Send in the Clones Series: Chapter One
Written By: Liz Donovan
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It was once again another typical day at Angel Grove High School. Class went on as class does, and when it ended, everyone left. Rocky, Adam and Tanya headed for the Juice Bar where they so often hung out after school. But none of them really felt like hanging out today. Adam had just broke news to them that they hadn’t wanted to hear. Now they were heading to the Juice Bar to talk it over.
Upon arriving at the Juice Bar, they were encountered by several not as well known teenage friends.
"Hey Adam, did you here what happened to Tommy?" a girl asked.
"I heard." Adam replied.
"Do you know if he’s dead?" she questioned.
"He’s not dead." Rocky answered quickly.
"Oh, well…do you know who they think did it?" she asked again.
"No who?" Tanya asked. Adam and Rocky stared at her, eyes widening.
"I heard that a space alien was sent down and beat him up." She answered.
"Yeah, and the Power Rangers didn’t do anything about it either." Some boy who’d be listening added.
"Maybe they were busy." Adam commented.
"Doing what?" the boy asked.
"How should I know?" Adam snapped.
"Isn’t Tommy you’re friend?" the girl asked Rocky.
"Yeah…" he replied.
"Have you seen him since he got beaten up?" she asked then.
"Yes we have." Tanya said. Again Rocky and Adam stared at her.
"What did he look like?" the girl continued.
"Let’s just say t wasn’t a pretty sight." Adam replied, shaking his head.
"I heard the cut all his hair of, is that true?" she asked, a little scared.
"NO!" Adam cried, frustrated. "Leave us alone! Go to the hospital and find out yourself!"
"Well geez! You don’t have to be so uptight about it!" the boy replied. Then the girl and he walked off.
The few other kids left, leaving the three teens alone again. They headed to the bar counter and sat down. Adam ran his fingers through his hair and waited for Rocky and Tanya to quiz him on Tommy’s powers.
"So Zordon gave the Powers to Billy after all?" Rocky asked.
"I don’t know if that is good or bad." Tanya commented, resting her arm on the counter.
"I think he’ll be able to handle them." Adam replied confidently.
"Well, of course he will, but can we trust him?" Rocky asked.
"I think so." Adam said. "Is Kat still at the hospital?" he added.
"Yeah." Tanya answered. "She got out of fifth and six period and drove straight to the hospital. I understand caring about someone but she was down there all last night and will probably be there all night tonight. She has got to get some sleep."
"Yeah. I agree," Rocky agreed. "Hey, I say we go over there in a few hours and take her out to a good dinner. She could use it." he suggested.
"That isn’t a bad idea Rocky! I agree." Adam commented.
"Yeah, we could take her to dinner and then go swimming at my house. That’s always relaxing." Tanya suggested.
"Good idea Tanya." Adam agreed.
"This’ll be fun. I wish Tommy could go." Rocky said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, but if he could she wouldn’t be at the hospital now." Tanya reminded him.
"Hey, guys…you uh, wanna invite Billy to come?" Adam asked. Both other teens glared at him.
"I don’t think that would be such a great idea, Adam." Tanya replied.
"You’re not going to be able to be mad at him forever." Adam commented.
"Just not tonight, Adam. Okay?" she said, looking away.
"Fine." Adam mumbled, leaning back.
"We want this to be a relaxing dinner, Adam, Kat won’t have a good time if Billy is there." Rocky said, trying to defend Tanya’s opinion.
"Well, you three go." Adam commented. "Billy and I will just go to McDonald’s then."
"Adam-" Rocky began.
"Don’t say it Rocky. You know, if you can’t be bothered with hanging around Billy, then maybe I can’t be bothered hanging around you." Adam sneered, and stood up.
"Adam what has gotten into you?" Tanya questioned. "You seem completely oblivious to the fact he accused you of beating Tommy up."
"He said he was sorry!" Adam retorted.
"Sometimes sorry doesn’t cut it. You’re just too nice Adam." Rocky stated, shaking his head.
"Perhaps you’re just too cruel." Adam replied, glaring.
"You’re calling us cruel, when you’re planing to spend the night with an attempted murderer?" Tanya stated scornfully.
"He said he was sorry!" Adam cried.
"Hey, what are you guys arguing about?" Ernie asked, appearing suddenly. "I can’t stand to see such good friend bickering."
