A week or two later, I was finally ready to go into battle. The others finally had Samurai-1 lift the block keeping me from activating my powers.

“All right,” I said, “I’m going to kick some major butt next time GigaTron tries to take us on.” I was practicing on a heavy bag in my basement. Bea was in a chair nearby, watching me beat the stuffing out of it, almost literally.

“Whoa,” she said, “Don’t wear yourself out. That’s my job.” Ever since my mom signed for her to get birth control, we’ve picked our relationship back up to the former notch. “Though I think sweating makes a guy sexy.”

I shook my head. “I think I’ve created an aphrodisiac monster,” I teased playfully.

Bea just grinned at that. “I’ll show you aphrodisiac,” she said, jumping up and pouncing on me.

About an hour later, a chirping woke me up. I hit the communications button on my wrist computer. Bea stirred beside me, but wasn’t awake that I could see. “Go ahead, S-1,” I whispered, “And keep it down. You’ll wake Bea.”

“Too late,” Bea said with a sigh.

“GigaTron has sent a virus monster and some gigamites,” Samurai-1 said, “Digitize and go after them. I will call T.J. and the others.” We had quickly gotten dressed while Samurai-1 explained the situation.

“No need,” I said, “We can take those turkeys by ourselves, can’t we Bea?”

“Sure,” Bea said.

I let go of the communications button and hit the main key. “Uplink: Servo.”

“Uplink: Spryte.” We digitized and went through the usual routine to find the virus monster and gigamites.

“I’ll take the gigamites, you take the virus,” I said, “I’ve got a score to settle with them.” Bea nodded and I jumped into the fray with the gigamites.

I was kicking butt, until all of a sudden, a gigamite grabbed me by the shoulders, just like the one did before throwing me away, breaking my leg. “No,” I said, “Not again. Get away from me.” I twisted away and started collapsing. “Get away. Don’t hurt me again, please.”

“Servo.” That split second distraction was all the virus monster needed to send Spryte for a loop. All of a sudden, Tinkerer, ‘Smith, Dataflood, and Spider appeared out of nowhere. They took on the virus monster and gigamites, while Spryte limped pretty painfully over to me.

“No,” I said. I started shaking uncontrollably. “Get away from me.” I had curled up into the fetal position. “Please don’t hurt me again.”

“Sh,” Spryte said, pulling me into a hug. “It’s all right. They won’t hurt you, baby. Relax, Servo.” Next thing I know, I’m in reality.

“Bea,” I croaked, “What’s wrong with me? I can’t stop shaking.”

I could tell that it almost literally broke Bea’s heart to see me like this, an emotional cripple. “It must be after effects,” she said softly, “From both your injury and your imprisonment. What happened when that gigamite grabbed a hold of you?”

“I was reminded of that last battle,” I said, “That’s exactly how that other gigamite grabbed me when...” I started crying, sobbing actually. We sat there for an hour or two, and she was consoling me. I cried myself to sleep after a little while.

“Poor guy,” Bea said, as she gently put me down on the floor. “He’s been through enough. Injuries galore and being captured would make anyone crack like this. I’m just surprised that he hasn’t before now.”

All of a sudden, she heard the sound of digitizing downstairs. She went down there, to find Cheryl and T.J. standing around in the living room. “How is he?” Cheryl asked worriedly.

“He’s fine for now,” Bea said, “He just had a nervous breakdown because of the way a gigamite grabbed him. It was the exact same way one did before his leg had been broken. That, and being captured a while back, has just finally taken a hold in his mind. I’m afraid for him, guys. For what he might do.”

“We all are,” T.J. said, “We’ve been friends for a while now, and we don’t want anything bad to happen to him.”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Bea said, “All I can think of is, if he insists on coming with us next time, to let him take care of the virus monster, while we take out any gigamites.”

“Good plan,” T.J. said, “Think he’ll go for it?”

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try,” Bea said, “I think he’ll try anything to keep from feeling like this again.” The others agreed.

A little while later, I woke up and went downstairs. Bea was sitting at the living room table, doing some homework.

“About time you woke up, sleepy head,” she said playfully.

“Yeah, well I’ve had a rough day,” I said, “What are you doing?”

“Oh, just some math homework,” Bea said, “It’s a piece of cake.”

I sighed. “My girlfriend, the math whiz,” I teased, “Just another reason that I love you as much as I do.” We were both math wizards, though she was more into advanced, while I was really just good at the basics.

“And here I was thinking it was solely based on my looks,” Bea teased.

“That was just an added bonus,” I said, “I fell in love with you for who you are, not just for your beauty.” All of a sudden, our wrist computers chirped. With a groan, I hit the communications button. “What is it, S-1?”

