The End of Days
Title: The End of Days, Chapter 12
Author: Griddlebone/eggplantlady
Prompt: #001 - the fox as shepherd
Fandom: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
Genre: Divergence/AU/Post-Apocalyptic
Word Count: 1750
Rating: T
Summary: Tommy takes his first flight test.
Previous installments are here.
With practiced ease, Kimberly brought the airship to life. Tommy watched carefully as she flipped switches and warned him which gauges to keep an eye on. He had covered all this information during his previous training at the 'Hold, of course, but seeing it happen in real life was entirely different from reading about it in a textbook or working with a model.
As he watched Kimberly's demonstration, he filed the information away into the same part of his brain that had always immediately absorbed the knowledge of how to pilot his many Zords during his stint as a Power Ranger. That part of his life was starting to feel alarmingly distant, and that feeling only grew stronger as he spent more time in this new world. He felt almost guilty for fitting in so well at the 'Hold, and devoting himself to joining their Ranger program when he could have been searching more actively for a way to get back home.
But even as he felt guilty about his failure to find a way home, he found the mechanics of the airships here too fascinating to pass up. By the time they actually lifted off of the compound's roof, he felt like he had the gist of the controls.
They flew east for a while as Kimberly continued to explain the ship's inner workings in detail. After about an hour, she glanced over at him with a mischievous look in her eyes and asked, "Want to give it a try?"
Of course he did, and they both knew it.
The ship had no automatic piloting system, something she quickly assured him that Billy was working on, so making the switch required good timing. Once Tommy was seated in the pilot's chair and had taken the controls, he thought Kimberly would head over to take up the co-pilot's position, but she lingered next to him instead.
They continued on their eastern course without incident for a long time. The weather was good and even though the land below him was a desert wasteland, Tommy found himself enjoying the chance to explore beyond the 'Hold. He had just spotted a strange cluster of mesas slightly to the north when Kimberly instructed him to take the airship lower. He had a bad feeling about that mess, and sure enough, Kimberly pointed and said, "I want you to head over there."
"What is it?" he asked.
"The elders call it the training ground," she explained. "It's kind of a trial by fire for new pilots."
He had been afraid she was going to say something like that, but at the same time he was pleased to have the chance to really prove himself. And really, after piloting as many Zords as he had, how hard could it be?
As he guided the ship toward the training ground, he thought of something. "How come you don't use these for your patrols?"
"We do," Kimberly told him. "How do you think we do long-range surveillance? And we use them when we need to pick up injured Rangers, and for some other things, like when the elders wanted to bring you, me, and Trini in for questioning when we first found you. The gliders are just easier and less - how did Billy put it? - resource intensive for close-range missions."
Tommy supposed that made sense. From what he had seen, resources like fuel were pretty scarce in this ruined version of the Earth, and the gliders had the advantage of being able to glide for long distances without using any fuel at all while the airships were engine-powered.
The airship's cockpit was quiet and tense as Tommy guided the ship into the training course. They were so low now that stone loomed close on both sides, plunging the cockpit into shade.
Occasionally, Kimberly would give him some small bit of advice or a specific direction to take, but for the most part both of them remained silent. Fortunately, the air was calm around the ship, with only a faint breeze and the slightest hint of turbulence. All of the ship's many gauges remained well within the safe zones, and Tommy was able to keep the ship safely away from any of the obstacles without a problem. It was nerve-wracking trying to keep the ship on course without bumping into anything and potentially puncturing the airbag that kept it aloft, but it wasn't nearly as difficult a test as he had thought it might be.
"So, did I pass?" he asked as they emerged into open air on the other side of the training course.
"You're a natural," Kimberly murmured. "Are you sure you've never flown one of these before?"
"I've just always been pretty good with machines," he told her. He had to try very hard to ignore the way she had practically draped herself over his shoulder.
"Well, that was the easy course," Kimberly went on. "We should probably head back soon. This was just a basic assessment of your skills, so we can see where you're at as a pilot and how much work we'll need to do to get you up to speed. Tomorrow we'll start working on the real training."
He recalled a question he had been meaning to ask. "Am I ever going to fly one of the gliders?"
Kimberly laughed. "You're way too big for a glider. But you showed so much promise in the written exams - and you kept saying how much you wanted to fly - that the elders wanted to get you up in the air as soon as possible, to see what you could really do."
It always felt odd to him to hear that the elders believed in him. They were uniformly stern to him when he encountered them. "Really?"
This time she smiled reassuringly. "Really. Now let's turn this bird around. After the training course, this should be easy..."
And it was, but as he turned the airship around to head for the 'Hold, he caught sight of an unusual rock formation in the desert to the northwest. "Hey, Kim, what's that?"
She had to glance back to see what he was talking about. "Oh, that. It's just one of the Slags."
He steered the ship well clear of the training course; he might have passed his beginner's test with flying colors but he had no desire to try working the course in reverse. "Slags?"
She sighed, and went to sit in the co-pilot's chair. He had become so used to having her in close proximity that it felt weird now that she wasn't right beside him.
"I thought they were tutoring you in history."
