temples irritably.  

“Tell him about Tommy,” Kim said.

“Why, what’s Billy gonna do?”  Jason thought they were all in over their heads here, and he didn’t know how calling each other was going to help.  Zordon never helped, and he actually knew what they were doing. Arguably.

“I don’t know,” Kim said.  “He’s smart. Besides, don’t you watch TV?  Never keep the vital piece of information about your enemy secret.  Then they just kill you and leave everyone else in the dark.”

He felt a smile trying to change his expression, and something about it made him take a deep breath.  “Okay,” he agreed. “You’re right, we shouldn’t die without telling someone I imagined a dead witch brainwashing a random high school student into sabotaging our lives.”

“That’s the right answer,” Kim said.  “Alternatively, you can call Billy for me and I’ll talk to him.  If you’re going to be rude about it.”

“I’m not rude to Billy,” Jason said.

“No, you’re shockingly tolerant of him, actually.  Have you really known him since elementary school?”

“I said I didn’t know him in elementary school,” Jason corrected.

“Right, which I assumed was a lie,” Kim said.  “Since you know which school he went to, and both of you obviously knew way more about each other than you could have learned in a day.”

“I’m gonna call Billy,” Jason said.

“Thank you,” Kim told him.

He waited until Billy answered to say, “Hey, Billy, Kim wants to talk to you.”

“Oh my god,” Kim said.  “What’s wrong with you; I didn’t think you were actually going to do that.”

“You know, you’ve asked what’s wrong with me a lot for someone who thinks we’re going to die,” Jason said.

“Uh, no,” Kim said.  “I’ve asked what’s wrong with you exactly the right number of times for someone who thinks we’re going to die.  What makes you think that fearing imminent death and checking on your physical well-being would be totally unrelated activities?”

“Why does Kim think you’re going to die?” Billy’s voice asked.  “Or is that we as in all of us, we’re all going to die?”

“The dying part was a joke,” Kim said.  “But we saw someone on the way out of school and Jason totally spaced.  He says Rita’s brainwashing people and trying to read his mind.”

“See,” Jason said.  “Even you can’t make that sound reasonable.”

“Please,” Kim said.  “You act like we haven’t lived through the last few weeks.  Name one thing that’s happened to us recently that sounds remotely reasonable.”

He wanted to blame his headache, but it actually felt a little better and making it flare again wasn’t worth it.  “You win that one,” he told her.

“Rita’s trying to read your mind?” Billy’s voice asked.  “Are you sure? Because you were kind of panicking before and sometimes that can make you irrationally afraid of things that don’t have much basis in reality.”

“Really?” Trini’s voice said.  “That’s how you reassure someone who’s freaking out?”

“By suggesting a plausible alternative explanation?” Billy said.  “Uh, yeah. That’s basically my second reaction to everything.”

“Ask him what his first reaction is,” Jason added.

“Well, I’m already trying to find some evidence that Rita survived and is currently capable of influencing either your mental or physical state,” Billy said.  “I know you said she’s doing it to other people too--who did you see that you suspect of being brainwashed?”

“See,” Jason said.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” Kim said.  “You’re the one who was all, ‘What’s Billy gonna do?  I’d rather be silently miserable than tell anyone what happened!’”

“Yeah, what happened,” Billy said.  “That would be helpful information. Probably.  It’s hard to judge without having it, but usually knowing more is better than knowing less.”

“Tommy Oliver happened,” Kim said.

There was a brief pause before Billy said, “I don’t know if you think that’s helpful, but I don’t, honestly.”

“Wait,” Trini’s voice said.  “Tommy, that kid you were talking about this morning?”

“Yeah,” Kim said.  “Jason saw Tommy and zoned out, like full-on pre-fight mode.  Fists and everything.”

“Jason wasn’t fully aware when he came out of class this afternoon either,” Billy said.  “When I touched you in the hallway, do you remember? I’m not great at emotional reactions, but you definitely seemed physically startled.”

“You surprised me,” Jason said.

“The first thing he said when he got in the car was that Tommy knows Rita,” Kim reported.  “The second thing was that someone was trying to read his mind.”

“Oh, wow,” Billy said.  “This is weird, I’m not trying to ignore you but the ship is showing us what I’m pretty sure is the location of a sixth Power Coin on Earth.  I was looking for Rita and I think I might have found her coin? But not her. The coin is moving, though, so someone else must have it.”

Jason looked at Kim, who glanced at him long enough to catch his eye before looking back at the road.  “Still want to do errands?” she asked quietly.

He shook his head once.  “No,” he muttered. “Let’s go.”

She nodded, putting on her blinker at the next turn.

“I realize this is a logical leap,” Billy was saying, “but what if it’s Tommy?  Would that explain why you felt a connection to Rita?”

“Yeah,” Jason said.  “Yeah, it definitely would.”

“You think Tommy has the magical coin that made Rita a Power Ranger?” Trini’s voice asked.  “How does that happen?”

“There are any number of possibilities,” Billy said.  “Rita lost the coin during the battle for Angel Grove.  Rita was separated from the coin after the battle. Rita's still alive and deliberately gave the coin to someone else, which is possible but unlikely, given that she didn't show any ability or desire to work with modern humans.”

“And given that she's dead,” Trini said.

“Well, I don't think that's conclusive,” Billy said.  “Zordon's dead, and he had a significant impact on recent events.  To the point of arguably being responsible for the Power Coins we have ending up where they are.”

“I hate to say this,” Kim said, “but are we sure she's dead?  She survived trapped at the bottom of the ocean for millions of years.  We don't know where she is now, but it might not be worse than that.”

“Alpha said Zordon didn't choose us,” Jason said.  “The Power did. Could Rita’s coin have chosen someone new?”

No one said anything for several seconds, and Jason wondered where exactly Kim was going.  He was about to ask when she turned off the tiny road they'd ended up on into a dirt pull-off with a single trail sign on the other side.  “That's a disturbing thought,” she said. “How much of her desire to kill everyone goes with her coin, do you think?”

“No idea,” Jason said.  “You want to leave your car here?”

“Yeah, it's fine,” Kim said.  “I park here when I go hiking sometimes.  Are you guys on the Dinosaur, or the Delta Flyer?”

“Dinosaur,” Trini said.  “Alpha’s helping us, Zack's on his way.”

“So are we,” Jason said, opening the door and getting out.  Kim climbed out on the other side and he closed the door so she could lock it.  “Give us a second.”

He barely made it home in time for dinner, but with Kim’s help he did manage to pick up laundry soap and drop his mom’s audiobook off at the library first.  They didn’t get his bike, but Jason figured Kim was right about that. He could teleport it from the school to the ship and back to his house after it got dark.

They did manage to come up with a plan for Tommy, although it was mostly based on guesswork and Alpha’s mockery of their worst ideas.  In between reminding them how little they knew, Alpha confirmed that Rita had once had a Power Coin, it was green, and it definitely could have changed hands.  When, even Alpha wouldn’t guess, but he agreed with Billy that the ship was suddenly tracking it and it seemed to be following Tommy.

Or Tommy was following it.  Trini was the one who said maybe they were being hunted for their coins, and Zack said their coins never left them, and Alpha said Rita’s did.  Unless she was actually shadowing Tommy in some way they couldn’t see, which was where Jason drew the line and told them all to go home.

“Seriously,” he said.  “More worst-case scenarios are not what we need right now.”

“What, you’re the only one who’s allowed to freak out?” Trini demanded.

“Yes,” Jason told her.  “Try not to go places alone, and whatever you do, don’t take your communicator off.  We’ll keep an eye on Tommy and see if we can… I don’t know. Make a friend instead of an enemy, I guess.”

“We’re not possessed by the spirits of former Rangers,” Billy said.  “At least, I don’t think we are. We have varying degrees of awareness of them, but they don’t dictate our actions.  It seems reasonable to expect that Rita doesn’t dictate Tommy’s, either.”

“There’s a difference between former Power Rangers and former evil witches who tried to kill us,” Kim said.

“You think Zordon can make me do whatever he wants?” Jason asked.

She gave him a considering look, and he shook his head.  “Never mind,” he said. “I have a book to take back and soap to buy, and I’m pretty sure most of you have more interesting things to do than this.  See you tomorrow.”

“Hey, wait,” Kim said, when he turned away.  “You’re not riding your bike around town alone after you just told us to stick together.  I’m coming with you.”

“Don’t get jumped by anyone’s evil successor,” Zack said, and Jason didn’t even mind that he grinned when he said it.

No one got jumped by an evil successor that night.  Jason’s headache had gone away entirely by dinner, which he figured was thanks to Kim, and getting the errands done didn’t hurt when it came to dinner conversation.  He even managed to get his bike home afterwards without any questions.

The meal was so peaceful that he decided not to mention the Disney trip yet.  They probably wouldn’t even go, not if there was someone running around Angel Grove with Rita’s Power Coin.  Putties were probably next. At the very least.

But his communicator stayed silent, and that night no one knocked on his window (Kim) or his door (Pearl) so he finally got some sleep.  When he checked his phone in the morning there was nothing about another Gold Killer. No one had texted him overnight, emergency or otherwise, and the top news story was an air quality report related to nearby wildfires.

The second story was about the reconstruction and government interference, but that was the new normal in Angel Grove.

Jason had a math test he probably should have studied for, a lab report he hadn’t done, and two writing assignments he hadn’t started, so he wasn’t paying as much attention as he should have been by the time he was inside the school and heading for his locker.  The town was quiet and the NSA didn’t stake out high schools, as a general rule. What could happen with everyone watching?

The messy scrawl across his locker door didn’t even register until he was standing right in front of it, staring at the words POWER RANGER in bright red marker.

It was so strange that he couldn’t even think of how to react.  So he did the next best thing: he ignored it.

“Hey, what’s this,” Kim said, ducking under his arm like she owned his locker and could see through the door when she had her head inside it.  “Are you a Power Ranger now? You should have told me.”

“Yeah,” he said.  Then louder, so everyone around them could hear, “Yeah, I’m a Power Ranger.  I didn’t want to brag.”

“Sexy,” Kim declared, pulling a textbook out of the pile on the top shelf.  All of hers were covered in designer paper, so they were easy to tell apart from his.  “I’ll spread it around.”

“There’s a thought,” Jason said, relaxed and inspired at the same time.  “Got a sharpie?”

She scoffed.  “I think you mean, how many colors of sharpie do I have?”

“I only need black,” he said.  “Can I borrow it? I’ll give it back to you at lunch.”

Kim slapped three markers into his hand: black, blue, and purple.  “You have so much to learn about tagging,” she told him.

That was probably true, but he already had the most important part down: how not to get caught.  Unfortunately it wasn’t teachable, since his strategy mostly consisted of “be a former quarterback no one wants to piss off.”  He wrote POWER RANGER on Billy’s locker when Billy had the door open, so the security camera at the end of the hall couldn’t see him, and he wrote it on Damo’s locker just before the first period bell when everyone was so crammed together the camera might not pick him out.

Plenty of people saw him do it, of course, but he didn’t immediately get another detention, so probably no one turned him in.  Unless the school just figured he had a lifetime detention at this point and it wasn’t worth piling on. That was possible.

POWER RANGER showed up on Trini’s locker too, with a flower drawn next to it, and on Clare’s locker down the hall.  Then Jason saw Damo put it on Hawkeye’s locker, and that was it. The football team picked it up and everyone else fell in line.  There were 32 identified Power Rangers at Angel Grove High by the end of the day, and a warning email went out that afternoon about defacing school property.

It was funny enough that Jason could almost forget they didn’t know how it started.  But he had a headache all through last period--again--and he took Kim’s ibuprofen--again--and when they all gathered back at his locker at the end of the day, Tommy Oliver walked right up to them and said, “So, Power Rangers, huh?”

Jason could feel every one of them realize what had happened at the same time.  Kim was annoyed, Trini was disgusted, and Billy was impressed. But it was Zack who replied, “Yeah.  You?”

There were people shoving by all around them as Tommy said, “Not yet.  I’m working on it.”

Jason looked at Kim, but she was folding her arms and glaring at Tommy, so he looked at Billy instead.  Billy, maybe predictably in retrospect, said, “Us too. You should come join us. Like to practice. You know, if you want to.”

It wasn’t predictable to Tommy, at least, who looked about as surprised as Jason felt.  “Really?”

“Only if you stop making my head hurt,” Jason said.  “I assume that’s you. Cut it out, and you’re welcome to join us any time.”

“Also,” Kim said, “I feel like one of us should tell you to stop vandalizing school property, but we don’t have any room to talk.  So maybe just stop being a jerk and we’ll call it even.”

“I’m in,” Tommy said.  The pressure in Jason’s head was gone like flipping a switch, and he pressed his fingers against his temples just to be sure.  “Where do you train?”

“Jason?” Billy asked.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck just to be sure.  With it came a flicker of uncertainty, like maybe Tommy hadn’t meant to hurt him. Which he believed about as much as Zack did, but even Zack was willing to let Tommy see the Dinosaur.

“I’m good,” Jason added, nodding at Billy and trying to catch Zack’s eye.   Why , he thought.   Why.  If that was really what Billy had in mind, and Zack was really okay with it, then Jason wanted to know why.

Zack glanced at him and then away, but it was enough.  The Dinosaur was already compromised. If Tommy had Rita’s Power Coin, the ship would respond to it the same way it had responded to theirs.  Tommy could walk on and off as easily as they could.

“That’s your opinion,” Trini said, and it took him a second to realize she was responding to what he’d said, not what he’d thought.  Probably.

“What’d you do to Jason?” Kim wanted to know.  She’d moved a little so she was partially between them, which Jason would have thought was funnier if he hadn’t seen her fight.

“And what’s with the graffiti,” Zack added.  

Jason didn’t think it was his imagination that Tommy hesitated before saying, “Just trying to get your attention.”  

True and not true, Jason thought.  He didn’t know what that meant, but it was true that Tommy was trying to get their attention.  It was also true that Tommy was surprised by the attention. What the hell, Jason thought. What did that even mean?

“I think I can read minds,” Tommy added, and Jason knew that was true without even trying.  “Like Jason’s doing to me right now.”

Literally everyone turned to look at him, even a couple of random people who were passing by in the hall.  Jason waved, smiling a little. This could win some kind of award as the weirdest conversation they’d had at school yet.  And it didn’t even involve the government or aliens from outer space.

“Does it hurt your head when Jason does it?” Billy asked.

“No,” Tommy said, but it was mostly drowned out by Trini’s impatience.

“As entertaining as this is,” she said, “maybe we could do it somewhere else.”  She definitely wasn’t convinced they should take Tommy to the Dinosaur, but Kim would let Jason decide and Trini would follow if Kim did.  Probably.

“Yeah,” Kim agreed.  “Fun game. Let’s go.”

They did go, and Tommy went with them: to one of the picnic tables across from the playing fields.  They weren’t going to show strangers the ship unless it was unanimous. Tommy got less weird the farther they got from school, though, and Jason was very curious to see what would happen on the ship.

He had to settle for asking Javan after Tommy left.  It wasn’t the same, but Trini was still talking to him and Javan had plenty to say on the subject, both of which mattered.  A lot, in fact.

Tommy claimed not to know where the magical green coin had come from--despite recognizing that it was magical, but Jason was willing to let that go since they’d all figured it out as soon as the things started following them around.  Tommy said it came from somewhere downtown. It had turned up on the day Rita and her gold monster destroyed so many buildings it was legitimately hard to identify street addresses in the chaos, so the vagueness was understandable.

A lot of things Tommy said were understandable, and Jason saw Billy nodding along at several points.  The coins did recognize each other, somehow, and most of their powers were involuntary at first. Jason had to admit, if he’d been alone with his coin those first few days, he would have freaked out too.

Well.  More than he had, with the others around him.

But when Tommy left, seeming a lot more normal and at least a little reassured, the first thing Billy did was turn to Jason and ask, “How much of that was true?  Could you tell? You were reading Tommy’s mind in the hallway, was it useful? I mean, you didn’t disagree when I suggested we all train together but we didn’t, and I can’t tell if it’s because Trini doesn’t want to or because you know something about Tommy that we don’t.”

Jason stared at him, remembering what Billy had said about the last question being the most important.  But the last part wasn’t actually a question, and also, what? Billy had seemed more sympathetic than any of them, almost since the moment they met Tommy in the hall.

“Wait,” Jason said, when Zack looked like he was about to jump in.  “Now you’re a skeptic?”

“Are you serious?” Zack demanded.  “You invited that kid to the ship!”

“No I didn’t,” Billy said.  “I’m serious and skeptical, yes.  Why?”

“Way to go, Billy,” Kim said.  “You totally acted like the nice one.”

“He is the nice one,” Trini said.  “And I don’t have a problem training with Tommy.  I have a problem with Tommy being on a spaceship, with us, where one person’s unpredictable behavior or temper tantrum can turn a fragile bubble of life support into a death trap.”

“Have you been talking to Alpha again?” Kim asked.

“I like Alpha,” Trini said.  “Alpha knows what he’s talking about.”

“That’s true,” Billy agreed.  “Alpha would be as skeptical of Tommy as he was of us.  Which, if we’re using Alpha as a role model, probably means we should wait until Tommy turns out to be demonstrably incapable before withholding our support.”

“Being incapable isn’t what I’m worried about,” Zack said.  “Being evil is.”

“Alpha had a deadline,” Trini said.  “It was us or Rita. Not a huge surprise that he chose us, if you ask me.”

“It might still be us or Rita,” Jason said.  “If that coin is corrupted somehow.”

“That would explain her armor,” Billy said.

“You call that armor?” Zack countered.

“Not on my planet,” Kim said.

“She’s magical,” Trini said.  “She doesn’t need armor.”

It could have been a throwaway comment, but something about it made Jason look at Trini more carefully.  “Is that true?” he asked. “That she’s protected by magic somehow?”

The look Trini gave him was priceless.  “There was a fight where she pulled rocks out of the ground and surrounded herself by gold,” she said.  “I know you were there.”

“Okay, but one on one,” he said.  “No rocks or gold monsters. If I swing a sword at her, does it stop before it slices her arm off, or what?”

“Why are you asking Trini?” Billy wanted to know.

At the same time, Trini said, “Yeah.  Pretty sure it does.”

Jason glanced at Billy and tipped his head in Trini’s direction.

“Well, yes, that’s moderately convincing,” Billy said, “but why?  How do you know that?” he asked Trini.

“How do you know how the engines work?” she countered.  “I don’t know; I just do.”

“And that’s why we’re not inviting Tommy onto the ship until Trini doesn’t think we’re going to die,” Jason said.  “Let’s go see if Javan can keep someone with a Power Coin out or not.”

“Does it matter?” Kim wanted to know.  “If the ship’s in orbit, how’s Tommy going to get there without us?”

“Or one of our communicators,” Billy said.

They all looked at each other--even Billy--and then every single one of them looked down at their communicator.  “Don’t take them off,” Jason said.

“No kidding,” Zack said.

Alpha seemed less worried when they asked him about it.  Javan seemed more. And from an artificial voice from the past that was only supposed to represent communication, not emotionally express it, that wasn’t what Jason was expecting to hear.

“Just tell the ship not to let Tommy aboard,” Alpha said.  “There you go, problem solved.”

“There are multiple scenarios in which someone in possession of a Power Coin could activate an emergency override of any standing order,” Javan said.  “Including but not limited to an order restricting that person’s presence on the ship.”

“Like what kind of scenarios?” Zack asked, but Jason interrupted him.

“No, wait,” he said.  “Not--just. Don’t. Let’s not go there right now.”

They all looked at him, and it was the weirdest echo of their expressions in his mind.  Like he knew what he was seeing without looking at them: Billy’s patience, Zack’s annoyance, Kim’s curiosity, and Trini’s… sympathy.  Except Trini didn’t look sympathetic. She just--

He just knew she was.  Like he wasn’t reading her expression at all.

Like he was reading their minds.

“Okay,” he said, trying to shake it off.  It was like pain, right? You play through it until it stops you, and you come back stronger.  “I just don’t think we need to hear about everything that could go wrong right now. Not all at once.  I think we should focus on what’s likely, and how we can work around it.”

“You okay there, Jason?” Alpha asked.  Alpha. He didn’t register anything from Alpha beyond a general sense of location, and that was probably because Jason could see him standing there.  “Because you look a little stunned. I mean, I’m used to seeing that expression on your face, on all of your faces, but it’s been a while. Minutes, at least.”

It made Jason smile, and it was Trini that he looked at automatically.  He could see her relax, somehow. Or maybe he wasn’t seeing it.

“I think I’m reading your minds,” Jason blurted out.

“What, my mind?” Alpha said.  “That seems unlikely. Or all their minds, which we’ve already established you can do.  Why is it surprising you now?”

“Has the experience changed somehow?” Billy wanted to know.  “Or are you just more aware of it now? Meeting Tommy seems to have made you more confident about what’s happening.”

“Because Tommy can do it too?” Kim suggested.  “Maybe that makes it more obvious?”

“You just tried to give a logical explanation for why Jason should accept his magical mindreading ability,” Zack said.  “I just thought I’d point that out.”

“You move things with your mind,” Jason said.  “Don’t talk to me about mindreading.”

“Oh, you’re telekinetic?”  Billy looked interested but not surprised. “Is that your thing?  Jason and I were talking about it at school, but Jason didn’t want to say anything where anyone else could hear.

“Why does everyone else have a thing?” Kim demanded.  “I feel left out.”

“I don’t have a thing,” Billy said.

“You’re you,” Kim told him.  “You know everything.”

“Billy thinks your thing is shooting,” Jason told her.

“No, you think her thing is shooting,” Billy said.  “We talked about this. Just because I point out something you think, that doesn’t mean I agree.”

Jason raised his eyebrows.  “You don’t think shooting is her thing?”

“I don’t know,” Billy said.  “We haven’t seen her do it yet.  Observation is the foundation of the scientific process.”

“I’m not going to shoot something just so we can see if I’m magically good at it,” Kim said.  “Unless I can do that. Billy, where can I shoot things just to see if I can?”

“The gym on the Delta Flyer,” Zack said.

They all looked at him, but Kim was the one to say, “Really?”

“Sure,” Zack said.  “I’ve been there all day.  Zhane wasn’t kidding about it having better programs.”

Trini raised her hand.  “Who wants to see Kim shoot?” she asked.  She didn’t put her hand down after she’d asked the question, and Jason smiled.

He raised his hand.  So did Zack, grinning, and Billy put his hand up when they all did.

“Let’s go shoot things,” Jason said.

Chapter Text

It turned out they were all magically good at shooting things.  Kim could do it with her eyes closed, though, so Jason would have assumed it was her thing if Billy didn't seem so skeptical.  He'd been right about everything else so far.

“She's better than we are at it,” Billy said.  “But Zack’s better at navigating than anyone else.  I'm better at mechanical and electrical engineering.  Shooting is more like those skills than it is like telepathy or telekinesis.”

“Telekinesis isn't a Ranger thing,” Trini said.  “Zack just learned that.”

“Like you learned to see dead people?” Zack asked.  “Or like Jason learned to read our minds?”

“No one taught us to do that,” Trini said.

“I learned telekinesis in an hour,” Zack said.  “Zhane says it isn’t a Ranger thing, but it didn’t feel like I was getting it from him.  It felt like he was showing me how to use something I could already do.”

“Could you?” Kim asked.  “Already do it?”

“I don’t know,” Zack said.  “I mean, I never did before.  But I haven’t killed myself jumping trains, either.  Maybe that’s more than just luck.”

“Seeing ghosts feels like something I could always do,” Trini said.

There was a long moment of silence when no one had any idea what to say to that.  Jason wasn’t sure she was serious. He didn’t want to guess--sarcastic or not--and get it wrong.  Wasn’t that Kim’s job?

“Jason?” Billy asked.

Jason looked at him, and that was all it took to realize that everyone else was staring back at him.  “What?” he said, but he knew what Billy was asking. Not because he was telepathic. Just because of the way they were looking at him.

Billy said it anyway.  “Do you feel like you’ve always known what people are thinking?”

“No,” Jason said.

“That sounds like a lie,” Zack said, “but okay.”

“Could you stop being so obnoxious?” Jason demanded.  “Just as a favor to me or something?”

“Could you stop being so you?” Zack shot back.  “As a favor to me?”

“Could you not fight?” Billy asked.  

“Why, we’re awesome at fighting,” Zack said.  “That’s what we do. We were literally handpicked by an alien to fight.”

“Don’t yell at him,” Jason said.

“I’m not yelling at him,” Zack snapped.  “Don’t make this about Billy when it’s obviously about you and me.  Because if you want to fight with me, bring it on.”

“Okay,” Trini said.  “Relax.”

“What do you have against telepathy?” Kim asked, and just for a second, everything stopped.

“Who?” Trini said.  She sounded weirdly angry and Jason had no idea why.  “Jason?”

“Yeah,” Kim said, either missing or ignoring the warning in her tone.  “Zack has telekinesis, or whatever, and he likes it. You can see ghosts, and I get that it’s not your favorite thing ever, but you seem okay with it.  Jason’s the only one who hates his magical power so much that he denies having it.”

Trini wasn’t angry anymore: she’d thought Kim was attacking Zack, and when it turned out she wasn’t, Trini started listening again.  Billy was surprised. Zack was--

Zack was curious.  Relieved. Placated?  Not ready to fight anymore.

“That’s your power,” Jason blurted out.

“What?” Billy asked.

“Telepathy?” Kim said at the same time.  “I think we all agree it’s yours.”

“Which sucks,” Jason said.  “I’m not sure you get how much having other people know what I’m thinking could ruin my life, but that’s really not my point.  You just defused an argument by asking a question.”

“Well, it was a stupid argument,” Kim said.  “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Billy knows things,” Jason said.  “You feel things. That’s what you do; that’s your magic power.  You know how to make people feel things.”

Trini didn’t scoff.  Billy looked thoughtful, but he would.  Zack said, “I’d really like to make fun of that right now, but it sounds…”

“Kind of right,” Trini finished.

“That’s ridiculous,” Kim said.  “That’s not a magic power. That’s being an empathetic human being.”

“Do you feel like you’ve always been able to do it?” Trini asked.

“Oh, shut up,” Kim told her, but she was smiling.  “It’s a stupid magic power, okay? If it is a power at all, which I don’t think it is.”

“Do you hate your magic power?” Jason asked her.  “Because it sounds like you’re denying it exists, to me.”

“I hate you,” she told him.

He had to grin.  “You’re terrible at being an empathetic human being,” he told her.

“No argument here,” she said.  “Do you really think telepathy is going to ruin your life?”

“Yeah,” he said.  “Yeah, it definitely is.”

“Why?” Trini wanted to know.  “I mean, I don’t want to know what other people think either, but your life’s pretty messed up already.  What’s worse about this?”

“I have an idea,” Jason said, trying very hard not to look at Billy.  “Let’s not all try to guess.”

“Me?” Billy said, proving once again how right Jason was.  “What does it have to do with me?”

“Okay, yeah,” Zack said.  “Let’s not guess. I’m gonna go check on my mom; what should I tell her about Disney World?”

“That you’re going,” Kim said promptly.  “Check in is Friday at 4:30. They said we can bring the ship if we want.”

“Wait,” Jason said.  “What?”

“Yeah,” Billy said.  “Did we decide to recommend that or not?  I mean, it’s a terrible idea, but it’s also kind of great.”

“We didn’t decide,” Kim said.  “You said we should ask Jason, and I said Jason wouldn’t know, and then Tommy psychically attacked him again and it didn’t seem important.”

“Tommy didn’t psychically attack me,” Jason said.  “You mean today?”

“Yeah they did,” Kim said.  “Today and yesterday. I’m not the world’s leading expert on magical powers, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what a psychic attack looks like: someone gets inside your head and causes you pain.”

“Or makes you think something that isn’t true,” Trini said.  “Maybe that’s more of a psychological attack.”

“They’re both bad,” Kim said.  “Tommy is bad news. I think we should hang out with them more.”

Jason stared at her.  “Were those sentences connected?”

“I agree,” Zack said unexpectedly.  “We need to keep an eye on that kid.”

“I asked Javan to track the sixth Power Coin,” Billy offered.  “To record where it goes and let us know if it leaves Angel Grove.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zack said.

“Okay,” Jason said with a sigh.  The adrenaline rush from shooting was completely gone now, and he mostly just felt tired.  “I’ve gotta get home. Billy, I’ll call you. Kim, congrats on having a power. Anything else?”

“Should we take the ship to Disney World?” Billy asked, even though Jason could see Kim making faces at him in an effort to make him be quiet.  It made Jason smile.

“I don’t know,” he said.  “Whatever you want to do is fine.  4:30, right? Are we gonna be back Friday night, or is this a weekend trip now?”

“Oh, it’s the weekend,” Kim said.  “For sure. But the Power Rangers are only committed to Friday night, so if you need to get back, that’s fine.”

“Animal Kingdom closes too early for me to see Pandora at night on Friday,” Billy said.  “So I’ll be there Saturday. In case anyone wanted to know my schedule.”

Jason smiled again.  “Okay,” he said. “So I’ll be there Saturday too.  I’ll tell my parents tonight.”

“We’re going to take Trini’s brothers to whichever park they want to see on Saturday,” Kim said.  “But we’re going to Discovery Cove on Sunday. You guys are welcome to join us.”

“What’s Discovery Cove?” Zack wanted to know.  “Is that a Disney park?”

“No,” Kim said.  “But it turns out Disney PR can get VIPs anything they ask for, so.  We’re gonna go swim with dolphins.”

Zack folded his arms, and Jason could hear him thinking about what Kim and Trini looked like in swimsuits.  “Do they go fast?” Zack asked.

Jason blinked.

“Only one way to find out,” Trini said.

Zack grinned at her.  “Count me in.”

“Really,” Jason said with a sigh.  And he shouldn’t have said that out loud, he knew that.  But he hadn’t asked to know what people were thinking.

“What?” Zack said with a shrug.  “My mom likes dolphins. She’s always wanted to swim with them.  Do they let you take pictures?” he asked Kim.

“Yes,” Kim said.  “Yes, they definitely do.  I’ll tell Disney we need four passes.  What about you?” she added, looking from Jason to Billy and back again.  “Want to make it a team swim?”

“No,” Billy said.  “I don’t have very good associations with water right now.”

“I’m with you,” Jason told him.  “You guys have a good time,” he added.

“Okay,” Kim said.  “If you think of something else you want to do, let me know.  Or let Billy know and he can tell me. Disney is seriously promoting this, and they really want us to be happy.”

“Right,” Jason said.  He honestly had no idea what there was to do at Disney World, but it sounded like she and Billy had it covered.  And if they were going to take the ship, he could probably “check on it” pretty regularly. Maybe it would keep him out of lines and away from costumed characters.

“You don’t want to go to Disney World?” Trini said.

Jason sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and then rubbing them.  “And that’s why I don’t like telepathy,” he said.

“Hey, I don’t want to go either,” Trini said.  “It’s not like you’re special or anything.”

“Huh,” Jason said, opening his eyes again.  “Funny, that’s exactly what Billy said you’d say.”

“Why is that funny,” Trini countered, but not like she was actually asking a question.  “Billy knows things.”

“Right,” Jason said with a smile, and this time he meant it.  “His magic power. What was I thinking.”

“I don’t think knowing things is a magic power,” Billy said.  “But I wouldn’t characterize what any of us do as magical, either, so I suppose I should review the categorization of my and Kim’s abilities in light of that.”

There was a brief pause, but he didn’t continue, so Jason asked, “Well?”

“Oh, there’s not enough data to form a reliable conclusion,” Billy said.  “In the absence of existing guidelines, five is too small a sample size for meaningful extrapolation.”

“You’ve done it with literally everything else we do,” Trini said.

“Well, no,” Billy said.  “Mostly I guessed.”

“So guess now,” Kim said.

“I don’t think you saying the right thing or me having the right information is enough to disprove the null hypothesis,” Billy said.  “Jason occasionally says the right thing, and Trini sometimes knows things. But no one else--”

He stopped suddenly, and Trini said, “Sees ghosts or reads minds?  Is that what you were going to say? Because everyone saw Rita the first time, and we read Jason’s mind so much it took us days to figure out it was his power and not ours.”

“That’s true,” Billy admitted.  “Those are persuasive data points.”

“That’s what I do,” Trini said.  “Also, I sometimes know things? That came out kind of rude.”

It made Billy frown.  “Did it?” he said. “I didn’t mean it rudely.  I sometimes know things and you sometimes know things, so I was attempting to illustrate the lack of significant difference that might lead one to conclude my knowing is a special ability where yours is not.”

“Okay,” Trini said.  “Now it sounds like a compliment.  I’ll take it.”

“I wasn’t going to argue that I occasionally say the right thing,” Jason offered.  “For what it’s worth.”

“Yeah, because that’s true,” Kim said.  “Plus as a comparison to me it’s exactly the same, since I say the right thing about as often as you.  Which is not very.”

“It’s not the right thing,” Billy said.  “Right? It must be a deliberate thing. Is that what you meant?” he added, and it seemed like he was asking Jason now.  “She says things to deliberately make people feel a certain way.”

There was no way this discussion led to anything good, so Jason said, “I don’t know what I meant.”

Billy gave him an odd look, and he sighed.  “Okay,” Jason said. “I don’t want to try and explain what I meant, because it will probably sound rude and I’m tired.  I love all of you, but I’m leaving now.”

Kim got it, at least.  “Say hi to Pearl for us,” she said.

“Will do,” Jason said.  “Night everyone.”

“Good night,” Billy said, and Jason smiled at him.  

“Night, man,” Zack said.

Trini waved, and Jason made the “I love you” sign and waved it back around the circle at them before he teleported off the ship.  He was still late to dinner, but at least no one at home seemed to be reading his mind. Yet.

Jason still tried not to think about anything he wouldn’t want someone else to overhear, which was nothing new in his life but it was still exhausting.  He took it more seriously now. Now that there was real evidence people actually could tell what he was thinking about.

Fortunately for him, Pearl had broken one of her hearing aids at school and the story of it, along with the excuses (hers) and complaints (their parents) took up most of the dinner conversation.  No one even turned on the news, which turned out to be a mistake, but he didn’t find out until later when he checked his phone.

He did manage to sneak in the upcoming “publicity appearance” by the Power Rangers at the end of the meal, and it diverted his parents’ attention so thoroughly he wished he’d done it before.  Pearl gave him a very grateful look, which turned into a very indignant look when he said that the appearance would be at Disney World. He hadn’t even mentioned they’d be staying the weekend when she objected.

“You’re going to Disney World?” she exclaimed.  “And you didn’t invite me? I want to go to Disney World!”

“Well, you don’t have a Power Ranger uniform to hide your identity,” he told her.

“I don’t have to hide my identity,” she said.  “I’m not a Power Ranger!”

That was a pretty good argument, except for the fact that he couldn’t keep an eye on her while he was in uniform and he didn’t want to spend his entire weekend with her when he wasn’t.  “That’s why you’re not invited,” he told her.

She frowned at him.  “Don’t be mean,” she said.  “You could invite me. Are you going to go on rides?  Are you going to be the Power Rangers the whole time? Won’t people follow you around and ask you things?”

“Oh, like you’re doing right now?” Jason asked.  “Yeah, probably.”

“But then you won’t get to do anything!” Pearl protested.  “That’s boring!”

“It’s going to be very boring,” Jason agreed.  “I don’t think we’ll have any fun at all. It’s our first planned public appearance, so it’s mostly gonna be us trying not to say something that makes us sound stupid.  Or dangerous.”

“So you’ll be talking?” his dad asked.  “Won’t people recognize your voices?”

“You didn’t,” Jason said.

“Of course I did,” his dad said.  “I know when my own son is talking to me.”

“You didn’t recognize Billy’s voice,” Jason said.  “I guess the suits change them somehow, so we sound different.”

“Does his mother know?” Jason’s mom asked.  “I mean, about him being a Power Ranger?

“Yeah,” Jason said.  He wanted to add, of course, you think he wouldn’t tell his mom?  But that would only make them ask why Jason hadn’t told them.  He didn’t want to go there.

“When do you have to be there?” his dad asked.

Oh, he didn’t want to start answering questions about this.  He didn’t know enough about their plans to make it sound good.  He assumed Kim did know enough about their plans, but he wasn’t sure and he couldn’t call her to find out.

Or maybe he could.

“Four-thirty,” he said, just in case that was enough to end the conversation.  “At Epcot, I think.”

“You think?” his dad repeated.

Of course it wouldn’t be enough, Jason thought with a sigh.  “I’m not the one organizing it,” he said. “Someone else is talking to Disney for us.”

“Like a public relations agent?” his mom asked.  “Is someone handling the media coverage for your team?”

“Oh, like the Dinosaur account?” Pearl asked.  “That’s so cool! I want to see the Dinosaur. Can I see your ship?”

“We’re running that one ourselves,” Jason said.  “It’s supposed to look like we’re not, though.”

“It looks like a fan is doing it,” Pearl said.  “But someone you know, right? It’s supposed to look like someone you know?  I could do it. Especially if you let me see the Dinosaur.”

“You can see the ship,” Jason said.  They’d pretty much decided their families could see the ship, right?  “But only if you don’t tell anyone.”

“Yay!” Pearl exclaimed.  “When? Tonight? Can I see the ship tonight?”

“No,” Jason said.  “The others are using it for training tonight.”  That only stretched the truth a little, he thought.

“What about the new ship?” Pearl asked.  “Can I see both the ships? Can I see the new ship tonight?”

He tried not to smile.  “Not tonight,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow.  Do you have dance tomorrow?”

“I don’t have to go to dance,” Pearl said.

“Yes you do,” their mom interrupted.

“Yeah, I have dance tomorrow,” Pearl said with a sigh.  “Are you going to be away the whole weekend again? You’ll probably be at Disney World, right?  That’s what I’d do if they invited me. I’d stay as long as I could.”

“I don’t know,” Jason hedged, glancing at his parents.  “The person who’s talking to Disney for us says they’re still working on the details.”

“Remember to leave time for your homework,” his mom said.

“I will, Mom.”  He wondered if it would make him sound more or less responsible if he said he was going to do it while he was traveling.  But he’d done that during away games, right? They all did homework on the bus sometimes. “I’ll take it with me.”

