“Can I borrow this?” Tommy suddenly asked, indicating the snake. Conner didn’t look up, but just nodded anyway, clutching his head in his hands, as Trent disappeared into the bathroom, muttering about staying out of Kira’s way when she extracted her revenge.

Tommy mumbled a thanks, and left their room through the same door Kira had, glancing down the hall, to see the girl knocking on the door she shared with Kimberly, and shook his head. He was going to leave this one to the kids. Better for him to stay out of it; besides, he already had Kimberly to worry about; but right now he was going to start making good on his promise to get every single one of his friends back for their incessant teasing.

Luckily the elevator was empty, and he had no trouble reaching Zack’s floor quickly. Gaining entrance to the room was a bit different.“That’s so sexist,” Kira said with a sniff. “And how come we didn’t get a Pink?”

“I never found a Pink Gem,” Tommy said, shrugging.

“Couldn’t you have looked harder?” Kira whined. “Much as I love these three idiots, I could have used another girl.”

“Hey!” Trent, Conner and Ethan complained.

“Two idiots,” Kira amended with a teasing grin at the guys.

“To be honest, Kira, I was planning on having two girls,” Tommy said. “You stole Trini’s Gem. And Ethan stole Hayley’s.”

“What?” Ethan demanded. “Trini and Hayley were going to use the Gems?”“But…” Kim pressed again when he paused. He regarded her for a moment and then continued.

“But those hives aren’t normal. They’re growing at a phenomenal rate and readings show a high aluminum content, they’re poisoning her. For some reason she’s more sensitive than the rest of you.”

“She got stung by a similar metal creature before.” Jason added. They turned to him and he continued. “One of Ivan’s, when we fell back through time. It was one of those little ooze filled scorpions, remember it?” He asked Kim.

“That’s right,” She confirmed. “I remember it now.” It had been an attack of hundreds of tiny metallic scorpions. She and Jason hadn’t been stung, but Carri had. “But she didn’t have a much of reaction to it.” Kim added.