In the days after the Power Rangers left, Lucas’s parents went and pulled Will and Feril out of school.

“They were a good bunch of friends,” Bea said, “I’ll miss them terribly, but I’m glad they could go back home.”

“Well, I’m bored,” Lucas said, “How would you three like to go up to the cabin, now that the Rangers are gone?”

“Sure,” I said. T.J. and Bea quickly agreed.

“Let’s get some stuff together,” Lucas said, “And then, we can head on up there. We can get my mom to let me drive us, I bet.” It didn’t take us but maybe an hour to get everything packed and ready. There, we picked out our rooms upstairs and went walking around some.

“This place really is beautiful,” I said, “I bet Feril loved it here, in the short time she stayed here before they left.”

“She did,” Bea said, “You should have heard here that first day, when I ran into her at school. ‘The woods near the cabins are so pretty. It’s especially pretty when you go up to the roof and watch the sunset.’”

“I always did like to do that myself,” Lucas said, “You can get a pretty good view of the valley nearby from up there. The way the colors of the sunset hit it... It’s just indescribable. We can check that out later, if you all want to.”

“Awesome.”

We sat down in the living room and watched some TV. Lucas had brought a whole bunch of movies, so we started watching them.

When nightfall was almost upon us, we went up to the roof and watched the sunset. We stayed up there for about two or three hours. I looked at TJ. ‘Sometimes I wish I had never told him that lie,’ I thought, ‘I never met someone else. We just never did anything. Almost never went out, almost never kissed, never had a make out session, or anything like that.’ When we came down off of the roof, I decided about something.

“TJ,” I said. TJ looked over to me. “We need to talk.” He nodded and we went into the kitchen to have some privacy. Not that we needed it. Lucas and Bea were already heading upstairs.

“So,” TJ said, “What’s up?”

“I was just thinking,” I said, “Would you like to make another go at dating each other?”

TJ hesitated. “What about your boyfriend?”

“I never had one,” I said. TJ looked at me, surprised beyond measure. “That guy that was with me on that double date was just someone that had been dying to go out with me for a while, not really a boyfriend.” With that, I reached up to touch TJ’s face. He flinched away slightly.

“I would like to,” TJ said, “I don’t know if I feel the same way about you these days, though. How about we go to the movies Monday, and we’ll see?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. I moved closer. I wanted to kiss him, but didn’t know if he wanted to be kissed or not. He would make the first move, if he did.

‘She looks so good,’ TJ was thinking. ‘I want to kiss her so bad. She looks like she’s waiting for me to kiss her, too. Here goes.’ With that, TJ ducked his head in close and gave me a passionate kiss, one that rocked me.

“Wow,” I said, once he had broken off the kiss. I pulled him up the stairs and to my room, and the rest was history.

The next morning, we were watching some more movies when our wrist computers chirped. Lucas hit his communications button. “We read you, S-1,” he said, “What’s up?”

“GigaTron has sent a virus monster and some gigamites to cyber sector twenty three,” Samurai-1 said.

“We’re on it,” Lucas said, “Ready?” We all nodded and hit our main buttons. “Uplink: Servo.”

“Uplink: Spryte.”

“Uplink: Tinkerer.”

“Uplink: ‘Smith.” We digitized and found the virus monster quickly. All of a sudden, some kind of mist looking stuff hit us. We shook it off and took care of the enemies quickly.

“Download.” We spiraled back to reality and found ourselves back at the cabin.

“Wow,” Bea said, “That was pretty intense.”

“Got that right,” I said.

“It didn’t work,” Jackie said, “That was supposed to make them act totally the opposite of the way they are. Why didn’t it work?”

“It takes a few days in reality for it to work,” GigaTron said, “They will eventually be either evil, or complete wimps.”

“It better be soon,” Jackie whined.

“Don’t whine, human,” GigaTron said, “It doesn’t suit you.”

A few days later, I started feeling a little under the weather. I had caught some kind of flu bug. (with my luck, it’s probably a computer virus.)

“And you are a wimp.” I jumped at Bea’s voice. Her and Lucas were sitting down at our usual table. Though I was sick, I still insisted on going to school. I went over to the table with my lunch.

“Bea,” I said. I sneezed. “What’s wrong?”

“Him, that’s what,” Bea said, pointing to Lucas, who was cowering in his seat. “Him and your boyfriend. TJ thinks he owns every girl in school, while this wimp doesn’t have the courage to tie his shoe laces. And don’t sneeze on me. You’re getting germs all over me.”

“Sorry,” I said, “This isn’t like you Bea. What’s wrong with you?”

“I’ve just had a new outlook on you guys, and our ‘team,’” she said, every word dripping with sarcasm at the end. “I quit.”

“You can’t just quit,” I said, lowering my voice. “We need you, to help beat GigaTron.” Bea just laughed in my face and walked off.

“I’m scared,” Lucas said, “Gigatron’s so imposing.”

“This is weird,” I said. Nevertheless, I went and put an arm around Lucas’s shoulders. I sneezed, and he jumped a mile.

“You wimp. Are you trying to make moves on my girl now?” We were both startled to hear TJ’s voice and tone. All of a sudden, he was upon us, picking Lucas up and slamming him against the wall.