“So you’re going to be there Friday night at least, right?” Pearl asked.  “Can you get your team’s autographs for me? If you’re going to be signing things anyway?  You’re going to sign things at Disney World, right?”

“I have no idea,” Jason said honestly.

“Well, I would like something signed, please,” Pearl said.  “I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s signed by everyone.”

“Right,” Jason said.  On the scale of difficulty, that one was a lot lower than “take me to Disney World.”  Although he did feel a little bad that he’d said no when Trini’s brothers were going. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“At least you’ll be able to call this time,” his mom said.  “Disney’s a lot closer than the last trip.”

“It’s still across the country,” his dad grumbled.  “There’s a Disney right here in our own state. Why do you have to go to Disney World instead of Disneyland?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said again.  “Disney World is the one that invited us?”

“Maybe they don’t know you’re from California,” his mom said.

“Yeah,” Jason said.  “Maybe.”

“Their ship lifted off from California,” his dad said.

“Well, I’m pretty sure they didn’t find it by accident,” his mom said.  “They must have known it was there somehow and come to get it when they needed it.”

Jason’s dad looked at him, and Jason just shrugged.  “We protect the world from aliens,” he said. “I don’t know much about the ship.”

“Not all aliens,” Pearl protested immediately.  “What about Red and Z?”

That was a good point.  Their alien friends probably wouldn’t appreciate being grouped in with Rita.  “You’re right,” Jason told her. “We work with good aliens to protect the world from bad aliens.  How’s that?”

“Okay,” Pearl said.  “That sounds good. What else are you going to say at Disney World?  Maybe I should help you with your speech.”

“I really hope we don’t have to give any speeches,” Jason said.  “I think we’re mostly just supposed to show up and wave at people.”

“But you said you’d be talking,” Pearl reminded him.

“We talked in Australia,” Jason said.  “No one gave any speeches there.”

“You said we’re going back to the moon,” Pearl said.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” Jason said.  That was still on the news every day, that clip of him saying “lunar exploration isn’t dead.”  NASA loved it.

“That’s why I think you should plan what you’re going to say more,” Pearl insisted.  “You said you didn’t mean to say the thing about you and Kim--I mean, the Pink Ranger--dating, either, but that’s what everyone saw.”

He’d seen that clip too, but not on the news.  He’d had to go looking for it on the internet, because he genuinely had no idea what people had seen that made people think they’d signed anything about dating.  “I didn’t say anything about dating,” he told Pearl. “The Pink Ranger was using English coding to say ‘that makes one of us’ in sign. It only looked like ‘dating’ because you couldn’t see the whole conversation.”

“Really?” Pearl gave him a very suspicious look.

“Yes,” Jason said firmly.  “I watched it on the internet because I had no idea what you were talking about, but I was there.  I know what we were saying.”

“Why would Kim say that makes one of us?” Pearl wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” Jason told her.  “The Pink Ranger said it because I told her I knew what she was thinking.

“Just as a joke,” he added, because he’d worked through that part of the explanation already.  Probably not a good idea to tell the world they all had psychic powers on top of their magical Ranger uniforms and alien spaceships.

“I still think Kim is the Pink Ranger,” Pearl said.

“That’s nice,” Jason said.  “I’m gonna tell her you think so.  I’m sure she’ll be flattered.”

“I don’t know why you can’t tell me,” Pearl said, frowning at him.  “I won’t tell anyone.”

Jason wondered suddenly what Trini was going to tell her parents about spending the day with Kim at Disney World.  Her brothers would have to know, right? Unless she told them that Kim had gone just to hang out with her, not because she was a Power Ranger too.

Or maybe Trini would tell them she was taking Kim with her, the way she was taking her brothers.  That would mean she’d told someone else about being a Power Ranger, which Jason had told her parents they were trying not to do.  But he’d said family was okay. Maybe girlfriends were okay too.

“He has to follow the rules, Pearl,” his dad was saying.  “When your team agrees on something, everyone’s gotta do it, or it doesn’t mean anything.”

Jason nodded, but it didn’t keep Pearl from sticking her tongue out at him when their dad looked away.  He shrugged back at her. It wasn’t like he’d expected their dad to side with him. It didn’t happen much these days.

They weren’t really supposed to check their phones at dinner, so it wasn’t until they were cleaning up afterwards that Jason got the message from Kim.  He could tell Pearl was sneakily checking her phone too, because he heard her exclaim, “Oh my gosh!” at the same moment he saw Kim’s text full of numbers and emojis.

red & z w them, it said.   not arrested. still posting.  There was a thumbs-up and a dinosaur at the end of the message, and there was a long line of earlier messages before it.  He saw more spaceships and dinosaurs as he scrolled back to the beginning, and at one point little hearts exploded across his screen.

“Red and Z are downtown!” Pearl said.  “Can we turn on the news? There’s more spaceships!”

some1 posted 2 dinosaur acct, Kim’s first message said.   from space.

The next message said, kids from school tagging dinosaur & cops.

Then she asked, r u online?  billy says i shouldnt answer.

“Did you know about this?” Pearl was asking.  “Why didn’t you tell us? Did you bring these spaceships back too?”

“Hang on,” Jason said, signing “wait” at her while he read Kim’s texts.

billys checking if theyre fake, Kim had written.   how does he know.

if thats really his power its way more useful than mine, she’d added a moment later.

Jason heard the TV come on, and he had a couple of seconds before it got switched over to local news.  Where, predictably, the media didn’t care about teenage spaceship pilots anywhere near as much as the internet did, and they were reporting on reconstruction instead.  It gave him a little more time to catch up.

its ashley, Kim had written.   the girl you saved from ty & billys friends omg.  The hearts floated up over the screen again.

A message from Billy popped up over top of Kim’s texts just then, but all it said was, Jason, there were more spaceships buried out near the mine.  Camber found the ships and then the police found them.

billy says theyre real, Kim’s next message said.   took spaceships 2 moon. copycats.

Jason smiled at the cat and the “meow” and the line of dinosaur emojis that followed, and he tried to keep reading without looking up even when the TV said, “International alien celebrities Red and Z visited the Angel Grove police station today, apparently in response to the liftoff of additional spaceships piloted by the people of Earth.”

He couldn’t overlook that, and Pearl said, “The people of Earth?  Are we all the people of Earth now? That’s very unifying.”

“Why don’t they just say humans?” their dad wanted to know.

“Is that Clare?” Pearl asked.  “That’s Billy’s friend Clare, right?  Did she fly a spaceship?”

Jason looked back at the television in time to see what looked like phone footage of Clare and Camber outside the police station.  The video was following “Red,” and it captured the moment he hugged another girl: no one Jason recognized, but maybe Kim knew who she was.  How did aliens know kids from Angel Grove?

Other kids from Angel Grove, Jason thought.  So maybe the same way they knew the Power Rangers.  Maybe flying old spaceships out of the ground was a thing now.  It might happen every week at the rate they were going.

“How many spaceships are there?” Pearl was asking.  “Can I find one? Were these near the first one? Did you know about them?”

“No,” Jason said.  It was an okay answer no matter which question she thought it went with, and he went back to Kim’s texts.

txtd clare, she’d written.   billys talking 2 cam. both ok.

Then, on news @ police station, and the first one he'd seen: red & z w them, not arrested. still posting.

A new message arrived as he caught up, and this one said, girl 4 cassandra chan. not sure about girl 5.

Cassandra Chan sounded vaguely familiar, so he wrote back, Is girl 5 the one who hugged Andros?  

He remembered as soon as he sent it, and he was changing it to “Red” when she replied.

yes, she said.   billy says shes his sister.

Since he was very sure Billy didn't have a sister, Jason typed, Alien?

prbly, she answered.

He had to switch to Billy when another message with actual capitals and punctuation arrived.   Camber’s sending me data on the new ships, it said.   Well, old ships, but ships that were found more recently than ours.  I don’t have anything conclusive about their relative age yet.

Then the message edited itself to say “the Dinosaur” in place of “ours,” and Billy added, There are superficial design similarities that weren’t universal in other examples of and might indicate a common time period or place of origin or both.

It was literally the first time Jason could remember seeing a typo in one of Billy’s texts, and he wondered what had been deleted that the extra “of” was still in there.  Why was his telepathy limited to people who were in the room with him? If it was going to make his life miserable, he should at least be able to do it at a distance.

“Jason,” Pearl said, and she sounded like it wasn’t the first time she’d said it.  He looked up and blinked at her, because she was waving at him exactly the way the team had been waving at each other for days.  

Of course she was, he thought.  It was a Deaf gesture, not a team gesture.  He needed some sleep, or some… some kind of vacation, maybe.  What was he even doing, representing Earth to aliens. And representing aliens to Earth.  He had no idea.

“She’s an alien?” Pearl demanded.  He could tune out the television, apparently, but not his sister.  “They said she’s an alien! The girl with Clare and Red! Her name is Astrea!  I told you to tell me if there were girl aliens!”

“There are girl aliens,” Jason told her, looking back down at his phone.

Kim had texted him, girl 5 is astrea from eltare not sure how that makes her reds sister.

She was definitely the one who should be in charge of their social media if she was texting him this fast and keeping up a conversation with Clare and Billy at the same time.  And Billy was texting him too. Were they both at home? Why didn’t they have family trying to talk to them while they typed?

That’s interesting, Billy’s message said.   I think I can tell when you’re reading my texts and when you’re not, even though you haven’t replied yet.

Oh, great, Jason typed back without thinking about it.   Is there any way to turn these powers off?

I think it might just be us, Billy replied.   If that helps.  I was talking to--I mean, I was talking to someone and it sounds like we might all be able to do, um, the same things, and that’s why it seems like the thing you can do works both ways.  I don’t think it does.

“Jason,” Pearl whined.

“Gonna go do some homework,” he replied, looking up at his mom and adding, “Thanks for dinner; it was great.”

“Can I change the channel?” Pearl asked as he turned away.  “Do you think they’re on the town channel?”

“Go ahead,” his mom said.

I didn’t get that, Jason texted Billy while he walked to his room.   Which sucks, because you’re definitely getting way more from me than I am from you.

But your family isn’t, Billy wrote back immediately.   Right?  None of them have mentioned reading your mind, or given any indication that they know what you’re thinking.  Is that true?

So far, Jason thought, looking around as he closed the door behind him.

Tommy was standing in his bedroom.

Jason stood very still, phone in his hand, and wondered whether it was too late to call for help.  “Hey,” he said carefully. “Sneaking into other people’s houses is creepy.”

“Your teammates do it,” Tommy said.

“So?” Jason said.

Tommy smiled, and Jason wanted to frown.  He wanted to back up. He wanted to put his fist through something first, preferably Tommy’s face, but that had to be frustration and fatigue talking.  He still thought the smiling was weird.

“You don’t care how I know that?” Tommy asked.

There were so many things Jason didn’t care about at that moment.  “Should I?” he asked tiredly. “Why are you here, Tommy.”

“Maybe I just want to talk to you,” Tommy said.

“Well, do you?” Jason demanded.  “I have a lot of people trying to talk to me right now.  If you want to jump the line, you’re gonna have to be more confident than just ‘maybe.’”

Tommy walked right up to him and put a hand on the door behind him, leaning against it like maybe it wasn’t closed all the way.  Or like Jason wouldn’t notice how close they were standing if there was some sort of practical reason for it. Which there wasn’t, unless Tommy didn’t want anyone else to know what was happening in the room.

He really wanted to punch Tommy in the face.

“I don’t want to talk,” Tommy said, and leaned in to kiss him square on the mouth.

Jason held very still, because Tommy was the enemy.  They all knew it. Forcing a violent confrontation with a superpowered villain might be satisfying, but he had recent personal experience with how wrong it could go.  No one was going to die tonight if he could help it.

“Really?” Tommy asked, letting up without pulling away.  “I’m the enemy?”

Warm breath whispered across Jason’s face and he imagined bashing Tommy’s head against the wall, because if everyone was going to read his mind he might as well make it as terrible for them as it was for him.

“You want a list?” Jason retorted.

“Sure,” Tommy said.

“You harassed my friends at school, broke into my house, and assaulted me,” Jason said.  “Yeah. You’re the enemy.”

Tommy took a single step back, arm falling from Jason’s shoulder.  “Well, it sounds bad when you put it like that,” Tommy said, with a speculative expression that made Jason’s hand clench on his phone.

He wasn’t prepared for the dizziness that felt like falling, the sudden dark or the warmth of Tommy’s hands, and for a long moment he didn’t know where he was.  Then, with horrifying clarity, he wondered why they hadn’t guessed telepaths could mind control each other. He was being attacked by a kid in a binder and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

The searing flash of pink across his distorted vision was weirdly reassuring, considering he had no actual reason to think it was Kim.  It was, he knew it was, but he knew Tommy was his best friend too and his head was pounding like his heart was going to explode.

Would he pass out if he had a stroke, Jason wondered distantly?  He’d really like to be unconscious right now.

The paralyzing confusion was suddenly gone and he gasped, trying to remember when he’d stopped breathing.  He pressed his hands to either side of his head and he could, he could move and he could stand and he staggered backwards, slamming into something solid and unmoving.  He held still, trying to see Kim, trying to understand what she was doing.

“I will kick you in the head,” she was saying, but not to him.  “But you’re not worth it, you understand me? Give me that coin.”

“Go to hell.”  Tommy’s voice still rang in his ears, overwhelming everything else.

“Oh, please,” Kim said without a pause.  “We’re in Angel Grove; this is hell. Better to rule, blah blah blah.”

“Ki--uh, Pink?”

Jason reached for the source of that voice instinctively, and a hand caught his before he could lose what was left of his balance.  Someone stepped into his side, a solid weight that he broke against. When his knees crumpled underneath him, Billy held him up.

“Everyone else okay?” Kim asked.

“Yeah,” Billy said.  “I’m not sure you can take someone’s coin.”

“Watch me,” Kim said.  She disappeared.

Jason squeezed his eyes shut, but when he opened them Billy was still holding onto him and Tommy had been laid out on the floor by the force of someone else’s attack.  “Damn it,” Jason muttered. Somehow his voice worked exactly the way he expected it to when he added, “I really wanted to be the one to do that.”

“Are you all right?” Billy asked.  “I felt the way I did when you reacted to Tommy at school, and Kim said you weren't answering her at all, which you usually do even when you're talking to me.  We tried to contact you first. I mean, if your phone and your communicator count, which I think they do.”

“Who named them communicators,” Jason mumbled, pushing against Billy in an effort to stand up again and finding it almost totally useless.  “I’m gonna have to sit down.”

“Pearl did,” Billy said, lowering himself to the floor beside Jason.  “I took her and your parents to the ship. I think you should go too; the medical equipment on the Delta Flyer seems like it’s a lot more sensitive to the physical challenges of being a Power Ranger than--well, anything we have on Earth.”

“I think I should stay here,” Jason said, letting his head fall back against the wall.  “I don’t want to leave Tommy alone.”

It could have meant “because Tommy’s the enemy and a threat to everyone,” but it didn’t and unfortunately, Billy could tell.  “Do you feel like you have to protect Tommy?” he asked curiously. “Why?”

Jason wished he didn’t have to say this.  Or any of it. But there wasn’t any way around it, not if he wanted the team to know what Tommy was capable of.

“Little known side effect of telepathy,” he muttered.  “Pretty sure we can use it to brainwash people.”

“Do you feel like you have to protect Tommy?” Billy repeated.

“Yes,” Jason snapped.  “I feel like Tommy is my best friend, and I want to kill her to keep her from hurting anyone else.  My brain’s really not happy with the contradiction.”

There was a brief pause where Jason’s back hurt from the awkward angle with the wall and his fingers were burning from the grip Billy had on them.  But he could breathe, and he could see, and he felt more in control of himself than he had since he’d laid eyes on Tommy five minutes ago, so he wasn’t complaining.  What if brainwashing was like poison? It might spread with activity. He might be better off if he didn’t move at all.

“Why do you want to kill Tommy?” Billy asked at last.  “I ask mostly because it suddenly sounds like you’re talking about Rita, and I want to make sure you’re not confused.”

Jason wanted to say, Of course I’m confused, but Billy might take that as a literal confirmation that Jason was mixing up Rita and Tommy and that wasn’t how he meant it at all.  He kept breathing, but he lifted their joined hands off the floor to ease the pressure on his fingers. He squeezed harder when Billy started to let go and Billy didn’t pull away.

“I don’t,” Jason said, very carefully.  “Actually want to kill Tommy.”

“Okay,” Billy said, because apparently Jason wasn’t giving him information quickly enough.  “Are you confusing Tommy and Rita in your mind, the way sometimes you see Zordon’s teammates instead of us?  Or do you actually want to kill Tommy and you’re just saying you don’t because you’ve been brainwashed? How do you know you’ve been brainwashed?  It seems like it wasn’t very effective if you’re aware of it.”

“I’m not confusing them,” Jason said.

“Then why did you call Tommy she?” Billy wanted to know.

Jason glared at Tommy’s figure on the floor.  He was pretty sure he wouldn’t involuntarily protect the kid, at least not at the expense of his friends or family, but he’d rather not find out the hard way.  “Because I’m angry, and calling her she seems like a less dangerous way of expressing it than physically hurting her.”

“Oh,” Billy said.  “So misgendering Tommy is like calling someone names instead of hitting them.”

It sounded stupid and childish when Billy said it, so Jason said, “She kissed me.”

Billy wasn’t constantly in motion, but there was always an energy to him, a vibration like he was about to be.  Even when he wasn’t moving, Jason could feel it when he froze.

“I don’t like that,” Billy said.

Jason felt his breath escape in a huff, relieved and grateful and a little amused, all at once.  Because what else would Billy have said, really?

“Yeah,” Jason said, when what he wanted to say was, no fucking kidding.  “You and me both.”

“I don’t like that at all,” Billy said, and his voice was stronger this time.  “Are you sure you’re okay? Did your desire to protect Tommy start before or after the kissing?  Do you think it was a physical trigger for some sort of mental suggestion?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said, but he felt better that Billy was treating it like a puzzle that could be solved.  “I mean, I don’t know if it was right after, but it definitely wasn’t before. I thought about punching her before she did it.”

“And now you’re calling her names instead of causing physical injury,” Billy said.  “Assuming you were telling the truth when you said you don’t want to kill her.”

“I was,” Jason said.  “Mostly. I mean, no, I was.  I don’t want to kill anyone, come on.  It’s just a thing people say.”

“You said you wanted to kill Rita,” Billy pointed out.

“But we didn’t,” Jason said.  He still felt weird about that.

“I wonder if you’re capable of physically hurting Tommy,” Billy said.  “I mean, not that it’s morally acceptable to find out, but scientifically speaking, it would help to know the answer.”

“I’m okay with finding out,” Jason said, sitting forward.  The room didn’t spin, and the floor stayed level underneath him.  That was a nice change.

Kim appeared next to his desk in a bright shower of sparkles that didn’t hurt his eyes in the dimness.  It was getting late and he hadn’t turned on a light when he came in. Pink shadows flared and retreated around the room, which was actually a pretty neat effect.

“You okay?” she asked, but she didn’t make a move toward any of them until Jason nodded.  Then she skirted carefully around Tommy and tipped her helmet down while she hovered next to Jason and Billy.  “What about Tommy? Any sign of that Power coin?”

“Would we know?” Billy asked.  “Mine usually comes back to my pocket.”

“Really?”  Jason wondered why that had never come up before.  “When I leave mine somewhere it shows up next to me as soon as I stop moving.”

“Yeah,” Kim said.  “Same distance from you that you set it down, right?  That's why I didn't set it down. I gave it to someone else.”

Jason had a bad feeling about this, but Billy asked first.  “Who?”

“I gave it to Pearl,” Kim said.

“You gave Rita’s evil green Power coin to my little sister,” Jason said.

“Yeah,” Kim said.  “Sorry. But she's incorruptible, right?  She's, what, thirteen?”

“She's twelve,” Jason said.

“Right,” Kim said.  “See? She's pure good; the coin won't know what to do with her.  It'll never want to leave. She'll be fine.”

“I have so many problems with what you just said,” Jason told her.

“That’s actually a good idea,” Billy said.  “Did you tell her not to let go of it?”

“Yeah,” Kim said.  “I know she can’t hold onto it forever, but at least until we make sure Jason’s okay.  What are we going to do with Tommy?”

“I don’t know,” Billy said.  “Our options are complicated by the fact that Tommy seems to be exerting some sort of behavioral influence over Jason.”

Jason’s fists clenched before he consciously registered Tommy’s movement but Kim and Billy were instantly in front of him.  He heard the rustle and scrape as Tommy retreated, heels against the floor and back up against Jason’s bed. “What the hell,” Tommy said.

“Wait,” Jason said, even as Kim moved forward.  Tommy’s voice was different.

Kim stopped, but she didn’t look away from Tommy.

“Where am I?” Tommy demanded.  “What’s going on?”

Billy’s visor turned toward Jason, and Jason glanced sideways at him.  He shook his head. Billy’s helmet stayed on, armor in place, for whatever it was worth against a telepathic enemy.

“You’re at my house,” Jason said, because apparently Billy and Kim were going to let him handle this.  He thought that was a bad idea, honestly, but maybe none of them had anything better.

A lot of their decisions lately seemed to fall into the category of “we couldn’t think of anything better.”

“Why?” Tommy demanded.  The tone was pretty suspicious for someone who had broken in and attacked him, but Jason didn’t get how weird things were until Tommy asked, “Who are you?”

“We’re the Power Rangers,” Kim replied immediately.  “Do you know who you are?”

“Yeah,” Tommy said.  “Why wouldn’t I--I don’t have amnesia or anything.  I’m Tommy Oliver.”

Looking from one of them to the other, Tommy’s gaze settled on Jason.  “Why am I in your house?”

Jason let out his breath and leaned into Billy, trying to get his feet under him.  “Really sure about that amnesia thing, huh,” he said. “You remember going to school today?”

“Yeah,” Tommy said.  “Of course.”

“Yeah,” Kim echoed.  “What day is it? Who did you talk to after school today?”

“I didn’t talk to anyone,” Tommy said.  “I don’t know anyone. I don’t even know you, so sorry if it’s a little creepy to wake up in a dark room surrounded by strangers.  Even if two of them are local heroes. Does this kind of thing happen to you a lot?”

“Okay,” Jason said, because Tommy was obviously talking to him now.  He braced himself against the wall and told Billy, “I’m good, thanks.  I’m just gonna get the light.”

“I got it,” Kim said.  She flipped on his desk light.

“Thanks,” Jason said.  “So you don’t remember talking to me after school today,” he added, looking back at Tommy, who didn’t look any less freaked out with the light on.  “And you don’t remember how you got here. But you remember getting up this morning? Going to class?”

“Is it still Wednesday?” Tommy asked.  “I had Wednesday classes, and I remember biking home.”

“It’s Wednesday,” Jason said.  “You, uh--you know the Power Rangers?”

“Not personally,” Tommy said, looking warily from Billy to Kim.

Jason hadn’t meant it like that, but they could work with it.  “Blue,” he said, pointing to Billy. “And Pink. They have a, um, thing, a talisman, that makes them turn into the Power Rangers.  I mean, they’re regular people, except for the thing. The talisman. They think you may have found something like it, like what they use to become Power Rangers, only… not so good.”

“What?” Tommy said.

It wasn’t his greatest explanation ever, but it wasn’t his worst.  Pearl could probably fix it for him.

While he was trying to figure out how to do it himself, Tommy said, “You mean I found a magical device that should have turned me into a Power Ranger, but it turned me into something else instead?  Like the thing the Power Rangers fought? Did I attack you? Is that why I’m here and they’re defending you? Why don’t I remember it?”

“Oh, wow,” Billy said, the second Tommy paused.  “That’s really interesting. Is that what listening to me is like?”

“Yes,” Jason said, and Kim said it at the same time, which would have made anyone else laugh--or maybe cringe--but Billy just nodded.

“That’s good to know,” he said.

“Yes,” Kim said again, and it must have been the first time she’d looked away from Tommy because she had to look back to add, “We think you might have been brainwashed by an evil alien who lived millions of years ago.  It’s probably better that you don’t remember it, but we want to help you if you’ll let us.”

“Okay,” Tommy said.  “That actually sounds less believable than what he said, but maybe it’s just because you’re dressed in pink armor with, like, an insect helmet covering your face.”

Jason couldn’t help it.  He laughed.

“We think they may have been designed to accommodate a reptilian physiology,” Billy offered.  “Although I think the exaggerated orbital sockets are more likely to be related to field of vision or other sensory input than the pterosauric characteristics they might otherwise evoke.”

“Really?” Kim said.  “Pterosauric?”

“Are you questioning the word or the characteristics?” Billy asked.  “The word follows the rules of English grammar but may not be formally defined.  The most notable characteristic is the beak of the pterosaur, which does appear to stretch from the top of your helmet to the bottom of your visor.”

“Do you know them?” Tommy asked, and Jason looked over automatically.  Tommy was looking at him.

“Kind of,” Jason said.  “They, uh.” And somehow, that was where his imagination ran out.  Or his creativity, or his willingness to care about this stupid story.  Why were they even playing this game?

“The Red Ranger rescued his dad,” Billy said.

“And his sister found our phone,” Kim added.  “His family’s kind of drawn to trouble, so we try to keep an eye on them.”

Jason couldn’t deny that.  It was even true, which he thought was pretty impressive.  If they were going to lie to everyone, they might as well do it with as much of the truth as possible.

“Okay,” Tommy said again.  “Well, I’m sorry I did--whatever you think I did, but I don’t remember it, so.  Can I leave?”

Jason was about to say yes, because what else were they supposed to do, when Billy asked, “Don’t you want to know if Jason’s okay?”

Tommy’s gaze came back to him, and there was nothing malicious or dangerous in it.  “He’s standing up,” Tommy pointed out. “I’m not. He’s got both of you on his side.  I don’t. And I’m the one who’s farthest from the door with no memory of how I got here.  So sure, I hope he’s okay. But honestly I’m a little more worried about me right now.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, patting Billy’s shoulder to warn him before he stepped past and held out a hand to Tommy.  “I get that.”

“Jason,” Billy said from behind him.  “You mentioned physical contact.”

That was actually pretty subtle for Billy, and Jason would have been proud if he wasn’t so busy trying not to freak Tommy out more.  “It’s fine,” he said, and he could have been talking to both of them. “I’m sorry you got used like this. The Power Rangers are just trying to help.”

“Why don’t we take you home,” Kim said.  She didn’t move, but Jason didn’t miss the emphasis on “we.”

Tommy glanced at her, but it was Jason’s hand that pulled Tommy up off the floor.  He didn’t feel anything weird. He didn’t know if that was good or bad, but at least it wasn’t worse.

“I’ll stay with Jason,” Billy said.

“Thanks,” Jason said, letting go of Tommy’s hand.  It wasn’t just the voice, or the expression: standing so close made it obvious that this wasn’t the same person who’d attacked him before.  “But I’m gonna have enough to explain to my family as it is. You guys should all go.”

“Okay,” Tommy said again.  “So… are you okay? I didn’t hurt you or anything?”

“No,” Jason said.  This Tommy hadn’t done anything to him.  “I’m good. You okay?”

“Aside from the obvious?”  Tommy shrugged uncomfortably.  “I feel all right, I guess.”

“Do you feel like you can read minds?” Billy asked.  “Or, or see ghosts? Do you think you could shoot things with a high degree of accuracy if you had a weapon with which to do so?”

“Uh, no?” Tommy said, looking around at all of them again.

Jason shook his head when Tommy caught his eye.  “Power Rangers,” he said. “They have a funny sense of humor.”

“I guess,” Tommy said, looking at them again.

“We’ll go out through the kitchen,” Kim said, putting her hand on Jason’s shoulder.  “Is that good? You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, even though he wasn’t sure at all.  “That’s good. Thanks for the help.”

“That’s what we do,” she said, and he thought he could hear her smile even through the helmet.

“Yeah,” Billy said.  “That’s what we do. Why are we going through the kitchen, again?”

“Because it’s closer,” Kim said.  “You ready, Tommy? Maybe we can answer some of your questions on the way home.”

“Yeah, I doubt that,” Tommy said.  “But thanks for the offer.”

Jason felt like he should be going with them, and from the way Billy looked back as they followed Tommy out, he wasn’t the only one.  He assumed they weren’t really going to walk Tommy all the way home. On the other hand, he didn’t want to run into them again on the ship.  That would be hard to explain.

They probably didn’t want to run into his family, either, and Billy had made it sound like his family was on the Delta Flyer.  Jason decided to start there and hope for the best. If nothing else, Javan might help him find them.

The ship didn’t have to help, as it turned out.  It did teleport him, and it sent him to exactly where they were: the medical facility on the Delta Flyer.  Probably because Billy had been planning to take him there next.

Jason wasn’t expecting to see a miniature Green Ranger waiting for him in the medical room, but in retrospect, he probably should have been.

“Jason!” Pearl exclaimed.  Even knowing who it had to be, her voice still sounded off to him.  “Are you okay? I can hear! And I totally didn’t do this on purpose, so don’t be mad.  It just happened!”

“Yeah,” Jason said with a sigh, looking over at his parents.  “I know how it goes. Is everyone okay?”

“We’re fine,” their mom said.  “We’re all fine. The Blue Ranger told us you were in trouble.”

“Yeah,” Jason repeated.  “There’s a--did he tell you about that coin?  The one Pearl’s using, where it came from?”

“I’m not using it!” Pearl objected.  “I was just holding it! Kim told me not to let go of it!”

“The Pink Ranger said someone was using it to cause trouble,” their mom said.  “She said if the same person kept holding onto it, that would keep it from going back to the person who shouldn’t have it.”

“She was guessing,” Jason admitted.  “But so far it looks like she’s right, and the person who was, uh, causing trouble--seems to be better off without it.  How’s Pearl doing? Not trying to cause trouble?”

“I’m not causing trouble!” Pearl protested.

“No, she’s been very patient,” their mom said.

“She can’t join your team,” his dad said bluntly.

“Yes I can!” Pearl exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know,” Jason said.  “We’re not recruiting her; we’re just… I don’t know.  Trying to figure out what we’re doing, honestly.”

“You could start with getting that armor off of her,” his dad said.

“No!” Pearl said.  “But I can hear when I’m wearing it!  It’s loud in this ear and quiet in this one!”  She pointed to both sides of her head, and Jason wondered if the helmet was compensating for her missing hearing aid.  

He probably should have realized it could do that: they always heard each other, after all.  No matter how far away they were or how loud things got, they could hear each other whisper like they were right there.  They’d been crashing through mountains, under fire, and falling into the earth, and nothing had ever drowned out one of them speaking.

“That makes sense,” Jason said.  “But you’ve still got one hearing aid, right?  And we can sign if you need us to.”

“I don’t want to sign,” Pearl said.  “I want to be a Power Ranger.”

“Well, Power Rangers sign,” Jason told her.  “And I’m not saying you can’t be a Power Ranger, okay?  But you have to be able to take the armor on and off. You can’t just wear it all the time.”

“Why not,” she said crossly, and Jason reminded himself that she’d had just as bad a day as he had.  Her broken hearing aid, getting yelled at over dinner, being put on an alien spaceship and told to stay there.  Getting an evil Power Coin and holding onto it so hard it turned her into a Ranger herself.

Of course Pearl would be the one to figure out morphing in the first five minutes.

“Because it’s really hard to eat,” Jason told her.  “And everyone at school will stare at you. And the armor isn’t very comfortable when you’re in a car.”

“I don’t have to get in a car,” Pearl said.

“You have to eat,” Jason said.

“No I don’t,” she informed him.  “Power Rangers don’t eat.”

“Power Rangers eat so much,” Jason said.  “Even making that armor appear takes calories.  And what about drinking water?”

“Don’t care,” Pearl said, and it crossed Jason’s mind that the coin might be influencing her somehow.  Incorruptible, Kim had said. But no one was incorruptible, and being young didn’t mean she was resistant to brainwashing.

“Well, you’re way ahead of us,” Jason said.  “It took us days to learn how to make the armor appear like that.  We got it to go away a lot faster, though.”

“How much faster?” Pearl wanted to know.  She sounded proud of herself, even through the helmet.  “I can make mine go away.”

Just like that, Pearl was standing in front of them, green armor sparkling rapidly into nothing.  It wasn’t the slow crawl of retreat that Jason’s still did when he was tired, or the stop-and-start disappearance that Zack struggled with when he was distracted.  Pearl just decided, and then it was gone.

“Wow,” Jason said.  He wasn’t kidding. “That’s really good.”

“Thank you,” she said.  “What happened to the other person?  The person who was causing trouble?”

“The other Rangers are taking her home,” Jason said.  It was a split-second decision to use the wrong gender again, but this time it was to keep anyone from recognizing Tommy.  If Tommy was really just an innocent bystander in this whole mess, maybe they could keep it from getting worse. For them and for Tommy.

“It’s a she?” Pearl asked.  “The Green Ranger is a she? Yay!”

Jason was careful not to sigh.  Or at least he tried his best.

“Don’t be mean,” Pearl told him, before he could say anything.  “Female representation is important.”

“I know,” Jason said.  “That’s not what I’m sighing about.  I’m trying to figure out how close you’ll have to keep that coin so it doesn’t go back to the person who had it before you.”

“She can’t keep it,” his dad said.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” their mom asked at the same time.  

“I’ll just hold onto it,” Pearl said.  “It’s okay; I don’t have to set it down.”

“You’re going to need both hands eventually,” Jason told her.  “I think that’s okay, though. One of our, um, people, keeps the coin in their pocket.  Their coin, I mean. And it stays there just fine.”

“Where do you keep yours?” Pearl wanted to know.

Jason thought about telling her he didn’t remember where it was half the time and it didn’t seem to matter anyway, but finally he just said, “I keep mine in my pocket too.  Why don’t you try putting yours away, somewhere on you, and see what happens.”

“What if it disappears?” Pearl asked.

“Then we warn the others and go looking for it,” Jason said.  He wanted to tell her what Billy had meant earlier, that if the coin wanted to leave there probably wasn’t anything they could do about it.  So far it hadn’t helped anyone to know that, though, so he didn’t.

Pearl reluctantly slid the coin into her pocket, the green translucence bright but not glowing from where Jason stood.  Not that he expected it to glow, but it must be a good sign that it didn’t. His team had an unpredictable history with things that glowed.

She pulled her hand away, then clapped it back over her pocket immediately.  “Still there,” she reported.

“Okay,” Jason said.  “Okay, great. So it’ll probably stay with you for a little while, at least.”

“Why?” their mom wanted to know.  “There must be someone else who could take it, if you just need someone to keep track of it.  I can keep an eye on it if all I have to do is carry it around with me.”

Jason wanted to point out the obvious difference in their attention: Pearl was willing to literally hold the coin in her hand until Jason told her not to anymore, while his mom thought “all she had to do” was carry it around with her.  He didn’t need to be Billy to guess which one of them would lose it first.

“You’re not keeping it either,” his dad was saying.  “We don’t need another reason for the government and every evil alien in the universe to come after this family.”

Jason looked at Pearl, who was staring back at him with wide eyes.  They both knew: one way or another, this conversation was over. Nothing good happened when their parents started telling each other what to do.  

“I think we should talk about this later,” their mom said, in the dangerous warning tone that said stop speaking right now if you know what’s good for you.  “Jason, will that--thing she has--will it hurt her?”

“No,” Jason said.  He hoped. “I wouldn’t let her keep anything that could hurt her.”  Unless it was more dangerous for her not to have it, which in this case it might be.

“Then we’ll talk about this later,” their mom repeated.  “Right now, you both have homework, and we need to order Pearl another hearing aid.  Is it safe to go back to the house?”

“It’s completely safe,” Jason said.  He had no idea if it was safe or not, but what was he going to say?  Tommy could probably find them no matter where they went. The team would have to come up with some kind of check-in procedure to keep each other from falling off the grid, the way he would have if Billy and Kim hadn’t been texting him when he stopped answering.

“The Power Rangers are dealing with it,” he added, when he saw his dad’s skeptical expression.  “But I’ll check the house again when we get back, just to be sure.”

“You show me what you’re looking for,” his dad said unexpectedly.  “And I’ll help.”

Jason had no idea what to say to that, so he just said, “Sure.”

“I want to help too,” Pearl insisted.  “Me and Mom are just as good at looking out for scary things as you and Dad are.  And let’s face it,” she added. “The Power Rangers need all the help they can get.”

It was probably the truest thing anyone had said all day, and it made him smile.  “Yeah,” Jason told her. “You’re not wrong.”

Chapter Text

Jason had thought they were maxed out on weird after the spaceships and the magical powers and the evil Rangers. He was wrong, and he knew it as soon as he woke up the next morning. There were already texts he hadn’t read and news he probably didn’t want to hear about.

There was also Tommy, sitting on the floor in the farthest corner of his room, head tipped back and staring at the ceiling.

“What the hell,” Jason said.

Tommy’s head jerked up, and maybe they’d been sleeping instead of staring, Jason didn’t know. Their eyes didn’t flash green, which was vaguely reassuring. “Okay, first off, I’m really sorry,” Tommy said in a rush. “I know this is weird. I’m not doing it on purpose.”

Jason scrambled out of bed, grabbing for his phone as he headed for the door. He didn’t look up as he texted, Tommy’s here.

He didn’t actually expect to be able to send it, but the text popped up in his conversation with Billy and he still felt normal when he yanked the door to his room open. Pearl’s door was open too. He could see her arguing with their Mom about something: her hair, maybe?

He looked over his shoulder, but Tommy’s head was back against the wall and their eyes were closed again. Jason didn’t know if that should make him more or less nervous. He looked at his phone, which said, Where? and Your house? and Do you need help?

My house, Jason texted back with one hand, closing the door again with the other. I don’t know yet.

Engaging was probably a bad choice, but Tommy hadn’t attacked him yet. Today, anyway.

“Hey,” Jason said out loud. “You all right?”

“No,” Tommy said without moving. “You?”

That was a strange response, but it wasn’t “I’m going to kill you and all your friends” either, so Jason thought maybe he should try harder. He looked back at his phone, where Billy had said, Tell me when you do.

“So far,” Jason said out loud. “What are you doing here?”