"They are," he said, glad to have the conversation to help keep his mind off other things. "But hearing about something and seeing it are totally different."
"Well, there it is. One of the places where the End began," Kimberly said, her voice turning sour.
Tommy couldn't resist giving the distant Slag a long, hard look, and remembering just how lucky his own world had been. In this world, he'd learned, Rita Repulsa had come to an unprotected Earth and destroyed the human civilization she found there, ruining much of the ecosystem in the process. At least his world had had a fighting chance.
For the first time, he wondered if this world had had a Zordon and a Command Center. If he was going to find a clue that could get him home, it would be at the Command Center. He'd avoided thinking about it in the past, because he had no chance of finding it on foot, if it even existed. But with an airship, he could make the trip for sure. All he would have to do would be to figure out where to look.
It seemed like a great plan until he remembered the catch: he wouldn't be allowed to take one of the airships out alone for a long time. If he wanted to find the Command Center, he was going to have to spend a lot more time training with Kimberly, and he was going to have to come up with a way to convince her to go along with his plan. And that worried him, and not just because she would probably think he was crazy if he tried to explain where he had come from.
Spending time with Kimberly was going to be a problem.
When he had first come here, he had resolved not to get emotionally entangled with anyone, least of all another version of Kimberly. And for the most part he had stood by that resolution so far. But in spite of his best efforts, she was starting to get under his skin.
It was the little things, the murmured words and casual touches, that were really getting to him.
And the more time he spent here, with her, the more he realized that she wasn't the Kimberly that had broken his heart at all. It was confusing to have to deal with people that looked and acted like his old friends from Angel Grove, especially when one of them was Kimberly. They were all starting to blur together in his head until he wasn't quite sure: if he started dating this Kimberly, what did that say about his relationship with the other Kimberly? Did it even matter?
If he ever got home, he would never see this Kimberly again. If he never found a way home, he'd never have to worry about the other one again.
But this Kimberly was here now, and it was obvious that she was interested in him. He couldn't deny that he was interested in her, too, and he was starting to wonder if it was fair not to give her a chance just because she looked like his ex. Having a girlfriend again after all this time didn't sound like such a bad idea, even though there was a little voice in his head, that sounded a lot like his conscience, that kept telling him that getting romantically involved with Kimberly again was the stupidest thing he could possibly do right now.
Tommy caught sight of the Stronghold in the distance and shook himself free of his distracted thoughts. As he guided the airship home, he glanced at Kimberly, who was steadfastly refusing to look at him. No matter what he chose to do next, it might not end well. He would just have to choose and hope for the best.
Author: Griddlebone/eggplantlady
Prompt: #001 - the fox as shepherd
Fandom: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
Genre: Divergence/AU/Post-Apocalyptic
Word Count: 1750
Rating: T
Summary: Tommy takes his first flight test.
Previous installments are here.
With practiced ease, Kimberly brought the airship to life. Tommy watched carefully as she flipped switches and warned him which gauges to keep an eye on. He had covered all this information during his previous training at the 'Hold, of course, but seeing it happen in real life was entirely different from reading about it in a textbook or working with a model.
As he watched Kimberly's demonstration, he filed the information away into the same part of his brain that had always immediately absorbed the knowledge of how to pilot his many Zords during his stint as a Power Ranger. That part of his life was starting to feel alarmingly distant, and that feeling only grew stronger as he spent more time in this new world. He felt almost guilty for fitting in so well at the 'Hold, and devoting himself to joining their Ranger program when he could have been searching more actively for a way to get back home.
But even as he felt guilty about his failure to find a way home, he found the mechanics of the airships here too fascinating to pass up. By the time they actually lifted off of the compound's roof, he felt like he had the gist of the controls.
They flew east for a while as Kimberly continued to explain the ship's inner workings in detail. After about an hour, she glanced over at him with a mischievous look in her eyes and asked, "Want to give it a try?"
Of course he did, and they both knew it.
The ship had no automatic piloting system, something she quickly assured him that Billy was working on, so making the switch required good timing. Once Tommy was seated in the pilot's chair and had taken the controls, he thought Kimberly would head over to take up the co-pilot's position, but she lingered next to him instead.
They continued on their eastern course without incident for a long time. The weather was good and even though the land below him was a desert wasteland, Tommy found himself enjoying the chance to explore beyond the 'Hold. He had just spotted a strange cluster of mesas slightly to the north when Kimberly instructed him to take the airship lower. He had a bad feeling about that mess, and sure enough, Kimberly pointed and said, "I want you to head over there."
"What is it?" he asked.
"The elders call it the training ground," she explained. "It's kind of a trial by fire for new pilots."
He had been afraid she was going to say something like that, but at the same time he was pleased to have the chance to really prove himself. And really, after piloting as many Zords as he had, how hard could it be?
As he guided the ship toward the training ground, he thought of something. "How come you don't use these for your patrols?"
"We do," Kimberly told him. "How do you think we do long-range surveillance? And we use them when we need to pick up injured Rangers, and for some other things, like when the elders wanted to bring you, me, and Trini in for questioning when we first found you. The gliders are just easier and less - how did Billy put it? - resource intensive for close-range missions."