“TJ, stop it,” I said, “Bea was treating him badly, and I was just trying to cheer him up. What’s wrong with you?”

“You’re my girl,” TJ said, “I don’t want any guy to try moving in on my territory.”

“Your territory?” That was the last straw. “Just because we’re dating doesn’t mean that you own me, TJ Hubman.

“That’s exactly what it means,” TJ said. With that, he pulled me in and forcibly kissed me. I was weak, and couldn’t break away. When he was done, I slapped him silly. Actually, I slapped him as hard as I could, which, admittedly, wasn’t very hard, due to being sick.

“Stay away from me,” I said.

“You’re mine, Cheryl,” TJ said, “Don’t forget that.” With that, he walked away with a menacing look on his face.

I shook my head. “I can’t believe him,” I said. I looked over at Lucas. “Are you all right?” He nodded slowly.

“Well, come on,” I said, “Let’s finish lunch.” He sat back down and we finished our lunches in peace.

After school, I went over to Lucas’s house. “I can’t believe it,” I said, “Bea quits, and TJ’s so possessive, he makes me want to throw up.” When I didn’t get a response, I spun around, to find Lucas cowering behind his desk.

“Come on out, Lucas,” I said, “Other than sneezing on you, I’m not going to do anything to you.”

“You might send me into cyberspace,” Lucas said timidly.

“I won’t unless absolutely necessary,” I said, “Okay?” I held a hand out to him, to help him squeeze back out. He hesitated. “Come on. You can type a lot faster than I can, and we need to figure out what’s going on. I think it has something to do with that gas like cloud that hit us last time we were in cyberspace.”

He took it and pulled himself up. “All right,” he said. He sat down at the computer and started typing at his usual high velocity speed.

“No need,” Samurai-1 said, scaring Lucas. “I’ve found the answer. You’re right, Cheryl. That stuff did affect you all. It makes you act the opposite of your normal behavior.”

“Affected everyone but me,” I said. I sneezed again. “Why is that?”

“It might be because of your sickness,” Samurai-1 said, “That might be counteracting that stuff’s effectiveness.”

“You might be right,” I said, “How do we reverse the effects?”

“Get them into cyberspace,” Samurai-1 said, “The powers should take away the effects.”

“Right,” I said. I turned to Lucas. “I know what I said earlier, but...”

“Let’s go,” Lucas said, mustering up the little bit of courage left in him. We hit our main keys. “Up-Uplink: S-Servo.”

“Uplink: Tinkerer.” We digitized and went into cyberspace.

“It worked,” Servo said, “I feel brave again. S-1, open a channel to Bea’s and TJ’s computers.”

“Done,” Samurai-1 said.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull,” Bea said, “But I told you I quit, remember?

“You act so tough, but you’re really not,” I said. Even Servo looked shocked, but then it dawned on him that I was just egging her into coming into cyberspace. “You’re such a wimp, Servo could take care of you.” I whispered, barely audibly, to Servo, “No offense. She might think that you’re still a wimp, and I’m playing on her emotions to get her here.”

“It’s all right,” Servo whispered back. A few seconds later, Spryte came into cyberspace, fuming.

“What are you talking about, he could beat me?” Spryte yelled, “He’s such a wimp, that...” All of a sudden, the cure took effect. “What have I done? I’m so sorry, guys. I don’t know what’s gotten into me the past few days.” She ran up and hugged Servo. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you earlier.”

“It’s all right,” Servo said, “It’s not your fault. That stuff GigaTron hit us with a few days ago was what was making you act so differently.”

“Whoa,” Spryte said, “I was under some kind of spell?”

“Not a spell, since GigaTron isn’t a sorcerer,” Samurai-1 said, “Just something to do with where the virus was attacking. I’m not sure exactly what happened.”

“Well,” I said, “Now we’ve got to get T.J. in here. I think I have an idea. S-1, is the link to T.J. computer up? But wait a few minutes.” We flew to VR. “I hope both of you don’t hold me up for what I’m about to do. Go ahead, S-1.”

“Doing so now,” Samurai-1 said, “Go ahead.”

“Hey, T.J.,” I said, once his image showed up.

“What are you doing with those two losers?” T.J. demanded.

“This.” I pulled Servo into a kiss. The actual kiss didn’t last long, but we made like we were still kissing. T.J. broke contact. “I’m sorry, Servo, Spryte. I didn’t know of any other way, but to play off his newfound possessive attitude.”

“It’s all right,” Spryte said. Servo just nodded. T.J. appeared out of nowhere, obviously fuming.

“What are you doing kissing another boy? Why I ought to...” The effects finally wore off. “Oh, man. Servo, I’m so sorry, bro. Tinkerer, I didn’t mean to get so possessive.”

“I know you didn’t, and it’s okay,” I said.

“I hate to break this up,” Samurai-1 said, “But GigaTron has sent a virus monster and some gigamites to cyber sector thirty three.”

“Thanks, S-1,” Servo said, “We’re on it.” Glad for the distraction, we went and really stomped some butts. Afterwards, we went to our respective computers and, since it was kind of late, turned in.

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