“Another virus monster and some gigamites,” Samurai-1 said, “In cyber sector thirty five.”

“That reminds me,” Bea said, “Sweetie, would you mind just focusing on the virus monster from now on, while the rest of us take on the gigamites? I’m sorry to say this, but we don’t need you collapsing in the middle of a battle.”

“Of course I will,” I said. I hit the main button. “Uplink: Servo.”

“Uplink: Spryte.”

We digitized and went into cyberspace. Once there, we met Tinkerer, ‘Smith, Dataflood, and Spider. They all tore into the gigamites, while Spryte and I kicked some monster butt.

“I can’t believe it,” I said, “I’m actually in battle, and I’m kicking some butt. It was just an hour or two ago that I was a emotional cripple.”

“Just don’t go near the gigamites, and you should be fine,” Spryte said, “Let’s kick some gigabutt.” I laughed. I always thought that Tanker was her favorite on the show. That just confirmed it.

With a sharp “si-kyahh”, I rushed at the monster, sword extended while Bea charged her blaster. A little while later, she destroyed it.

Right when I was turning towards our friends still fighting the gigamites, Spryte put a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off. “Just watch my back, and I should be fine,” I said, “I’ve got to get over this sooner or later. And I prefer the former over the latter any day.”

Spryte sighed. “All right, let’s go.” With our respective battle cries, we leapt into battle, standing back to back so that no gigamite could get behind either of us. We tore them apart in minutes.

“Download.” We spiraled back to reality.

“I’m over it,” I said. I picked Bea up and twirled her around in the air. She was laughing happily. “I finally beat my fear.”

“I’m so happy for you, sweetie,” Bea said. We kissed and set down to do our homework. I was pretty behind, so I had a lot to do. All of a sudden, my leg started hurting like crazy. I groaned softly and closed my eyes. “Your leg?” I nodded. A few minutes later, it quit hurting.

“That was the worst the pain’s ever been,” I said, “Something’s up, and it’s not going to be good.”

“There you go with that clairvoyance bit,” Bea said, sighing with frustration. “Every time your leg hurts bad, you think something awful is going to happen.”

“And half of the time, something does,” I snapped at her. Her face fell. “I’m sorry, Bea. You know how defensive I can get over stuff like this.” I reached up to touch her face.

Bea felt like she was melting under my touch. It happened every time I touched her. “Hmm,” she said, “You’re forgiven.”

“Come on,” I said, “We’ve got to meet T.J. and Cheryl at the mall.”

“Oh, I forgot about that,” she said.

“I thought that I had the bad memory,” I teased playfully.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” Bea said, with a playful swipe at me. I laughed and swept her off of her feet, literally. I gently placed her on the floor. She was giggling until that moment, and in the next, she was in my arms, kissing me.

I broke off the kiss. “We can’t,” I said, “We have to be getting to the mall soon, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” Bea said, “Your bad memory is rubbing off on me.”

“Don’t make me hurt you,” I teased. I gave her a quick kiss and got up. We went to get my mom and headed off towards the mall.

Once there, we found T.J., Cheryl, and the Rangers in Waldenbooks. Everyone else in the mall was looking at Tom and company. How many recognized them for what they were, I don’t know.

A kid came up to Tom. “You’re Jason David Frank, aren’t you? Can I have an autograph?”

“No,” Tom said, “I just happen to look like him. Sorry.” The kid walked away and so did the other shoppers, once they had heard the false story about the gang being people that just happened to look like the actors on the Power Rangers show.

“That was smooth, bro,” I said, “As silk.”

“Thanks,” Tom said. The girls spent the rest of the day shopping, while us guys looked around the book store, the arcade, and a few other places.

When we met with the girls, they had bags galore. “Good grief, Bea,” I said, “What’d you all do, split buying out some store?” Bea stuck her tongue out at me. I returned the favor.

“If you girls aren’t careful,” Tom said, “You’re going to take the whole mall back with us when we get back home.”

“Oh, you,” Kat said, taking a playful swipe at Tom. Bea, Cheryl, T.J., and I were laughing ourselves crazy.

“What’s so funny?” Tom asked while he dodged Kat.

It took us a few minutes to calm down enough to explain the episode on Power Rangers where Zedd and Rita got married, and how Tommy had said the same thing to Kim and Aisha. We were all rolling around laughing when we told them about what Rocky said later.

“What I want to know is,” Aisha had said, “Is how are we going to get all of these souvenirs back home with us?”

Rocky had nudged Adam and said, “How about a tugboat?”

After a while, we all went home and went to sleep. Bea was snuggled tight in my arms and as safe as she can be. After all, we’re only threatened in cyberspace, right?

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