“Hiding,” Tommy said. They opened their eyes and looked at him again, but Jason got the feeling it was just to see how crazy he thought the next sentence was. “I think the Power Rangers are following me.”

That still wasn’t “I’m going to kill you.” It actually took a second for Jason to be sure, but it sounded like they were getting farther away from ominous threats and brainwashing instead of closer. Jason’s head didn’t hurt either, which might be a terrible thing to use as a sign, but it was what he had.

“You think the Power Rangers are following you,” he repeated. Okay. Well, they might do that without telling him. He’d been pretty out of it last night.

His phone had Billy’s latest message, which was, No wait then I’ll only know if you don’t need help because you tell me, and if you do need help you might not be able to. You should probably keep texting me. Or I could just come over there.

I’m fine, Jason wrote back, then switched to the group conversation Billy had started while Andros upgraded their communicators. Hey, have any of you been following Tommy?

“What are you doing,” Tommy said, but it sounded more tired than like an actual question. Jason felt a lot better this morning, but Tommy didn’t have a Power Coin anymore. The coins made them stronger. What if losing a coin made someone weaker?

“Asking them,” Jason said.

No, Trini said.

not since last night, Kim added.

What, the creepy GR wannabe who tried to out us, beat you up, and pretends they don’t remember? Zack asked. Yeah I followed them. They slept at a halfway house in Stone Canyon.

Yes, Billy said at the same time. Kim and I followed Tommy home, but I haven’t seen them since.

wait what? Kim said.

“You’re texting the Power Rangers?” Tommy asked. Tommy cared enough to be skeptical, so maybe that was a good sign. Jason wondered if there was any procedure for transferring Power that they’d messed up by stealing it.

He didn’t bother with excuses; Tommy knew he knew them. “Yeah,” Jason said. “You said Power Rangers, plural? You saw more than one of them following you? After they took you home last night?”

“You believe me?” Tommy said.

“It’s a weird story to make up,” Jason said.

“Yeah,” Tommy said. “Story of my life.”

Billy had written, Jason says Tommy’s at his house again.

And Zack replied, Sorry, I have to sleep sometime.

is jason ok? Kim asked, like he hadn’t just texted the group himself. zack r u ok? did u sleep in sc?

I didn’t mean it’s your responsibility to keep track of Tommy, Billy said.

Tommy says they saw more than one of us following them, Jason typed, then glanced back at Tommy. “The people you saw,” he said. “What did they look like?”

“I didn’t see them,” Tommy said. “I just knew they were there.”

Jason frowned. “How?”

“I just knew,” Tommy repeated. “Or I’m going crazy, which believe me, I’m strongly considering as a possibility.”

“We’re all crazy,” Jason muttered. He typed, Tommy didn’t get a good look, just sensed people following them somehow.

Zack immediately replied, Could have been me. I wasn’t subtle.

“Did they follow you back from Stone Canyon?” Jason asked, scrolling back to see if Zack had replied to Billy’s almost-apology. He had, because Zack typed even faster than Kim.

I know, William, Zack’s answer said. Thanks. KimP, I’m fine, I like SC.

so u did sleep there, Kim had written.

Don’t judge me, Zack replied, and Jason had no idea how seriously to take that comment.

He looked up when he realized Tommy hadn’t answered. “Did they,” he began, then stopped at the look on Tommy’s face.

“So they are following me,” Tommy said, in an odd echo of Kim’s text. “Is it because of the blackouts? What about the times when I remember something you say didn’t happen? I don’t know if I’m dangerous or if you are.”

“Right,” Jason said after a moment. “Okay. Neither do I.”

He looked back at his phone, where Trini had asked, J? Need help?

Not yet, he typed.

He had no idea what to tell any of them, including Tommy. Especially Tommy. Why did everybody just show up wherever he was?

Tommy might be wondering the same thing.

“Yes,” he said aloud. “They’re following you, but they don’t know what’s happening either. I know doesn’t really help,” he added. “But it’s all I’ve got.”

“You text the Power Rangers,” Tommy repeated. Not like it was a question, just like it was a thing that happened in the world and maybe saying it out loud would make it more sense.

Jason could have told them that it didn’t, but there were some things everyone had to learn for themselves.

“And you want to help me?” Tommy continued. “If I really attacked you last night, why aren’t you running away from me?”

“Uh,” Jason said, looking back at his phone and then at the door. “Well. I tried that, but you didn’t chase me. Most of the things that try to kill me lately are faster about it than this.”

That made Tommy smile a little, and they sat up straighter on the floor. Not slumped against the wall, but still looking pretty rough in what were definitely yesterday’s clothes and a mess of a ponytail that Jason wasn’t asking about. Don’t ask about other people’s hair. That was one of his rules.

“Okay,” Tommy was saying. “I should go. It’s Thursday, right?”

“It’s Thursday,” Jason agreed. “Where are you gonna go?”

“School, I guess.” Tommy looked around like something was going to appear out of thin air. “I think I left my backpack… somewhere.”

“You want some clean clothes?” Jason offered, before he could stop to think how that would sound. Then he figured he might as well go all in. “And something to eat? We have plenty of food.”

They didn’t usually, but apparently Trini’s parents had made it their mission to feed the entire team indefinitely. There was food everywhere they went. At this point, feeding Tommy would just be paying it forward.

“Yeah,” Tommy muttered, pushing up into a standing position. It looked stiff, but who knew who long they’d been sitting there. “I’ll stop at home on my way to school.”

Jason doubted that, since Tommy hadn’t even slept there.

“Or you could just take some jeans and a shirt I never wear,” Jason said. “I play football. I think you’ll fit in my clothes.”

Tommy gave him a look like that was all new information. “You play football?”

Jason instantly liked Tommy a little more and he tried to ignore the relief those words caused. “Used to,” he said, pulling out some old jeans and a couple of shirts he hadn’t worn in years. “Here. I’ll go change in the bathroom, okay? If you’re still here when I get back, we’ll get some breakfast and figure out the rest.”

He never found out what Tommy would have said to that because someone banged on his door loud enough to wake the dead and Pearl’s voice yelled, “Jason!” He saw Tommy jump, but he didn’t have time to explain before his little sister burst into the room.

“Jason what did you--”

Pearl stopped abruptly when she saw Tommy, eyes wide and mouth shut, signing as soon as she stopped voicing. “Who’s that?”

“A friend,” Jason signed. “Maybe. I don’t know; what do you want?”

Pearl reached out and closed the door behind her before signing, “Does your friend sign?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said out loud. “Tommy, do you sign? This is my sister Pearl. She forgets that not everyone’s Deaf.”

“She’s deaf?” Tommy repeated. “I don’t--you mean, sign language? No, I don’t, uh. I don’t know any. Sorry.”

“You should learn,” Pearl said aloud. “It’s very useful. What are you doing in Jason’s room?”

“Hiding from little sisters,” Jason told her. “What are you doing in my room?”

“I can’t hear you,” Pearl informed him. “I only have one hearing aid. Also the thing you gave me last night is glowing. And those girls with the spaceships are the best; I want to meet them. Can I meet them?”

“What girls with the--oh, the spaceships,” Jason said. “From the news. I don’t know; you should ask Billy. They’re his friends.”

“Okay!” Pearl exclaimed. She sounded cheerful enough that he must have given her exactly what she wanted. But she’d closed the door when she came in, so that was worth something. “What about the thing? Should I wrap it up so no one sees it glowing in my pocket?”

Jason looked her over quickly but didn’t see any evidence of a glowing Power Coin. On the other hand, if she’d let go of it, wouldn’t Tommy have it back already? Would they know if Tommy had it again?

Would Tommy?

“Yeah,” Jason said, because who knew. Any of it, really. People kept asking him questions and he just kept guessing. “Wrap it up, that’s a good idea. Do you feel okay?”

“Yup,” Pearl said confidently. “I am definitely not trouble.”

“Well, you’re the loudest not-trouble it’s ever been my pleasure to kick out of my room,” Jason told her, grabbing more clothes and a sweatshirt. “Come on. We have to go see about breakfast.”

“It’s fine,” Pearl said, letting him open the door again and steer her around it. “There’s bread and peanut butter. Plus something yellow with green things in it.”

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Jason said over his shoulder. He couldn’t see if Tommy nodded or not, but the moment they were outside Pearl started signing again.

“Who is that?” she demanded. “Did you have someone over last night? Did Mom change the rules? Do you just not have to follow them anymore because you’re a senior now?”

“It’s a secret,” Jason signed back. “That’s the person who had the coin you have now. They’re not hurting anyone right now, and they might be in trouble.”

“That’s a--” Pearl made a sign he’d never seen before, but he could guess. Her vlog friends must be using that for “Power Ranger.” “Green? Who is it? Is it someone from your school?”

“Yes,” Jason signed, and he’d never really thought about the fact that pronouns in ASL were inherently gender neutral before. He didn’t have to figure out “they singular” because there was no “he” or “she” except in context. “Their name is Tommy. They don’t remember the bad things they’ve done and they think someone is following them.”

“Rita?” Pearl asked, and Jason paused. He honestly hadn’t thought of that. That was impossible, though. Right?

“Is Rita following Tommy?” she asked again. “Is she coming here? I don’t want her to come here. Should we go back to the ship?”

“Rita’s not coming here,” Jason said. “And you’re going to school; you’ll be fine. You have your communicator, right?”

She held up her left fist and pulled back her sleeve, showing the white communicator Billy had made for her. “I always have it,” she informed him.

“Okay, good,” he said, pointing to the kitchen. “Go eat. I’m gonna get dressed.”

Pearl frowned at him, signing, “Be careful.”

“You be careful,” he told her. “Call me if anything seems weird. Which it won’t,” he added. “But if it does. Call me.”

“I will,” she said.

She looked over her shoulder at him as she headed for the kitchen, and he signed, “I love you.”

She waved it back at him, looking a little more normal, and maybe that was the best he could expect at a time like this. He didn’t remember what she’d said about the “girl pilots” until he was in the bathroom, but he’d left his phone in his room, so he couldn’t check the news. He also couldn’t check his texts, which would probably have his friends at his door if he didn’t answer soon.

He hesitated outside his door anyway, pajamas in hand, and looked over his shoulder. He could see Pearl, but not their mom. He knocked softly. He probably should have told his mom… on the off chance Tommy agreed to eat with them, he didn’t want to spring a visitor on her without warning.

The door moved slightly under his hand, and he pushed it the rest of the way open. Tommy was on the other side, looking two seconds from running. Still none of that creepy energy that had lingered between them when Tommy showed up the night before, so if being near the sixth coin was doing anything to them, Jason couldn’t tell.

“Hey,” Jason said. He didn’t bother to whisper, because he honestly hadn’t expected Tommy to still be here. Time to put up or shut up. “You want to use the bathroom? I’ll let Mom know you’re here and we’ll get some breakfast.”

Tommy didn’t move: not out into the hallway or farther back into the room. “I can go out the window.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “But you haven’t. So, I don’t know, pretend to be normal.” He leaned around the doorframe to toss his clothes into the chair. “Can I get my phone?”

Tommy backed up and Jason managed to get through the door without touching them. When he checked his phone, it had too many messages to read all at once. He flipped back to the conversation with Billy, which said, I’m tracking your coin from the ship.

ty still fine, Jason typed. He grabbed his backpack and stepped around Tommy again. “Seriously,” Jason said, looking back from the door. “You’re okay. I’ll tell my mom.”

Tommy didn’t move, and Jason didn’t know what else to do, so he headed for the kitchen instead. “Morning,” he said.

That was as far as he got before there was a knock at the front door, and his mom glanced across the table at him. “Jason, could you get that?”

“Yeah,” he said, already moving toward the door. “Mom, I had a friend over this morning. They’re having a tough time and they need some help.”

“This morning?” she repeated.

“Can I meet them?” Pearl called, too loud. Her hearing must be messed up with just the one hearing aid, or maybe she was just trying to pretend she didn’t already know.

He glanced out the window before he opened the door and saw Billy standing there. “Yeah,” he called over his shoulder. “Be nice.

“Hey,” he added, opening the door. “You okay?”

“Are you okay?” Billy asked at the same time. “I mean, you texted, but it wasn’t the way you normally text, and your coin wasn’t moving but it didn’t move last night either and you did say Tommy was here, which was definitely dangerous yesterday. Is Tommy still here?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I think so. I told them to come get some food, but--”

“Tommy!” Pearl yelled. Then, still too loud: “I mean, are you Tommy? Jason told me about you. Do you want some peanut butter toast? It’s my favorite.”

“Yeah,” Jason repeated, without turning around. “Pretty sure Tommy’s still here.”

“Have they done anything weird?” Billy wanted to know. “Does Pearl still have--you know? Do you think this is related to that feeling you had, of you trusting them; do you think it works both ways?”

“Hello,” he heard his mom say. “Are you Tommy?”

“I don’t know,” Jason told Billy. At least that would be fair, if Tommy felt like they had to protect Jason in return. “That’s a thought, though. Maybe.”

“Yes, but is it a likely thought or an unlikely one,” Billy said.

“Yeah,” Jason said. It worked as agreement and an answer to the questions he’d ignored at the same time. “Pearl still has it. She says it’s glowing. Do you think that’s bad?”

“Well it probably depends on what you consider bad,” Billy said. “Ours glowed when they were activated. Has she done anything that looks like what you experienced when that happened?”

There was a loud crash, followed by a lot of smaller crashes as Jason turned around. Pearl was holding the refrigerator door, no longer attached to the refrigerator, while bottles and jars rolled across the floor. “I didn’t mean to!” she wailed.

Jason caught Billy’s eye. “Yeah,” he said.

“Right,” Billy agreed. “That’s strong circumstantial evidence.”

Jason went over to take the door from Pearl, who immediately knelt down and started picking things up, which he thought was actually pretty clear-headed of her. He remembered being in shock when he started breaking things, but she just went to clean them up like it was any other accident. He set the door on what was left of the bottom hinge and held it there while she put things away.

“It’s okay,” he told his mom, who looked like she felt the same way he did when he broke the sink. “We can prop it shut for now and I’ll fix it after school.”

“Pearl just pulled the refrigerator door off its hinges,” his mom said.

“It was an accident!” Pearl protested. “It was loose; it just came off!”

“She’s strong,” Jason said. “Pearl, try not to hug anyone today, okay? Or shake their hand. Or push them. Even if it’s just a friendly push.”

“Why?” she wanted to know. “I’m not clumsy. This was a freak thing!”

“Yeah,” Jason said, using his free hand to point at the communicator on his wrist while she was watching. “It was a freak thing, and it’s probably going to happen again, so be careful. You’re really strong right now, okay?”

“Wait,” Pearl said, looking down at the cans she was holding. “I’m strong? Because of the--thing?” She looked over at Billy. “Are you strong?”

“I am measurably stronger than most people, yes,” Billy said.

“Can you put those back?” Jason said. “I’m not sure how many times we can open and close this door.”

“Oh,” Pearl said, shoving things back in on the bottom shelf no matter where they’d come from. “I need a banana. And some cheese.”

“Why do you keep bananas in the refrigerator?” Billy wanted to know.

“Because I like them cold,” Pearl said, taking out her lunch and standing up the ketchup bottle before pulling back. “Okay, you can close it now.”

“That makes sense,” Billy said, even as Jason carefully closed the door and pushed the upper hinge down to hold it in place.

“This happened to you too?” Jason’s mom asked. “Is that how the sink broke?”

“Yeah,” Jason said with a sigh. If Tommy hadn’t already figured out they were all Power Rangers, it wouldn’t be long now. “Tommy, this is my mom, and my sister Pearl. And you know Billy, from school.”

“Uh, no,” Tommy said, surprising him. “Sorry, I don’t--I don’t think we’ve met.”

Billy stared for a long moment, and Jason almost said something but then suddenly he exclaimed, “Right. We haven’t met; that’s--because we haven’t met. Hi, how are you, I’m Billy Cranston.”

He stopped there, still staring at Tommy like he was going to record whatever they did and study it later. Tommy just nodded, like none of that was weird, and gave a little wave. “Hey. Tommy Oliver. Nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Pearl said. “It’s funny that you have a boy’s name when you’re a girl. That must be confusing.

“Can you make me some toast?” she added, looking up at Jason. “I don’t want to break the toaster.”

“You don’t even have to touch the toaster,” he told her. “Just drop the bread in. Also, I know you couldn’t tell when we were signing, but Tommy isn’t a she. Tommy’s a they.”

“A what?” Pearl asked, turning her head. “I can’t hear you on that side!”

“Tommy isn’t a she,” Jason repeated. “Tommy’s a they.”

“Oh, they,” Pearl said. “Like for pronouns? Instead of she/her they use they/their? How come?” she wanted to know, looking over at Tommy. Jason ended up putting the toast in for her anyway, because otherwise they were never going to get to school.

His mom still looked pretty overwhelmed, so he decided not to ask if she was driving Pearl today.

“Are you not a girl?” Pearl was asking.

“Sometimes,” Tommy said, surprising Jason and making him look again. “I mean, sometimes I’m a girl. Sometimes I’m a boy. I use ‘they’ because it’s less confusing than switching back and forth.”

“Oh,” Pearl said. “That’s a good reason. How come you’re not always a girl?”

“Because girls aren’t always the best,” Jason interrupted, “even though you think they are. Tommy just woke up; can you not interrogate them about their gender right now?”

“Okay,” Pearl said with a dramatic sigh. “But I don’t see why it’s a big deal. I know lots of they/their people.”

“Oh you do,” Jason said. He wondered if it was worth it to open the refrigerator again just to get out the margarine. “What people are those?”

“They’re on the internet,” Pearl informed him. “You wouldn’t know them.”

“Oh, right,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Because I don’t know anyone who uses the internet.”

“Tommy,” their mom said. She looked like she was determined to make the best of this, and Jason felt bad about dropping two more people into the house first thing in the morning. “How are you this morning? Can we get you something to eat?”

“No,” Tommy said quickly. “I mean, unless you have extra toast or something?”

“We do!” Pearl piped up. “We have lots! I’ll put some peanut butter on it for you!”

“Maybe you should ask first,” Jason reminded her. “Tommy might be allergic. Or they might not like peanut butter.”

“Everyone likes peanut butter,” Pearl said, but she added, “You’re not allergic, are you?” And when Tommy said no, she smirked at Jason like she’d won.

“It sounds like peanut butter toast is the way of the future,” their mom said. Jason was glad their dad wasn’t home this morning. “We also have a little cereal left, or strata if you’re feeling adventurous. And fruit, of course. Thanks to some very enthusiastic neighbors.”

Jason opened his mouth to tell Billy, “Trini’s parents,” and stopped just short of telling everyone in the room who the Yellow Ranger was.

“Toast would be great,” Tommy said, and the words sounded grateful enough that Jason thought even his dad would have been convinced. “Thanks.”

“Oh, could I have some toast?” Billy asked. “I didn’t eat before I started, uh, watching the news this morning.”

Jason heard “trying to figure out if Jason was still alive or not” when he covered with the news, and there actually was more bread so he said, “Sure. You can have Pearl’s piece.”

“Hey!” Pearl protested. “No he can’t!”

Jason grinned at her, but he didn’t actually take her plate. “I’ll just keep putting bread in the toaster until everyone’s full, how’s that.”

“I don’t think we have another loaf of bread,” his mom said.

“I have to get new pins at the hardware store anyway,” Jason told her. “Make me a grocery list; I’ll stop there afterwards.”

“I can, uh, help,” Tommy offered. “If you want. I’m not doing anything after school.”

That was a weird offer from someone he didn’t really know, let alone someone who might have tried to kill him. But this wasn’t the time to make things awkward, so Jason just said, “Yeah, sure. You have your bike?”

“I can borrow a car,” Tommy said evasively, and Jason wondered if they’d walked to his house. They couldn’t have walked all the way to Stone Canyon. Bus?

“We don’t need that much,” his mom said. “Bread, milk. Cereal. Beef jerky and granola.”

“As long as it’s not eggs,” Jason said. He’d tried to bike with eggs, and it hadn’t ended well.

“You’re not allowed to pick up eggs until you get your license back,” his mom told him. “Unless someone’s giving you a ride, and even then I’m skeptical.”

He shrugged, but Billy said, “Kim could give you a ride.”

“We’ll be fine,” Jason said, just as the toaster popped up. The second piece of bread wasn’t as dark as the first, so he grabbed another plate and put one on each before offering them both to Pearl. She took the darker one, and he held the second one out to Tommy.

“No,” Pearl protested, taking the second plate too. “They need peanut butter!”

“Tommy can probably put peanut butter on their own toast,” Jason told her, but she shook her head.

“I said I’d do it,” she insisted. “I’m hospitable.”

Jason glanced at Tommy, who looked a little less uncomfortable than before, so he shrugged. “If you say so,” Jason said, dropping a couple more pieces of bread in the toaster. “Billy, dark or light toast?”

“Light,” Billy said immediately. “Very light.”

“You got it,” Jason said.

Pearl had set both hers and Tommy’s plate down on the table and she was carefully applying peanut butter to the one Jason had given to Tommy. His mom was putting the tea kettle on the stove. Jason glanced at Billy and pointed at the refrigerator. “You want something to drink?”

Then he looked over at Tommy and added, “Either of you?”

Billy asked for orange juice, which they actually had, and Tommy just shook their head, so Jason got them both orange juice and told Tommy he’d drink it if they didn’t. It made Tommy smile a little, so it was worth it. Jason’s mom offered all of them tea, and between the five of them they all ended up sitting at the table at the same time for about two minutes.

That was some kind of record in Jason’s house, and it figured it would only happen with friends over.

Mostly friends. Well, one friend and one… hopefully not-an-enemy. Everyone was very polite to Tommy, which was huge since his mom still didn’t know what they were doing here and Billy clearly still expected them to turn evil without warning.

Maybe they would; it wasn’t like Jason knew. But the logistics of getting people fed, dishes washed, and everyone off to school turned out to be enough to keep things moving. Pearl actually made Tommy a lunch without telling anyone, and Tommy offered to wash the dishes--which Jason’s mom didn’t allow, but she probably still appreciated the gesture.

Jason tried to guess at the grocery list, and his mom corrected everything he said except for bread, but Billy carefully wrote it all down and at least then they had a list. Jason’s mom offered to drive them all to school, and then she offered to stop at Tommy’s house on the way when the missing backpack came out. Tommy was suddenly sure the backpack was at school. They didn’t refuse the ride, though, and no one was willing to make a big deal of it.

There weren’t enough travel mugs for everyone to take hot tea with them, so Jason gave Billy his. Pearl gave hers to Tommy. She even asked if Tommy minded having a pink mug first, but Tommy said “no” and “thank you,” and their mom told Pearl that was nice of her.

“I’m nice!” Pearl exclaimed, like it shouldn’t even have to be said. “You didn’t say it was nice when Jason did it.”

“I wasn’t being nice,” Jason told her. “I was being practical. Billy doesn’t drink things when they’re hot; I do.” He held up his empty mug as proof.

His mom plucked the mug out of his hand and set it down next to the empty sink, saying, “That was very nice of you, Jason.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, smiling after her. “That’s true.”

He offered Tommy the front seat. Pearl should have gotten it, but she was the smallest and there were five of them. She had to ride in the back or they wouldn’t all fit. Tommy wore a horrified expression like talking to an adult the entire way to school was the last thing they wanted, and Jason got that, so he took the front and let Pearl ask Tommy questions the whole way instead.

It gave him a chance to catch up on his texts, which included an awful lot of comments from Billy considering he’d been in Jason’s kitchen most of the morning.

On the other hand, Jason decided as he scrolled back through them, Billy had apparently kept the rest of the team from storming his house, so Jason definitely owed him. Hey, he wrote in the conversation with just Billy. Thanks for keeping everyone updated.

Billy’s reply came back immediately, which was interesting since Jason could hear him answering Pearl at the same time. You were busy, it said.

Jason studied that text, wondering if it was really as casual as it sounded or if he was reading too much into it. It was an indirect reply to his statement, which Billy wasn’t great at most of the time, let alone when he was distracted. Or maybe he was, Jason thought, remembering Billy’s story about his dad when he was disabling Jason’s tracker. But had he told that story because it was relevant, or just because it happened to be on his mind?

That was why this seemed different, Jason thought. Because it was indirect and relevant at the same time.

He looked over his shoulder to make sure it was really Billy texting, and that reminded him that Billy’s response to Jason writing “ty” had been to show up at his door and make sure he hadn’t been brainwashed by an evil Power Ranger. So he was smiling when Billy looked up and caught his eye. Billy smiled back, and Pearl looked from one of them to the other until Billy looked down at his phone again.

You’re welcome popped up on Jason’s screen a second later.

The group conversation had moved on to the new spaceship pilots after Billy told them Tommy didn’t seem evil today, and Jason read all of it before googling “Angel Grove spaceships” and then on the advice of the internet “high school pilots” and “aliens that look human.” Most of it made him roll his eyes, but at least it explained what Kim was talking about when she sent them screenshots of other people’s cell phone pictures from outer space.

Why do they get to take pictures with their phones? Jason asked the group after a particularly alien-looking picture of a space station in front of a completely blue planet. Didn’t they have clouds, he wondered?

bc every1 knows them , Kim wrote back.

I don’t know them, he replied.

u know ashley, Kim said.

At the same time Trini wrote, No one cares if you know them, and Jason had to smile.

Billy added, They’re Ashley (from lunch when you interrupted her with Ty), Camber, Clare, Cassandra Chan, and Red’s sister Astrea.

Jason decided to count it as a win that Billy didn’t think he needed to add “my friends” after Camber and Clare’s names. Thanks, he said. There probably wasn’t any reason to say Kim had already listed them for him the night before. So they don’t have secret identities?

They got picked up by the cops, Zack replied.

Right. That had been on the news.

Be real, Trini said. No one has a secret identity. Some people’s identities just haven’t been discovered yet.

Because their identities are a secret, Zack replied immediately. As in, they have a secret identity.

Are any of you driving? Jason wanted to know. Because if you are, I want you to stop texting right now.

ha ha, Kim said. means a lot coming from u.

She wasn’t wrong. Since his credibility was shot, he appreciated Trini being the one to ask, Do we even know how they found those ships?

How does anyone find spaceships, Zack said. Probably fell into a cave and tripped over them like everyone else.

You mean got blown up, hit by a train, and pushed off a cliff, Trini wrote back. Then trapped in a spaceship while looking for a way back that doesn’t involve drowning.

Tomato, potato, Crazy Girl.

Tomato toMAHto, she wrote.

Who says tomahhhhhto? Zack wanted to know. I call it like I hear it.

So no one knows how they found them? Jason asked. Billy?

No, I don’t know, Billy said. Camber says they were out looking for alien technology and they found it. Nothing about how.

Jason wanted to ask if anyone had heard from Red or Z, but that was probably past the limits of plausible deniability if their phones were being monitored. No one was going to believe they just talked about spaceships and secret identities and then casually asked each other if anyone had talked to the aliens lately. Because they were… what? Pretending?

Billy’s friends didn’t have that problem, Jason thought, glancing over the seat again. This time Billy didn’t look up, but Jason already knew he was right. Maybe their lives would be ruined by the publicity and maybe they wouldn’t. But in the meantime, at least they could text each other about what was actually happening.

Billy lifted his head and caught Jason’s eye, holding his gaze for a long moment.

He didn’t want Jason to worry. Worry? Doubt? Second guess? There was no clear sense of what Jason should do, but he definitely got the feeling that it wasn’t whatever he was doing now.

Like Tommy had said. Story of his life.

Billy looked down at his phone again, and a moment later Jason saw their separate conversation refresh. They’re different from the Power Rangers, Billy had written. They didn’t fight.

Jason read it a couple of times: they didn’t fight. He wondered if that meant they’d made better choices? Or if people just didn’t care as much because they weren’t… heroes? Villains? A danger to society either way?

Finally he wrote back, You mean they didn’t destroy half of downtown?

Right, that too, Billy replied. The Power Rangers have demonstrated a tremendous amount of power, and that naturally causes an equivalent amount of concern about responsibility. The new pilots found some technology, but they didn’t do anything with it except fly around. So people aren’t as worried.

Hey, Billy added. Do you think that’s where the Power Rangers got their name? I didn’t think of that until I saw it written down. They’re Rangers with power. But what do they range? I guess it still doesn’t really make sense.

What do they range, Jason thought with a smile. That was a good question. Kim could probably use that on her social media accounts.

That helps, he wrote back. Thanks.

The group conversation was about their weekend “internship” the next time he checked, and it occurred to Jason that they were going to miss detention again. He wasn’t sure Disney World was as worthy a reason as Eltare, public relations or not, but he wasn’t about to object. He wondered what his dad said when he called in last time, and if it would cover this week too or if he’d have to ask for a second phone call. That would be an awkward conversation.

His mom dropped Pearl off first. Tommy and Billy both got out, even though Pearl slid across Tommy’s seat to the door, and it sounded like she might not stop talking to Tommy long enough to let them leave. Billy looked around like he’d never seen the junior high school before, then got back in without a word.

Pearl waved after them as the car pulled away, signing “have a good day!” and “don’t be evil!” which made Jason laugh.

“What did she say?” his mom asked.

“Just have a good day,” Jason said with a grin.

“I barely get a wave most days,” his mom said. “You should ride with us more often.”

“I don’t think it’s me,” Jason told her. “She likes Tommy.”

“Yes, I got that impression,” his mom said. “Thank you for answering all of her questions, Tommy. She feels left out at school sometimes, so it means a lot when someone older listens to her.”

“I understand feeling left out,” Tommy said. “Believe me. And she’s cool. I liked her questions.”

“I’m gonna tell her you said that,” Jason warned, and Tommy flashed a smile that looked real and happy for the first time since they’d met.

It was funny, Jason thought, turning around so he couldn’t see that expression anymore, but Tommy looked less like a boy or a girl when they smiled. The smile was just… them. Just Tommy, whoever that was.

“I’ll see you after school,” his mom told him when they all piled out at the high school. She couldn’t ask about Tommy while Tommy was still there, and he probably couldn’t email anything useful without compromising… someone. All of them, probably. So talking at dinner was the best they could do.

“Thanks, Mom,” he told her. “I mean it.”

“Well, I love you,” she said. “Have a good day.”

“Yeah, love you too,” Jason said, putting his phone back in his pocket and swinging his backpack over his shoulder.

Tommy stood awkwardly on the sidewalk until she drove away, and then Jason asked, “What do you need to get through the day? Pencil? Water bottle? Your backpack’s not really here, is it?”

“It’s fine,” Tommy said. “No one expects me to do the homework anyway.”

Jason held up his hands. “Your call,” he said. He had enough people to take care of as it was, and it wasn’t like he’d asked Tommy to show up at his house twice in two days.

There was an obvious hesitation, and this time Jason expected them to walk away. He didn’t know why. Tommy hadn’t left willingly yet.

“I’d take that pencil,” Tommy said at last.

Jason swung his backpack around again and went through the outer pocket until he found a pencil. He handed it over without a word. He could feel Billy staring at him, judging him, thinking about everything Jason had given Tommy this morning and wondering if it was some sort of influence Tommy was exerting over him.

Right, Jason thought. It’s not like he was naturally a nice guy or anything.

“Thanks,” Tommy said. “And, uh. Thanks for--” The wave was vague and all-encompassing. “Everything. You know. I’ll get your stuff back to you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jason said. “Let me know if you get followed again.”

Tommy made a sound that could have been a laugh. It didn’t sound happy or grateful, but it wasn’t particularly disbelieving either. Jason got the feeling even Tommy didn’t know what it meant. They didn’t answer, just waved as they walked away.

“Was that rude?” Jason asked, watching Tommy go. “I mean, they’re the one who showed up in my bedroom.”

“Showing up in someone’s bedroom uninvited is definitely rude,” Billy said. “Also, you’re a nice person. I’m not suspicious of your behavior because it’s out of character; I’m suspicious because we have no idea what Tommy did to you and I don’t know how to figure it out. But something must have caused Rita’s erratic behavior, and maybe it wasn’t the coin, since Pearl had it all night and she seems fine.”

Tommy still seems weird went unspoken, but Jason heard it anyway.

“This isn’t Tommy being weird,” Jason said. “I know it’s hard to tell, but I saw them last night before you both got there and Kim took that coin. That was a different person that knocked me out.”

“No, this is Tommy being weird,” Billy said. “Just because it’s a different kind of weird doesn’t mean this behavior is within normal boundaries. They showed up at your house, snuck into your room, and waited for you to wake up so you could give them clothes and food and, and a pencil. That's weird. I know weird, Jason, and that is definitely weird.”

“Yeah, okay,” Jason said. “You're not wrong. But how’s it different from any of us?”

Billy tipped his head like he was about to say something but didn’t. Jason couldn’t hear him thinking or anything, but he knew exactly who Billy thought of and in what order: Kim snuck into his room, Billy and Zack showed up at his house, Jason gave him food. He gave Zack food. Trini fed all of them and she gave Kim clothes.

“Trini giving Kim clothes doesn’t really count,” Jason said. “That’s a girlfriend thing, because they’re together. But the rest of it, yeah.”

“I think I can read your mind too,” Billy said abruptly. “That’s what I was trying to tell you last night when Tommy showed up. I think we can all do it.”

Jason looked at him, but Billy just looked back.

“Yeah,” Jason said at least. “Everyone can read my mind. That’s exactly the problem.”

“No,” Billy said. “We can read your mind. Not everyone. You see what I’m saying?”

“We,” Jason repeated. “We, as in… the four of you?”

“Well, maybe the five of us,” Billy said. “It’s hard to know how it affects Tommy--and maybe six now, if we’re counting Pearl. But I think we might all get the same, uh, abilities. Just to different degrees.”

Jason considered that. If it was only the team reading his mind, he figured that wasn’t the worst possible kind of spontaneous telepathy. But if he was also going to… start seeing ghosts? Already happened. Be able to move things around with his mind? That would be pretty great, actually.

It might even make up for telepathy. He wouldn’t wish telepathy on the others, but if he had to have it, having their powers too might not be so bad. Maybe he’d start knowing things, like Billy.

He wasn’t sure stranger things had happened, but it wasn’t impossible.

“Yeah,” Billy said. “It could be useful to have a frame of reference for each other’s strengths, at least. And I know you don’t like it, but I think having other people be able to read my mind would help me a lot.”

Jason wanted to say something about how terrible it was, being afraid that other people would judge you for the things you carefully didn’t say, but he didn’t. It was one of the things he carefully didn’t say. And maybe Billy looked at him thoughtfully, but he didn’t say anything either, so Jason would take it.

“Right,” Jason said at last. “Okay. But the important question: does this mean I’m going to be able to move things with my mind?”

“Maybe,” Billy said. “It’s hard to disprove the hypothesis right now, since all we have to go on is the fact that you and me and Trini have all seen ghosts and I’m pretty sure Kim and Zack have responded to things I didn’t say out loud. You do too of course, and it’s hard to tell with Trini since she doesn’t say very much to begin with, but I don’t think we’ve reached the limits of what any of us can do yet.”

Jason didn’t know whether that was supposed to be inspiring or frightening, but he figured with Billy it wasn’t meant to be anything except an observation. “Okay,” he repeated. “Well, there hasn’t been much we can do about it yet. Unless you have any ideas?”

“What?” Billy said. “No. Except maybe test what we think each other’s abilities are sometimes, in case we have them and they’re getting stronger without us noticing. It could be disruptive to suddenly knock something over just because we thought about it.”

“Zack’s power is the only destructive one,” Jason said. “You think we could just get him to teach us?”

“I don’t know,” Billy said. “But I don’t think that calling his power destructive will encourage him to volunteer.”

“No,” Jason said. “No, you’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay to say whatever you’re thinking to me,” Billy said. “I’d appreciate it, actually. I’m not very good at knowing what people don’t say.”

Jason wanted to tell him that no one was good at that, but he knew what Billy meant. He could see for himself how polite Billy wasn’t, and when he thought about it, he figured Billy hadn’t been telling him not to be mean to Zack. He’d just been offering a personal observation: Zack didn’t respond well when Jason mentioned him destroying things.

“I’ll try to remember that,” Jason said.

The bell rang, which conveniently interrupted a sudden thought of kissing Billy on the sidewalk in front of school. Jason didn’t think about that at school. Or at home. Or anywhere there were other people. He never thought about it, so he had no idea where the thought came from. He looked away, hitching his bag higher on his shoulder, and said, “See you at lunch?”

“Sure,” Billy said. He didn’t move.

Jason got a couple of steps away before it occurred to him, and it was two more before he actually made himself stop. “Billy,” he said, without turning around.

“Yes, what?” Billy said. “I didn’t say anything.”

Jason closed his eyes. He could keep walking. Billy hadn’t said anything, and Jason didn’t think about it, so there was no problem here.

There were only a few other kids in sight, let alone close enough to overhear them, but Jason made himself turn around and walk back anyway. “We haven’t talked about PDA at school,” Jason said, keeping his voice as quiet as he could without actually whispering. “Do you want to?”

“Oh,” Billy said. “We haven’t? I mean, you asked about touching and holding hands, and I asked about kissing, so I think we’ve talked about it.”

“Not at school,” Jason said.

Billy studied him, and Jason thought what the hell. What did he have to lose, really? The only people who still cared about him already knew, and he knew what everyone else thought. Literally. So doing it didn’t hurt him any, and not doing it seemed… he didn’t know. Cowardly? Or smart?

“When you say ‘not at school,’” Billy began.

“Do you want to kiss here?” Jason blurted out.

“No,” Billy said. “I mean, unless you want to, in which case we could probably work out some sort of compromise.”

“Oh,” Jason said. He’d really thought the idea had come from Billy, and he’d just picked up on it because… telepathy. “Okay. No, I mean, that’s fine. I don’t want to either,” he added, which was a lie but he was the last person to pressure someone about going public.

“Then why did you ask?” Billy wanted to know.

He wanted to say “no reason.” He wanted to brush it off and pretend this whole conversation never happened. But Billy had just told him he could say whatever he was thinking, and maybe he should try believing people again. Just for a change.

“Because I thought you wanted to,” he said honestly. “I thought about it, and I thought maybe that was because… you thought about it.”

“I thought about kissing you,” Billy agreed. “But not here, because this is an unpredictable environment and kissing is an unfamiliar activity and combining those two things doesn’t usually go well for me.