"Shut-up Ernie!" Both Rocky and Adam yelled.
"I don’t need that kind of talk in my Juice Bar." Ernie replied, shocked.
"Guys! GUYS! Settle down!" Tanya cried. "You’re drawing a crowd!"
Rocky and Adam pointed to each other and replied. "He started it!"
"Both you guys stop it, or I’ll have top ask you to leave my Bar." Ernie demanded.
Adam angrily looked at Rocky. He crossed his arms and turned sitting back down in his chair. Rocky snorted and looked at Tanya. "Would you like me to buy you a drink, Tanya?" Rocky asked.
"Rocky this is not like you. You and Adam are best friends, I hate to see you two turned against each other like this." Tanya said, ignoring his drink offer.
Rocky seemed slightly put off. "Listen, mother I don’t need a counselor telling me who to have as my friends. Buzz off."
Tanya stood up and glanced at Rocky. Then she looked to Adam and shook her head and left. Adam looked over his shoulder and followed Tanya out the door. Rocky hung his head and looked back up at Ernie.
"You sell anything alcoholic here, Ernie?" Rocky muttered.
"Rocky, you don’t drink." Ernie answered, confused.
"Just answer the fucking question Ernie." Rocky demanded.
"Watch you language around here, kids come here, you don’t need to set a bad example for them." Ernie scolded.
Rocky seethed. "The question Ernie, answer the question."
"No! I don’t sell any liquor here, and you’d better not be buying any either." Ernie replied looking at Rocky.
"That’s it, I’m outta here." Rocky stated, getting to his feet.
"You be careful." Ernie called out.
"Shove it fat man." He spat.
Ernie looked genuinely insulted when Rocky said this, but Rocky didn’t notice or didn’t care. He slid off the stool and stalked out the door.
* * *
The Machine Empires Space Station cranked as Kind Mondo paced the corridors of his palace. Machina stood in the doorway to their bed chamber, fanning herself with her fan.
"Come to bed sweetheart, you’ll wear your treads pacing like that."
"No! I’m formulating the ultimate plan, I need to think!" King Mondo cied.
"Oh but darling, I can’t sleep without you." she said mournfully.
"My beautiful Machina, you want those Power Rangers destroyed, don’t you?" Mondo asked kindly.
"Oh yes, but of course." She answered, nodding.
"Then go to bed and let me think about this." he demanded.
"Very well. Don’t stay up too late." Machina answered and sighed.
"I won’t, now off to sleep, my love." He said.
Machina turned and closed the door behind her. Mondo continued pacing and then stopped. He tapped his fingertips together, formulating a master plan. "There must be away to use Tommy’s illness to my advantage. Or perhaps this tortured Billy will advise me in my plan…either way I shall rein Earth." He began walking again.
* * *
The telephone in the Cranston household rung six times before the answering machine picked up.
"You’ve reached the Cranston residence. We’re unable to come to the phone right now, so please leave a name, number, date that you called, and a brief message, and we’ll get back to you just as soon as we can. Thanks."
"Hi, this is Adam. I was just calling to see what Billy was doing. Have him give me a call when he gets in. Thanks a lot, bye."
Billy looked down at the machine as it clicked the stop button and shut off. He should have answered it. He’d been wanting to talk to Adam all night, but now that he had the chance, he didn’t want to. He was afraid that Rocky and Tanya had made him see Billy differently. That Adam wouldn’t like him any more, and Billy wasn’t prepared to deal with that kind of rejection quite so soon. He left the Machine, and headed into the living room.
All the lights in his house were off, even though it was nearly pitch black inside. Billy was the only one home, his father off at work all day. He liked the dark. No-one could see you in the dark, and therefore they couldn’t judge you by your appearance, as so many people often did.
He slumped down in one of the plush chairs and pushed his glasses up. Days like these, he didn’t care how he looked. Today he was wearing baggy overalls that felt oh-so-good and his glasses that didn’t bother his eyes like his contacts did. His hair was a flyaway mess and his white socks bore holes in them, but he didn’t care. Why should he.
On the coffee table in front of him, rested several thousand page books. All from different science fields. Had he not been such an avid reader his father might have noticed a connection in all the titles, but instead he just dismissed it as new reading material.