Tommy supposed that made sense. From what he had seen, resources like fuel were pretty scarce in this ruined version of the Earth, and the gliders had the advantage of being able to glide for long distances without using any fuel at all while the airships were engine-powered.
The airship's cockpit was quiet and tense as Tommy guided the ship into the training course. They were so low now that stone loomed close on both sides, plunging the cockpit into shade.
Occasionally, Kimberly would give him some small bit of advice or a specific direction to take, but for the most part both of them remained silent. Fortunately, the air was calm around the ship, with only a faint breeze and the slightest hint of turbulence. All of the ship's many gauges remained well within the safe zones, and Tommy was able to keep the ship safely away from any of the obstacles without a problem. It was nerve-wracking trying to keep the ship on course without bumping into anything and potentially puncturing the airbag that kept it aloft, but it wasn't nearly as difficult a test as he had thought it might be.
"So, did I pass?" he asked as they emerged into open air on the other side of the training course.
"You're a natural," Kimberly murmured. "Are you sure you've never flown one of these before?"
"I've just always been pretty good with machines," he told her. He had to try very hard to ignore the way she had practically draped herself over his shoulder.
"Well, that was the easy course," Kimberly went on. "We should probably head back soon. This was just a basic assessment of your skills, so we can see where you're at as a pilot and how much work we'll need to do to get you up to speed. Tomorrow we'll start working on the real training."
He recalled a question he had been meaning to ask. "Am I ever going to fly one of the gliders?"
Kimberly laughed. "You're way too big for a glider. But you showed so much promise in the written exams - and you kept saying how much you wanted to fly - that the elders wanted to get you up in the air as soon as possible, to see what you could really do."
It always felt odd to him to hear that the elders believed in him. They were uniformly stern to him when he encountered them. "Really?"
This time she smiled reassuringly. "Really. Now let's turn this bird around. After the training course, this should be easy..."
And it was, but as he turned the airship around to head for the 'Hold, he caught sight of an unusual rock formation in the desert to the northwest. "Hey, Kim, what's that?"
She had to glance back to see what he was talking about. "Oh, that. It's just one of the Slags."
He steered the ship well clear of the training course; he might have passed his beginner's test with flying colors but he had no desire to try working the course in reverse. "Slags?"
She sighed, and went to sit in the co-pilot's chair. He had become so used to having her in close proximity that it felt weird now that she wasn't right beside him.
"I thought they were tutoring you in history."
"They are," he said, glad to have the conversation to help keep his mind off other things. "But hearing about something and seeing it are totally different."
"Well, there it is. One of the places where the End began," Kimberly said, her voice turning sour.
Tommy couldn't resist giving the distant Slag a long, hard look, and remembering just how lucky his own world had been. In this world, he'd learned, Rita Repulsa had come to an unprotected Earth and destroyed the human civilization she found there, ruining much of the ecosystem in the process. At least his world had had a fighting chance.
For the first time, he wondered if this world had had a Zordon and a Command Center. If he was going to find a clue that could get him home, it would be at the Command Center. He'd avoided thinking about it in the past, because he had no chance of finding it on foot, if it even existed. But with an airship, he could make the trip for sure. All he would have to do would be to figure out where to look.
It seemed like a great plan until he remembered the catch: he wouldn't be allowed to take one of the airships out alone for a long time. If he wanted to find the Command Center, he was going to have to spend a lot more time training with Kimberly, and he was going to have to come up with a way to convince her to go along with his plan. And that worried him, and not just because she would probably think he was crazy if he tried to explain where he had come from.
Spending time with Kimberly was going to be a problem.
When he had first come here, he had resolved not to get emotionally entangled with anyone, least of all another version of Kimberly. And for the most part he had stood by that resolution so far. But in spite of his best efforts, she was starting to get under his skin.
It was the little things, the murmured words and casual touches, that were really getting to him.
And the more time he spent here, with her, the more he realized that she wasn't the Kimberly that had broken his heart at all. It was confusing to have to deal with people that looked and acted like his old friends from Angel Grove, especially when one of them was Kimberly. They were all starting to blur together in his head until he wasn't quite sure: if he started dating this Kimberly, what did that say about his relationship with the other Kimberly? Did it even matter?
If he ever got home, he would never see this Kimberly again. If he never found a way home, he'd never have to worry about the other one again.
But this Kimberly was here now, and it was obvious that she was interested in him. He couldn't deny that he was interested in her, too, and he was starting to wonder if it was fair not to give her a chance just because she looked like his ex. Having a girlfriend again after all this time didn't sound like such a bad idea, even though there was a little voice in his head, that sounded a lot like his conscience, that kept telling him that getting romantically involved with Kimberly again was the stupidest thing he could possibly do right now.
Tommy caught sight of the Stronghold in the distance and shook himself free of his distracted thoughts. As he guided the airship home, he glanced at Kimberly, who was steadfastly refusing to look at him. No matter what he chose to do next, it might not end well. He would just have to choose and hope for the best.