“I’d like to kiss you somewhere else,” Billy added. “I mean, if you want to. Maybe we could schedule a kissing date. You know, after school or something.”

“Wait,” Jason said. Maybe his brain was finally working again, because that didn’t make sense. “This is an unpredictable environment, but the library on Eltare was fine?”

Billy just shrugged. “I guess so,” he said. “I don’t know myself as well as I sound like I know myself sometimes. If you hadn’t noticed.”

That made Jason grin. “Billy, you know yourself better than anyone I know. I don’t know how you put up with the rest of us.”

“Well, you knowing yourselves wouldn’t necessarily help me know you,” Billy pointed out. Like he was actually trying to explain. “Unless you told me what you know, which would be really helpful.”

“Right,” Jason agreed. “Let’s try that. Telling each other more. Maybe we won’t even have to, if everyone ends up with telepathy.”

“Yes,” Billy said. “That would definitely help.”

“So tell me if I’m wrong,” Jason said, as the second bell rang. “But it sounded like you’d be willing to consider kissing me at school if you were more familiar with it. Kissing, I mean. Did I read that right?”

“Hypothetically,” Billy said, “I would be willing to consider it, yes. I didn’t think you would be.”

“Why not?” Jason wanted to know. If Billy knew more about him than Jason did himself, he might as well learn what he could.

“Because you’re excruciatingly careful not to look at guys the way you look at girls,” Billy said. “Even though I don’t think you’re interested in girls at all, but maybe I’m wrong about that. It doesn’t really matter, since you are interested in guys. At least you’ve said you are, and I believe you. But you don’t look at them.”

“I look at you,” Jason said.

“Yes,” Billy agreed. “That’s anomalous. Camber pointed that out to me too.”

There was nothing about this conversation they could resolve in the next four minutes. Probably. Jason was willing to find out, but he wasn’t willing to make Billy late over his own sexuality crisis. Unfortunately, he didn’t think there was any graceful way out, either.

“I like you,” Jason told him. “Let’s, uh, set a kissing date. Today okay?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Billy said. Then, “No, wait, you have to go shopping after school. For the refrigerator. And groceries.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “And then I have to fix the refrigerator. How about dinner?”

“Uh, where?” Billy said. “I mean, I don’t want to go out. Unless you do. And then maybe we could—”

“We don’t have to compromise,” Jason said at the same time. “I mean we do, but let’s do something we both like.”

Billy was nodding. “That seems very reasonable,” he said. “That must be why you’re the leader.”

Jason blinked, and he knew what Billy was going to say before he said it.

“That was a joke,” they both said at the same time, and this time Jason laughed.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Still reasonable, though. So think about where you like to eat, and I’ll think about where I like to eat. Maybe your house, or the ship? And text me. I’ll go wherever.”

“I will text you,” Billy said. “I will definitely text you. Probably about a lot more than dinner. I was thinking about how to keep track of each other when we’re not talking; I think we need a safer plan than just hoping we notice when someone’s in trouble—”

“Billy,” Jason interrupted. “Billy, I will stand out here talking to you all day, but you’re gonna get in trouble if you don’t go to class. Text me.”

“Yes,” Billy said. “Right. I’m going to do that.”

“Okay,” Jason said, looking at his phone for the time. There were 32 new messages in the group chat, and that didn’t even count the messages he hadn’t seen from earlier. This was why they had private conversations.

“Good,” he added, looking up at Billy again. “Talk to you later.”

“See you,” Billy said, lifting his fingers to wave, and yeah. That would have been the moment for a kiss.

It was funny that Jason hadn’t wanted to talk about it until Billy said he wasn’t interested. What had he thought, that Billy was going to disregard all social convention and embarrass him in front of… people he cared about a lot less than Billy?

So yeah, that’s exactly what he thought. But the “who he cared about more” argument still worked. He was interested in a guy, he was maybe falling for a guy, and eventually he was going to have to admit it.

In a town like Angel Grove, “admitting it” was basically the same as “announcing it to the world.”

Jason was late to class, but what else was new. Not the fact that he liked guys. He tried to go back to not thinking about it, but apparently that strategy was done for. Time for a new plan.

He texted Kim, Don’t laugh at me. Do you have kissing dates with Trini?

She swore at him instead. wtf a kissing date?

He thought of Zack and wrote, Don’t judge me, instead.

tell me what a kissing date is, she replied. a date where u kiss? thats all dates.

You don’t kiss at school, he wrote back.

where do u go to school, Kim said.

You are no help, he told her.

what i answered ur ? she protested. im going to ask billy what a kissing date is.

Jason didn’t answer because it wouldn’t do any good. And also because he might have detention forever, but he also had his phone, and an angry teacher could still change that. He tried to catch up on the group conversation instead, but it was a lost cause when the teacher passed out a quiz and stood there staring at all of them while they took it.

Second period wasn’t much better than first, but just before third period he got cornered by Camber in the hall. Which was sort of a surprise, since wasn’t Camber a celebrity now? Jason looked around, but he didn’t see any fans or cameras.

“Looking for something?” Camber asked, when Jason looked in both directions again.

“Autograph seekers,” Jason said. “Aren’t you famous now?”

“Apparently,” Camber said. “To be fair, we only did that to keep the police from arresting us. We weren’t trying to get attention for attention’s sake.”

“Make everyone look at you so no one can make you disappear?” Jason said. “That’s a good idea.”

Camber studied him. “I’m glad you think so. Can I ask you a hypothetical question?”

“Shoot,” Jason said.

“You asked me about a modeling exercise last week,” Camber said. “Alien spaceship in orbit around the planet, how does it keep from hitting things and which agencies does it talk to. A game you were playing with Billy, you said.”

“You said it was a game I was playing with Billy,” Jason corrected. “I agreed it was like that.”

Camber nodded, like maybe that was the answer to something else. “Which leads to my hypothetical question: do you think the Power Rangers are deliberately keeping their identities a secret?”

Jason couldn’t help smiling. It might or might not be funny, depending on how Camber reacted and what the consequences of this conversation would be. But of course Billy’s friends had figured it out, based on… what? Their comments on the Dinosaur page? The view from space?

The fact that Jason’s story suddenly sounded familiar when they had to find something to do with their own alien spaceships?

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I think the Power Rangers are staying quiet on purpose.”

Camber gave him a skeptical look for that. “For definitions of quiet that include making a publicity appearance at Disney World?”

“For definitions that include trying to stay anonymous so they don’t get stuck with the reconstruction bill,” Jason said. “Also, this is total speculation here, but if I had to guess I’d say the country that can order those zords around might have a military advantage that affects the global balance of power.”

Camber smiled for the first time. “It’s funny; that sounds like something Billy would say.”

“He’s very observant,” Jason said. “Which makes me wonder why you didn’t ask him.”

“Because we’re friends,” Camber replied. “I didn’t want to put him in an awkward position.”

Because Billy would feel like he had to answer. Whether he did or didn’t, it was a choice he shouldn’t have to make. …And Camber couldn’t know that without already knowing the answer anyway, so why risk Billy choosing not to give it?

That was the less generous way of looking at it, but Jason was just considering all the angles.

“Nice of you,” Jason said. If the mind-reading really was limited to alien influence, he hoped it was just the coins and not the spaceships. Who knew how many more of them there were.

“You too,” Camber said, surprising him. “Thanks for looking out for him. You know. In new places. With new people.”

Billy was fine with new people, but once Jason changed “people” to “aliens” in his head it didn’t sound so patronizing. “We all watch out for each other,” he said. They were already adopting Tommy and Pearl, so. They could handle a few more.

“Things are a lot weirder than they used to be,” he told Camber, “but we’re a lot stronger too. If anyone needs looking out for, all they have to do is say so.”

Camber nodded like that made sense, and Jason hoped it did. “That’s a good way to operate,” Camber said. “I can’t speak for everyone, but the Power Rangers are heroes. I’ll try to follow their example.”

“Just…” Jason had no business giving advice and he knew it. Somehow it hadn’t stopped him yet. “Not all of their example is good, okay?”

That made Camber smile again, and Jason wondered if one of Billy’s friends was actually starting to like him. “We’ll use our best judgment,” Camber told him.

“I tried that,” Jason said with a sigh. “That’s what got me into this mess in the first place.”

“You know,” Camber said. “Yesterday, at the police station? I had the same thought.”

“Did it turn out okay?” Jason said. “I mean, if not… The Power Rangers know some people at NASA.”

“I’ll remember that,” Camber said. “But no pressure. It was just a hypothetical question. I don’t know anything the police would be interested in, and as far as I’m concerned, I never will.”

Jason nodded back. “Same here,” he said. “I’ll let everyone else… uh, everyone playing the game? I’ll let them know you asked. In case you have any more questions.”

For the first time, Camber looked relaxed and honestly amused. “Oh, I have so many questions. I’m hoping once you tell Billy, he’ll be able to answer some of them.”

Jason pointed in mock warning. “Don’t take up all of his texting time,” he said. “We’re trying to plan a date.”

It wasn’t until after the words were out that he realized what he’d done, but if he expected anyone to be shocked, it wasn’t going to be Camber. Obviously.

All Camber said was, “He’s good at multi-tasking.” And then, “See you around, Jason.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. That was pretty clear. “See you.”

Chapter Text

Tommy stopped being around sometime between the beginning of the school day and the end.  Jason had to answer questions about them all day anyway, and the words “Power Ranger” were still scrawled across his locker, so it wasn’t like he could forget.  Maybe the constant reminders of Tommy’s presence made the disappearance less obvious, but when Jason looked around the grocery store that afternoon he was definitely alone.

Which was good, he reminded himself.  He couldn’t babysit Tommy for the rest of his life, or even the rest of the day.  The team took enough of his time as it was, and he liked them. He hadn’t decided about Tommy yet.

The bigger problem was that Andros showed up as soon as Jason got home.  Because of course he did. Jason’s house was where everyone else gathered, why wouldn’t aliens use it too.

Andros said someone on another planet wanted to talk to Jason about sponsoring Earth in some kind of intergalactic league.  An alliance, Andros said, when Jason gave him a skeptical look. Going from bowling to queer allies didn’t improve the association as far as Jason was concerned, but that probably wasn’t what it was called anyway.

He must be hearing the name of the league in something other than English, right?  So it was his brain’s fault as much as anything else. The point was that Jason was supposed to represent Earth, and this other planet wanted to help Earth, so that meant Jason had to go there and say thank you or something.

He wouldn't have minded--he wasn't going to complain about anyone who actually wanted him around, alien or not--except that it took all evening for Andros to explain it and most of the night to do it.  He missed his date with Billy, talking to his mom about Tommy, and anything Pearl needed help with which was probably everything. He also didn't get much sleep, but his Power Coin seemed to make up for that.

His mom tried to keep him home from school the next day anyway.  He was going to Florida that afternoon, she said. Like he could forget.  He should take a nap at least, she said.

“I'm okay,” Jason told her.  It was easier to be gentle when he knew that was all she wanted: for him to be okay.  She was worried about him trying to solve the world’s problems, which he thought was pretty optimistic of her but also less insulting than him causing the world's problems, which was what his dad seemed to think.

“We don't have to sleep as much,” he added, “and this was important.  I can still go to school.”

Maybe it was a leftover reflex from football, the knowledge that missing school would mean sitting out a game, but he couldn't help thinking how convenient it was that Andros had shown up in the evening.  And before that, that Eltar had been willing to wait for the weekend. Rita hadn't been so considerate of their schedules, and if the next crazy request came in the middle of a weekday, he might need all the excused absences he could get.

He went to school.  Billy and Kim had decided to take the old ship to Disney instead of the new one.  He hadn't known they'd decided to take either ship, and he hoped they knew what they were doing when they agreed to set anything down in the middle of Orlando.  

He might not be so nervous if he wasn't going to be the one flying it, but Kim said Disney had cleared a massive space so they could have a perimeter after they landed.

“After we land?” Jason repeated.

“For security,” Kim said without looking up.  Then she caught his eye and added, “Also because the last time the Dinosaur came down there were actual dinosaurs.”

“Not for long,” Jason said.  “That's what worries me.”

“Like, actually worries you?” she asked.  “We don't have to put it down. Obviously.”

“Ask Zack,” Jason said.  “Pretty sure he's the one who has to make it work.  If he says okay, we'll give it a shot.”

Zack said okay, and Trini told Jason to think about not hitting anyone so the ship would know what their priorities were.  That didn't help at all, and he told her so. He also did it, because she was probably right.

Dropping their bags on the Bridge after school felt very familiar, and Zack was the one to ask.  “Okay,” he said. “Just out of curiosity, why this ship?”

“Because this is the one everyone has seen,” Kim said.

“No one has seen this ship,” Zack said.  “It was buried in a mountain and it took off at night.  It's been in space ever since, and I'm not saying no one can see it there, but only as well as they can see the new ship, right?”

“But this is the one we post from,” Kim said.  “It's historic. Plus it looks cool.”

“Well, I’d argue that they both look cool,” Billy said.  “But we named this one, and Jason likes it.”

No one said anything for a moment, and then Zack said, “Wait, that's it?  Jason likes this ship, so we're taking it?”

Jason held up his hands.  “I'd like to point out that they didn't actually ask me,” he said.

“Yes we did,” Kim said.  “You told us to do whatever we want.”

“Okay,” Jason said.  “Then I'd like to point out that I didn't actually state a preference.  How's that?”

“We all know which ship you like better,” Trini said.

“I took the Delta Flyer to Aquitar,” Jason said.  It was easier to control, a lot faster when it came to interfacing with alien systems, and way less creepy when he was alone on it in the middle of the night.

“Did you have a choice?” Billy asked.  “So far we haven't flown the Dinosaur with less than all of us.  Do you think you could do it?”

“Probably not,” Jason said.  But when he looked at Trini he recognized her expression.  “Okay, yeah. I think I could do it. But the Delta Flyer is less creepy than the Dinosaur when I'm alone.”

Kim had been about to remind him of all the other things he thought he could do, most of which had ended in disaster, so he gave her a “thanks a lot” look just on principle.

“Yeah,” Trini echoed, surprising him and saying exactly what he expected at the same time.  “I wouldn't want to fly this ship alone either.”

“Do you think you could do it?” Billy asked.

“Yeah,” Trini repeated.

“Alpha said we could,” Zack said.  “Fly with just one person, I mean.”

“Alpha said the original team could do it with one person,” Kim told him.  “He also said we, as in the five of us, couldn't hit the surface of a planet we were standing on.”

“And yet here we go,” Jason said.  “Aiming for the surface of the planet.”

“Great,” Alpha said, suddenly in front of him when he turned around.  “I wouldn't want to miss this.”

“Hey, Alpha,” Jason said.  Alpha had come along to Aquitar too, and was surprisingly helpful for all of his complaints.  “Want to see Disney World?”

“See?” Alpha repeated.  “I've seen more of Disney World than you have.  I want to visit Disney World. Actually be there.  Have the Disney experience, whatever that is.”

“Well, I guess you're on the right ship,” Zack said.  “You go with Jason last night?”

“Of course I went with Jason, how do you think he got back home,” Alpha replied.  “The Delta Flyer doesn't run off your mind, you know. You need actual coordinates in order to get places.”

“Yeah, okay,” Jason said, “I’ll learn something about astronavigation in my free time.  How hard can it be.”

“Or you could just take me,” Alpha said.  “What else have I got to do, really. It's no trouble.”

“Are you taking notes?” Kim asked, and she didn't even have to say Trini’s name.  Jason knew who she was talking to. “That was so smooth I couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not.”

“Alpha is a role model for us all,” Trini said.

“That's right,” Alpha agreed.  “I am. You could do much worse, let me tell you.”

“Sure,” Zack said.  “We could be using each other.”

“I think we’re good role models,” Billy said unexpectedly.  “For each other, at least. You’ve all made me more confident, and I appreciate that.  We’ve made Jason more responsible and Kim is more independent. Trini seems more engaged and Zack seems less angry.  I don’t see what’s bad about any of that.”

There was a quiet moment where Jason was pretty sure none of them dared to say anything because they were all afraid someone was going to disagree with what Billy had said about them specifically.  Which was… a weird thing to think, honestly. Not because it wasn’t true--he was sure it was true--but because sometimes he noticed how much more quickly he could process things since becoming a Ranger, and this was one of those moments.

“Are you serious?” Trini asked.  She sounded incredulous, but when Jason looked at her she was trying not to smile.  “Are you actually thinking about how great you are right now?”

“No,” Jason told her, and he didn’t bother pretending not to smile.  “I’m thinking how great all of us are.”

“Right,” Billy said.  “I mean, I think that’s the right way to look at it.  For the strength of the team. We should believe in ourselves as much as we believe in each other.”

“Well, I’m out,” Kim muttered.

“You could be,” Trini said.  “I’d come out with you.”

“No, that’s not what I--”  For a second, Kim looked exactly the way Jason felt around Billy all the time.  “Really?”

“Sure,” Trini said with a shrug.  “Not like I’ve got anything to lose.”

“No, your parents actually like you,” Kim said.  “You do. You have something to lose; you shouldn’t risk that for me.”

“You’ve met my parents,” Trini said.

“Uh, yeah,” Zack said.  “They’re a little neurotic, but let’s just take a second to appreciate their borderline obsessive dedication to your well-being.  They’re not gonna turn on you for being bi, or whatever.”

“It’s nice that you think that,” Trini told him.

“Hey, can the Power Rangers come out?” Kim asked.  “Like, at Disney World, can the Pink Ranger tell people she’s dating the Yellow Ranger?  Because I suddenly want to do that.”

Jason looked from her to Trini, and they were both looking at him.  Even Billy and Zack were waiting for him to say something. “What, why are you asking me?” he wanted to know.  “Tell people whatever you want.”

“Uh, I think what Jason means is that we support your relationship and we’re very happy for you if you want to share it with other people,” Billy said.  “Right?”

“Right,” Jason agreed.  “Also, I move that we make Billy our official spokesperson on all important issues.”

“Oh, no,” Billy said.  “That’s definitely not a good idea.  That’s not a strength of mine.”

“You’re doing pretty good so far,” Zack said.

“You and Kim are a good combination,” Trini said.  “You arranged this whole Disney World thing.”

“Wait, did I hear that right?” Zack asked, folding his arms and grinning at her.  “That sounded like you being impressed by something, which I’m pretty sure isn’t a thing that happens.”

Trini just gave him a look, but Kim said, “Yeah, we should go.  I think they’re pretty punctual when they’ve promised everyone in the world they’re going to have a photo op with the Power Rangers.”

“Aren’t we missing some people?” Zack said.  “They’re probably more excited about the alien Power Rangers than they are about us.”

“They’re coming from the moon,” Kim said.  “We told Disney there might be more than one ship, but the little ones wouldn’t need any extra space.”

“The little ones?” Jason repeated.

“We agreed it would be better not to refer to them as fighters and battleships,” Billy offered.

“So you went with the little ones and the big one?” Trini said.

“The little ones and the Dinosaur,” Kim said.  “Or theirs and ours. The aliens ones and the Earth one.”

“Friendly reminder, they’re all alien ships,” Alpha said.  “I don’t see how that’s a distinguishing characteristic.”

“Isn’t it for you?” Billy asked.  “The Dinosaur isn’t alien to you, but Andros and Zhane’s ships are.”

“Their fighters were made by Eltar like everyone else’s,” Alpha said.  “They’re newer, though. I guess there’s that.”

“No one on Earth can tell they’re newer by looking,” Zack said.

“Plus we have a new ship and an old ship,” Billy added.  “We’re just back to our new ship and their new ships. If we’re talking about obvious distinguishing features, which Zack just said we’re not.”

“If it has to be obvious,” Trini said, “I don’t think ownership is the way to go.  Unless we’re talking about the moment people disembark from their respective vehicles.”

“Which is why we’re using size,” Kim said.  “Can I warn NASA that we’re taking the ship out of orbit again?”

Jason looked around when the conversation paused again.  “Seriously?” he said. “Yes. Yes, you can warn NASA; you can do whatever you want.”

“Why are you impatient when we ask you things but not other people?” Billy wanted to know.  “You acted like a team leader on Eltar, and probably on Aquitar. I mean, I wasn’t there, but the fact that you went to Aquitar at all indicates that you’re comfortable speaking for all of us.  Obviously we all speak for the team sometimes, but if we do it constantly we run the risk of accidentally contradicting each other.”

“Yeah,” Kim said, “and I wasn’t asking you, anyway.  I was asking everyone.”

“Oh,” Billy said.  “I don’t mind. I agree that we should have some notification system in place for when we move the ship.  NASA is telling the other space agencies anything we tell them about orbital changes, but it would probably be more fair to tell them all directly.”

“Can we do that?” Zack wanted to know.  “How many of them can we talk to at once?”

“Unfortunately there isn’t an international protocol for satellite information sharing,” Billy said.  “And anyone that we initiate contact with is another communication we have to maintain, potentially to the exclusion of other agencies.”

“You’re saying we need a public address system,” Trini said.

“Oh,” Kim said, like it suddenly made sense.  “So, social media?”

Trini shrugged.  Zack looked at Billy, who looked at Jason.  Jason carefully didn’t remind them that he had no idea.  “Sounds good to me,” he said.

Kim had the test phone right next to her, and Jason wondered if he should check their account to see what he’d missed or if it was better not to know.  “Space alert,” she said, then added, “Can I say ‘space alert’? It sounds exciting. Space alert: Dinosaur leaving orbit for Florida. See you at Disney World.”

“They’ll like that,” Trini said, and Kim tipped her chin without looking up.

“Just like that,” Kim said, swiping at the phone screen and probably adding spaceship emojis to the end of the message.  “Between you and Alpha, I can’t tell when you’re serious and when you’re sarcastic.”

“I’m always serious,” Alpha said.

“I’m always sarcastic,” Trini said.

“Wow,” Zack said.  “It’s like you both just said the opposite of what you meant at the same time.”

“The opposite of what they said would be more consistent with their observed behavior,” Billy agreed.

“Okay,” Kim said.  “I’m not joking; NASA has already seen that post.  So I guess that means we don’t have to tell them separately.”

“Great,” Trini said.  “PSA accomplished. Can we fly now?”

“You said fly, not crash, right?” Kim countered.  “Just in case anyone was confused.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who suggested we set a spaceship down in a Disney World parking lot,” Jason said.

“You okayed it,” Kim told him.  “See, this is why we ask you things.  So you can’t blame us when they go wrong.”

“Oh,” Jason said, smiling involuntarily.  “Right, it’s starting to make sense now.”

“Did you tell him it’s a parking lot?” Billy asked, looking at Kim.  “Did we tell anyone it’s a parking lot? I don’t remember telling anyone that.”

“No,” Kim said.  “Maybe not? Does it matter?”

“I’m just trying to keep track of how our powers are changing,” Billy said.  “If they’re changing, which I think it’s pretty clear they are. It’ll be more clear if we can document how they worked at specific points in time.”

“Our powers?” Zack said.

“You mean Jason’s telepathy?” Trini added.  Jason looked at her, and she smiled.

He shook his head, but he didn’t complain.  If they were all going to have it, he should probably stop acting like it was the worst thing in the world.  He didn’t want to make it worse for someone else.

“Yeah, but all of them,” Billy said.  “Tommy must be telepathic too, and if the powers aren’t specific to a particular color then they might be accessible by all of us.  That could explain why Jason’s telepathy appeared to manifest as him projecting his thoughts to us. He might not be; we might just be reading his mind ourselves.”

“Then why don’t we read each other’s minds?” Trini wanted to know.

“I think we do,” Billy said.  “I think it’s just less obvious than it is with Jason.”

“Why is he special?” Zack wanted to know, but when he immediately glanced at Jason and added, “No offense,” it sounded sincere.

Jason shrugged it off, and Billy must not have understood the question, because he said, “Well, because he’s the leader.”

“He wasn’t democratically elected,” Trini said.

“Okay, can we have this discussion when we’re not late for a publicity appearance at Disney World?” Kim interrupted.  “Because I actually want my VIP card and a whole weekend to use it.”

“Oh, so do I,” Billy said quickly.

“Thank you,” Kim told him.  “Do you think the two of us can fly the ship ourselves?”

“Probably,” Billy said.

“We’ll help,” Jason said.  “Just tell us where to go.”

“I got it,” Trini said.  She stepped into the circle without waiting for any of them, and the middle lit up with a gold navigation matrix before flashing to a view of the planet below and enlarging it rapidly.  Jason barely recognized what was literally a satellite view until it stopped moving.

“Nice!” Zack exclaimed, stepping up across from her.  His color didn’t change the wide swath of pavement until he added, “Jason, any preference?”  Three night-dark star trails looped around the image and Zack grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“The one on the right,” Jason said.  “Your right, coming in over the--” He stopped abruptly as he realized what he was doing.

“The Gulf,” Zack finished for him.  “Yeah, I got it, so we’re dumping speed over the water.  If you’re really set on subtlety, I’m pretty sure we could line up right over Florida and drop straight down.”

“That’s the opposite of subtle,” Trini told him.

“Yeah, but it’s quiet,” Zack said.

“The United States has outlawed sonic booms caused by civilian aircraft,” Billy said.  “Which raises the question of whether we’re really a civilian aircraft, but I think the letter of the law is pretty clear.”

“Which way?” Kim wanted to know.  “Civilian or not?”

“Civilian,” Billy said.  “No government on Earth would recognize Zordon’s military, and regardless the ship is currently operated by civilians.”

“Yeah, that’s not the impression I got on Eltar,” Zack said.  “Jason, let’s go. You don’t want to make Kim late for Disney World.”

“My parents totally think we’re military,” Trini said.  The image in the middle of the circle zoomed back out, and they were looking at orbital vectors from space again.  Military satellites were marked, bright points of light against the curve of the planet below, and Jason could tell exactly what they were looking at.

He wasn’t in the circle, and he knew what everything Trini was showing them meant.

“What’s that?” Kim was asking, and he saw her step into the circle and he felt her understand as the satellite imagery flared pink for a moment.  “Oh, military satellites? Wow, we can see a lot from up here.”

“Jason?” Billy asked.  He was the only other person still outside the circle, and he was watching Jason instead of them.  “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, frowning at the image in the middle of the circle.  He was sure it hadn’t always been that easy to understand. Especially when he wasn’t part of it.  He looked down at himself, but he was still standing at the back of the Bridge.

He looked over at Billy, who was waiting patiently for him to… prove it?  Billy was waiting for him to step into the circle or to explain why he wouldn’t.  He was also running through a dozen variations of compromise, from “Tommy affected Jason’s reaction to the ship” and “Tommy affected Jason’s ability to join the circle” to “the ship doesn’t want to re-enter the atmosphere and Jason can tell” or “Jason is remembering Zordon’s death and thinks he’s going to crash the ship.”

“Wow,” Jason said aloud.  “That’s really not reassuring.”

Billy just looked at him like he had no idea what Jason was talking about, and Jason figured if anything would disprove the telepathy idea, that should do it.  “What isn’t reassuring?”

His confusion was almost convincing.

“Are you thinking of every possible thing that could go wrong?” Jason asked.  “Or is that me, and I just assume it’s you because I’m not that smart?”

“No, that’s definitely me,” Billy said.  “I always consider a variety of possible outcomes.  Usually the disasters are more likely to require contingency plans than the successes are, so I might have a tendency to focus on those.  Now that you point it out, I can see why that could seem disturbing to someone listening.”

“It’s not disturbing,” Zack said.  “It’s you being prepared.”

“I think preparation would be overstating the matter,” Billy said.  “I won’t be surprised by the need to prepare; that’s probably more accurate.”

“Zack and I can set the ship down,” Trini said.

Jason looked at her, and everyone else did it too.  She shrugged. “What? It’s just rocket science.”

“Yeah, I see what you did there,” Zack said with a grin.  “And you’re right. We can totally do this. Everyone stand back and watch the masters at work.”

“I know you can do it,” Jason said.  Once he’d started around the circle it wasn’t as hard as it had seemed when he was standing still.  “That’s why we should put me in the circle and see what happens. Because if something goes wrong, you can take over.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Billy agreed, moving toward his own station.  He stopped when he got there, standing just behind it. Waiting for Jason.

“Right,” Jason said.  “Well.” He tried to think about being calm.  Not angry. Not lonely. Just calm. They were all right there.  Nothing terrible was going to happen to any of them.

He stepped onto his station and they all disappeared.

Jason was very aware of his breathing as he looked around the empty circle.  Empty except for blue: the engineering station, where Javan stood. Looking back at him.

“Hello,” Jason said.

“Hello, Jason,” the ship’s avatar replied.  Or the ghost. Who was talking to him right now?  “You’re aware that Rita has implanted a suggestion in your brain.”

“Was that a question?” Jason asked.

“You know it to be true,” Javan said.  “As Trini says, you were there.”

“Oh, now you quote us?”  The ship was getting more chatty every day, and having it be like a less angry version of Zordon was… weird, to say the least.  “What suggestion?”

“Protect Tommy,” Javan said.

Just like that Jason was back in his room, with Tommy and the darkness pressing in on him until he couldn’t breathe.  This time he saw Pearl too: a little girl in green he had to protect, and it was his sister but it wasn’t Pearl at all.  He was holding on to Tommy, and then it was the railings of his station under his hands.

He gasped as the deck shifted under him, light erasing the darkness and everyone around him talking at once.  No one was pulling on him. They were all at their stations, even Billy, and they knew he’d been talking to someone else.  He got everyone’s confusion and certainty at once.

“He doesn’t feel different,” Billy was insisting.  “Usually we can feel him separate from us. He’s still here.  He’s just not responding.”

“Which is better than him shaking the ship apart,” Zack said.  “So at least there’s that.”

“High bar,” Trini said.

“I can hear you,” Jason said, and his voice sounded… totally normal.  The Bridge was exactly the way it had been, except that now it was his team at their stations instead of Zordon’s.

It hadn’t even been all of Zordon’s team, just the Blue Ranger, and Jason didn’t know what that meant.

“But who is he talking to?” Kim wanted to know.

“You mean us?” Billy asked.  “Can you hear us? Or are you still talking to someone else?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, and as soon as he said it he knew how unhelpful it was.  “Billy. I can hear you. You’re all--it’s fine. You just disappeared for a minute.”

“We disappeared?” Kim repeated.  “No one went anywhere.”

“As soon as I stepped into the circle, it was empty except for me and--”  That was an interesting thought. If it really had been the ship, couldn’t it tell him?  “Javan?”

“Yes, Jason?” the ship replied.  It was the same voice he’d just heard coming from the engineer in the circle.  The engineer standing in Billy’s place, who must have died tens of millions of years ago… who had said Jason’s name, not Zordon’s.

“Were you talking to me just now?” Jason asked.

“Oh, is that who you were talking to?”  Billy seemed to think that was perfectly normal.  “We should have thought of that; you did it on the way back from Eltar, talked to the ship when we couldn’t hear it.”

“I replied when you spoke to me,” the ship said.

Jason wasn’t sure that answered the question, but everyone else seemed satisfied.  Zack’s flight plan was locked in, and North America was coming up. It was time to go if they were going.

“Okay,” Jason said.  He’d already told them everything he knew about Tommy anyway.  “Let’s try not to hit anything on the way down.”

“Zack,” Kim said, and Zack just laughed.

At least when Kim said it Zack laughed, but Jason figured there were things Kim could say to him that he didn’t want to hear from Zack too, so maybe he understood that.

“Yeah, I’m on it,” Zack was saying.  “We’ll look good for your public relations people, or whoever we’re meeting on the ground.”

“Do you think NASA will send someone?” Billy wanted to know.  “To study the ship from the outside? I’d send someone.”

“So probably,” Trini said.

Zack already had his flight plan, so Jason didn’t have anything to do except watch and listen as he took them down.  It wasn’t anything like crashing, and it didn’t remind him of anything he shouldn’t know. Mostly it felt like watching Zack try to dock with the Eltaran orbital platform: slow and predictable and a little bit boring.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is boring?” Zack asked.  “Because we could make our descent a lot more exciting if we stopped pretending to be a plane.”

“I might have thought it’s a little boring,” Jason admitted.  “But boring is good. This is Disney World; we do anything even remotely dangerous here and the entire world is against us.”

“That’s probably true,” Kim said.

“The part about it being boring?” Trini asked.  “It’s totally boring. Look, I can see Everest from here.  Let’s buzz them.”

“No,” Kim said firmly.  “The part where we should make it a game to be completely safe and totally family friendly around anything related to Disney World.  They literally fire their employees for complaining. About anything. We don’t want to get on their bad side.”

“Are you serious?” Jason asked.  He pushed Trini’s image of Everest aside so they could see the descent in real time.  There was ocean underneath them, which was strange and obvious at the same time.

“That’s not very much like a plane at all,” Billy said, and Jason knew he meant Zack’s implausibly vertical descent.  It reduced noise and contained the pressure variation to mostly unpopulated areas, but Billy was right: it was very obviously an alien approach.

“Stop messing with my view,” Trini said.  He could tell she was still looking at the roller coasters, but she didn’t override his control of the shared viewing space.  Which he hadn’t known he had, and definitely hadn’t taken over consciously.

“Sorry,” Jason said anyway.  “I don’t know how I did that.”

“Whatever,” Trini said, but he knew she liked hearing it anyway.

“You can have a noisy plane or you can have a quiet alien spaceship,” Zack said.  “Pick one.”

“Quiet alien spaceship,” Billy said immediately.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Zack said.  “What about Space Mountain?”

“What about it,” Trini said.  “It doesn’t go fast.”

“It’s a roller coaster,” Zack replied.  “It goes fast enough.”

“Everest is twice as fast as Space Mountain,” Trini told him.  She didn’t say, I looked it up just for you, but Jason heard it anyway and it made him smile.

“Well, easy solution,” Zack said.  “We go on both of them.”

“They’re in different parks,” Billy said.

“What, we can’t go from one park to another?” Zack countered.  “I thought you got us special passes or something.”

“We did,” Billy said.

“It still takes time to get from one park to another,” Kim added.  “And around them when you’re inside. No running at Disney World.”

“No running?” Jason repeated.

She threw him a smile.  “Just kidding,” she said.

“Really?”  He had no idea what to say to that.  “What about the complaining thing; is that true?”

“Probably,” she said.  “Staff rules are super strict.”

“Whoa,” Jason said, because the ship wanted him to pull up: suddenly, violently, right now.  He didn’t, but he was holding onto the railings hard enough to make his fingers hurt. “Zack.”

“What, I’ve got it,” Zack said.  But he looked at Jason and added, “Seriously, what?  Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said, careful not to tell the ship to move or stop or do anything except what Zack was directing it to do.  “It’s--the ship doesn’t want to set down. Javan, can we land?”

“The ship can land,” Javan’s voice said.

“If there’s a problem we need to know now,” Zack said.  “We’re two seconds from being on the ground.”

“It’s okay,” Jason said.  “I think it’s okay. Keep going.”

“How much do you think it’s okay?” Zack asked, but he didn’t pull up.

“A lot,” Jason said.  “Enough. Alpha, are we okay?”

“Yes, probably, bad memories, you know how it is,” Alpha said from the other side of the Bridge.  “It might not be crashing; I don’t know if this has occurred to you but we were stuck on the surface of your planet for kind of a long time.  Maybe it doesn’t want to go back.”

“It’s temporary,” Zack said.  “Okay, Javan? It’s temporary.”

“The ship understands,” Javan’s voice said, and Jason frowned.  It had said it was using the voice of Zordon’s engineer. It hadn’t said it would use his image.  And why was it still using the third person to refer to itself if it could pick up their colloquialisms just by listening?

“Everyone hold on,” Zack said.  Jason hadn’t let go, but he could hear everything Zack didn’t say: in case this goes bad and welcome to earth and this is gonna look awesome.

Jason wondered if there would be cell phone video of Zack’s first spaceship landing.  Maybe Jason could find it and post it to their account. Trini could probably tell him what to say.  Or Trini could tell Kim and Kim could tell him. He still wasn’t sure Trini would give him the time of day if it weren’t for… well, everything.

He drew in a deep breath as the ship settled onto pavement: easily, gently, like landing in a parking lot on the surface of a planet was something it did everyday.  It wasn’t alarming. It wasn’t frightening. The ship felt like it had never warned him of anything.

“We good?” Zack asked.

“Yeah,” Jason managed, pulling one hand away from the railing and watching red sparkles fall away as he lifted it up to look.  What the hell. That wasn’t his armor, and it wasn’t him. So where was the red coming from?

“Yeah,” he repeated, shaking his hand until the light was gone.  “Nice landing.”

“Yeah, it was,” Zack said with a grin.  “Who knew landing was easier than docking?  I hope someone got a picture of that, because that was amazing.”

“Okay,” Kim said.  Her step back made the pink glow fade from the navigation matrix, though Trini’s picture of the view outside didn’t change.  “You’re amazing, we know. Way to go not hitting anything.”

“Hey, you’re welcome,” Zack told her.  

“There are people outside,” Trini interrupted.  “You expecting them?”

The people were suddenly very visible in the middle of the circle, while the screen that had gone dark during re-entry now showed a wide angle view of the parking lot they were in.  The vast, empty parking lot, with two people walking across it toward them. Or their ship. With a view like that, it was hard to remember that no one outside could see in.

“We’re expecting Elena from public relations to meet us at the landing site,” Billy said.  “I looked her up and that person does look physically comparable to her pictures online.”

“She didn’t say she’d come alone,” Kim added.  “I wouldn’t.”

“So no idea who the second person is?” Jason asked.  “Do we care?”

“Assistant?” Kim guessed.

“Security?” Trini said.  “You said there’d be a perimeter.”

“We’re in the middle of a big empty space,” Zack said.  “How do you set up security around that?”

“We don’t need security,” Alpha said.  “No one gets onto this ship except Power Rangers.”

“We did,” Zack pointed out.

“Yeah, and you’re Power Rangers,” Alpha said.  “Not seeing how that disproves my point.”

“When you say Power Rangers,” Billy said, “are you including people who have been or will be Power Rangers?”

“Of course I am,” Alpha said.  “Once a Ranger, always a Ranger.”

Jason looked at Kim, and she looked back.  He was pretty sure they looked equally unimpressed, but neither of them said anything.  It was probably rude to say anything else about Rita at this point.

