“No,” Tommy retorted, whirling around to face the teenagers, all who wore looks that begged for an alien to attack and distract their teacher. “Move!” he commanded them. Conner and Ethan jumped to the right, as Trent moved to the left, attempting to pull Kira along with her. The yellow teen glared at him, making him let go, before staring straight into Tommy’s eyes with renewed bravery. “Kira, don’t make me repeat myself.” She narrowed her gaze, but moved slightly to the left to let him pass. The moment he took one step forward, she stuck her foot out and tripped him so he was now on the floor in the middle of the hall way between Conner, Ethan, and Trent, with Kira standing over him, and his high school teammates behind her. He rolled onto his back, to see her glaring down at him, and it was quite intimidating.

“Quit acting like a wounded baby!” she snapped. “Firstly, you shouldn’t have lied. Secondly, you shouldn’t have made us lie. Thirdly, it’s your own fault, so deal with the teasing. And fourth, you should be proud not ashamed. There are at least ten ranger teams out there who all wish they could fight along someone like you, and you act like having the power a horrible thing. Well, news flash for you Dr. O: We don’t choose the power! It chooses us! And right now, I wish it hadn’t chosen you.” With that, she turned on her heel and stormed down the hall, bursting through the crowd of former rangers in her haste to reach the elevator, still simmering. Trent, Conner, and Ethan looked from her back, to their predecessors, to their downed teammate.Now, however, to see Tommy and Kimberly together again… it was really uplifting. They had fallen right back into the teasing, and the sparring match seemed so much like something they would have done as teenagers. Jason couldn’t count how many times he, or one of the others, had been forced to break up similar matches before they went a little too far.

“I’ve got you! I’ve got you!” Tommy shouted, completely flattening Kimberly against the floor.

“No you haven’t!” Kimberly shrieked, struggling for all she was worth.His marriage to Cestria had been an odd affair. Aquitians were mammalian, like humans, but they weren’t a physical race. Sex was in no way, shape, or form the way his race copulated on earth. Cestria had been curious, but she’d also been repelled by his touch. Aquitian procreation was an artificial affair; intimacy was a combination of telepathic and telekinetic techniques. If there was one good thing to come from his tenure on that planet, he thought, it was the development of those skills. Billy shook his mind free of old memories. His marriage had been a joke. Cestria had bled his mind of knowledge and tried to keep him like an exotic pet. She’d been stunned that he rebelled once he gained his strength back, but that was another issue altogether.