Disclaimer: Power Rangers, and all related indicia, are Saban's.
Not mine. You know the rest. The "Rockaway" is directly taken
from a fictional location in Christi Smith Hayden's unbelievable 12-story
Gargoyles fanfic series. There is also an in-joke to Gargoyles in here.
If your sharp eyes catch it, e-mail me :)
..........He should have known it was too
good to be true.
..........Rocky DeSantos sat at a booth beside
the window of the Rockaway, a new rock-blues cafe in Stone Canyon, trying
desperately not to fidget. Every couple of minutes he wished for a mirror,
sure that his blue flannel shirt was wrinkled or his jeans were stained.
Instead of having butterflies in his stomach, he felt as though he had
a squadron of TIE fighters zipping around in there.
..........As he made a mental note to lay
off watching Star Wars repeatedly, the reason for his nerves sat down across
from him and smiled. The squadron in his stomach suddenly did loop-de-loops,
and he swallowed.
..........After having a hopeless crush on
Andrea Taylor for six months, Rocky couldn't believe his luck when he'd
found himself sitting next to her at lunch. It had amazed him even more
when he'd opened his big mouth to ask her out, and had positively shocked
him when she'd agreed and suggested the Rockaway. Looking at her, he still
couldn't believe his luck. Her long auburn hair spilled over her shoulders
in dark waves that shone reddish-orange when they caught the light. As
she smiled and he scrabbled for something to say, her bright green eyes
sparkled mischievously from her elfin face.
..........Oh god, I've got to say something.
What am I going to say? Rocky's mind was suddenly a blank. Geez,
I said I'd meet her, I came here half an hour early and waited to psych
myself up, and I can't even figure out how to say hello! What's my problem?
..........The crowd was gathering on the
dance floor; they weren't half bad, imitating Dave Matthews Band pretty
well. A sentence flashed into his brain, and without considering the implications,
he sent it to his mouth. "Umm, do you want to dance?"
..........IDIOT! his head screamed
as he grinned like a fool. You don't know how to dance!
..........Andrea blushed. "I don't
really know how to," she admitted.
..........Rocky stood up and took her hand,
willing himself to stay upright. "We can just fake it," he offered.
..........As they swayed out on the dance
floor, pretending they knew what they were doing, Rocky heard a horrid
sound. A familiar sound. A sound that made him want to disassemble a certain
robot.
..........But duty called.
..........Sighing, he steered Andrea over
to the table. "I've got to make a phone call," he fibbed, hoping
he didn't look as ill as he felt.
..........He did. "Are you feeling all
right?" she asked worriedly.
.........."I'm fine. Just being paged."
He took out some money from his wallet. "Here. This might be a while,
so just in case you need anything--"
..........Andrea kissed him. "Just go."
..........He sighed and headed over to the
empty corridor near the phones and punched his communicator. "What's
up, Alpha?"
.........."Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi! Mondo has
sent down the Poison Pen monster to attack Adam and Tanya! Billy and I
can't get through to any of the others! Oh, ay-yi-yi-yi--"
.........."I'll be right there,"
Rocky growled. Geez, he thought as he teleported away. Alpha
really needs a new catchphrase.
..........Rocky teleported back into the
hallway, exhausted. He'd never hurried so much trying to defeat a monster,
and it had never seemed to take so long. At least he'd gotten there in
time; ten more minutes and both his friends would be.....Shuddering at
the thought, he pushed it away. He hoped Andrea was still here.
.........."Rocky DeSantos! Where were
you??"
..........He turned, slowly, to meet the gaze
of his enraged date. The sweet Andrea who had come with him to the Rockaway
was gone, replaced by a frustrated, angry copy. Her hair was mussed, and
her green eyes were blazing fiercely as they bored into him. "Oh,
um, geez--" He tried to withhold the inexorable bout of stammering.
"Look, Andie, I'm sorry. My friend Adam--Adam Park, you know--he was
in major trouble, and I had to bail him out. I didn't have time to catch
you."
.........."And he called you?"
She stared at him in shock. "Give me a break, Rocky." Andrea
shouldered her purse, turned to go, and turned back. "Would you like
to know what happened during the half hour you vanished?"
..........He was doomed. "I don't have
a choice, do I?"
.........."I spent the past half hour
having to fend off this total moron who kept hitting on me!" She smoothed
her hair as best she could. "The idiot couldn't take a hint. He kept
following me around, offering to buy me dinner, and did not understand
the meaning of the word NO!" Andrea's eyes were watering and her lip
trembled.
..........Despite his common sense, Rocky
tried to smooth it over. "I couldn't bail on Adam, Andie! My pager
number was the only one he remembered, and he and his girlfriend were--"
.........."I don't care about Adam or
his girlfriend!" she snapped. "I'm sick and tired of excuses!"