“Okay,” Billy said.  “That’s good to know.  Does that also include anyone who uses or holds a Power coin?”

“You don’t have to make it sound like that opens it up,” Alpha said.  “There’s a lot of different kinds of morphers out there. Andros has a bracelet, Zhane uses a phone.  That obnoxious Elisian team uses crystals.”

“That obnoxious Elisian team?” Jason repeated.

“Don’t worry, I said the same thing about you,” Alpha told him.  “Eltar thinks I don’t like anyone from this time. Should spare us all some accusations of bias.”

“Is anyone else worried that everyone we get along with is either ‘rebellious’ or ‘obnoxious’?” Kim asked, using little finger quotes for both words.  “Also, is everyone else waiting for Jason to leave the circle, or are you locking the doors or something?”

“Nope,” Zack said, lifting his hands and stepping back.  The railings beside his station lowered silently as soon as he left the circle, and he added, “I’m good.”

“I’m waiting for Jason to leave the circle,” Trini said.

“Yeah, me too,” Billy agreed.

“I’m going,” Jason said, pulling his other hand away from the railing and inspecting it for red light.  Nothing. Just a normal looking hand. He took another look at all their stations, but he didn’t see anyone he didn’t expect to see.

He stepped back, and the voices he hadn’t realized he was hearing disappeared.  He couldn’t remember what they’d been saying, but they were quieter this time, at least.  He looked around, but it was just his team and Alpha, all exactly where he thought they should be.

“All good,” he said, looking back at the circle.  It was still showing the two people Trini was following in the middle, but he was aware of Billy powering down their propulsion and checking the exterior for anything they shouldn’t have brought with them before he stepped away.  Trini looked back at the screen before she followed, and this time the center of the circle went dark when she left.

“Hey,” Zack said.  “Is that supposed to happen?”

“What, the picture?” Trini asked.  “Like I know.”

“The navigation matrix isn’t engaged,” Billy said.  “That probably affects the function of the circle view.  Or maybe you just didn’t think about maintaining it when you left the way you did with our flight path.”

“Maybe we just don’t need it,” Kim said, watching the screen.  “We can see all the way around the ship. Is that weird? The screen doesn’t go all the way around the Bridge.”

Trini looked back at the screen, and the view turned so the people approaching were centered in the middle of the “window.”  Jason looked at her, and she caught his eye as soon as he did. Welcome to the club, he thought.

“Wow,” Kim was saying.  “Did someone do that on purpose?  Or is the ship controlling the view?”

Jason smiled when Trini made a face.  He didn’t say anything, because everyone else would notice eventually.  The ship responded to him even when he wasn’t in the circle. Obviously it was starting to respond to Trini too.

“The ship did not alter the view,” Javan’s voice said, and Jason looked up in surprise.

“Really?” he asked.  “Since when do you volunteer information?”

“I will share what I know as it benefits the mission of the team,” the voice replied.

Jason looked at Billy, and he knew even before Billy looked back that they’d both thought the same thing at the same time.  “You just used the first person,” Billy said.

The ship didn’t answer.  Jason wasn’t convinced by the “it wasn’t a question” argument, since the ship had definitely responded to things that weren’t questions before.  It responded to his thoughts all the time, without him expecting it or even noticing.

The screen shifted again, the full-circle view falling away as the perspective moved closer on the two people who had paused.  They were looking up, and Jason followed their gaze. The screen stretched high enough to show the sky above them, two points of rapidly approaching light, and that had to be Andros and Zhane coming in.  

Either that or military planes deployed to investigate an unauthorized civilian spaceship landing.  He didn’t know where that thought came from, but he really hoped they weren’t going to have a government confrontation at Disney World.  Or anywhere.

“It’s me,” Trini said.  “The view is changing as I think about it.”

“The ship likes you,” Zack said.  “Weird that it has such good taste, considering it also likes Jason, but it could be worse.”

“Hey,” Kim said, before Jason could say anything.  “I don’t know if you noticed, but Jason’s been going to a lot of trouble not to insult you.  Maybe you could be nicer too.”

“It’s fine,” Jason said, watching what were definitely spaceships on approach to an empty Disney parking lot.  There was no mistaking the fact that they weren’t Earth planes. Was that what they’d looked like coming in?

“Is it fine?” Billy asked.  “I thought it made you angry when Zack criticized you because you weren’t sure whether he meant it or not.”

“Okay,” Zack said, “my bad.  You’re right, I didn’t meant to make it sound like no one likes Jason.”

“Really not helping,” Kim told him.

“What, I like Jason!” Zack exclaimed.  “He’s great, okay? I love all of you guys, including Jason.  For real.”

“Yeah, I love you too,” Jason told him.  “We’re fine, don’t worry about it.”

Zack nodded.

“Thank you,” Kim said.  “Now everyone morph, stay morphed, and be nice to the Disney people who are giving us weekend passes in exchange for some pictures, okay?”

“Oh, we might also have to sign some things,” Billy said.  “Not like contracts, like autographs. We agreed we should probably sign our colors instead of our names.”

“Don’t use your names,” Jason agreed.

“I’m signing mine ‘the Master of Everything,’” Zack said.  “Just so you know.”

Trini raised her hand.  “Chartreuse Ranger.”

“Magenta,” Kim added.

Jason shook his head.  “Whatever you want,” he said.  “Andros and I are both Red. Zhane is Z.”

“I’m calling him Silver,” Trini said.

“Okay,” Jason said.  

“That seems like an obvious nickname,” Billy agreed.  “I’m sure everyone will know who you’re talking about.”

“I don’t think he picked Z, anyway,” Kim said.

“No, Andros just couldn’t remember Silver,” Zack said.  “As predicted.”

Jason wasn’t sure they’d do any better.  In fact, based on their performance at Trini’s house, he was pretty sure they’d do worse.  They still owed whoever at NASA had erased their names from the public transcript, and he wondered if he should try to find out who that was.  Or at least how many people would have had to know about it.

They walked out into the parking lot just as Andros and Zhane were climbing out of their fighters, and it was very clear that the two Disney representatives didn’t know where to look first.  Jason smiled behind his visor, but he waved when the one Billy had identified as Elena looked at him. The other person glanced at him and went back to watching Andros and Zhane.

Definitely security, he thought.

“Hello,” Jason said, holding out his hand as he walked forward.  The others stopped a respectable distance back, all at the same time, and he thought it probably looked more impressive than having them all gather around.  They hadn’t talked about it, though. He wondered if they’d somehow internalized it from watching Rangers on Eltar.

“I’m the Red Ranger,” he added, when Elena tucked what looked like a tablet under her arm and held out her hand in return.  “These are my teammates, the Power Rangers of Earth, and two of our friends, Power Rangers for the Kerova system.”

Andros and Zhane even walked in sync, and they stopped together but they didn’t join the line of Jason’s teammates.  They didn’t speak at the same time either, which made it a little less weird. “Hello,” Andros said, probably in English.  Zhane just waved.

“Hi,” Elena said, nodding over at Andros before she looked back at Jason.  She let go of his hand and added, “I’m Elena Anastas, with Public Relations for Walt Disney World Resort.  I think I’ve been emailing with two of your teammates?”

“Hi!” Kim called, waving cheerfully when Jason looked over his shoulder at her.

“Yes, hello,” Billy added.  “That was us.”

“Okay, great,” Elena said, looking at her companion and then back at Jason.  “Well, it’s nice to meet you all in person, and on behalf of the happiest place on Earth, I’d like to thank you for coming.  We’re very excited to have you.”

“Thanks for inviting us,” Jason said.  “When our friends wanted to know what we do for fun on Earth, Disney World came up right away.”

“That’s very flattering,” Elena said with a smile.  “I understand that privacy is very important to you, and to your friends.  We’ll be careful to respect it at all times, and I want you to contact me if there’s anything you need from me or from the resort.  I don’t check my email at all hours, but you have my cell phone number and you’re welcome to use it anytime.”

Jason glanced back at Kim, who nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

“Thank you,” he told Elena.  “We appreciate that.”

“Anytime,” she repeated, and he didn’t know if that was a thank you or just a way of emphasizing that they could call in the middle of the night if they wanted to.  He wondered if either Kim or Billy had spoken to her on the phone already.

He also wondered what she thought they could possibly want that they’d have to wake her up for, but maybe she had strange hours.

“This is Cat Macomb,” Elena was saying, and her companion nodded at him when Jason looked her way.  “She’ll be in charge of all your official security, from the ships to your personal appearance at Epcot Center.”

“Hello,” Jason repeated, offering her his hand.  “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too.”  She shook his hand quickly, and he knew as soon as she did it that if he were anyone else she would have refused.  Interesting. Maybe some employees at the happiest place on Earth were less friendly than others?

“Question,” Billy said.  “You mentioned official security; that implies there’s unofficial security as well.  We didn’t discuss that in advance.”

“We won’t be able to provide official security when you’re…”  Elena hesitated for the first time, and Jason couldn’t blame her.  

“Not wearing armor?” he suggested.

“Yes,” she said quickly.  “When you’re enjoying the parks as private citizens, any effort we make to provide personal security may compromise your identities.  We can share your information with a small number of trained and very discreet personnel if you so choose.”

Jason looked at Billy, who didn’t see any advantage to that, and then at Kim, who thought it was a bad idea.  “Thank you, no,” Jason said, as politely as he could. “We plan to blend in as regular and very well-behaved guests.  No extra security necessary.”

“All right,” Elena said.  “Well, I have family sets of parkhopper passes for all of you, including VIP charge accounts and dining plans, as well as instructions on how to anonymously check into your hotel suites.  Would you like that information now?”

Jason looked back at Kim, who flicked her wrist without lifting her arm.

“Our publicity coordinator tells me we’re running late,” Jason said, turning back to Elena with a smile.  “We don’t want to upset your schedule, so why don’t you tell us what you need from us and we’ll get the rest of the information later.”

He thought Kim was proud of him, and it was a nice thought even if it wasn’t true.  It might be true, though. He might actually know what she was thinking. Billy would tell him he shouldn’t be less willing to believe it just because it was good instead of bad.

Billy thought he was doing a good job too.  That was a strange feeling to have all of a sudden and out of nowhere, so he decided to stop thinking about all of his teammates as much as possible.  Telepathy was definitely not his favorite superpower.

“I’ll make sure you have everything you need before you leave the plaza,” Elena promised.  “Do you mind if we call a shuttle over here? We run trams around all our parking lots, but we’ve marked this area inaccessible for as long as your ship is here.  Any of your ships,” she added, including Andros and Zhane in her look.

When Jason looked over at them too, it suddenly occurred to him that she was talking to a group of people whose faces she couldn’t see and making it seem totally normal.  She knew at least two of them were aliens. They could be anyone, but she treated them all like ordinary people. Better than ordinary people: they were teenagers, and she was treating them like VIPs.

She’s used to talking to Disney characters, he thought, only it wasn’t him.  Someone else had seen him looking and thought the same thing. But they knew why she acted like it happened all the time: it did.  No one could see Mickey’s face either, but they treated him like a real person.

Great, Jason thought.  Now we’re Disney characters.

“A shuttle is fine,” he said aloud.  He didn't say anything about getting back, since broadcasting their ability to teleport didn't seem like a great idea and they could always walk, right?

Cat made the call, lifting her phone and turning away from them as she spoke into it.  They could all hear her, but maybe someone with normal senses wouldn't have. “The Dinosaur’s clear,” she muttered.  “Shuttle transport to Explore.”

It turned out that when they said “shuttle” they meant “limo.”  Jason glanced at Kim as the car approached, thinking black van as carefully as he could.  Maybe if he tried to be telepathic on purpose, he could figure out how not to be too.

She turned her head toward him, and maybe it was his imagination but he could picture her smiling as she said, Every van is that kind of van.

“Hey,” Andros said.  “You’re getting the hang of it.”

Jason looked over at him and remembered just in time that Andros probably hadn’t said that out loud.   We think the whole team might be telepathic, he thought.

Andros’ reply was vivid and immediate.   Oh, that must be fun, he said.

It made Jason grin, even though he had no idea why Andros’ thoughts sounded different than pretty much everyone else’s.  He didn’t know what Andros was thinking, outside of direct and apparently intentional communication, and he couldn’t imagine using telepathy to translate the way Andros said he did for Zhane.  Maybe Andros’ was different. Or maybe Jason just wasn’t very good at it.

I have more practice, Andros offered, which definitely meant that Andros could hear more than what Jason meant to communicate.  But that was true of the rest of his team too, so Jason tried not to be angry about it. I can show you, if you want.

Yes, Jason thought immediately.  If someone could actually teach him something about these powers, other than “try not to get smashed, bashed, or otherwise flattened by magical monsters,” he would take them up on it in a heartbeat.  Telepathy or not.

“Thanks,” Kim was telling Zhane, as he offered her a hand.

Trini was right behind her, and Jason was all ready for her to say “forget it,” when she held out her hand the same way Zhane did and said, “Allow me,” instead.

Zhane didn’t hesitate.  “Why thank you,” he replied, and he sounded genuinely pleased.  He took her hand and climbed into the car like he did it every day.

Jason was careful not to shake his head, but he looked at Andros and got the sense the other Red Ranger was rolling his eyes.  It was weirdly reassuring. They waited for Zack and Billy to climb in too, and then Andros went ahead without waiting for Jason to wave him in.  Like there was some kind of home team procedure or something.

Home team always leads, Andros thought.

“Oh, that’s not true,” Zhane said, and he was definitely speaking out loud if the way everyone looked at him meant anything.  “Wait, was I supposed to pretend I didn’t hear that?” he added. “I thought Jason said everyone’s telepathic.”

Elena had climbed into the front seat, but Cat was still standing outside, talking on her phone as the car pulled away.  Jason wondered suddenly if she was supposed to protect them, or to protect other people from them. He looked over at Zack just as Zack turned away from the window and looked back.  Zack shrugged slightly.

Good call, Jason thought, just in case Zack knew what he was thinking too.  They shouldn’t just assume that everyone here liked them. Jason knew what it said that Zack was the one to think of that.  He didn’t like it.

Jason reacted to Zack exactly the way Zack expected him to, and that wasn’t fair.

“He wasn’t talking to you,” Andros was saying, but he sounded amused.  

“He was talking to you,” Zhane countered.  “That’s like talking to me, only slightly less fun.”

Andros never sounded angry when he was talking to Zhane, Jason thought.  Was that just because they only saw Andros and Zhane when they were having a good time?  Was it different when they were tired, or stressed, or… they fought, right? Did they ever snap at each other in the middle of a fight?

“Were you talking to each other telepathically?” Billy asked.  “That seems particularly useful in situations like this, although I’ll admit using an alien language to covertly exchange information is a method I hadn’t considered.”

“Covert,” Trini said.  “Not discreet.”

“Depends where you are,” Zhane said.

They were speaking Eltaran, Jason realized belatedly.  All of them, not just Zhane. “Why is everyone else so good at Eltaran?” he wanted to know.

Trini looked at him like she didn’t know him at all.  “You’re speaking Eltaran right now,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean,” he said.  “How can you tell? I mean, I can barely tell what language other people are using, let alone pick the one that comes out when I open my mouth.”

“Consider yourself lucky,” Zack said.  “I can barely understand any of you.”

“But Trini and Jason don’t have that problem,” Billy said.  “So it doesn’t seem like it’s a pre-existing multi-lingual issue.  Even in Trini’s case a spoken multi-lingual issue. Oh, can we understand Eltaran sign languages?  What about ASL? Why can I understand Mandarin but not ASL? That doesn't make sense.”

“Oh,” Trini said.  “That's why I remember more ASL than I ever learned.  Thanks Jason.”

“Someone write that down,” Jason said.  “Trini just thanked me for something.”

“I take it back,” she said immediately.

“Too late,” he told her.  “We all heard you.”

“But I don't,” Billy said.  “Why don't I understand ASL the way I understand our other shared languages?”

“Billy,” Kim said, and Jason could hear her thinking calm down, but she didn't say it.  “Are you sure you don't understand it?  Maybe it's just harder, like Zack with Eltaran.”

“I only sort of understand Zack when he speaks Mandarin,” Trini offered.

“Oh good,” Kim said.  “I didn't want to say anything, but me too.”

“We text each other in our home languages,” Trini added.  “To practice.”

“Does it help?” Kim asked.

“I guess,” Trini said.  “It's not like hearing it, though.”

“Because you're not with each other,” Zhane interrupted.  “If you're all telepathic, then being in the same room is going to boost your skills.”

“I don't remember agreeing that we're all telepathic,” Trini said.

“That would explain why Jason’s the best at languages, though,” Billy said.  “Unless that's an independent trait of Red Rangers, of course.”

“What, languages?” Zhane asked.  “Yeah, maybe. Except Jason specifically said he couldn’t understand anything on Eltar except Trade, plus whatever all of you speak.  Andros can understand anything.”

“My sister would say I’m magical,” Andros said.  “What’s going on with security? Is that for us or them?”

Jason glanced at Zack again.  “Yeah,” he said. “We were just wondering that.”

“It’s for us,” Kim said.  “It’s just a courtesy thing; they do it for a lot of their VIPs.”

“Or they say it’s for us,” Zack said, “but there’s a reason Cat’s not in this car right now.”

Jason was careful not to look toward the front of the car, and he hoped whatever telepathy he had wasn’t projecting any of this conversation to Elena or the driver.  “It’s fair, though,” he said. “Right? We could be anyone. All they know about us is that we—”

He stopped, because alien language or no, it sounded very understandable to him.

“All they know is what they saw on the news,” Kim said.  “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

“I’d keep an eye on us,” Trini said.

Zack didn’t say anything, but Jason knew exactly what he was thinking: yeah, but what are they gonna do.  It was a question none of them should ask, and not only because it sounded like a threat.  Also because they probably didn’t want to know.

Zack pointed at him without a word, and Jason took that as agreement.

“What?” Billy said.  The car was coming to a stop as he asked, “Why did you point at Jason?”

Zack shook his head, so Jason said, “He thought what are they gonna do, and I thought it’s probably better not to know.  Pretty sure he was agreeing with me.”

“Oh,” Billy said.  “That’s an interesting question--”

“Which we’re not asking right now,” Jason said at the same time.

“Well,” Billy said.  “Clearly some of us are.  This isn’t a contingency plan, but don’t get arrested.  They’ll take your communicator and that will make it much harder to find you.”

“No one’s getting arrested,” Jason said.

“That our new bar?” Zack asked, and Jason remembered their conversation about not crashing the ship or wiping out any major species.

“Yes,” Jason said.  “It’s the next step up from avoiding an extinction event: not getting arrested.”

“I like that you set realistic goals for us,” Trini said.

“I like that you think that’s a realistic goal,” Kim told her, which kept Jason from pointing out that Trini had just said something nice about him twice in a single afternoon.  It would probably start snowing out next.

Elena had opened the door for them while they were still talking, arguing, discussing; he wasn’t sure what to call it.  It seemed awkward to have someone else hold the door for him, but he said, “Thank you,” and the rest of them said it too as they climbed out.

They’d been dropped off at the entrance, monorail humming by on their left and the giant golf ball looming over the turnstiles straight ahead.  “Golf ball?” Jason whispered to Kim when she stepped away from the car with him.

“Geosphere,” she whispered back.

Thanks, he thought, and he thought she smiled back at him under her helmet.

Elena gave them a second welcome speech while everyone was getting out of the car, which was a good way to keep the attention of a group that was easily distracted.  His coach used to do the same thing. It kept them from getting rowdy and kept other people from asking them questions at the same time.

She ended with, “The VIP gate is this way,” the moment Zack’s feet hit the ground, and they were all moving by the time the car drove away.  Jason thought he could learn something about leadership from her.

Then Andros whispered, “What’s in the giant sphere?” and it must have been their helmets that made him audible to every one of them.

Jason knew that, but it still sounded like Andros was asking him specifically, so he whispered back, “I don’t know anything about Disney World.”

“It’s a ride,” Kim murmured at the same time.  “Spaceship Earth.”

“Oh hey!”  Zack was sort of whispering, but by now it had to be obvious to anyone watching that they were talking amongst themselves.  “It’s our ship! Does it go fast?”

“No,” Trini said.  “It’s the history of human civilization or something.”

“Oh,” Andros said.  “We definitely have to see this.  Can we go on this ride?”

“Yes,” Kim said.  “After we do a photo op and sign whatever they want signed.”

“The history of human civilization,” Zhane repeated.  “You really know how to pick the exciting ones.”

“You’ll love it,” Andros said.  “You’ll spend so much more time making fun of it than I will.”

“Not because I’m actually mocking it,” Zhane added.  “Just because you’re quieter and more judgmental in your mockery.”

Andros didn’t disagree, just said, “You can pick the next thing we do.”

“Yeah,” Zhane said, and even in Eltaran with his helmet on, Jason could hear him grinning.  “I definitely will.”

Chapter Text

Elena walked them through a mostly indoor route to wherever they were going, which Jason could tell by Billy’s interest was unusual somehow.  They passed several people in costume on the way, and none of them gave the Power Rangers a second look. Which felt a little strange, actually, after having cameras turned on them wherever they went in Angel Grove.

Cat didn’t reappear, and Elena didn’t stop to talk to anyone until they reached a door with a wide screen beside it.  There were two people in the room. One of them went through the door as soon as Elena nodded, and Jason could see sunlight and people on the other side.  The other one came forward with a headset and a wave, and Elena said, “This is Rai, one of our plaza guest coordinators. She’s a California native.”

“Hello!” Rai said, waving again.  “Thanks for coming. It’s great to meet you!”

Jason smiled, because he kind of knew that feeling.  “You too,” he said. “We’re glad to be here. This is my team, all from Earth, and a couple of friends who aren’t from Earth.”

“So you decided to show aliens Disney World?” Rai said with a grin.  “Great idea. Thanks for agreeing to pictures while you’re here. Can we get you anything to drink?  There’s water and snacks, and we can clear the room if you want to, you know, not be in character for a while.”

Of course she would know how to handle people who had to wear things that covered their face, Jason thought.  Disney knew what it was doing. He glanced around at the others, but no one said anything, so he shook his head.

“We’re all right,” Jason said.  “Thanks for the offer, though.”

“Sure,” Rai said.  “You need anything, just let me know.  There’s typically two ways we do these group photo ops: everyone goes out and gathers around the fountains, we take pictures, then everyone gathers in front of the fountains and we take more pictures.  You can make a short statement at that point, if you want to?”

Jason saw Elena look up from her tablet at that, and he knew Rai was leaving out the fact that “statements” were usually approved and pre-recorded by Disney.  Telepathy wasn't completely unhelpful after all. At least around people he didn't know.

“Thanks,” Jason told Rai, “but I've been told it's better when I don't say anything.”

“Oh, wow, the moon thing?” Rai said.  “That was great, you should definitely say more about space exploration.”

“I'm afraid the acoustics aren't well set up for spontaneous remarks,” Elena said, sounding politely apologetic.

“Don't worry,” Jason told her.  “We’ll just smile and look pretty.”

Trini gave him a very gentle push for that, and Rai grinned at them.  “Technically you don't have to smile,” she said. “No one will know.”

“Little known fact about us,” Zack said.  “We're always smiling.”

“You'll fit right in here,” Rai said without missing a beat.  “After pictures, you can either wave and come back in here, where we'll walk you through security and departure, or you can stay out on the pavilion and mingle before you come back.”

“Like a meet and greet,” Kim said, mostly for Jason's benefit.  “Yeah, we talked about that with Elena. We're okay with it if you are.”

“Character encounters are sometimes short and sometimes long,” Rai said.  She sounded like she was telling them the same thing she told everyone, now.  “It depends on the engagement of the audience and your willingness to chat. You could get a variety of requests, from selfies and autographs to promposals, so it's good to go into it knowing what your boundaries are.”

Jason glanced around at the rest of the team.  “Do we draw the line at promposals?” he asked. He was mostly joking, since there was no way someone the other side of the country liked the Power Rangers so much they got invited to prom.

Zack scoffed.  “No,” he said. “Speak for yourself; I'll totally go to someone's prom with them.”

“Uh, I won't,” Billy said.  “I don't think I'd function well in a prom environment.”

“Just say you're going with me,” Jason told him.

“Remember the pass the buck rule,” Kim said.  “If anyone asks you something you don't want or don't know how to answer, just say you have to check with your team leader.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot,” Jason added.  “What am I supposed to say?”

“Say we have to vote,” Trini advised him.

“Some of the cast respond to difficult questions by saying they're not allowed to answer,” Rai offered.  “With kids, they'll say there’s a magical reason, but with adults they sometimes just say the resort won't let them, and that's enough.”

“See?” Kim said.  “Other people use pass the buck too.  Totally a legitimate PR strategy.”

“It is,” Rai agreed.  “If you encounter a difficult guest, aren’t sure how to handle a situation, or otherwise need logistical assistance like needing to sit down or get out of sight, put one hand on the back of your neck or on your chest over your heart.

“Yes,” she added, and Jason didn’t have to turn around to know that Billy was testing both of the signals.  When he looked, though, he saw Trini doing it too. Which was kind of useful, since the gestures looked different on short people than they did on tall people.  “Just like that. We have people all over the grounds and they’ll be looking for signals like that.

“If you encounter someone violent or threatening,” she continued, “put both hands up in the air like you’re trying to calm someone down, and security will arrive to assist you.  Discreetly; you don’t have to worry that you’re calling down armed officers in the middle of the plaza.”

“Although armed officers are on call,” Elena remarked.  “If necessary.”

“To be fair,” Jason said, “we’re probably more frightening than anything people usually ask you to deal with.”

Rai looked nonplussed by that, but he saw Elena smile.  “From what I’ve heard about your regional activity in California, that’s probably true.  We saw you at Canberra, though, and your friends at the ESA headquarters in Paris. It looks like you know what you’re doing.”

Jason had to keep himself from answering so that it wouldn’t be obvious he was trying not to laugh.  He was quiet so long that it was Kim who replied, “That’s very nice of you to say. We’re trying our best.”

“We’ve been very impressed by the Rangers of Earth,” Andros said unexpectedly.  “The hospitality of your planet and the competence of your team has brought a lot of positive attention from the intergalactic community.  We consider ourselves lucky to be here.”

“Hey,” Zack said, and Jason knew he was going to have to say something eventually.  “We’re lucky to have your guidance. Thanks for everything you’ve taught us.”

“It’s our privilege,” Andros said, and he sounded like he was completely serious.  Jason wanted to learn how to say things like that with a straight face. “We’ll stand with your planet whenever you need us.”

“It’s good to have friends,” Jason managed at last, and it sounded a little rough but he’d never meant anything more.  “Out there, and here at home.”

“Yeah,” Rai said with a pleased smile.  Jason could tell she really meant it when she said, “You’ve definitely come to the right place.”

A Disney believer, Jason thought, and no way was that his thought.  Kim was his best guess. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the unexpectedly directionless telepathy.  He was just starting to get used to knowing more about what people thought than just what they said, but it made the random sourceless thoughts more obvious.

“Glad to be here,” Jason said again, because it seemed like something no one could argue with.

“All right,” Rai said, looking around at all of them again.  “Are you ready to go out? I’ll be with you, directing you around the fountains and then in front of them, and I’ll stay nearby afterwards in case you need anything.  I have pens and markers, and I can take pictures if you need someone.”

Jason looked around too, and this time he got nods, with a thumbs up from Zack and an okay sign from Kim.  “We’re good,” he said. “We’ll follow you out.”

“Remember to let someone know if you need to exit a situation,” Elena said.  “You can always come back in here if you need to be out of sight.”

“Thank you,” Jason said.  He wondered what she expected to happen.

Rai led them out, which Jason got the feeling wasn’t typical as they did it.  Apparently most guests liked to have the whole spotlight to themselves. He got that, he'd seen it all the time on the field, but whatever Elena said they still had no idea what they were doing.  Jason wasn’t going first unless he had to.

The other side of the door was much less intimidating than he’d expected.  It was literally just a big outdoor plaza with some fountains in it. There were people, sure, but they weren’t a mob.  They weren’t really even a crowd. It was just the kind of steady foot traffic that any local fair saw at the end of the day as the lights came on and the bands started up.

There was a bunch of people on one side of the fountains, and when Rai led them up a ramp on the other side he realized that was probably their audience.  It was a large space, but it didn’t look like that many people. And they weren’t making noise.

He wasn't used to calm spectators.

On the other hand, it made the whole picture taking experience feel very laid back.  Even Billy seemed enthusiastic about talking to people afterwards. There were more of them by then: cameras always got people’s attention, and it was almost dinnertime.  Probably a lot of people who’d been at an amusement park all day were ready to sit down and watch someone else’s entertainment.

Jason hadn’t expected to be any good at the “talking to people” part of their photo op, but it was strangely less awkward than he’d imagined.  Shuffling around for pictures at the fountain was slow and funny, since no one could see their expressions and he knew they were all making faces.  They could talk quietly over their helmet comms and keep it under the sound of the water, which meant that Zack and Zhane captioned every pose and Kim got everyone’s attention when they were distracted.

It probably made them look like they were more capable than they were, and Jason was going to tell her that later.  For someone who was running their social media as a fake “younger sibling,” Kim was exactly the opposite when they had to interact with the public in person.  There was no question she was their PR manager.

The cameras never actually went away, but when Rai told them they were free to talk to guests Jason assumed the picture taking was over.  He was wrong on every level: the people waiting to talk to them wanted their own pictures, and it turned out Disney switched to taking candid photos when they stopped posing for shots.  Jason wondered if Kim or Billy actually knew what all of those pictures were going to be used for.

Billy was unexpectedly good at talking to kids, and Jason felt like he should have known that.  Kids loved his complete focus and serious, literal replies to every question they asked. Jason kept forgetting to answer questions while he tried to hear what Billy was saying.

He had no idea how long they’d been hanging around, making faces no one would see in selfies and signing kids’ autograph books, when Trini sidled up next to him and said, “Message for you from the Kerova System.”

It said something about how distracted he was that he didn’t get it right away.  “Problem?” he asked. Who in the entire universe would want to talk to him instead of Andros?  Especially if it was from Andros’ home planet?

“No,” Trini said.  “Just a message. We’re getting the whole team together to listen.”

That made no sense to him until he actually looked at her and realized it wasn’t supposed to make sense to him.  It was supposed to make sense to the family he was talking to.

“Right,” Jason said quickly, wondering what time it was.  “I’m sorry,” he added, turning his head so the family would know he was talking to them.  “I have to go. It was so nice to meet you.”

“Can we have a picture with both of you?” one of the kids asked.

Jason didn’t know what Trini’s expression looked like, but the two of them ended up hugging two kids who honestly weren’t that much younger than them while their parent took a picture.  Trini put a hand on his arm afterward, and he let her steer him back around the fountains. He was farther away from them than he'd thought, but he didn't have much time to notice before he realized she was aiming for Billy.

“Come on, Blue,” Trini called loudly as they approached.  “Time's up. Important intergalactic call; we have to take this.”

“Yes, I have to go,” Billy was saying.  “Because there's an important call. But your question is important too, so you should write it down and ask your parent or other guardian to post it on our official account.  I mean, someone else maintains that for us, but they can definitely send your question to me and then I'll answer it. How's that?”

Jason could hear the parent or other guardian saying that would be fine, that was very considerate, but mostly he was watching Billy do the thing where he moved around to keep his body from feeling weird.  He’d probably been standing out here talking to people he didn’t know for way too long.

“Hey,” Jason said quietly, when Billy pulled himself away and walked over to them like he was totally calm and unworried.  “You okay? You look…” He couldn’t think of a nice way to put it, so he went with, “Uncomfortable.”

“I don’t want to be here anymore,” Billy said, but he said it under his breath and probably no one except Jason and Trini could hear him without the comms.  “But I recognize that acting like unthreatening human beings is important to the Power Rangers’ image, and Kim says this is the friendliest crowd we’ll ever get, so I’m trying to establish myself as an accessible figure now so that later I don’t have to do it as much.”

That made Jason smile.  Sometimes the way Billy acted made it possible to forget, just for half a second, that he was better at prioritizing than any of them.  He could run a dozen possible scenarios in his head and consider all the consequences, to the point where it seemed like he could predict the future.  It was way more subtlety than most people expected from his frankness and open insistence on comfort.

“Good idea,” Trini was saying.  “I should have thought of that. Oh wait, I did.  For all future meet and greet appearances, not it.”

Billy got it before Jason did, and that was weird.  “Not it,” Billy agreed immediately, and he actually put his finger on the side of his helmet where his nose would be.

Jason laughed.  “Really?” he said, and Trini’s hand was still on his arm.  He wanted to reach out and take Billy’s hand too, but that would probably be weird.  “This is how we’re going to decide media appearances from now on? Whoever doesn’t complain the longest gets to do them?”

“No,” Trini said.  “You and Kim get to do them forever, end of story.”

“Well,” Billy said.  “Technically we haven’t seen Zack rule himself out yet.”

“No,” Trini repeated.  “I’m ruling him out. He told someone he wanted to climb the Epcot ball, and then he got in a jumping competition with one of the kids that ended with him balancing on the fountain railing.  Which was funny, not gonna lie, but Kim told him to get down so I have to pretend I disapprove.”

“Oh, you support Kim one hundred percent now?” Jason asked.  “Does that mean I only have to ask her opinion on things?”

“I support Kim one hundred percent as long as she doesn’t say anything stupid or do anything that makes her unhappy,” Trini said without hesitation.

“That doesn’t sound well thought out,” Billy remarked, and to Jason’s surprise Trini just shrugged.

“That’s what I have you for,” she said, and now Jason knew where Billy got “not it” from.

“Did Zack actually do anything that will get us in trouble?” Jason wanted to know.  “Is that why we’re leaving?”

“We’re leaving because our hour’s up,” Trini said.  “Way more than up, actually. It’s past six.”

“I’m worried that you didn’t answer the question,” Jason told her.

Trini shrugged again.  “He did a lot of things that are against the rules, but probably nothing that will get us banned from the park.  Maybe not invited back, but not kicked out. As long as Kim sees everything she wants to see this time, there are plenty of other parks in the world.”

Jason tried not to smile.  “I’m not sure that’s the best way to make friends and look responsible,” he said.

“Oh, is that what we’re trying to do?” Trini countered.  “You picked the wrong team.”

“I picked the best team,” Jason said.  “With the possible exception of my sister.”

Trini made a sound that could have been a laugh but was mostly agreement.  “Yeah, we all make bad calls.”

Javan was looking at them oddly, and only when Jason turned his head did he realize Javan shouldn’t be there.  Billy was looking at them oddly, but he had definitely seen Javan out of the corner of his eye. Jason stopped where he was and turned around, scanning everyone as thoroughly as he could.

Non-human, he thought.  Look for Eltaran, look for low body temperature, look for thick skin and no perspiration.  His visor complied, sorting everyone he could see onto a continuum of human normal. Nothing alien that it could pick out in the immediate vicinity.

“Jason,” Trini said under her breath.  “We need to keep walking or people are going to start talking to us again.”

“Are you okay?” Billy asked, as soon as she’d stopped speaking.  “You didn’t pick this team, and you didn’t pick Pearl.”

“Yeah,” Jason muttered, and he reached for Billy’s hand because what the hell.  It was better than having some kind of nervous breakdown in the middle of a crowded tourist spot.  “Zordon picked Ileana and Rita, and I just saw Javan when I was looking at you.”

“Great,” Trini said.  “That’s a whole other level of hallucination I’m not looking forward to.”

“I’m not--”  Jason looked over his shoulder again, but he started walking and he let them bracket him so he couldn’t pull them off course.  “I’m not sure it was Billy.”

“It wasn’t me,” Billy said.  “If you saw Javan. I’m not Javan.”

“It was you,” Trini said.  “He’s just seeing the people who had the Power before us instead of us.  I was thinking of Rita when I said we all make bad choices.”

Jason knew how much it cost her to admit that, but she seemed more comfortable with Billy than she was with him.  She was probably more comfortable with all of them than she was with him, awkward memories of the last team aside.  So he didn’t argue, but he did wonder why Javan.

“Hi,” Kim said, coming up on Billy’s other side with Andros and Zack in tow.  “Ready to hear what our alien friends have to say?”

“Sure,” Jason agreed, because that was obviously the right response.  “Thanks for spreading the word.”

“Well, Zhane offered to go talk to them while we rounded everyone up,” Kim said.  “Andros says they’ll understand the wait.”

“Andros probably makes them wait more than we do,” Trini said, and Jason looked at her in surprise.

“Yeah, of course,” Andros said.  He didn’t sound like he was joking.  “They’re my people; if I let them think they could call me any time they’d never stop.”

Trini got the door this time, stepping back to hold it open for all of them.  When Jason reached out to grab the door over her head, though, she ducked under his arm without a word of complaint.  Almost like they’d planned it, he thought. Or like they were so used to working together that they didn’t have to.

He looked back before he stepped inside, and he was sure he saw Javan and Ileana on the other side of the fountains.  Just leaning on the railing, looking at the water. Talking.

His visor agreed there was someone there, at least, but both figures were unmistakably human.  Trini was right. He must be hallucinating people he’d seen in the past in place of people who were actually there.

Which he’d done before, right?  That’s what happened with the rest of the team.  When he and Trini talked like they were Zordon and Ileana, they were still them.  They were still real people, still Jason and Trini: they just saw shadows of people the coins used to know.

“You okay?” Kim asked, when he came in and closed the door behind him.

“Yeah,” Jason said.  “Just thought I saw someone we know.”

Kim glanced around, marking Elena and Cat and two people with cameras who were talking to Billy.  “Someone we should be looking for?” she said casually, but Jason got the message. He wasn’t going to do this here anyway.

“No,” he said.  “No problem. Is there really a message from the Kerova System?”

“Yes,” Zhane called, from the other side of the room.  “It’s from me. It says, wow, the people of Earth are really great.  I’d like to see what they can do with a roller coaster.”

“Thanks for touring with us!” Kim called back.  “We appreciate your alien representation!”

Then, to Jason, but still loud enough that everyone could hear, she said, “It’s getting late, and it’s been a long day.  We need to get everyone some food.”

He knew a cue when he heard one, so he nodded.  “Right,” he said. “Dinner it is.” He looked over and found Elena watching them, maybe waiting for them to stop talking, but he took advantage of the moment.  “I’m afraid we need to keep moving. Is there anything else we can do for you before we go?”