Billy shifted through the books until he found the one titled, Cranial Views: A Complete Guide to Your Head. He thumbed it open to a bookmark and began to read. He bit his thumb as he soaked the text in, and chewed his fingernails. Habits he had recently started, but made no effort to stop. The living room was as dark as the rest of the house and Billy only read by the muffled light that filtered through the drawn drapes. He turned the pages often, skipping over irrelevant issues that he didn’t care to read about. Before long the sun set and the text turned black against black. He had to reset his bookmark and set the book down.
Billy sat in the darkness for several minutes, enjoying the pitch blackness of the house. It was soundless and sightless, the way Billy liked it best. He found that he could have a lot more fun alone in the dark than with people in the daylight. Because people always are critical. They tease because you’re smart or dumb, black or white, how you dress or what you eat. But in the darkness you all look the same, and that is how it should be. All the time.
Billy found he could operate just as well if not better in the darkness as opposed to the light. He knew Braille and read from it when the lighting was gone. He had a perfect sense of direction and could sense where an object stood, without seeing it, and could avoid running into it. And he could write, type and draw without the use of his eyes.
He stood up and walked out of the living room, up the stairs and into his room. There he sat on his bed, picked up a pencil and a sketchbook and began to draw. He didn’t need to see what he drew, it was all there in his mind. If he saw it in his head, it would compose itself on his paper. Not many people knew he drew, in fact, only his dad knew, and he never seemed to care for Billy’s drawings. He had drawings by the score. Hundreds of them. He use to want to decorate his school papers with them, but he never did, it cluttered the page. He hated clutter. So he waited until he was home, and then he drew. He had drawn everything around him, and more. And the drawing were all excellent. Identical pencil drawings of the real life thing. He did not hang them on his wall, that was clutter, but he kept them neatly in the sketchbooks he drew them in.
Billy erased a mistake he knew he had made, although he couldn’t see his fingers from his paper. He thought of coloring the pictures, but colors did not work…well, for him. Sure he could shade colors and make the pictures more realistic, but he seemed to have always seen the world with a veil of blackness over it, so therefore he drew his pictures in gray.
There had been a time when he drew in color, several months actually. After he had made friends with Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kim, he had drawing in vivid bright happy colors, because he had been happy. But times change and his mood blackened again and he switched to darker colors, and then dropped the colors all together, keeping his grays. That suited him, as did the blackness of his home.
He stopped drawing and let his pencil drop. Rubbing his fingers across the page, he smeared the lines together, creating unison with them, until they all created a whole, complete perfect picture. Like something he would never have. He looked up and sighed.
* * *
Rocky encountered Adam as he stepped outside. He was immediately upset that Adam had been waiting for him to leave. That Adam had been so certain that he was leaving so soon. He shouldered pass him.
"Rocky, wait! I want to talk to you." Adam called out. Rocky attempted to ignore him and continued walking Adam chased after him. "Rocky, listen to me! Hey, man…listen!" Adam kept calling. Rocky whirled on Adam, he stood up so he was taller than Adam.
"Adam, shut the fuck up! Just leave me alone! If you like Billy so much, go hang out with him!" Rocky screamed at him.
"I tried, he wasn’t home!" Adam spat out.
"Well maybe there’s reason for that." Rocky sneered.
"Maybe someone has a bad attitude today." Adam replied coldly.
"Oh, now there’s a good comeback if I ever heard one." Rocky mocked.
"Man, dammit Rocky, what the hell has gotten into you?!" Adam demanded.
"No man, what’s gotten into you?" Rocky asked.
"Nothings gotten into me, I just realized that Billy only did what he did out of frustration." Adam replied.
"You don’t know that." Rocky coldly replied.
"I’ve actually talked with him, I know how he’s feeling." Adam sneered.
"Then maybe your an attempted murderer too." Rocky said, his lips coming together as if he knew he hit on a cord in Adam.
"Rocky, don’t go there." Adam darkly replied.
"Why not, its the truth, isn’t it?" Rocky mocked, knowing this would goad Adam.
"I said don’t fucking go their!" Adam snapped back.
"What’re you afraid of? If you go to jail you can take Billy with you!" Rocky shouted.
"Shut UP Rocky!" Adam shouted.
"What, you mean you’ve never told anyone? We’ll just have to remedy that one." rocky threatened.
"Rocky. Don’t you even dare!" Adam cried out, furious.
"What are you chicken?! Is that it? Adam is a chicken?!" Rocky goaded more.