She looked at him then, her large eyes brimming with tears. "Can't
you give me a straight answer, Rocky? Just this once? The truth."
..........Rocky swallowed against a dry throat.
One part of him desperately wanted to tell her, and another part was screaming
at him not to. No, please, not when this was going so great....
..........She frowned, reading his silence.
"Very well, then," she said icily. "Rocky, I gave you a
shot, and--and--you blew it. I'm getting a ride home with some friends."
She turned and opened the door.
.........."Andie--"
..........Andrea turned back one last time.
"And don't call me ANDIE!!" she shouted as she slammed
the door and stormed into the cool night air, leaving Rocky standing there,
alone.
..........As he watched her climb into the
blue van, a steady rain began to fall. Tasting salt on his tongue, Rocky
wiped his eyes and headed for a corner booth.
..........It was almost closing time.
..........Rocky finished his third Coke, ignoring
the stares of the remaining staff who were trying to figure out how to
get him to leave. He looked so depressed and disturbed that none of them
wanted to even try.
..........Ignoring their looks, Rocky stared
numbly into the plastic cup. The pain in his gut had subsided, leaving
a dull emptiness. He leaned back and inhaled deeply, on the verge of laughing
at himself. I should be used to this by now, he mused as he turned
to stare at the rain streaking the windowpanes. Off to save the world,
and this is the thanks I get.
..........He took a long swig of the Coke
and nearly choked. Good thing this is only Coke.
..........With a sigh, he leaned forward,
silently contemplating the tabletop. Why had he even agreed to be a Power
Ranger? At the time, it had seemed like the ultimate rush, a chance to
save the world. Two years ago, he had jumped at the chance to join the
team. If I knew then what I knew now, I'd probably turn it down.
..........Was it worth it? Sure, they
consistently beat the bad guys back to where they came from, but almost
always left a junk heap of damage in their wake. Angel Grove was running
out of abandoned districts for them to lure the monsters into, and the
park was no longer safe to cross alone. In the end, the main bad guy was
still intact, and ready and raring to strike again, whether the Rangers
were ready to fight back or not.
..........He was running out of excuses; after
two years of skipping out whenever his communicator went off, Rocky had
compiled a novel's worth of creative excuses for family and friends. And
girlfriends. They were less excuses than lies, and that made him ill to
think of it. More often than not, he'd been tempted to tell his family
the truth. His father believed in strict loyalty to the family, and every
fib Rocky had to use stung deep, a barb he couldn't pull out.
..........But they wouldn't understand. His
parents would have a fit if they knew that he was a Ranger, and they just
wouldn't see why he had to do what he did. Come to think of it, if he was
losing sight of the real reason, they wouldn't see it at all.
.........."Got room for two?"
..........He jerked up, staring at a familiar
face as Adam stood there, hands in his pockets and looking sheepish. "What
are you doing here? Didn't you have plans with Tanya?"
.........."At one a.m.?" Adam sat
down across from his friend. "Zordon wanted to teleport you home,
but I told him to let me come instead."
..........Rocky made a face. "Let me
guess. You're going to give me a patented pep-talk. 'It's not so bad, Rocky.
You'll find another girl.'" He finished the last of the Coke. "You
can save it, I know the routine by heart."
.........."Actually," Adam said
quietly, "I came down to say thanks."
..........Speechless, Rocky stared at him
as Adam went on.
.........."You really pulled through
for me," Adam said quietly. "That thing had a hold of Tanya,
and I couldn't fight it. If it hadn't been for you...." He trailed
off.
..........Rocky shrugged. "Jason, Kat
or Tommy could have helped better than me."
.........."Yeah, but they didn't risk
a chance with Andrea Taylor to pull my sorry ass out of trouble."
Adam sighed. "Rocko, look. You've been my best friend since we were
in first grade. I know it doesn't seem like that now, because of everything.
I haven't been such a great friend, but you've always been there. For all
of us, no matter how much it messed up your own life or if you even knew
how to help." He checked his watch and stood. "That's really
all I had to say. I have to go help my dad clean up the mess my cousins
made of the den."
..........As he turned to leave, Rocky heard
himself speak. "Hey, Adam, wait up." Adam turned, an odd expression
on his face. "You want a hand?"
..........His friend grinned and merely beckoned.
..........The waitress watched the two friends
go with a tired scowl on her face. At least now we can close up for
the night, she mused as she went over to clean up.
..........As she did so, she could have sworn
she saw two flashes of light outside, one green and one blue. Her double
take revealed only the empty street through a hazy curtain of rain, and
she sighed.
.........."That's it," she muttered
as she picked up the rather generous tip. "I am not pulling
another Friday late shift...."