“Did you get everything you need?” Kim added, right behind him.  “We really appreciate your hospitality.”

“We appreciate your appearance,” Elena replied.  “Thank you so much for coming; I think everyone was happy to see you and I hope you enjoyed the experience too.”

“Who doesn’t want to appear at Disney World?” Kim said with a smile in her voice.  “It was great. I loved the kids.”

“I liked that they thought we were all aliens,” Trini said.

“Yeah, that was my favorite part too,” Zack agreed.  “I’m so much cooler when I’m talking to kids who think I’m from outer space.”

“It’s a low bar,” Trini told him.

“Oh, that hurts,” Zack said with a laugh.  “See if I agree you’re a princess again anytime soon!”

“There were a lot of prince and princess comments,” Zhane said.  “Is that typical here, that your royalty are soldiers?”

“No,” Kim said.  “That’s a Disney thing.”

“It’s actually not typical in Disney movies either,” Billy offered.  “I don’t know why they applied that association to us.”

“It wasn’t the fact that we’re soldiers,” Kim said.  “It’s the fact that we’re at Disney World, where everyone is royalty.”

“Oh,” Billy said.  “It’s being here, not being Power Rangers.”

Kim pointed at him.  “You got it.

“Elena,” she added, “Thank you so much for organizing our parking and our transportation, and all of this.  Do you want us to ride back to our ship, or walk?”

“Oh, we have a car for you,” Elena said.  “It’ll meet you at the gate. Let me give you all of your passes before you go.  Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat here? We can have food brought in, or we can provide a private location for you to change so you don’t have to go back to your ship first.”

“Oh, thanks!” Kim said, like she hadn’t expected any of that.  “We do have to check in with the ship, though, so we’ll go there first and then vote on dinner.  We’ll need passes to get back in, right?”

“Yes,” Elena said, setting her tablet down for the first time since they’d met her and sweeping a stack of envelopes off the table in its place.  “Here, each of these has a family pack of parkhopper passes, good for the next 10 days, and there’s a photo key in there as well that we’ll link to the publicity pictures so you can see them.”

She was handing them out as she talked, to Zhane and Billy and Andros, then Zack and Trini as she said, “The passes are connected to a VIP account pool that’s deliberately anonymized, so we’ll have a record of how many were used and where, but not what time of day or by whom.  You’ll be asked for your fingerprint the first time you use them, but that’s only to activate the card: it isn’t stored or matched to any record other than the physical card.”

Elena handed an envelope to Kim and then the last one to him, adding, “I know you said you didn’t want to be paid, so there’s a thousand dollar credit line for food and souvenirs attached to each pass, good anywhere in any of our parks or resort hotels.  Consider it a thank you gift for your appearance.”

“Thank you,” Jason said automatically.  

“Thank you so much,” Kim added.  “We had a great time, and we’ll make sure to represent Disney well to all our alien friends.”

Jason almost laughed, and it did make Elena smile, but she might have been serious when she said, “Thank you.  I know the resort will appreciate it.”

There was a pause, so Jason held out his free hand and said, “Thank you again.”

“Of course,” Elena replied, shaking his hand.  “Thank you. I’ll walk you out to the gate if you like, and please call me if there’s anything else we can do for you.”

They were absolutely playing the “you hang up first, no you” game with thank yous, and that wasn’t Jason’s thought but he didn’t care.  He thought “thank you” at everyone who might or might not be able to hear him, and Kim patted his shoulder. It probably looked to Elena like she was trying to move him along, which was fine with Jason.

Cat came with them this time, and they passed Rai on the way out, which led to another round of “thank you” and “thanks for the pictures!”  Rai said the kids loved them, which made Zack lift his fist proudly, and Kim said without hesitation, “We’ll make sure he’s better behaved next time.”

“I doubt that,” Jason said without thinking, and Zack clapped him on the shoulder instead of complaining.  He guessed in retrospect that it might sound like a statement of solidarity instead of an insult. He hoped so, anyway.  It was really hard to break that habit with Zack.

“It wasn’t just the kids,” Elena said, as they continued toward the gate.  “I think adults appreciated a chance to interact with other adults.”

If only they knew, Jason thought.

“Instead of people dressed up for the kids?” Kim said.  “Yeah, that makes sense. You have guests here a lot, don’t you?  I mean, non-character guests?”

“Not as often as I’d like,” Elena admitted.  “Epcot Center is intended to be a more grown-up Disney park, but most adults don’t come to Disney World to leave their kids at home.  That’s why we have Kidcot, and we make sure to have characters all around the World Showcase. We do invite guests here, but we have more cast shows than anything else.”

Wow, Jason thought.  Did she just complain about something Disney did?  She’d be the first one all afternoon, unless he counted Cat’s dismissive attitude.

“Well, we’re probably somewhere in between real people and characters,” Kim said with a smile.  “Makes a nice compromise.”

“It’s funny,” Elena said, and she was smiling too.  “We had a group of first responders here last week, and they said the same thing about their meet and greet.  It’s nice to think some of our real-life heroes can be larger than life too.”

“I feel that way about firefighters every day,” Kim said sincerely.

Yeah, Jason thought.  They’d definitely put the right person in charge of their PR.  And he was officially not buying Kim’s protests that making people feel a certain way wasn’t a superpower.  She was great at it.

He saw a few people taking pictures of them as they walked out of Epcot, but mostly they seemed to blend in as part of the Disney experience.  Given the hero conversation they’d just had, he decided to take it as a compliment. And it wasn’t bad being greeted by another black car that had the door open and waiting for them.

Elena got in the front again, and Jason waited for everyone else to climb in before he followed them.  He saw a golf cart pull up for Cat, and she looked totally normal swinging in next to the driver. She could have been any employee at all.  Maybe that was the real security success at Disney World: being invisible.

It wasn’t until he saw the tram stopped at the edge of their mostly empty parking lot that he remembered what security was for.  “Hey,” he said, patting Billy’s knee and pointing. “Tourists.”

“Space tourists,” Trini said.

Half the people on the parking tram had gotten out and where standing in front of the half who were still sitting, all of them holding cameras or leaning over the side to see and take pictures of the Dinosaur.  Or the Kerovan fighters in front of it. Probably both.

“They’re not from space,” Zack said.

“Neither are you,” Trini replied, “but you still like it when people think you are.”

“Space tourists it is,” Zack said.  “Hey, how do our real space tourists feel about that?”

“I want to take pictures of them taking pictures,” Zhane said.  “Can someone do that for me?”

“On it,” Kim said, leaning around him with her phone.

“How do you have your phone?” Trini wanted to know.  “Have you had it this whole time?”

“I don’t have my phone,” Kim said.  “This is the official Power Rangers phone.  I’m taking official pictures at the request of our visiting alien dignitaries.”

“He’s a dignitary,” Zhane said.  “I’m not.”

“Yeah, but how are you carrying it?” Trini wanted to know.  “I don’t have pockets. Do you have pockets?”

“You don’t need pockets,” Billy said.  “I mean, I use mine when I’m wearing regular clothes, but Jason just thinks things near him.”

“I do?” Jason said.  “When do I do that?”

“You said you do it with your coin,” Billy said.  “You don’t carry it around with you, it just stays nearby.”

“I do carry the phone,” Kim said.  “But not in my pocket.”

“You can’t fit anything in your pockets,” Trini said.

“Oh, please,” Kim countered.  “You wear drugstore leggings that look like jeans; they don’t even have pockets.”

“Yeah,” Trini said, “which is why I wear a coat and a flannel shirt.  With pockets. And a backpack.”

“Compelling argument,” Kim said.  “But this is way better.” She held out her empty hand, palm up, and put the phone in it.  She closed her fingers around it, turned her hand over, and opened her fingers. Nothing fell out.

When she turned her hand over, it was empty.

“Okay, how did you do that?” Zack demanded.  “There’s no way you’re doing sleight of hand in armor!”

“No, it’s like Billy said, it just stays nearby.”  Kim looked around, to her left and right, but by the time she was looking right she’d already picked up the phone from her left.  “See?”

“Whoa,” Zack said.  “Seriously, how did you do that!”

“Same way the coins work,” Kim insisted.  “How do you not do it? It’s literally the most useful power we have.  I haven’t lost my car keys since I became a Ranger.”

The door opened, and Elena leaned into the frame of light created between the tinted windows.  “Hi,” she said. “I’m sorry about the tram; Cat’s talking to them. Do you want us to drive you right up to the ship?  How close do you want us to get?”

Jason glanced out the window again, but they were close enough.  The tram had stopped at the edge of the lot, but the Dinosaur took up most of it.  The only thing the car could do would be to drive them underneath it, and they probably shouldn’t encourage that.

He knew Trini could look for people around the ship before it took off, but it still sounded like encouraging people to climb under a car while the engine was idling.

“This is fine,” Jason said.  “Probably better not to get too close.”

“They’ll all want pictures of you when you get out,” Elena warned.  “Cat says there’s some people walking over from the other lots, too, so if you stay too long the crowd might get bigger.”

“If we stay, or the ship stays?” Jason asked.  “We can take off and come back without it if it’s in the way.”

“It’s not in the way at all,” Elena said.  “As long as you don’t mind people taking pictures of it.  And they can’t hurt themselves on it, can they? I don’t think our insurance covers injuries caused by parked spaceships.”

“B—hey,” Jason said, nudging Billy’s knee again.  “Blue. Can people hurt themselves on it?”

“Well, arguably humans can find a way to hurt themselves with anything,” Billy said.  “But the ship is sealed, and so far it’s been very careful about human physiology. They won’t be able to get in, and I think we’re probably the only ones who are capable of climbing it without ropes or other equipment.”

“We won’t let anyone with equipment near it,” Elena said.  “We’ll try to keep people away from it altogether, but obviously we’re going to need a more visible perimeter if the parking trams are giving people tours on request.”

She didn’t sound annoyed, but she also didn’t sound amused.  Jason wondered what Cat thought about the tram. They must have expected people to walk over, right?  The ship was sitting in the middle of a parking lot. He’d go look at it too.

“If no one comes in physical contact with it, it won’t hurt them,” Billy said.  “I mean, it probably won’t hurt them even if they do. I don’t think it’s any more dangerous than any other large vehicle.  Probably less, since it doesn’t have a combustion engine or flammable fuel.”

“I think Cat’s going to get some barricades,” Elena said.  “Just normal crowd control, the ones we use for races to corral runners and keep spectators and drivers off the course.  That won’t get in your way, will it?”

“Shouldn’t,” Jason said.  He almost said Trini’s name, but he did better with her than he did with Billy.  “Yellow? Okay to lift off with barricades around the ship?”

“Okay for us,” Trini said.  “Not sure about the barricades.  It depends how close they are.”

“How far back should they be?” Elena asked.  “Do you need any kind of runway to launch?”

“No,” Zack said.  “We can go straight up.  Just don’t put anything directly under the ship and it’ll be fine.”

“Well,” Billy said.  “Nothing will melt, but the displacement of air is significant.”

“We can go slow enough to keep from knocking anything over,” Trini said.  “I’m pretty sure. Like 85% sure.”

“If your liftoff might knock over barricades,” Elena said, “it could knock over people.  Can you give us some warning before you take off so we can make sure the area is clear?”

“Yeah, sure,” Zack said.

“Who should we talk to?” Jason asked.  “You want us to call you, or just let whoever’s out here know?”

“If you could let me know,” Elena said, “I’ll take care of notifying security.”  She wanted to say both, he thought. But she didn’t want to ask that of them.

“You got it,” Jason said.  “We’ll make sure the area’s totally clear before we lift off.”

“We want to make headlines in Disney, not leaving Disney,” Kim added.  “We’ll be careful.”

“Thank you,” Elena said with a smile.  “We appreciate your consideration. We do offer door-to-door service around here; would you like gate-to-spaceship service?  Just tell us where to turn.”

Because the ramp had pulled up and the outside of the spaceship looked uniform to people who hadn’t psychically bonded with it, Jason thought.  Or someone did. She couldn’t tell where they’d come out of it to meet her earlier.

“This is fine,” Jason said.  He glanced at Kim to make sure it was, and then at Andros, who nodded.  “We’ll walk. And we don’t mind a few pictures.”

“Actually,” Kim said.  “Can you come with us and take one for us?  I have a phone.”

“Of course,” Elena said, but Jason got the feeling it was a reflexive agreement.  She didn’t process what they were asking until they’d all climbed out of the car and were waving to the people gathered by the tram.

She followed them then, as soon as Kim waved for her to come with them, and Jason was sure there would be pictures of that on the internet soon too.  Maybe there already were. Maybe someone was live streaming their departure from Epcot.

He reminded himself that no one in the world cared as much about the Power Rangers as California did, and probably people on vacation at Disney World had better things to do than try to figure out who they were.  But he was also knew that Andros and Zhane had gotten the attention of the entire world, so he tried not to take anything for granted. NASA had been very nice to them so far, and the closest they’d come to any other government agency was the NSA phone trace.

On the phone Kim was currently handing to Elena.

It was fine, Jason told himself.  Everyone knew that was the Power Rangers’ phone.  Everyone knew the Power Rangers were at Disney World.  As long as Kim didn’t take the phone off the ship when she wasn’t wearing armor, who would notice?

He found himself in the middle of the group when Zack pushed Trini into him on one side and Kim pulled Billy next to her on the other.  Andros and Zhane crouched down in front of them while Elena took a picture, and Jason remembered the pictures they’d taken from the floating platform on Eltar.  Andros must be doing what they did then.

“Hey,” Jason said, as Elena lowered the phone.  “Just a second. You guys, get in the middle and we’ll all gather around you.  You’re the visitors, right? We should have a picture of us with you instead of just the other way around.”

“Grammatically,” Billy said as Andros and Zhane stood up, “that didn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, I’m known for that,” Jason said.  “Come here.” He put an arm around Billy’s shoulders and added deliberately, “Pink, Yellow?  This is your chance.”

“Our chance for what?” Trini wanted to know.

“Oh, that’s right!”  Kim pushed Zack into the middle with Zhane and then leaned around them to look at Jason and Billy.  “Everyone hug your partner!”

“On it,” Jason said.

“Hey,” Zack complained.

“We’re good,” Zhane said.  “We’re not partner-limiting on KO-35.”

Jason laughed when Billy leaned awkwardly against him, and he didn’t bother to try to see what Kim and Trini were doing.  He figured they’d all be seeing this picture again pretty soon. “Hugging someone in armor isn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” he said.

“You thought about it?” Kim countered.  “That’s adorable.”

“You haven’t tried it before now?” Zhane said.  “Wow, you really are new.”

“Be nice,” Andros said.  “Everyone’s new until the next person.”

“Yeah, which is why we have to make fun of them while we can,” Zhane said.  “It won’t last long.”

“Okay,” Elena said.  “I got some of the ship in the background, but it’s mostly you.  See what you think.”

Kim came forward to take the camera, and she looked through the pictures without showing them to anyone else.  “Those are great,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Are these going to appear on our official account?” Jason wanted to know.  “Because I’d like to see them first.”

“Too late,” Kim told him.  “I’m pretty sure those people by the tram have a good enough zoom to post before me.”

“Post away,” Zack said.  “I’m proud of my alien family!”

“Okay,” Trini said.  “Red, I hold you completely responsible for whatever happens.  Let’s get something to eat before anyone else has any embarrassing ideas.”

“What did I do?” Andros wanted to know.

“Not you,” Zhane told him.  “You’re the worst with names, you know that?”

“I have other skills,” Andros said.

“Wait,” Jason said.  “Should we take a picture with Elena?  Elena, do you get extra points for having a picture with the Power Rangers?  You should get something out of helping us.”

“I get professional recognition for being able to put this on my annual review,” Elena said, but he could see her smiling.  “I wouldn’t turn down a picture, though.”

“Go for it,” Jason told her.

“Everyone get behind Elena,” Kim said.  “Actually, do you want the ship or the Epcot ball in the background?”

“She wants both,” Trini said before Elena could answer.  “We’re all on this side now; everyone hold still. Elena, turn around.”

Elena turned and took a selfie with all of them in the background and the ship behind them, and then they all shuffled in the other direction and did it again with Disney at their backs.  Jason remembered what Saryn had said about having Eltar behind them in their own group picture, and he wondered if Elena would feel the same way. He was pretty ambivalent about Angel Grove himself.

She thanked them again before she left, and he thanked her, and Kim waved at the people watching from a distance while the ramp of the ship came down, so he did too.  He thought the rest of the team was waving when he turned around, but mostly he noticed that they were waiting for him to board first. The leader thing took him by surprise at the weirdest times.

“I think this is the slowest way we’ve ever gotten on the ship,” Zack was saying behind him as they walked inside.  “And that includes the first time.”

“It’s better lit this time,” Trini said.

“And warmer,” Kim added.

“That’s the Florida air,” Zack said.  “Why is it so humid here all the time?”

“It’s a subtropical climate,” Billy said, “bordered by warm ocean waters on three sides.  Florida is the most humid state in the country.”

“I don’t like it,” Zack said.  “But I do like the lack of water restrictions.  Those fountains were great.”

“For jumping in,” Trini said.

“Yeah, don’t do that,” Kim said.  “Probably everyone there took a picture of the Black Ranger leaping up on the fountain architecture, so if you do it as you I don’t think anyone’s going to miss the connection.”

“I admit I didn’t think of that,” Zack said.  “I also didn’t think that’s what you were going to say, and you make an excellent point.  I’ll find something completely new to do as me; how’s that?”

“That’s probably as good as it gets,” Kim said.  

Jason didn’t say anything about not doing stupid things in a theme park, and Zack noticed.  As the ramp withdrew behind them he said, “No warning from our fearless leader?”

“Do you hear me giving one?” Jason countered.

“Why do you think Jason’s going to be the one warning you not to do stupid things?” Trini wanted to know.  “I think it’s going to be Billy if it’s anyone.”

“I’m more likely to refuse to do stupid things myself than I am to ask you not to do them,” Billy said.

“Yeah, I’d think that was true,” Zack told him, “except for the dynamite thing.”

“Did you say the ship was darker the first time you saw it?” Andros asked.

Jason looked at him and Zhane, staring around the Bridge with interest, and he checked the ramp again before he let his armor disappear.  “Yeah,” he said. “We think it was powered down. It took us a while to figure out how to turn everything on again.”

“Jason figured it out,” Kim said.  “I still can’t make it dark when I want to sleep.”

“Or light when we get up in the morning,” Trini added.

“We literally have to wait for Jason to wake up before the lights come on,” Zack said.  “I brought two flashlights this time.”

“Hey Rangers,” a voice called from the circle.  “The ship says you’re back, but I can’t see you.  You should talk to me before you go anywhere; that anonymous check-in thing was a joke but I fixed it.  You’re welcome.”

Jason looked at Billy, who shook his head as his armor disappeared.  “It isn’t the ship,” Billy said. “But it wasn’t just you, so probably not a ghost.  It could be Alpha.”

“Where’s Alpha?” Kim asked.  “I thought he was out sneaking onto rides without us.”

“Oh, I was,” the voice agreed.  A bright light appeared in the middle of the circle, turning into a high school girl with red hair and glasses.  “I’m very efficient; I can do that and cover for all of you at the same time. I can’t decide if it’s cute that Disney PR didn’t check you in themselves or if it’s deliberately malicious.  But you know which one I’d pick if I had to guess one or the other.”

“Deliberately malicious?” Trini said.

“Hi Trini!”  The image of the girl in the circle waved, and it was looking in their general direction but it didn’t seem to focus on Trini more than anyone else.  “I mentioned that I can’t see you, right? I know I did.”

Trini’s armor fell away, and Kim’s went a second later.  Twin flashes of light from Andros and Zhane made them look human again, and Zack took a step forward as he shed his armor, making it look like he was walking out of it.  Jason thought that looked pretty cool. He’d have to try it next time.

“Alpha?” Zack asked.  “Why do you look like a--uh, not like a robot?”

Jason wondered if that was the most tactful Zack had ever been, or if he just didn’t pay attention enough to know.

“Seen a lot of robots walking around Disney World, have you?  Yeah, I’d blend right in. Is the hologram confusing your visual processing?  It’s already compromised enough; I don’t want to overtax your brains. Here. Is this better?”

The red-haired girl vanished, and in her place, a three-dimensional view of Alpha stood in the middle of the circle.  “I switched your hotel,” he said. “And I checked you in. You can teleport directly here if you want to be subtle, although I know that’s not a high priority for any of you.”

Zack had kept walking after he shed his armor, stepping up onto his station and lighting up his section of the circle as he said, “How is teleporting from our spaceship to our booked-by-a-robot hotel room more subtle than walking?  That question shouldn’t be taken as disagreement, by the way.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Alpha said.  “The Power Rangers finish a publicity appearance at Epcot Center, and seven kids walk up to an Epcot-adjacent hotel and check in anonymously half an hour later, that does sound very subtle.  I don’t know why I thought you not being visible at check-in would be better.”

“How did you check us in?” Kim wanted to know.  She walked around to her station and stepped up on it, which made Alpha tip his head back and nod.

“I may not be able to use those new-fangled Eltaran computers,” he said, “but I can still keep up with your stone knives and microchip technology.  I upped your credit lines, by the way. There’s plenty of celebrities here this weekend; no one will notice. Besides I wanted money, so I thought I’d spread it around.”

“Alpha,” Jason said, stepping onto his station.  “Are you in our hotel rooms now?”

“Of course I am,” Alpha said.  “I had to scout them for appropriate views and room service, not to mention teleportation coordinates.”

“Uh, we should be able to get teleportation coordinates from here,” Billy said.  “Unless there’s something different about Disney World that they don’t advertise, some kind of GPS blurring effect like the military uses, except that still shouldn’t affect the Dinosaur.  We’re not using Earth satellites to find things.”

“Yeah, I was joking,” Alpha said.  “I actually just wanted to pick a room for myself, and since I’m more discriminating than any of you, I just gave you all what I picked.  If you don’t like it, complain to the travel agent. Not me.”

“Aren’t you our travel agent?” Trini asked, taking her place at her station.

“Only for a very loose definition of the phrase,” Alpha said.  “I’m more like a concerned party. You said you wouldn’t be able to visit me if everyone knows who you are, so.  I’m making sure no one knows who you are.”

“I’ll visit you,” Billy said, stepping up onto his station.  “Whether people know who I am or not. Which mostly they don’t, but that’s okay.  We all agreed that was politically sound, at least for now.”

“I’ll visit you too,” Kim said.  “Thanks for getting us better hotel rooms.”

“And more money,” Zack said.

“Okay, I’m the last person to tell anyone to be cautious,” Jason said.

“That’s right,” Kim agreed.  “You should be.”

“Well,” Trini said.

“I’m the last person to tell someone to be cautious,” Zack said.

“That’s probably more accurate,” Billy agreed.  “Jason displays an increasing sense of responsibility as he’s become more comfortable with the duties of leadership.”

“The duties of leadership?” Jason repeated.

“Whatever you’ve decided are the duties of leadership,” Billy said.  “You seem to have a lot of plans that you don’t always share with us.  But it’s working out so far.”

“I don’t make any plans,” Jason said.  “If I have duties, someone should tell me.”

“The point is, Jason thinks that teenagers spending a lot of money will get people’s attention,” Kim said.  “It makes us memorable, anyway. We probably want to avoid that.”

“Oh, please,” Alpha said.  “Have you seen how much of this place is for sale?  You could burn through a hundred dollars just having dinner.  And not a fancy dinner, either, I’m talking fish and chips for all of you.  Start walking around the lake; you’ll see. Ten dollars here, fifteen there, you don’t have to spend a lot at once to overdraw a resort credit line.  Especially if you’re going to be here for more than one night.”

“I don’t want to go out tonight,” Billy said.  “So someone can take my pass, if they want. It’s probably less noticeable if you charge half on two cards instead of everything on one.”

“You don’t want to go out?” Zack asked.  “We’re at Disney World. With free money.”

“No,” Billy said.  “I want to eat something and be left alone.  Is that all right?”

“Yeah,” Kim said.  “Of course that’s all right.  Zack.”

“What?” Zack said.  “I’m not judging. You want to take it easy, be my guest.  That’s what vacation is for, right?”

“I’m not sure this technically qualifies as a vacation,” Billy said.  “It’s compensation for an endorsement, and as such, it might count as taxable income.  I should look that up.”

“Disney doesn’t know who they’re paying,” Trini said.

“Well, it’s still a business expense,” Billy said.  “But that’s a good point; we won’t be reported to the IRS if no one knows we’re the ones who received the compensation.”

“I’m going out,” Alpha said.  “I’ll leave your key cards on the on the table; they all have numbers on them so you can figure out where you’re going.  If you can figure out where you’re going. Don’t spend all night arguing over whether you’re supposed to be here or not; life is short.

“Ha ha,” Alpha added.  “Little joke there. Life is long, you should fill it with fun things.  Bye Rangers. See you around the Beach Club.”

Alpha’s image disappeared just as Zhane repeated, “The Beach Club?  I like the sound of that.”

“We’re in the middle of a peninsula,” Andros said.  “There’s no beach.”

“There’s no ocean,” Zhane said.  “Doesn’t mean there’s no beach.”

“Isn’t the Beach Club where we were going to stay originally?” Kim asked.

“No, it was the Yacht Club,” Billy said.  “They said it was more elegant and business-like.  Which definitely indicates a misperception of our identities, but that’s probably not a bad thing considering that we’re trying to maintain a cover.”

“Beach, yacht, whatever,” Zack said.  “I say we drop our things in a room somewhere, get our keys, and go find some food.”

“I say we have someone bring food to us,” Trini said.  “That’s the whole point of being VIPs, that other people do things for you.”

“I’ll bring you food, Crazy Girl.”  Zack swung off his station and added, “But I may have to fight my sister-in-law for the privilege.  Are you two sharing a room, or what?”

“None of your business,” Trini told him.

“Let’s see how big the rooms are first,” Kim said.  “Some of us aren’t great at being alone. We might want to buddy up just for comfort.”

“Or security,” Jason said.

They all looked at him, so he looked at Billy.  Billy just looked curious. “Why do you say that?” he asked.

Jason looked at Trini, who was standing next to her station with her arms folded.  She nodded once.

“I saw Javan and Ileana at Epcot,” he said.  “When we were out by the fountains. Just after Trini came and got me and Billy.”

“That’s when you said you saw someone we knew,” Kim said.

“That was afterwards,” Jason agreed.  “I saw Javan when I was talking to Billy, and maybe that was me getting confused.  But when everyone was inside, and I was the last one in, I looked back at the plaza.  I saw Javan and Ileana at the fountains.”

Zack raised his hand, turning it into a wave when Jason looked at him.  “So when you say security,” he said, and he thought, for us or from us? But he paused long enough that Jason knew he wasn’t going to say it, and Zack finished with, “You think there was really someone there?”

“Look,” Jason said.  “I know I might be going crazy.  I get that, okay? But Rita actually is after us, and I’ve seen Javan a lot today.  Not just when I’m in the circle, and not just when I’m talking to Billy.”

“Rita?” Andros repeated.  “She’s back?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said.  “But someone’s got her coin.”

“And they’re following us,” Zack added.  “They attacked Jason at his house, did he tell you that?”

“Who?” Andros demanded.  “Is there an evil Ranger out there?”

“No,” Jason said.  “Kim grabbed the coin and gave it to my sister.”

“Which in retrospect,” Kim said, “may not have been my best idea.  Rita was Zordon’s sister,” she added, for Andros’ benefit.

“She doesn’t seem evil,” Jason said.  “My sister, I mean. Well, no more than usual.  But the kid who had the coin before her seems kind of messed up, and Javan told me that Rita hypnotized me or something.”

“Wait,” Billy said, at the same moment that Kim and Trini both turned to glare at Jason.  “Javan told you something about Rita? When? Today? When you were talking to someone in the circle that we couldn’t hear, is that when Javan told you?  What did he say?”

“He said Rita wanted me to protect Tommy,” Jason said.  “That’s what we were talking about when I stepped into the circle on the way here.”

“Not very useful,” Trini said.  “Did he say anything else?”

“Just that I already knew it,” Jason said.

“Did you?” Billy wanted to know.  “I mean, we talked about it at your house.  You seemed willing to test it then, which implies a degree of uncertainty.”

“I didn’t know,” Jason said.  “I’m not even sure it’s true. Maybe I imagined the whole thing.”

“You said telepaths could brainwash each other,” Billy said.  “We think Tommy’s been trying to get in your head for days. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that they might have succeeded, and with Rita’s coin in Tommy’s possession at the time, the suspicion of malicious intent has precedent.”

“You probably didn’t imagine it,” Trini said.  “But if you did, that’s still a reason to stick together.”

Jason caught her eye, and he didn’t look at her hands where she was clutching her arms.  He knew her fingers were white. “See any ghosts lately?” he asked.

She hesitated, but he knew, and they would all hear “yes” if she said no anyway.  “All the time,” she said at last.

“Okay,” Kim said.  “So we stick together.”

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “At a fancy Disney resort, with all our food paid for.  Right?”

“Right,” Jason said, because Zack definitely ate less than he did and they shouldn’t be standing around talking about ghosts when they could all be sitting around with food talking about ghosts.  “If we’re going to our rooms first, let’s take our stuff. Who’s good at teleporting?”

“Not you,” Kim said.  “Which is still baffling to me.”

“That’s why I asked,” Jason said.  “I have no idea how to get wherever Alpha was.”

“Is anyone else curious about why Alpha picked a girl hologram?” Zack asked.  “Not that there’s anything wrong with girls, I mean, great choice, right? Just, why?”

“Alpha’s a robot,” Billy said.

When he didn’t continue, Zack said, “Yeah?”

Jason followed Kim up to the back of the Bridge, because no way was he getting involved in a discussion of what Alpha looked like.  Or wanted to look like. Alpha didn’t use a hologram on the ship, so it probably didn’t matter to him one way or the other. He’d probably picked the redhead at random.

“So it’s possible that gender wasn’t a consideration,” Billy said.  “Or, if it was, it might be more about how other people at Disney World react to it than it is about an identity Alpha chose in order to reflect personal preference.”

“People are nicer to girls,” Zack said.

Trini scoffed.  “I wish.”

“Being nice and being respectful aren’t the same thing,” Kim said.  “Little cheerleading lesson there. You’re welcome.”

“Respect doesn’t keep you warm at night,” Zack said.

“Niceness doesn’t get you personal autonomy or a decent salary,” Kim said.  “I’ll take the respect, all things considered.”

“I’d like both,” Billy said.  “Are we treating them as mutually exclusive solely to illustrate a difference in gender experience?”

“Yes,” Kim said.  “I want both too.”

“Me too,” Zack agreed.

Trini was right next to him when he turned around, so Jason saw her sign, “Same,” and he smiled.

Echoing the sign, he saw Andros do it too.

“Okay,” Zhane said, looking around at all of them.  “But food, too, right? And roller coasters? Respect, niceness, food, and roller coasters.  I think that’s a fair wish list.”

“Let’s see what we can do,” Jason agreed, lifting his backpack onto his shoulders.

Chapter Text

Everyone except Andros, Zhane, and Jason teleported themselves.  Andros and Zhane let Kim send them, for the experience Zhane said, and Jason asked Billy to do it for him.  Billy seemed surprised that Jason asked, but Jason figured he could get to the ship in an emergency and the ship would probably help him if he ever got stuck on his own.

They all landed in the same room, which Jason assumed was intentional.  The first thing Trini did was drop her bag, pick up something from the table and sit down on the couch.  “Do what you want,” she announced. “I'm ordering food.”

“Ooh,” Billy said, which made Jason smile.  “Me too. I also want to order food.”

Trini patted the couch beside her without looking up, and Billy sat down to look over her shoulder.  It was less awkward than he looked sitting next to some people, Jason thought. He didn't lean into her, but he didn't seem like he was avoiding contact either.

“Am I the only one who wants to go out?” Zack asked.

“No,” Kim called from somewhere out of sight.  Jason turned around, but there were doors everywhere.  She leaned around one of them a moment later. “I want to go out for food, and fireworks, and maybe rides with aliens if they want company.”

“Are fireworks an option?” Zack asked.  “And of course they want company, why else are they here.  Does this door open?”

“Why do you call it a room if it’s really a bunch of rooms altogether?” Andros asked, coming through the door Kim had just looked through.  

Zhane came through the door across from him, and he shrugged.  “Faster?” he suggested. “Someone didn’t like plurals? Saves a lot of letters over the years?”

“It’s a suite of rooms,” Kim said, following Andros back into the main living space.  “We called it a room because we didn’t know how nice it was.”

“Lots of rooms are better than one,” Zhane agreed.  “And we definitely want company; how else will we know where to go?”

“How will we know where to go?” Zack asked.  “I think we’re all gonna have to follow Kim.”

“Should I stay here?” Jason asked.

Zack gave him a confused look.  “No? Why would you stay here? We’re at Disney World.”

“Because Billy and Trini are staying here,” Kim said.  “He’s doing his leader thing.”

“Uh, no,” Jason said.  “I was trying to do the boyfriend thing, actually?”

Billy looked up when Trini nudged him.  “I think that’s for you,” she muttered.

“What?” Billy said.  “Are you doing something for me?”

“Are you staying here?” Jason asked.  “While Zack and Kim and Andros and Zhane get food?”

“Yes,” Billy said, looking at Trini and then back at him.  “Because we’ll already have food. Once the food arrives. Which it won’t until we call someone and ask for it, but we’re going to do that as soon as we decide what we want.  There are two choices; I haven’t picked one yet.”

“There are only two choices in that whole menu?” Kim asked.  “What’s the rest of it for? Drinks?”

“There are two choices I like,” Billy told her.  “Which is pretty good, really. I like to eat familiar things, and most restaurants promote things that are new and exciting.  I don’t think new food is exciting, at least as far as exciting means good.”

“Oh,” Zhane said, “you and Andros should get along great.  He hates new things.”

“I don’t hate new things,” Andros said, but he said it like he was telling the rest of them, not actually contradicting Zhane.

“You’re here,” Zack said.  “That’s new.”

“And I don’t hate it,” Andros agreed.  “Just because I don’t think your new interpretation of old things is always completely accurate or even slightly safe, that doesn’t mean I hate all new things.”

Zhane didn’t argue, and Andros didn’t seem to expect him to.  Jason was so distracted by the sudden silence from Zhane that he forgot what they were talking about.  Zhane was… he seemed different, suddenly. Less enthusiastic. More tired.

“We’re both eating here,” Trini said.  “Then I’m going to spend the rest of the evening enjoying the fact that there are no brothers or parents within shouting distance, so I can listen to the sound of quiet without having to put on noise-canceling headphones.”

“And that’s why I’m going out,” Kim said.  “Because we have a healthy relationship that knows when it needs space.  Mostly because we tell each other.”

“I need space,” Trini told her.

“I need to go be around people and watch fireworks,” Kim said.  “See? We’re great at this.”

“I need a drink,” Zhane announced.  “Is that a thing you do around here?  Mind-altering substances that make the world less loud?”

“Yeah,” Zack said.

“No,” Jason said.  “There’s an age limit; we’re too young to legally drink.”

“You think Alpha put our real ages when he checked us in?” Zack asked.  Not like a challenge, more like a real question.

“No,” Trini said.  “Do I think he made us older, or younger?  Tossup.”

“Older,” Kim said.  “Check-in age is 21.  For sure at least one of us can order drinks.”

“You know what else makes the world less loud,” Andros said.  “Going somewhere quiet.”

“That amusement park wasn’t quiet,” Zhane said.

“And we’re not in an amusement park right now,” Andros said.  “I don’t see anyone here insisting we go back.”

“You want to,” Zhane said.

“You want to,” Andros countered.  “I couldn’t care less. I do care about you, and I know you want to see everything, but it’s not worth being miserable tomorrow.”

“Sure it is,” Zhane said.  “Having fun is always worth a certain amount of misery.”

“But consider this,” Trini said.  “Having fun without the misery.”

“Did you just say ‘but consider this’ in Eltaran?” Kim asked.  “Because I loved you before, but now I really love you.”

“Great,” Trini said.  “Good to know the translation of memes does it for you.”

“Aw,” Zack said.  “I didn’t know we were at the casual ‘I love you’ stage; when did that happen?  Also, how long have we been speaking Eltaran?”

“Pretty much this whole time,” Trini said.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Zack told her.

“I think I did,” she said.

“That one,” Billy said, and Trini pointed silently.  He nodded.

“Does anyone else want food,” Trini said.  “Before I order, and choose wisely, because no you can not eat our dinners.”

“Do you think they would?” Billy asked, looking around the room.  Before she could answer he added, “Yes, I think they would too. We should order two of everything.”

“Like a decoy meal?” Trini said.  “I like it. Good call.”

“Zhane wants food,” Andros said.  “And so do I. Can you choose something for us?”

“You don’t want to choose your own?” Trini said, turning the binder around.  “There are pictures.”

“We’re going out,” Zhane reminded him.

“Maybe,” Andros replied.  “And no, thanks, but we still have no idea what we’re eating on Earth.  We trust you.”

“Billy,” Trini said.  “What would you order for Andros?”

“Uh, the same thing I ordered for me?” Billy said.

“Yeah, okay,” Trini said.  “Zack, what would you order for Zhane?”

“Chicken soup and pizza,” Zack said.

Trini looked back at him.  “Really?”

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “Can you actually get that here?”

Trini turned the pages, but she was obviously looking for something in particular.  “Sure,” she said. “There’s a whole comfort food section.”

“And a kids’ page,” Billy added.  “Those are my two preferred menus.”

“Okay,” Trini said, reaching for the phone.  “Everyone be quiet.”

The phone must have had a “room service” button, because she only pushed one button before she said, “Hi, I’d like to order dinner for four.”

“So I’m not staying,” Jason said.

“Doesn’t look that way,” Kim said.  “Come on rides with me and Zack. We can get food to go and stand in line with it; it’ll be fun.”

“I think you’re missing the fun part of ‘fun,’” Zack told her.

“I want to go on rides,” Zhane said.  “Why are we eating dinner here, again?”

“Because you want to go on rides,” Andros said.  “Not look for rides, or stand in line, or listen to a language your translator hasn’t figured out yet for the rest of the night.  And because I want to eat here.”