Rocky began to make annoying chicken sounds, and Adam turned to stalk away. Several people looked over at Rocky, but they just kept going. The sun had already gone down and the street lights flickered on. Adam continued walking down the Juice Bar parking lot, Rocky trailing close behind, waving his elbows like chicken feathers. Adam veered off to the left and headed directly into Angel Grove Park. Rocky followed clucking away.
Once the two were out of hearing and seeing distance of the rest of the world, Adam rounded on Rocky. "What hell do you think you’re doing?!" he demanded. Rocky stopped strutting and looked at Adam, a frown across his face. "Are you trying to get me arrested or what?!" he continued.
"I’m just trying to make you see the errs of your ways." Rocky replied.
"Don’t you dare get philosophical with me!" Adam shouted.
"I can’t but Billy can?" Rocky said.
"Billy makes sense when he speaks, you don’t." Adam darkly replied.
"No one can even understand what he’s talking about, so I don’t know what you’re smoking." Rocky muttered.
"It is conceivable you’re just too insipid to comprehend an intellectual’s procedure of communication." Adam remarked, crossing his arms.
"Don’t give me that bullshit, Adam." Rocky muttered.
"It’s not bullshit Rocky. Its all legitimate text." Adam stated.
"You know what? I can’t be bothered with this kind of crap. If you want to waste you’re life with another attempted murderer than so be it. I can’t be bothered with your petty quarrels." Rocky said, and started to turn away.
"I am not a fucking attempted murderer, so stop saying that!" Adam cried out.
"That not what I heard; thats not what Isaw…" Rocky prodded.
"What you heard and what you saw are two different things." Adam growled.
"I saw a dead body and I saw you. Point being?" Rocky sneered.
"I didn’t kill her." Adam defiantly remarked.
"No, but you were at the scene of the crime. And the only one home at the time." Rocky reminded him.
"Rocky, we’ve gone over this repeated times, I don’t feel like discussing now." Adam replied shaking his head.
"Why? Because you’re afraid of the truth?" Rocky poked.
"I know the truth, and if you won’t believe your best friend for over six years, then maybe your the one hiding something." Adam said, trying to get out if it.
"Changing the subject now, are we, Adam?" Rocky asked.
"Rocky, get bent." Adam growled.
"My pleasure." He spat.
Adam turned and began walking away from Rocky. Rocky stood defiantly behind Adam and called out. "You pathetic, man slaying, sympathizer!"
Adam stopped walking and just listened to his own breathing. He would like nothing more than to go at Rocky, fist and feet flying in a dizzying hurricane of pain.
--Control yourself.-- He thought.
Adam thought he glimpsed movement in the corner of his eyes but figured it to only be Rocky, shifting nervously. Then someone stepped into the clearing; a dark someone.
"Strong words from such a pathetic looking boy." the person said in a familiar yet darkly different voice.
Rocky spun around quickly glaring at his assailant. His eyes stun coldly at the face before him. Adam slowly turned as well.
"Go ahead, try and hurt me…you’ll see I’m as susceptible as Tommy." Rocky growled, stepping back into a fighting stance.
"I have no intention of fighting you. Therefore I shall not allow you to fight anyone in my presence either." The person replied in a sickly calm monotone.
"And you’re just so sure I was going to fight him, aren’t you?" Rocky asked, eyes narrowed.
The person shrugged. "It was inevitable." He stated.
"That’s it! Adam, you and Billy can have a long happy life together. The girls are probably wondering where I am, so I’m outta here." He shouted, then turned and looked at the person and in a low, angry tone stated. "If I ever catch you lurking around me again, Billy, be prepared."
With that, Rocky turned and walked past Adam and back into the Juice Bar parking lot. Adam watched him leave and then looked back at where Billy was silently standing.
"You took care of that pretty well." Adam said.
"I know." Billy replied.
He walked toward Adam and the two continued out into the parking lot as well. They walked in silence for awhile and then Billy said. "I think you have some explaining to do."
"Do I?" Adam warily asked.
"You do." Billy answered solemnly.
"How long were you standing there?" Adam asked, swallowing tightly.
Billy glanced at Adam with cold blue eyes.
"Far too long." He answerd.
Adam sighed and hung his head. The two traveled the road towards Billy’s dark home, not far away.
To be continued…