“Oh,” Zhane said.  “Why didn’t you just say so?”

Andros rolled his eyes, and Jason glanced over at Billy.  Billy caught his eye, but he made a shushing motion, so Jason waited until Trini hung up.

“Nice work,” she said, leaning sideways again to replace the phone.  “You're less than half the average volume of my family.”

“We're half the average volume of your mom alone,” Kim said.

“Billy,” Jason said.  “Do you want company for dinner?”

“Not really,” Billy said.  “Although I don't object. Trini is an excellent conversationalist.”

“Really?” Kim said.

“Consider the source,” Trini told her.  She looked sideways at Billy and added, “No offense.”

“Justified,” Billy agreed.

“Jason’s asking if you want to eat dinner with him,” Trini said.  “By the way.”

“Oh,” Billy said, looking up again.  “Yes, conceptually speaking. I want to have dinner with you.  But practically speaking, tonight, I’m not sure our dinner plans are compatible.”

“They could be,” Jason offered.  “I can stay here and hang out with you, if you want.”

“Do you want to?” Billy asked.  “I mean, you can if you want. But I really just want to be alone, and I’d feel guilty if I made you miss something you’re looking forward to, so you staying doesn’t have much to recommend it.”

“Wow,” Zack said.  “Brutal.”

“Honest,” Jason said.  And it was. He’d asked a question, and Billy had answered it.  What else mattered? “Thanks, Billy.”

“Was that rude?” Billy asked.  He looked at Trini when Jason shook his head, and Jason didn’t know how he felt about that.  Billy didn’t mind spending time with Trini even when he said he wanted to be alone, but Jason’s company didn’t have much to recommend it?

“Yeah,” Trini said.  “It’s okay; they love us anyway.”

“That’s true,” Kim said.  “And we talk about you way more than you talk about us, just so you know.”

“That’s what you think,” Trini told her.

Kim laughed, flopping down on the couch beside Trini just so she could turn her head and kiss her.  Trini obviously saw it coming, because she looked over at exactly the right moment. Jason wasn’t sure if it was more awkward to stare at them or to obviously look away.

He went with looking away and caught Zack staring.  Andros and Zhane were paying no attention, and it was funny how actually not caring looked compared with pretending not to care.  Andros leaned over and took the menu while the two of them were kissing, and he actually glanced at them and waved it, like he was saying thank you even when they weren’t watching.

“It will teach us the names of things,” he told Zhane.  “Well, me. I’ll read them out loud. Any translator improvement?”

“A little better than fifty-fifty,” Zhane said.  “It’s getting there.”

“Okay,” Kim said, leaning against the back of the couch and putting her arms over her head.  “Since you have food coming and we don’t, I feel like we should leave you here. But the couch is a pretty good counter argument.”

“Nice, isn’t it,” Trini said.  “And it’s probably a pull-out, which makes that even more impressive.”

“You know what I like,” Zack said.  “The fact that on a day when Trini has been impressed not once, but twice, and a day that also includes Disney World, these two things don’t overlap at all.”

“Disney World isn’t impressive,” Trini said.

Kim sighed, pushing herself back into a sitting position.  “It kind of is,” she said. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

“Don’t forget your keys,” Billy said.  “Actually, whose room is this? Should we split our stuff up now so we can find things later?”

Without waking people up, he meant.

“Why?” Kim wanted to know.  “You know we’re all going to sleep here anyway.  Not pretending will save us a lot of trouble looking for clothes later.”

“Oh,” Billy said.  “Are we all going to sleep here?  On the furniture or on the floor?”

“On the beds,” Zack said.  “There’s at least three, maybe four if Crazy Girl is right about that couch.”

“That doesn’t seem like enough for seven people,” Billy said.

“Might be okay for five, though,” Zack said.  “Not that I’m pressuring anyone to share! Share, don’t share, fine by me.”

“You don’t expect Zhane and Andros to sleep with us,” Billy said.  “I guess that’s a reasonable assumption, given than they never have before and the reasons Jason gave for sticking together were relatively team-specific.”

“No, evil Rangers aren’t team specific,” Andros said.  “I mean, technically, but they threaten everyone.”

“I think what Andros means is, we’d be happy to sleep with you,” Zhane interrupted.  “And I’ll share with anyone.”

“He won’t,” Andros told them.  “Not and actually be able to sleep.”

“Why are you deliberately making me seem less fun,” Zhane complained.  “I don’t need sleep. That’s not what this joke is about.”

“It’s because I’m not a fun person,” Andros said.  “And also because I’m hoping someone will still want to show us around tomorrow, and that’s slightly more likely if we don’t confuse or otherwise concern them tonight.”

“Confused or otherwise concerned is our natural state of being,” Zack said.  “And I for one will be happy to go with you tomorrow. I can’t make any promises on the showing you around part, but between the three of us I think we can figure out where we’re allowed to go and where we’re not.”

“It’s not whether you can figure it out or not that I question,” Kim said.  “It’s whether or not you’ll care.”

“We’ll try not to get kicked out until the last day,” Zack told her.

KIm considered that, then shrugged.  “Seems legit,” she said. “Also, you’re welcome to come with me and Trini and her brothers if you want.  They picked Animal Kingdom as their park, so we’ll be following Jason and Billy from a distance.”

“I’m game,” Zack said.  “I love those kids. But someone dared me to compare some roller coasters, and unless one of them’s in Epcot, I have to do them both tomorrow.”

“One of them’s in Animal Kingdom,” Kim said.  “Go to Magic Kingdom, do Space Mountain first thing, then come back and get in line for Everest at Animal Kingdom.  I’ll make you a schedule so you get the shortest lines.”

“Space Mountain?” Zhane said.

“Tomorrow,” Andros said.

“Definitely tomorrow,” Zack agreed.  “And definitely the shortest lines. Thanks, Kim P.”

“Anytime,” she said, and it made Jason think of Elena.  Would she check up on their hotel rooms or their pass use?  Would she be surprised if she did? She must have their email, or someone’s email, so they’d probably hear about it if she was.

“Don’t thank her until you see how early you have to get up,” Trini said.

“Hey,” Zack told her.  “I get up early. I see you out there before school.”

She held up her hands like she was surrendering, and Jason suddenly saw it.  Zack reacted defensively to all of them. Even Trini. But she recognized it, and she didn’t fight with him about it, and that was why she and Zack got along when Jason and Zack didn’t.

“I’m not planning to get up early,” Jason said.  “Just in case anyone has any ideas.”

“Oh, I do,” Billy said.  “The Pandora rides have the longest lines in all of Disney World, so I was going to get there before the park opens in order to most efficiently use my time.  I thought you might want to come, but of course you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Do you want me to come?” Jason asked.  He’d planned to spend Saturday with Billy, but if Billy didn’t want him to, maybe he should rethink that.

“Well, yes,” Billy said.  “The flight-based ride is supposed to represent their entire world, and it’s very well-reviewed.  I think you’ll like it. And I’ll like having you there to talk to and take some of the attention and remind me when I should calm down about things.  It’s very useful. And I like being with you, of course.”

“Social tip,” Trini said.  “Lead with that. They like that.”

“Oh my gosh,” Kim said.  “You really do talk about us!”

“Only good things,” Trini said, but she didn’t sound very reassuring.  She sounded, if Jason had to guess, a little sarcastic.

“Right, I’m sure,” Kim said.  She clearly agreed about the sarcasm.  “Okay, let’s go before I learn more about what I don’t want to know.  Jason, get up early tomorrow. Don’t worry, we’ll all be doing it; it’ll be like Eltar all over again.”

“Getting up early it is,” Jason agreed.  “What about going to bed early?”

“Probably a lost cause,” Kim told him.  “But this is Disney World. It’s a magical place.”

“Sure,” Jason said, then added, “We’ll see about that.”

“Don’t make it unmagical,” Kim told him.  “There’s a lot of kids still here. They’re having the time of their lives; don’t mess it up with thinking angrily about the ship or sadly about who-knows-what.”

“I won’t say it,” Jason said.  “How’s that.”

“All I can ask,” Kim said.  “Well, that and food.”

“I’m ready,” Jason said.

“I’m ready,” Zack agreed.  “We’re all coming back here afterwards?”

“Yes,” Kim said.  “Quietly, in case anyone is sleeping.”

“Quiet is my speciality,” Zack said.  “I’m the master of stealth.”

“Did you sign your autographs ‘The Master of Everything’?” Billy wanted to know.  “It seems like that would get tiring after a while.”

“I did,” Zack said, “and it did.  So we’re all right.”

“You seem to have mastered a lot of things,” Trini said.  “Do you want a master title for being the master many times over?”

“No need!” Zack said.  “That’s the beauty of the Master of Everything.  Nothing is outside my mastery.”

“So you’re not the master of nothing,” Billy said.

“Correct,” Zack told him.

“Maybe neither of you should talk,” Kim said.  “Not you, Billy, you’re fine. Jason and Zack.”

“That will make it harder to get their input on evening activities,” Billy said.  “Although I guess you and Jason could sign.”

“No,” Kim said.  “Let’s stick with making it harder for them to talk.”

“Who are you planning to have a conversation with while you’re getting dinner?” Jason wanted to know.

“Who says I’m planning to have a conversation?” she countered.

“Everyone who knows you,” Zack put in.

“Okay, yeah, you’re not wrong,” Kim said.  “You can talk. Let’s figure out how to get back to Epcot from here.”

“I’m guessing teleporting is out,” Jason said, just to see what she’d say.

Kim shrugged.  “Maybe appearing out of thin air is expected at Disney World,” she said.  “Might be the only place on the planet we could get away with it.”

“Hey, I like that,” Zack said.  “We should test it.”

“We should not,” Jason said.

“It was your idea,” Kim reminded him.

“It was my idea not to do it,” he agreed.

“Don’t come back hating each other,” Trini said, slouched against the back of the couch with her arms crossed while she watched them argue.  “You’re making progress. Don’t make Disney World the thing that messed it up.”

“If it’s going to be Disney World,” Kim said, “it’s going to be the lines.”

“Or the not eating,” Trini said.

“Right,” Kim said.  “That’s probably more likely right now.”

“We’re literally lost the second we step out the door,” Jason told her.

“Well, at least we can step out the door,” Zack said.  “We don’t have to know which way to turn until we’re actually turning.”

“Profound,” Kim said.  “Let’s go left.”

“Have fun,” Trini called after them.

“Love you too!” Kim called back.

Jason didn’t try to say anything because Billy was looking at his phone and Andros and Zhane were looking at the balcony.  But he didn’t hate leaving them there and knowing they’d still be around when he came back. Maybe that was why people moved in together: so they always knew they’d see each other again, even if they didn’t plan it.

When they stepped out the door, Kim decided they should go right instead.  As soon as they were actually outside he and Zack were distracted by more water and fountains, but Kim kept up a general course that involved her picking a direction every time they had to decide, and finally Jason noticed the giant directional signs for hotels, food, and the “International Gateway to Epcot Center.”  It was sort of reassuring to think that she didn’t have a map of the place memorized after all.

Epcot was only a few minutes away, and they still passed two pools, a water park, what was probably a completely artificial river including boats, and a lot of places that were either stores or restaurants.  It was hard to remember they weren’t actually inside an amusement park at that point, just a bunch of hotels. And other stuff.

Apparently Disney World had a big support system.

Epcot let them in with the passes Elena had given them, and the difference between where they’d been walking and the park was… almost nothing.  More souvenirs? A lake? There was a monorail, and a giant Japanese arch, and the golf ball, all visible in different directions from the edge of the lake.  He didn’t actually see any rides from where they were, just shops and food and people walking.

They went left around the lake, since that seemed to be the direction of the golf ball, or maybe because Kim knew there were French fries closer in that direction than to the right.  He didn’t know, but there was some kind of sign and some tables down by the water when Kim said, “Look, fish and chips. That looks like dinner to me.”

“Really?” Zack said.  “Fish and chips?”

“What,” Kim said.  “It was Alpha’s suggestion.  Plus it’s dinner time and I don’t know if you’re looking at these lines, but I’m betting we get fish and chips faster than literally anything else that doesn’t come in a plastic wrapper.”

Zack looked at Jason and he shrugged.  “Sounds good to me,” Jason said. He was fine with whatever they ate as long as it didn’t involve reading a multi-page menu and waiting an hour for someone to bring them food.

They had to wait in line to order, and then they had to wait in a second line to get their food.  But they did get their food, and they got it a lot more quickly than they would have if they’d sat down first, so Jason wasn’t complaining.  They were also allowed to walk off with it, even though they had trays and plates and silverware.

“No,” Kim said, when she saw Zack looking back toward the walkway.  “I’m sitting at a table.”

“I’m not against tables,” Zack agreed.

So they walked around behind the restaurant, and it turned out there were plenty of tables and chairs and lights strung up around a courtyard by the water.  The tables came pre-stocked with ketchup, salt, and napkins. All they were missing was drinks.

As soon as he thought it, Kim asked, “Why don’t we have drinks?”

“They didn’t offer us drinks?” Zack guessed.

“Why not?” Kim wanted to know.  “And why didn’t I bring Trini’s water bottle?”

“Or your water bottle?” Jason added.  He hadn’t brought his either.

“Because they would have checked it at the gate,” Zack said.

“I’m pretty sure we can bring water bottles into the park,” Kim said.  “What about people with special dietary restrictions?”

“Or people who just like to drink water?” Jason added.

“Are you kidding me?” Zack asked.  “We’re holding cards worth a thousand dollars.  Or more, if Alpha wasn’t joking. Buy yourselves a bottle of water.”

“That’s really not the point,” Kim told him.

Jason looked at her, and she looked back at him.

“On the other hand,” Kim said.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed.  “I’ll be right back. Zack, you want some water?”

“Sure,” Zack said.  “Thanks.”

It was more complicated than he expected just to get some water, and Zack was done eating by the time he got back.  “Should have asked for more french fries,” Zack remarked when Jason handed him some water. Then he added, “Thanks.”

Jason stood still, torn between being annoyed and going back and getting him more food.

“Zack, go get some more french fries,” Kim said.

“You know, I think I will,” Zack said, pushing his chair back.

“Sit down,” Kim told Jason.  “You know what you have to do.”  She looked at his food pointedly, and he had to smile.  They were both done by the time Zack came back.

“What are the birds?” Jason asked, while they sat in their chairs and watched Zack eat and generally didn’t have to care what anyone thought of them.  He took one of Zack’s french fries and tossed it to the nearest long-legged white bird, skulking under an empty table, and it didn’t run. It carefully and elegantly walked over to the french fry, grabbed it with its long, thin beak, and gulped it down.

“How would I know that?” Kim asked.  “Do you think I’m Billy?”

Zack was tapping out something on his phone, so Jason said, “No, you just… you know everything else about what’s going on.”

“Flattering,” Kim said.

“The most common variety of ibis at Disney is the American White Ibis,” Zack said, and when Jason looked over at him he held up his phone.  “White birds at Disney World,” he said.

“Nice,” Kim said.  “It’s like being with Trini, except you don’t just throw your phone in my face and expect me to know why it’s relevant.”

“Yeah, I thought about it but it loses some of the effect when I have to do it twice,” Zack said with a grin.  “Once for you and once for Jason.”

“So she doesn’t talk more when she’s with you than she does when she’s with us?” Jason asked.

Kim scoffed.  “I hope she talks more to me than she does to you,” she said.  “But let’s be real. That’s not saying much.”

“She talks to Billy,” Zack said.

“No she doesn’t,” Kim said.  “I’m like ninety percent sure all of their excursions are her saying nothing and him having both sides of the conversation.  They’re perfect for each other. As friends,” she added, glancing at Jason.

He shrugged, because he wanted it to be his business but maybe it wasn’t, really.

On the other hand, if Kim wasn’t worried, then he probably didn’t need to be either.

“Hey,” Zack said when Kim took one of his french fries too.  Instead of complaining he just said, “Your turn to get more when we run out.”

“When we run out, we’re moving on to the next fast food option,” she said.  “And I didn’t mean that like more fries, just, like, whatever food that’s fast.”

“Whatever we can buy as we walk around the park?” Zack said.  “Yeah, I’m behind that.”

“I think we’re in the food section now,” Kim said.  “There’s rides and stuff up front, where we were before for the pictures, but the whole walk around the lake is like other nations’ buildings and food and gift shops and stuff.”

“Gift shops,” Jason said.  “That’s where the real culture is.”

“Commerce is the international language,” Kim told him.  “Word to the wise, buy something for your boyfriend.”

“Really?” Zack said.  “I thought it was just girls who wanted stuff.”

“Really?” Kim echoed, her voice heavy with sarcasm.  “It’s like you’ve never interacted with a boy before.”

Zack looked at Jason and asked, “Do gay boys like cards and flowers and stuffed animals?  I only ask because I guess you would know.”

“I guarantee you Epcot has cooler stuff than cards and flowers,” Kim said.  “Also, stop generalizing, it’s offensive.”

“You didn’t complain about the stuffed animals,” Jason said, since it seemed safer than responding to Zack.

Kim shook her head, flipping her phone over to check it.  “I’m totally getting Trin a stuffed animal,” she said. “Of literally all the people we know, I can’t think of anyone who needs it more.”

“Okay, personal question,” Zack said.  “Why do you call her Trin? It’s like one extra letter; what’s the point?”

“The point is no one else calls her that,” Kim said.  “You think she’s gonna let me use pet names?”

“She seems like the kind of person who secretly loves pet names,” Zack said.

“Yeah, exactly,” Kim said.  “Original pet names. Ones no one else has.  After the whole family fight over last names she started telling everyone her name was DeeDee so they’d stop asking.  If I call her baby she’d probably punch me in the face.”

“I understood like half of that, but okay,” Zack said.  “I’m done. What’s next?”

“How much do you want rides and how much do you want countries?” Kim asked.  “I think we’re on one side of the countries. So go that way to see more of them, and the other way is back to the rides.”

“More of them?” Zack asked.  “Are we in a country now?”

“England,” Kim said.  “The chips didn’t do it for you?”

“I figured it was a weird Florida thing,” Zack said.  “Okay, so I vote rides. Who’s with me?”

Jason and Kim both raised their hands, and Zack grinned.  “Yeah! That was easy. So which way, again?”

“Why do neither of you have any sense of direction?” Kim asked.  “That’s really kind of amazing. I don’t know why you’re in charge of flying the ship.”

“We want to go back to the golf ball,” Jason said, just to prove he’d been listening.  “You didn’t mention a boat.” The golf ball was on the other side of the lake.

“The geosphere,” Kim said, “and seriously, look at the lake and tell me the golf ball is closer if we walk away from it.”

Zack shrugged when she looked at him.  “He picks the course,” he said. “I just execute it.”

“Neither of you should be allowed to fly anything,” Kim said.  “We’re going this way. Toward the golf ball.”

“The geosphere,” Jason said, and Kim shook her head.

“Whatever,” she said.

The path outside the restaurant veered away from the lake pretty much immediately, which meant he and Zack looked at each other and made faces when Kim wasn’t looking, but they could still see the golf ball.  It was actually a pretty useful way to navigate, except for the giant lake in the middle of everything. And when they eventually found themselves walking through a plaza that looked vaguely familiar, Jason didn’t assume there was any way for getting there to have taken less time.

“Wow,” Zack said, looking around.  “They like their fountains here, huh.”

“They have a lot of water,” Jason said.

“It’s Florida,” Kim said.  “A third of it’s underwater at any given time.”

“Oh, so they’re pulling water out of the ground to dry it out,” Zack said with a grin.  “Now I get it.”

“This isn’t where we were for the photo op,” Jason said, frowning at opposite sides of the plaza.  “Right?”

“No,” Kim said.  “Same idea, bigger space.  Are we going on the Spaceship Earth ride, or were you joking about that?”

“Andros wanted to see it,” Zack said.  “We can wait and go on it with them.”

“You’re going to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom tomorrow,” Kim reminded him.  “There’s no way you have time to come back here and do Spaceship Earth too.”

“Why not?” Zack wanted to know.  “It’s right outside our hotel.”

“Our hotel is at least half an hour away by now,” Jason said.

“Yeah, but we have these.”  Zack held up his left wrist where his communicator flashed silver and black in the park’s funny sidewalk-style lighting.  The sun had already set, but the sky wasn’t totally dark. It might never get totally dark in Orlando.

“You can’t teleport to the front of the line,” Kim said, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, hey, that’s a good idea!” Zack exclaimed.

“No,” Kim said.  “It’s a terrible idea.  We’re going on Spaceship Earth now, because I’m pretty sure we’re going to hear all about it from Andros and I want to know how much he exaggerates.”

“I’m not sure Andros does a lot of exaggerating,” Jason said.

“Well, that’s the thing,” Kim said.  “We don’t know, because usually he’s telling us about something or someone from another planet that we don’t know anything about.  If we know something about this ride, we’ll be able to compare it to what he says.”

“Is this a friendly plan, like, we want to know more about him?” Zack asked.  “Or a creepy, we want to see how much he tells us the truth kind of plan?”

“It’s friendly,” Kim said firmly.  “It’s not a secret. It’s just good planning for potential future bonding.”

“You have to do those team-building retreats too, huh?” Jason said.

“For cheerleading?” Kim said.  “Oh yeah. Our whole life is one big team-building party.”

“It’s weird how you sound just as bitter about doing it as I feel about missing out on it,” Zack said.  “I mean, not cheerleading specifically. Or football. I’m not really a cheerleading and football kind of guy.”

“Great,” Kim said.  “That works out, because it turns out neither are we.”

“You’re not missing anything,” Jason said.

“Well, nothing that we don’t do better,” Kim said.  “The Rangers are better at team-building than anyone.”

“It’s probably the campfires,” Zack said.

“And the spaceships,” Kim added.  “Space field trips are the best.”

“It’s definitely the spaceships,” Jason agreed, and then, for once, he realized how it sounded before it was too late.  “And the campfires,” he added. He wasn’t picking one of them over the other.

They talked about how to have a campfire on a spaceship, whether it was possible to bring their spaceship to a campfire, and if Andros and Zhane ever sat around trying to combine campfires and spaceships for no real reason the way they were.  They had to walk most of the way around the geosphere to find the line for Spaceship Earth, which looked weirdly long to Jason, but Kim pointed out the digital boards with wait times that showed 12 minutes. “Anything less than 30 minutes is good at Disney World,” she said.

“Yeah, but how do you know that,” Zack said.  “That’s what I want to know.”

“I have this thing called a phone,” Kim told him.  “You literally just used it to look up white birds at Disney World; you can’t look up average wait times for Spaceship Earth?”

“You didn’t just look it up though,” Zack said.  “You memorized it.”

“I just happen to remember what I read,” she said.  “It’s easier than it used to be. Don’t you think?”

“What,” Zack said, “you mean, since we got--these?”  He twisted his left wrist, where his communicator was, and Kim nodded.

“Yeah,” she said.  “I don’t forget things the way I used to.  Jason?”

“Maybe not,” he said.  “I mean, homework is easier now.  Languages. And math. And I guess I can remember the reading we do, which is a first.  I thought it was because I’m not spending so much time at practice.”

“Seriously?” Zack said.  “You spent more time practicing for football than we spent training to stay alive?”

Jason didn’t have to think about it that hard.  “Yeah,” he said.

“Same,” Kim said.  “But we didn’t get bashed in the head as much, so there’s a tradeoff.”

“As much as the football players?” Zack said.  “Or as much as us?”

“Either,” Kim said.  “I mean, some; not gonna lie, half the cheerleading team’s personalities are probably from hitting the ground too hard.  But it wasn’t rocky cave walls, so it had that going for it.”

“We’re training on the ship from now on,” Jason said.  “In an actual training room, with mats.”

“Not very real world,” Zack said.  “Eventually we’re gonna have to hit some rocks.”

“Says you,” Kim told him.

“We don’t know we’re gonna have to… do that again,” Jason said.  He was keeping his voice down, but they were standing right next to other people who also had nothing better to do than look around at the rest of the line.  The group beside them was chatting, but they couldn’t all talk at once. Some of them might be listening for more interesting conversations.

“You’re being followed by a possibly evil amnesiac who was probably personally recruited by the person who animated rocks to hit us with,” Kim told him, which definitely made their conversation more interesting.

“Yeah, that was unfair,” Zack agreed.  “She didn’t throw rocks at us, and she didn’t even throw us into the rocks.  She actually brought the rocks to life so they could throw themselves at us all on their own.”

“I’ve decided I hate magic,” Kim said.  

“Not gonna argue with that,” Jason said, even though it didn't seem right as he said it.  Magic. It was magic, right? And it was evil. They all agreed that Rita had used magic to kill people and destroy the town.  They should hate that.

Saying it still didn't feel right.

It turned out the Spaceship Earth ride had cars with molded plastic seats that were meant for two people at a time.  Kim offered to squeeze in with them but there were screens in front of each seat and they were probably supposed to do something with them.  She wouldn’t have one if she sat on their laps, although Jason told her he was flattered she was willing to.

“Well, you’re--you,” she said, and he didn’t appreciate until afterwards that she hadn’t said “you’re gay” in the middle of a crowd, “and Zack’s Trini’s brother, so I’m pretty sure I’m safe.”

“You don’t want to miss the fun screen experience,” Zack said, turning her gently by the shoulders so she was in front of him.  “You guys sit together; I’ll ride behind you.”

“No, I’m an expert at leaning into pictures,” Kim protested.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Zack wanted to know.  They were watching people load into the blue cars, and it was hard to say whether they’d get on this round or not.  Jason had no idea how many people went at once, but the line had moved pretty quickly.

“It means this is a ride on a track,” Kim said.  “There’s definitely cameras somewhere, and we should all be in the picture.  Someone has to lean over the seat so it gets all three of us.”

“I think I can lean over a seat,” Zack said.  “Tell me when, since you know so much about ride cameras.”

“You two can sit together,” Jason said.  “I’ll ride alone.”

“Hey,” Zack said.  “Quit stealing my ideas.”

Jason didn’t know what to say to that, and Zack must have known because he added, “I’m kidding?”  It didn’t sound totally offensive when he said it.

“Yeah, I know,” Jason said anyway.

“Oh my god,” Kim said.  “I don’t know whether I should tell you not to talk to each other anymore or congratulate you for not actually getting into a physical fight.”

“Says the girl who punched out someone’s tooth,” Zack said.

Jason winced, but Kim just smiled.  “Funny how it’s cute when you guys fight but it’s horrifying when a girl does it, isn’t it?  The police get involved, people get suspended… but when boys fight it’s all, well, boys will be boys.”

“It’s because we’re not as strong as girls,” Zack told her.  “We can’t hurt each other as badly as you hurt us.”

“I wish that were true,” Kim said.  “But then I think, maybe the world would be the same if girls were stronger than boys, just in reverse.”

“You think strong people always hurt weaker people?” Jason asked.

Kim shrugged.  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“We’re really strong,” Zack pointed out.  “You don’t see us hurting anyone.”

“Not yet,” Kim said.  “Rita did.”

That was kind of a terrifying thought, and it made Jason remember Zordon yelling at them and Alpha shrugging when they got hit by rock monsters.  “Wow,” he said without thinking. Then he didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t be… well, awful, so he didn’t say anything.

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “Tommy.”

“Me,” Jason countered.  “And Zordon. Me when I’m channeling Zordon.  That’s what scares me, honestly.”

Maybe he did know what to say.  It was still awful; that was probably the key.  He hadn’t figured out a good way to say what he was afraid of yet, but he didn’t like having Zordon’s memories in his head.  He didn’t like seeing Zordon’s teammates every time he turned around. And he definitely didn’t like thinking that it was the Power coins that had made Rita and Zordon such bitter rivals.

“Do you think you channel him?” Kim said.  “I think you empathize with him. Here, get on, you sit on the inside.”

It was their turn to get into a car, and there was someone there watching everyone but not really directing them, so Jason just climbed in.  Kim followed him, and when he turned around Zack was sliding into the seat behind him. They each had screens in the back of the seats in front of them, and Zack poked at his experimentally before sitting forward.

“No problem,” he said.  “I can totally make this work.  Hi,” he added, to the person next to him.  “My friends want me to lean in between them when we see a camera, is that okay?  I won’t block your screen or anything.”

“Yeah, fine,” the guy next to him said.

“See, we’re cool,” Zack said, turning back to the front of the car.  “So what’s this about channeling? You think you’re channeling Zordon?”

“Sit in your seat,” Kim told him.  “What if it’s like a roller coaster and it takes off really fast?”

“What, there’s no seatbelt,” Zack said.  “It can’t go that fast.”

Someone was going down the line, closing doors, and Jason didn’t know how many there were but the cars did start moving.  Slowly. Into the dark, with stars coming out around them as they started to climb. “Are we climbing into space?” he asked Kim.

“Yes?” she said.  “I guess. I don’t know.  It’s pretty.”

Then a familiar voice welcomed them to their time travel machines, and it took Jason a second to get it.  Kim was much faster. “Oh my god it’s M!” she said. “From James Bond,” she added, when he just looked at her.

“Judi Dench,” he said.

“M,” she agreed.  “This ride is so much cooler now.”

“Is that your camera?” Jason asked, when the screen told them to look up and smile.

“Yes,” she said, putting her hand back to wave at Zack.  “Zack, come here.”

“Hey,” he said, leaning in between them.  “Cheese!”

“It’s going in order,” Jason said.

“Look, you can see the cars go by on the screen,” Kim said.  “Okay, now.”

Jason waved, and Kim pushed Zack’s shoulder as soon as their picture had been taken.  “Get one from your seat too,” she ordered.

Jason looked around in time to see Zack hold up a fist at the camera, and he wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a friendly gesture or not.  He didn’t ask. Their pictures were “sent to the future” while Judi Dench told them about how communication brought the world together.

Kim didn’t say anything else about Zordon while Judi Dench was talking, so Jason sat back and listened to the narration while the car climbed slowly through the stars.  He wondered how tall the golf ball was, and how long they could really climb inside a giant sphere. Maybe they were going in a circle around the outside of it; that would make it longer, right?

There was a light up ahead, and sure enough, when they could see outside their cars it was obvious that the track was curving.  There was some kind of caveman scene with fake torches and hunters and--

“Is that a mastodon?” Zack demanded in his ear.  “I have a problem with this ride.”

“I don’t think it’s a mastodon,” Kim said.  “It’s like a woolly mammoth or something.”

“I still have a problem,” Zack said.  “Can we interfere with history? We’re in time machines, right?  I want to go save my zord’s ancient relatives.”

“If you get out of the car I’m pretty sure we get kicked out of the park,” Kim said.  “Choose wisely.”

“They can’t kick me out,” Zack grumbled, leaning against the back of Jason’s seat.  “I have a mastodon.”

Jason spared a moment to be glad Trini hadn’t come on the ride with them.  He’d heard what she did to Kim’s locker. She might not have stopped at complaining.

The cave scene went dark as they pulled away, or maybe it just got lost in the curve of the track, but there were still cave paintings on the wall and he didn’t realize they were looking at a screen until the paintings started to move.  The pictures of animals turned into shapes that were probably really old letters, hieroglyphs or something, and more scenes, life-size dioramas of people traveling in carts and on roads. They all moved and interacted with each other, and he had a moment where he wondered if there were actually actors inside the sphere during the ride.

They were animated, he decided, or animatronic, or whatever.  But maybe some of them were real people, keeping an eye on the scenes or watching the cars.  To make sure people like Zack didn’t jump out, probably.

“I can’t decide if we’re watching a movie or a play,” Kim said.

“Both,” Jason said.  “While riding on a golf cart.”

“Inside a golf ball,” Kim said.  “Makes sense.”

When he squinted into the darkness he could see other cars, other people talking, but he couldn’t hear them.  He could hear their Judi Dench recording, and when he leaned back a little he could barely hear Zack’s. But it must be different for each car, if they all passed things at different times.  They had to have great sound muffling in here, because he could hear what was happening in the scenes they passed, but not anything from ahead or behind.

“Oh, look,” Kim said.  “Modern history. My favorite phrase.  It’s either history or it’s not.”

“Ancient history,” Jason said.

“Still history,” Kim said.  “If it happened in the past, it’s history.”

“The Dinosaur,” Jason said.

“Our Dinosaur?” Kim asked.  “Or all dinosaurs?”

“Ours,” Jason said.  “It happened in the past, and it’s happening now.  You said it was historic, right?”

“What, like reincarnated history?” Kim said.  “Let’s invent a new class. You can teach it.”

“I could teach it,” Jason agreed.  They’d passed people transcribing books, the printing press, someone with a telegraph, and now they were into radios and televisions and the scene was a news anchor announcing the landing of astronauts on the moon.  “Hey,” he said.

“We should be in this,” Kim said at the same time.

He looked at her.  She looked back at him at the same moment and they both grinned.  “Don’t tell Zack,” he said. “He’ll want to get out and make a new scene.”

“Are you kidding?” Kim said.  “I want to get out and make a new scene.  I have my coin. We could jump onto one of these little ledge things, no problem.”

“We’re only up to computers,” Jason said.  “Wait until they get to the future.”

“Oh, you think we’re actually going to go into the future?” Kim asked.  “I can’t wait to see what’s happening.”

“They sent our pictures to the future,” Jason reminded her.  “Maybe we’re already there.”

“Maybe we’ll come back with knowledge we can use,” Kim said.

“Bold of you to assume we’ll come back,” Jason said, and Kim actually laughed.

“Do you and Trini get together and read tumblr or something?  Is that how you bonded, before the whole ghost, old girlfriend thing?”

“Zack said that too,” Jason told her.  “That we bonded. Did we? I didn’t think Trini bonded with anyone.  Except you. And Zack. And Billy, I guess, so pretty much everyone, okay, I see I’ve backed myself into a corner here.”

“Keep talking,” Kim said with a grin.  “I’m interested in where you end up.”

“Trini and I bonded?” Jason said.  “Is that the conclusion I’m supposed to accept here?”

“Yup,” Kim said.  “She totally likes you.  Why do you think she keeps complaining about you being the leader?”

“Because she doesn’t like me and we haven’t bonded,” Jason said.

“Wrong,” Kim said.  “You don’t understand her, but she likes you anyway.  And let’s be fair, she doesn’t understand you either, so you have a reciprocal relationship.”

“Hey,” Zack said, leaning in between them.  “Check it out; this is our scene!”

The cars were pulling back into the stars, but this time the stars were farther away… and they were flying out over the curve of the earth.  The cars locked into place somehow, and the whole view started to turn: the stars, the planet, everything they could see, while Judi Dench told them that this was their future.

Jason wanted to say something, but he was pretty sure anything he came up with would sound ridiculous.  Too significant, maybe, like this meant something to him and he was taking it too seriously. It was just a planetarium at the top of a Disney ride, but it was there for a reason.  It was there because a whole lot of people must have thought that this was the one thing everyone could agree would represent their future.

It was literally humanity leaving Earth.  Not to get away from their planet or their home, but to meet other people, to connect with other people’s planets and their homes.  To communicate. To be part of a community that was bigger than just their own.

“This is so beautiful,” he heard Kim murmur.

“Hey,” Zack whispered in his ear.  “Should we jump out here? We could mime flying the Dinosaur.”

Jason laughed without meaning to, and Kim leaned into them to whisper, “We can’t fly a spaceship inside another spaceship.  It would break the world.”

“Zhane and Andros totally flew their ships into our ship,” Zack whispered back.

“The Dinosaur is way too big for Spaceship Earth,” Jason said.

“Right, but we’re not,” Zack said.  “We can be part of the ride!”

“We can be part of the future,” Kim said.

“There’s nothing to stand on,” Jason pointed out.

“So practical,” Kim said.  “Let’s fly.”

“Oh, you have to teach me that,” Zack said immediately.  “I don’t have the flying power yet. Jason, do you have that one?”

“Alpha would say no,” Jason said.

“Alpha always says no,” Kim pointed out.  “Can we go back to the moon? I want to take a picture of Earth from another planet.”

“Zhane says there’s a moonbase,” Zack said.  “How did we miss that?”

“We didn’t exactly explore the entire surface of the moon,” Jason said.

“I think we should go back,” Zack said.

“You didn’t even want to go the first time,” Jason reminded him.

He probably shouldn’t have said it, but instead of taking offense Zack just said, “Little known fact; I didn’t want to hop a train the first time either.  It turns out that’s really fun.”

“That’s really dangerous,” Kim said.

“Yeah,” Zack said.  “That’s what I said.”

When you’re afraid, Zack had told them that first night on the Dinosaur, go faster.

Jason didn’t say anything.

The stars stopped turning then and the cars clicked into place and the earth started to pull away.  They were sliding backward, maybe falling out of the sky, maybe returning to the surface, it was hard to tell what the message of their descent was.  There were still stars all around them, so maybe they were just getting farther from Earth?

“Are we going back to Earth or leaving it?” Zack wanted to know.  He wasn’t having any trouble hanging on their seats even with the car going backward, but then the screen in front of Jason lit up with a sparkle of blue and a whole new welcome.  

“Oh, do we get an in-flight movie?” Zack added, pushing back to watch his own screen.

Which of the following is most important to you? the screen asked, and Jason looked over at Kim to make sure they were both seeing the same thing.  She was looking at his screen, and she shrugged.

“We should pick different things,” she said.  “To see what happens.”

“Home,” Jason said, and she nodded.

“Fitness,” she said, then looked back at Zack.  “Zack, what did you pick?”

“Leisure,” he said.  “Obviously.”

Jason smiled, but it turned out that was just the beginning.  There were a bunch more questions after that, and he and Kim compared notes: they were all different after the first one, apparently customized based on whatever they’d selected as most important.  The cars kept moving backwards, and he glanced at the stars periodically to make sure they were still there.

He knew they’d gotten to the last question only because the screen stopped asking him things, sparkling again as it traced a line image of a futuristic city and some flying saucers with the message, Building your future!

“Building the future?” he asked Kim.

“Building your future, specifically,” she corrected.  “Are we all in different timelines now? This ride is more complicated than I thought.”

Then a cartoon stick figure popped up on the screen in front of him: with his face.  It waved at him. “Oh, look,” Jason said, because obviously. “I’m in the future.”

“How did they--that’s what they did with our pictures,” Kim said, already turning around.  “Zack, do you have a head?”

“Yeah,” Zack said with a grin.  Jason turned in time to see him give a thumbs up, then look back at his screen so he didn’t miss his cartoon self’s futures.  He could still hear Zack say, “Good call on sitting back in my seat.”

“That would have been a funny stick figure,” Kim said, turning around again.  “I wonder if they do it by face or by seat. Our picture should have had three faces, right?”

Jason’s stick figure zipped along a country road and into a house, where Kim’s stick figure was sitting.  “Wait,” he said, when it waved at him with her face. He looked over at her screen, and there he was in her house.  Except he was sitting in her house while she was standing, and she was sitting in his house while he was standing.

“That’s really funny,” Kim said, looking back and forth between their screens.  “Do they put all of the seatmates together? Zack, who’s your housemate?”

“Cartoon,” Zack said.

Jason’s stick figure zipped around the house while Kim’s went out the door, and when he looked over at her screen he could see her stick figure jogging down a city sidewalk.  “Our houses aren’t in the same place,” he told her.

“That’s because you make bad choices,” she said.

“Did you choose to be in the city?” he said, looking back at his cartoon house.  He had a dog and a very nice living room. His cartoon house was probably bigger than his real house.  “Because that’s your bad choice, right there.”

“You grew up in Angel Grove and you still want to be in the country?” Kim replied.

“Your girlfriend spends all her time in the mountains and you think you’re going to live in the city?” he countered.

“There are cities with mountains near them,” Kim said.  “Wait, why do you have a dog? I want a dog!”

“Zack,” Jason said without turning around.  “Does your cartoon stick figure have a pet?”

“What?” Zack asked.

“I want a pet,” Kim told him.  She was trying to watch her screen and talk to him at the same time, and somehow Zack could hear her but not Jason.  “What was the question that gave Jason a dog?”

“I have a shark,” Zack offered.

“You do not,” Kim said.

“Well, there was a shark,” Zack admitted.  “They didn’t specifically say it was my pet.  And it could have been a dolphin; it was hard to tell.”

“I want more animals,” Kim said.

“That’s what happens when you pick the city,” Jason told her.

“Yeah, maybe,” she admitted.  “I need a pet-friendly city.”

“Helena,” Zack said.  “Pretty sure they ride horses through the city streets in Montana.”

“Not exactly what I had in mind,” Kim said, “but thanks for trying.”

“There’s a mountain,” Zack offered.  “You can climb a mountain in the middle of the city; Trini would love it.”

“If there’s a mountain in the middle of the city it’s not a city,” Kim said.

“Colorado Springs,” Zack said.

“Yeah, I rest my case,” Kim said.

At the end of the cartoon movie, Kim’s and Jason’s stick figures got back together and waved at them again.  Jason looked over to make sure Kim’s screen was doing the same thing, and it was. “Really?” he asked her. “Zack doesn’t have a second person in his?”

“I had a second person,” Zack said, hanging over the seats again.  “It just wasn’t a real person. That’s adorable, by the way. Did you take a picture of that?”

“Oh, I should have.”  Kim pulled her phone out and got a picture just before the screen sparkled away.  “I’m sending it to Trini,” she added, typing something on her phone. “This is what happens if you don’t agree to live in the city,” she said as she wrote.

“Excuse me,” Jason said.  “I didn’t agree to live in the city either.”

“It’s the future,” Zack said.  “Your hover train will take you from your city house to your country house in seconds.”

“Of course you picked the hover train,” Kim said.

“What do I need a car that drives itself for?” Zack countered.  “Bring on the trains.”

When the screens stopped being interesting, the stars were starting to go out too, and the cars backed out into the lit tunnel for unloading.  Kim was still looking at her phone when she got out, and she read Trini’s response. “Pretty sure Jason didn’t agree to live in the city either,” she read.  “Wow, it’s like she knows you.”

“She knows all of us,” Zack said.  “That’s her power.”

“We’re not ghosts,” Kim said.

“No, but insight, right?  Leveling up? That’s yellow,” Zack reminded her.

“Okay, so we all have endless powers,” Kim said, “and I still can’t do anything cool.  Why is that?”

“You can shoot,” Zack said.  “Come on, that’s an awesome power.”

“It’s so not useful in my daily life,” Kim said, bumping into Jason as they made their way off of the platform and into a large glowing room.  “How’s telekinesis working out for you?”

“It’s fun,” Zack said.  “I recommend it.”

As they followed the crowd through the domed room, Zack immediately angled for the least crowded direction and Kim followed him.  Jason was a little impressed when Zack turned around and walked backwards, adding, “Where are we, and why are we not outside?”

“Why do you think asking us will be faster than reading the signs?” Kim wanted to know.  “Look, it’s the earth. Maybe this is part of the ride.”

The glow in the room came from a giant planet marked with the oceans and continents of Earth.  There were faces on it, and if Jason hadn’t been looking for it he might not have recognized theirs next to California.  “Hey, look,” he said, pointing. “Our future selves are still in California.”

“Or are past selves are,” Kim said.  “What are the computers for?”

Everyone was gathering around monitors as they got off of the ride, and there were plenty so Jason stopped in front of one too.  “It’s asking if we want our video,” he reported. “From the future.”

“Oh, I do,” Kim said.

“Yeah, so do I,” Zack said.  “Not mine, yours. I want a video of Kim and Jason’s domestic bliss.”

“I want to see Zack and hover trains,” Jason said, scrolling through the car photos until he found Zack’s picture.  He entered his email, and it promised to send the whole thing to him.

“Mine too,” Kim said.  “I mean, my email. I want Zack’s video.”

“I’ll forward it to you,” Jason said, handing her his phone.  “Tell me if you get yours.”

She looked from his phone to the screen and back again.  He probably didn’t want to know what she did to his email, but she reported, “Got Zack’s.  Zack, I’m sending it to you too.”

“And yours,” Zack insisted.

“Yeah, it’s not here yet.”  Kim looked back at the monitor Jason was using.  “Is it frozen?” she asked.

“I think it’s just slow.”  It was lagging a little on the second video, but eventually it said it was sending a message back in time.  

Kim handed his phone back to him and looked at her own.  “Not yet,” she said.

“Yes,” Jason said, rolling his eyes.  “I put in the right address.”

“I didn’t say it,” she reminded him.

“Project Tomorrow,” Zack said.  “Oh, we’re inventing the wonders of the future.  Is this the basement of the golf ball or what?”

“Many important things were invented in basements,” Kim said.  “There it is. I’m forwarding our video to both of you. And everyone, actually.  It’s a postcard from the future.”

“When you say everyone,” Jason began.

“Everyone we like,” Kim said.  “So Trini and Billy. I’d send it to Zhane and Andros if they had email addresses.”

“I wonder if they have hover trains,” Zack said.  “We should ask.”

“I want to go see their planet,” Kim agreed, putting away her phone and looking around.  “Do we want to do any of these things? We have an hour and a half until fireworks, just so you know.”

“And we’re watching the fireworks,” Jason said, just to make sure.

Kim shrugged.  “Well, I am,” she said.  “And that’s when the park closes, so it’s the same time limit whether you watch or not.”

“I like fireworks,” Jason said.

“Yeah, I’m in,” Zack agreed.  “Wasn’t there another space ride, though?  Space Future or Space Astronauts or something?”

“The one Andros liked?” Kim asked.  “Mission: Space?”

“That’s it,” Zack said.

“That sounds nothing like Space Future,” Jason said.

“It has space in it,” Zack said.  “That’s all I’ve got.”

“I think there were signs for it outside,” Kim said.  “Just make sure we don’t start wandering through countries again and we can probably find it.”

“Do they have maps?” Zack wanted to know.  “It seems like a place this big should have maps.”

“Okay,” Kim said, as they walked slowly around the giant earth, careful not to run over any of the small children who were definitely up past their bedtimes, “I’ll be honest.  You’re the last person I expected to want a map.”

“I like maps,” Zack said.  “I like to sneak into dangerous places like old train stations and active gold mines.  Maps have useful information like where the electricity and the abandoned mineshafts are.”

“Also not what I expected you to say,” Kim said, “but in retrospect, very convincing.”

“We’re near the front gate, right?” Jason said.  The golf ball had been visible from the parking lot.  “They must have maps there.”

“That way to the front gate,” Kim said, as they finally stepped out of Project Tomorrow and could see the park again.  They could also see people, lights that were brighter than they’d been before, and signs. “Or that way to Mission: Space.”

“Oh, hey, signs,” Zack said.  “Okay, I’ll take that. Mission: Space it is.”

They made a couple of wrong turns based on signs that pointed too generally to make any sense, but every path eventually led back to every other path, and once they realized Mars and the giant moon were Mission: Space, it was easier to pick one.

“Just out of curiosity,” Zack said, “why the moon?  Is this the space park? I like it, don’t get me wrong, but this isn’t what I expected from Disney World.”

“What did you expect?” Kim asked.  “Also stop. Everyone get down in front of the Mission: Space sign.  We have to send a selfie to the others.”

“I don’t know,” Zack said.  “Mickey Mouse?”

“Magic Kingdom,” Kim said, waving for them to crouch down with her.  “You want the park with the castle and the giant characters.”

“No,” Zack said, squeezing in next to her.  “I definitely don’t.”

It turned out to be really hard to get all three of them and the sign in the picture at the same time, but Kim was a determined selfie-taker.  “Good,” she said at last, tapping at her screen. “Okay, where do we go for this ride?”

“First,” Zack said, “we take our picture in front of the moon.”

“Okay,” Kim said.  “That’s not going to look great in a selfie, though.”

“Surprise,” Zack said.  “My phone has a special, non-selfie mode.  Excuse me,” he added, waving from a respectable difference at a woman approaching the “Mission: Space” sign.  “Would you mind taking a quick picture of me and my friends?”

“Oh sure,” she said, putting her sweatshirt through the strap of her shoulder bag and holding out her hand for his phone.  “Right here?”

“In front of the moon,” he said.  “Can you get the whole thing in the picture if we stand here?”

“I think so.”  She held up his phone while Jason put his hands in his pockets and Kim made a face at him.  When Kim put her arm around Zack and he squeezed her shoulders in return, Jason got the message.

Pulling his hands out of his pockets, he leaned awkwardly into Zack on the other side.  Zack just put an arm over his shoulders too, and Jason smiled at their photographer. “All right,” Zack said, like he could see the expression.  “We’re good.”

“Looks great,” the woman called.  “Let me do one the other way, too; hang on.”

She turned his phone sideways and stood there for a second, then nodded.  “Okay, that’s great! See if you like them.”

Zack took his phone back from her and stood there next to her looking at the pictures, and they made him grin.  “That’s nice,” he said. “Really nice. Thank you; we appreciate you making us look so good.”

“It’s the moon,” she told him.  “Makes everyone more amazing.”

“You got that right,” Zack said cheerfully.  “You want a picture?”

“Sure,” she said.  “Thanks!”

She pulled her phone out of her bag and handed it to him, then ran right up to the moon and hugged it.  Zack laughed, tapping her phone a few times before turning it the way she had and doing it again. “Okay!” he called.  “You’re all set!”

She came back and took her phone, giving him a thumbs up when she looked at the pictures.  “Love it,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Have a great night,” he told her.

“You too!” she agreed.

Zack held up his phone as he came back, and Kim took it from him before it was even clear he was offering it.  Zack just grinned, and Kim handed it to Jason. “Okay, that does look awesome,” she said. “Since we can’t physically stand in space and take a picture of us with the moon in the background, that’s a close second.”

“Could put it on the screen,” Jason offered, handing the phone back to Zack.  “I mean, Trini could, probably. Put the moon up,” he added, when Kim gave him a look.  “Then we could all stand in front of it and have Alpha take a picture.”

Kim considered that for long enough that he thought she was trying to find a nice way to tell him how much he’d missed the point, but then she said, “Not only is that a cool idea, but you know what would be awesome?  If we morphed first, then took the picture, and posted it on the Dinosaur account.”

“Saying how much we liked the space park at Disney World,” Zack added.

Kim and Jason both looked at him, and Zack looked from one of them to the other.  “That’s not where you were going with that?” he said.

“No,” Kim said, “but I kind of like it.”

“I like,” Jason agreed.  “Pretty sure Disney would like it.  It’s a good thank you, right?”

“Well, maybe not if we call it the space park,” Kim said.

“That’s the connection,” Zack said.  “It’s the space park, and we’re in space.  If we just say thanks for Epcot it doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes us look cool,” Jason said.

“Okay, that’s true,” Zack said.  “You’re not wrong about that.”

“What if we call it Epcot but put space park in parentheses?” Kim said.

“Oh, hang on,” Zack said.  “Move away from the moon.” He backed up and crouched down on the other side of the “Mission: Space” sign, held up his phone, and then stared at it for a second.

When he brought it back, he offered it to Kim again.  “In case we need it later,” he said.

Jason looked over her shoulder.  Zack had gotten the moon behind the sign, which was not an easy angle, but it did look cool lit up with the swooshing backdrop of the roof behind it.  “Nice,” Jason said.

“See, Jason likes it,” Zack said.

“Can you send me that?” Kim asked.  “And the ones of us in front of the moon? Actually, can I just do it right now?”

“Yeah, sure,” Zack said.  “Send away.”

Kim scrolled through his pictures, checked off everything with space or them in it, and opened an email to herself.

“Me too,” Jason said quickly, and she added his address before she sent it.

“Done,” she said, handing the phone back to Zack.  “Thanks.”

“Oh, hey,” Zack said, before he put his phone away.  “Trini says we’re on the news.”

Jason’s phone buzzed at the same time, and he took it out while Kim looked at hers.  Trini had texted all of them, and Billy had added, Power Rangers are visiting Epcot.  You should look around; maybe you’ll see them.

Jason smiled.  “Hey, Billy just made a joke,” he said aloud.

“Really?” Kim asked, glancing at his phone without stopping her typing.  He had no idea how she did that without looking. “Is it safe for all audiences?”

“It’s Billy,” Zack said.  “He doesn’t even swear.”

“He swears when everyone else does,” Kim said.  “We might contaminate him with our non-family-friendly conversation.”

“He says the Power Rangers are at Epcot so we should keep an eye out,” Jason said.  “We might see them.”

“Yeah, maybe we could get a picture,” Zack agreed.  “Oh, wait.”

“That would be the best picture,” Kim said.  “Can we photoshop that or something? Or maybe I should say, can Billy photoshop something like that for us?”

“Everyone else got a picture with the Power Rangers,” Zack pointed out.  “It’s not like it would be weird, right?”

“It would be very weird,” Jason said.

“I think you just mispronounced awesome,” Kim told him.

“Right,” Jason said, typing on his phone, We’ll keep an eye out.  Kim wants to get a picture with them.

That’s a good idea, Billy replied immediately.   We weren’t at the photo shoot, though, and there are a lot of cameras that know that.  Maybe the Power Rangers will take pictures with people outside their ship later this weekend.

Jason just stared at his phone for a second, then said, “Wow.  Billy just improved on your plan.”

“What plan?” Kim asked.  “And yeah, you’re right, that is surprising.  All my plans are amazing already.”

“I agree,” Jason said, because he knew what the right answer was.  “Billy likes the idea of getting a picture with the Power Rangers. He said maybe they’ll take pictures with people outside their ship.”

“Away from security cameras,” Zack said.

Jason pointed at him without saying anything, then wrote back, We should definitely look into that.  Zack likes the idea too.

Trini says it sounds terrible, Billy wrote back.   I assume that means she agrees.

Jason laughed out loud, then wrote, Yeah.  That’d be my guess too.

Chapter Text

The ride turned out not to go the moon, which Jason thought was weird.  It was actually a space shuttle launching for Mars, and he thought it was going to be a movie right up until the moment they were walking into simulator boxes.  Even that seemed mostly normal: maybe they shook or moved up and down, right?

To be fair, there were signs right under the roof by the moon that split riders into two lines: Earth orbit and the Mars Mission.  Kim glanced at them and said Earth was the easy one, and Zack said he wanted the ship that went fast, so they went with Mars. There were signs along the queue that warned for motion sickness and told people with health conditions to reconsider, but Jason was still texting Billy and Kim and Zack were talking about the Power Rangers’ social media.  Or aliens. Maybe both; he wasn’t really listening.

They let him ignore them, and he put his phone away when they got to the front of the line, so everyone was happy.  Just as they were being ushered into a room with control panels in the walls and monitors on the ceiling, someone behind them asked their friend, “How many people have died on this ride, again?”

Jason thought that was probably a bad joke to make in a room full of Disney employees dressed in flight suits, lining people and families up in groups over colored lights on the floor.  But then the friend replied, “Just two. And they didn’t technically die on the ride, they died afterwards, so I’m not sure that counts.”

He didn’t know whether to be more concerned that everyone else’s friends were apparently just like his, or that at least one person believed that people had died as a result of the ride he was about to go on.  It was Disney World, not a gold space witch. It had to be safer than zords, right?

“Hey,” he said, tapping Kim’s elbow.  “Is this a really wild ride?”

“Nah,” she said.  “It’s a simulator.  You have plenty of practice with those.”

Not as much as he’d like to, but okay, it was a good point.  They shot things in the gym on the Delta Flyer, and they smashed things in the caves under Angel Grove.  They were good at wild simulations.

The groups walked out into a long curving hallway, and Jason wondered if everything at Disney World was circular.  They had more lights to stand in: underneath this time, instead of over, and another monitor to watch. That was the movie he’d expected, but they weren’t sitting down so it probably wasn’t the actual ride.

“Are we going to Mars?” he asked Kim when it finished.  “Or training to go to Mars?”

“Both?” she guessed.  “Yeah, I don’t know. Tell Zack he’s not allowed to get out of the shuttle.”

“Why not?” Zack asked from Jason’s other side.  “Isn’t that a good training experience? What to do if one of your teammates decides to leave the shuttle?”

The monitor came back on and the light over Jason turned off.  He looked around, and Zack’s light was off too but Kim’s was still on.  The person on the screen explained the job of the commander, and then Kim’s light went off.  Jason’s came on.

“The pilot is responsible for making sure the shuttle stays on course,” the person on the monitor said, and Jason looked at Kim.  “Are you the commander?” he asked.

“I guess,” she said.  “That makes you the pilot.  What a surprise.”

When Jason’s light went out and Zack’s came back on, he was the navigator, which made him shake his head.  The last spot in their team was empty, since the two people following them had wanted to ride together, but Jason thought it was appropriate that that was the engineer’s spot.

“Wait,” Zack said, when the light went out over the empty spot.  “How are we going to get to Mars without an engineer?”

“What about a doctor?” Kim asked.  “How long is this trip?”

“Less than a year.”  Someone in a flight suit stepped out of the door in front of them and added, “Let me remind you that advanced training is very intense, and you can opt out at any time.  I’ll need you to give me a go or thumbs up that you’re ready to continue before you enter the training capsule.”

“Go,”  Kim said immediately, flashing a thumbs up at the same time.

Jason gave the flight suit a thumbs up as he followed her.  The capsule was tiny and dark and Jason wondered if this was the easiest part of spaceflight to simulate: it was small and cramped and you were always too close to everything.  Then he blinked, because that wasn’t what spaceflight was like at all?

“Hey,” Kim said, patting the arm of the seat between them.  “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, pushing himself back into his seat.  He was still holding his water bottle, and Kim pointed at the bottom of the seat.  There was netting and velcro, and he figured the ride couldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t going to shake anything out of the under-seat compartments.

Their flight suit was still in the open door, telling them to pull down the bars and tug on the harnesses to make sure they were locked.  By the time they were done they were strapped in tighter than a roller coaster, and Jason looked for anything they could possibly fall out of and found nothing.  The entire capsule was enclosed, and their seats were basically cubby holes that held them in on three sides.

Then the flight suit banged on the door, told them, “Safe flight, astronauts,” and the opening clanged shut.  It was very dark.

The control panels lit up, and it was still dark, but the whole front wall was moving toward them.

“Oh, good,” Kim said.  “I was wondering how I was supposed to reach those buttons.”

“Did they say not to lean your head forward?” Zack asked, leaning as far forward as he possibly could.  “Why not? What happens if you lean your head forward?”

“Let us know,” Kim told him.

“Are these barf bags?” Zack added, reaching out to the wall that had finally stopped moving.  “Are these real? These are real. They really think we’re gonna throw up.”

“They’ve never been in the megazord when Billy makes it dance,” Kim said.

“That was hilarious,” Zack said.  “Did you see the video on youtube?”

“I’ve seen sixteen videos on youtube,” Kim said, “all of them accidentally.”

The screens in front of them lit up, and that was sort of reassuring.  It really was just a movie ride, Jason reminded himself. There weren’t any rock monsters or gold giants waiting to crush them.  Just a perfectly ordinary, dark, closet-sized room in the middle of an amusement park that liked to make people scream.

“Hey, Kim,” Jason said, turning his head against the advice of warnings posted all around them.  “You’re sure this ride is safe, right?”

“It’s a ride,” Kim said.  “Of course it’s safe. How many people do you think die at amusement parks?”

“Someone in line said two people died on this ride,” Jason told her.

“You were listening to people in line while you were texting Billy?” Kim said.  “Why weren’t you listening to us? We said your name like three times.”

“Are you scared of a Disney ride?” Zack asked, as the launch countdown began.

“Why is that weird?” Jason wanted to know.  “Disney World is run by a giant mouse wearing shorts and a bowtie.  Yeah, I’m worried about their ideas for getting to Mars.”

“Just close your eyes,” Kim told him.

“I don’t think it’s that kind of ride,” Zack said.

“It’s inside in a little box,” Kim said.  “It’s not a roller coaster.”

The “shuttle” tilted backwards, which Jason was almost positive wasn’t how shuttles worked, and there was a roaring sound as the “rockets” fired.  There was also heavy weight on his chest, like he was being pressed back into his seat--or like they were accelerating fast enough to shoot right out of the atmosphere.  The screen was showing the rocket booster they were riding, and in front of them was nothing but empty sky.

It was like a roller coaster with no track, and closing his eyes definitely did not help.

“Engineer,” a computerized voice said.  “Release spent stage.”

“We don’t have an engineer!” Zack called.

“Computer override,” the voice said.  “Spent stage released.”

“Oh, that’s helpful,” Kim said.

The sky was turning black and they were still shooting forward, the curve of the planet falling away behind them, like being in Spaceship Earth but without the comforting cars and people all around them.  If it was a ship, it was one he couldn’t control, and Jason didn’t like it. There was nothing keeping them up here.

“Pilot,” the computer’s voice said.  “Initiate lunar slingshot maneuver.”

One of the lights in front of Jason started flashing, and he stared at it in surprise.  What was he supposed to do about that? How did he slingshot a ship that wasn’t his own?  Why were they “training” by actually flying to another planet?

“Jason, push the button,” Kim said.

“What button?” he wanted to know.

“The one that’s flashing,” she said.  “The one right in front of you that says slingshot.  Are your eyes closed?”

“No,” he said, reaching for the button.  

Before he could hit it, the light turned steady and the voice said, “Computer override.  Slingshot maneuver initiated.”

“Why are we flying the ship if the computer can do it for us?” Kim wanted to know.  

“Because we’re in training,” Zack said.  “Hey, if you lean forward and turn your head the whole ship swings.”

“Why would you want that to happen?” Kim said.  Jason saw her lean forward out of the corner of his eye.  “Whoa. That’s weird.”

“Okay,” Zack said, his voice muffled by the sides of their seats again.  “That’s what the bags are for. Don’t turn your head too fast.”

“If you’re going to throw up, can you to it in the other direction?” Kim asked.

“I’m not gonna throw up.”  Zack sounded offended, and considering his hobbies Jason couldn’t blame him.  “I’m just offering some possibly useful advice.”

“Uh huh,” Kim said.  “Jason? How are you doing?”

“Fine,” he said, even though the monitor was showing some kind of unexpected flight interference and instructing the navigator to compensate somehow.  One of Zack’s buttons lit up, and Jason added, “Not dead yet.”

“Well, thirty seconds to Mars,” Zack said.  “Just kidding. Little Alpha joke there.”

“Yeah right,” Kim said.  “Like Alpha knows enough about pop culture to make that joke.”

“You don’t think so?” Zack asked.  “He says he’s been watching TV for forty years.  I bet he know what he’s talking about.”

One of Kim’s buttons lit up, and she pressed it before the voice could finish telling the commander to give the order for hypersleep.  “I guess that answers the doctor question,” she said. “I’m in charge of everything that isn’t engines or flying.”

“I’m fine with that,” Jason said.

“Too bad there’s no math or physics for Trini,” Zack said.  “Also, why are we asleep?”

“Because it’s a year to Mars,” Kim said.  “I assume. Seems a little dangerous to make everyone sleep through it, but okay.  Maybe we need fewer supplies that way or something.”

Jason thought they were shockingly thoughtful for a ride that was honestly not great for thinking.  Especially when they came out of “hypersleep” in the middle of an asteroid field and the entire shuttle flipped and spun like it was actually being struck.  They had joysticks, he realized, watching Kim grab for hers. They were supposed to steer through the asteroids.

He didn’t think moving was a great idea, so he left it up to Kim and Zack.  They survived the asteroid field, and at least he managed to push the flashing button for orbital descent, but he really thought overshooting the landing strip and coming to a stop on the edge of a cliff was not his fault.  How were they supposed to turn the shuttle around?

The monitors told them they were safe anyway, and welcomed them to Mars.

When the doors opened, Jason half expected to see frozen darkness and the lights of a colony on the other side.

“That was pretty great,” Kim said, pushing her restraints away and reaching for her water bottle.  “They should do a simulation of the Dinosaur lifting off from the mountain.”

“We didn’t need barf bags for that,” Zack said, already up and hanging on the doorframe.

“We didn’t need them for this either,” Kim pointed out.  “Jason?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” he said, standing up.

“You want your water?” Kim asked.

“Not really,” he said.

She looked at him for a second and then said, “You want me to get your water for you?”

He gave her a half-smile, because he was pretty sure nodding his head or moving too quickly in any direction was a bad idea.  “That’d be great,” he said.

“Everyone okay?” the flight suit called from the other side of Zack.  They were getting out on the opposite side they’d gotten in, so maybe it wasn’t the same person.

Zack didn’t answer, just asked, “You okay?” while Kim crouched down and pulled his water bottle out from under the seat.

“I’m actually terrible at roller coasters,” Jason admitted.  “I thought it might--uh, not be so bad. Now.” Now that they were magical, he wanted to say, but apparently not everything was better.

The flight suit was trying to see past Zack, who was blocking the entire doorway--maybe on purpose, Jason realized, when Kim didn’t try to push past him.  “It definitely dropped there in the middle,” Zack said.

“Some people have trouble with the spinning,” the flight suit offered from behind him.  Jason still couldn’t see the source of the voice, but he gave Kim a thumbs up when she looked at him questioningly.

So she turned and waved for Zack to move, asking the flight suit on the way out, “Spinning?  When did it spin?”

“Pretty much the whole time,” their helper said, watching Jason carefully as he stepped out of the capsule.  “It’s a centrifuge; that’s what creates the feeling of gravity and motion. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, giving another thumbs up.  “No problem.”

“Try chewing on something,” the flight suit suggested.  “And get some fresh air. Moving air helps a lot.”

“Okay,” Jason agreed.  “Thanks.”

“Sure,” the flight suit said.  “If you don’t feel well, there’s an aid station right outside the cargo bay.  Out this way, and follow the hall to your right.”

“Thanks,” Kim repeated, but Jason felt better as soon as he was standing on the ground and walking again.  The weird dizziness fell away, and he shook his head before he thought about it.

Nothing terrible happened, and he took a deep breath.

“Good?” Kim asked, taking a step back.

“Yeah,” he said.  “I’m good. Let’s go.”

Zack was waiting for them in the hallway, and they walked around the curving wall in silence.  Jason checked his pocket for his phone, and when he looked around again Kim offered him his water.  He took it, and maybe drinking was as good as chewing, because it seemed like it helped.

There was another big room at the end of the hall, maybe more than one depending on whether they considered the widening hall and arcade-like games a room or not.  It took him a minute to spot the exit on the far side. It was just as bright and filled with people as the end of Spaceship Earth had been.

For a second, he knew exactly how Billy felt when he was surrounded by unpredictable people in an environment he didn’t know.

“Oh, hey,” Kim said.  “Do you want to go outside?  We can.”

“But?” Zack prompted.

“But I want that jacket,” Kim said, pointing across the store.

“What jacket?” Zack demanded.  “You literally just walked in, and you’re buying clothes from across the room?”

There was a giant Mickey standing up on one of the displays between them and the door, complete with space suit and helmet, and Jason pointed at it wordlessly.  Zack glanced at him and grinned at his expression. “Yeah, note to self, don’t trust the mouse to get you to Mars.”

“I think we learned our lesson,” Kim said.

“Don’t fly with rodents?” Zack suggested.

“Never go to Mars,” she said.

“I’m okay to cross it off the list,” Jason said.  “And shop away. I’m fine.”

“You’re really fine, or you’re saying you’re fine so you can text Billy without us interrupting you?” Kim asked.

That wasn’t what he’d expected her to say, and he had to smile.  “Does it matter?” he asked.

“Not really,” she said.  “I’ll be right back.”

He did text Billy, but mostly because he probably should ask more questions about the rides everyone else liked.  He said “hey” and “do those pandora rides you were talking about have any spinning” and Billy replied before he could add a smiley face to show he was joking.  He wasn’t.

I think the boat ride turns a little from side to side, Billy wrote back.   I don’t think it makes a complete circle.

Jason gave up and wrote, Is it fast?

No, Billy replied.   It’s on a track in the water, I think.

Water probably meant it didn’t have any hills, at least.   Okay, thanks, Jason said.   Want any souvenirs from the space gift shop?

Can you get me an X-2 shuttle? Billy wrote back.   I’ll pay you back for it.  Or maybe that doesn’t make sense, given that we’re using park money.  I’ll buy you something in return?

Jason smiled.   You don’t have to buy me something, he said.   I just wanted to get you something.  What’s an X-2 shuttle?

Are you at the Mission: Space ride? Billy asked.

Yeah, we just got off it, Jason wrote back.

The X-2 is the fictional deep space shuttle you rode to Mars, Billy told him.   Well, not really, but that’s part of the simulation.  They should have models of the X-2 in the Cargo Bay gift shop.

Jason really wanted to ask how he knew that, but he was afraid it would sound like he thought it was weird that Billy knew it, so he didn’t.  There were a lot of model shuttles around him, but now that Billy said “X-2,” he could see that some of them had some extra wings or something.  They were clearly labeled “X-2,” so he figured it would be hard to go wrong.

You got it, he wrote back.

It wasn’t that easy, of course, but he wasn’t alone, either.  Zack had wandered back the way they’d come, but Kim was trying on a black coat and trying to take a selfie at the same time.  Jason pulled out his phone, walked up, and asked first. “Want a picture?” he asked.

“Yes please,” Kim said, like that made perfect sense.  Good to know Pearl wasn’t the only one who wanted to see herself in something before she bought it.  Jason took the picture and offered her his phone.

“Wow,” she said, and he had no idea what to make of her tone.  Then she added, “That even looks good on me. Problem: they don’t have an extra small.”

She looked at him expectantly, and he shrugged.  “So get a small? How many extra small people do you know?”

“This is a small,” Kim told him.  She handed him his phone back before she tugged the jacket around her and showed him the overlap.  “It’ll be huge on Trin.”

Right, he thought.  Trini was definitely extra small.  “Kids’ sizes?” he suggested.

“I thought of that,” Kim said.  “They only come in adult.”

He took a closer look at her jacket when he realized the designs on it were actual pictures.  “Is that the Millennium Falcon?” he asked.

“Yes,” Kim said patiently.  “Because this is a jacket showing the ships of Star Wars.  Spaceships, if you’re not familiar. On black.”

“Like space,” Jason said.

“Like the color Trini actually does not own any of, which is still shocking to me,” Kim said.  “I have to get her something reasonably colored so I can wear it.”

Jason eyed her, not sure whether that was a joke or not.  “What?” he said finally. “Sorry, was that supposed to make sense?”

“I need Trini to have a black jacket so she can loan it to me,” Kim said.  “Obviously. This looks like something she’d wear, except for the fact that it’s black, which is a color I wear.  So it’s a perfect combination of our styles, except for the fact that the small would probably fit you.”

“That will definitely not fit me,” he said.

“You know what I mean,” she told him.

“Not really,” Jason said.  “If you’re going to wear it, it doesn’t have to fit Trini.  And isn’t the whole point of wearing someone else’s clothes that they don’t fit exactly right?  That’s how people know they’re not yours.”

“I’m not wearing clothes that are too small for me,” Kim told him.

He didn’t have to look to be aware of her leggings disguised as jeans, super fitted shirt, and too-short jacket.  “If you say so,” he said. “My point is, Trini wears her shirts and jackets big. Or at least, so they look big; I’m sure they’re carefully calculated to be exactly whatever size they are.  You wearing a slightly, and I stress very slightly, too big jacket will make you look more like you’re wearing Trini’s clothes, not less.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kim said.  She was already taking it off and putting it back on the hanger.  “I’ll take it. What are you getting for Billy?”

“A model spaceship?” he said.  “His request. It has to be an X-2.”

“First off,” Kim said, putting the jacket over her arm, “I love that you asked him.  Good choice. Second, and I’m just looking around here…” She did turn, giving the room a sweeping look before saying, “The fact that it has to be an X-2 narrows it down to like, two dozen choices.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed.  “That’s why I’m asking you.”

“Oh, you’re not asking me to pick out your gift for your boyfriend,” Kim said.  “That’s really not how you do it.”

“There is no how I do it,” Jason said.  “I’ve never bought gifts for anyone except my family before.”

“Aw,” Kim said.  “Well, I’m trying never to buy gifts for my family again, so we’re a good match.  Would your family consider adopting me?”

“Sure,” Jason said.  “I think you’ll have to fight Trini’s mom for it, though.  And I don’t think she’s a good loser.”

“I’m sure she’s amazingly good at everything she does,” Kim said.  “Including losing. The woman needs a vacation like you wouldn’t believe.”

“You think she’d be any different on a vacation?” Jason asked.

“Okay, no,” Kim admitted.  “I take it back, her in charge of a vacation would be terrifying.  Which is why I’m petitioning for asylum in your family now, instead of waiting.”

“If it comes down to adoption,” Jason said, “I think Zack was there first.  But I’ll fight him for it.”

“Please don’t,” Kim said, but it made her smile.

“If you marry Trini, my family won’t matter,” Jason pointed out.

“Are you kidding?” Kim said, but it wasn’t marrying Trini that she was objecting to, and Jason thought that was the best part, really.  “If you adopt me and then I marry Trini, we’ll have to spend half of the holidays with you. That’s a fifty percent decrease in time with her mom.  What about that isn’t worth it?”

“You make a compelling case,” Jason told her.  “I’ll talk to my mom.”

“Great,” Kim said.  “She was okay with Tommy being in your room, right?  Does she know you’re gay? We could just tell her I’m gay and then it wouldn’t matter.”

“Are you actually going to move in with me?” Jason asked.  “How old are you? Do you even need to be adopted?”

“Everyone needs to be adopted,” she said lightly, and she didn’t look away but he knew he’d hurt her somehow.  “I’m telling Trini you won’t adopt me.”

“Hey,” Jason said, frowning.  “I said something stupid; I’m sorry.  I’ll definitely adopt you. How about right now?”

“Okay,” she said.

That wasn’t exactly what he’d expected, but he could roll with it.  “Okay, go pick out an adoption present,” he told her. “We’ll have Zack be our witness.  When we find him.”

Kim smiled.  “Okay,” she repeated.  “I hope you know this means I get Pearl as my sister.”

“What, you can’t steal her,” Jason objected.  “You have to share.”

“I’m an only child,” Kim reminded him.  “I don’t know anything about sharing.”

“What?” Jason said.  “I thought you just said you were an only child.  That’s not how adoption works; you adopt one member of a family, you get them all.”

“You’re adopting me,” Kim told him.

“We’re adopting each other,” Jason replied.  “Go find something that’s actually for you, not just really for you but you’re pretending it’s for Trini.”

“No, you need me to pick out your present for Billy,” Kim protested.

“I’m not actually incompetent,” Jason told her.  “He told me what it’s called, and I can read.”

She looked skeptical of this, so he added, “You can review it for me before I buy it, how’s that.”

“Deal,” she said instantly.  “Don’t fight with Zack.”

She was gone before he could say, about what?  And then he remembered anyway. Her adoption. He didn’t really get it, honestly, but apparently it was a thing.

He texted Pearl, Hey, can we adopt Kim as our sister?

Why? Pearl replied immediately.   Isn’t she going to be my sister already?  I thought you were going to marry her.

Because she’s lonely, Jason wrote, and I’m not going to marry her.  So we have to adopt her.

You should marry her, Pearl said.   I like her.

Good, Jason said.   So we’re adopting her.  Send me a thing I can say at our formal ceremony in a few minutes.  Then he added, It’s not really formal.

He looked around at the nearest shuttles, but most of them were normal shuttles as far as he could tell.  The X-2s all seemed to be clustered in the middle of the store, and there were plenty of pins and posters, but no models that weren’t toys.  Some of the toys came with Mars rovers and some didn’t. He was trying to decide if the one that lit up was cooler than the one with the Mars rovers when Pearl replied.

You should say welcome to the family, she said.   Obviously.  And also that we’ll always love her, because that’s what family does.  And tell her that I said thanks for learning my language.

Jason smiled.   You’re the best, he wrote back.

Of all your sisters? she replied.

Yeah, he said.   Except when we adopt Kim she’ll have to be the best too; is that all right?

Obviously, Pearl wrote again, and Jason didn’t know why people thought texting was bad for kids’ spelling.   You can’t have bad sisters, or even less good sisters.  That’s not how it works.

Oh, okay, he wrote back.   Thanks for letting me know.

You’re my best brother, Pearl told him, and he laughed.

Yeah, thanks for that, he replied.

No you are, she said.   Brothers are the best!  And also sisters. And siblings who aren’t brothers or sisters.  Did Tommy go to Disney World with you?

No, Jason told her.   I haven’t seen Tommy since school.

That’s too bad, Pearl said.   I hope they’re okay.

I haven’t seen you since before school, he said.   Are you okay?