I still can’t believe it. Feril’s really sleeping next to me. She came here by accident, but we’re both glad she did. And now, we’re members of the Cybersquad team. Our team designations kind of suck, but at least we’re active members. It’s been about a month now, but I’m still in a little bit of shock over her being here.

Feril stirred and turned around to look at me. “Good morning, beautiful,” I said.

“Good morning to you too, handsome,” Feril replied. She clasped her hands on the other side of my neck, with her wrist computer pointing away from my skin. She was about to kiss me when a knock sounded on the door.

“Come on you two,” Bea said, “Or we’ll be late for school. We’ve already got to go over Lucas’s and get him up.”

I sighed. “I thought we told her not to do that,” I teased, “We’ll be right there, Bea. Ever since she and Lucas got back together, she’s been in a great mood.”

“They deserve each other,” Feril said, “Just like we deserve each other.”

“Got that right,” I said, and kissed her. We both got dressed and followed Bea out of the house and to Lucas’s.

“It’s hard to believe Gigatron hasn’t tried anything in a while,” Feril said, “We’ve only seen like three battles since we signed on.”

“I know what you mean,” I said, “But don’t jinx it. We’re getting a vacation from fighting, both back home and here, and I don’t want to spoil it.”

“Yeah, you’re right of course,” Feril said. Once at Lucas’s house, we ate and waited for him. When he came downstairs, we gathered up Cheryl and T.J. and headed off to school.

At lunch, Feril and I went walking after we ate and before we had to go to class. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I said, “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I bet you have,” Feril said, “A beautiful girl like Bea is living with you, and you miss an ordinary looking girl like me.”

“You’re beautiful, Feril,” I said, “And she was spoken for before I ever got here, and I never would have stood a chance, even if I wanted to.”

Feril blushed furiously. ‘If only kissing was allowed on school campus,’ I thought, ‘Oh, what the hell. It’ll be worth it.’ We were in a shadowy part of the campus, so I ducked in and gave her a passionate kiss.

“Oh Will,” she said when we came up for air, “Why weren’t you like this last night? You fell right to sleep.”

“We had fought a virus monster right before going to bed, remember?” I asked, “I was exhausted after that, and couldn’t stay awake.”

“Well, we better back away,” she said, “Before a teacher catches us.” I reluctantly did so and reached for her hand. We walked to our next class, that was together luckily, hand in hand.

After school, we had to defeat another virus monster. “I told you that you were going to jinx it,” I teased Feril when we got out of cyberspace.

She playfully punched me in the arm. She accidentally put some telekinetic power into it, and hurt it a little bit. I rubbed the bruise already starting to form.

“Oh man, I’m sorry Will,” she said.

“It’s all right,” I said, “You just didn’t realize that you had your telekinesis still up, right?”

“Right,” Feril said. She still looked sheepish.

“I’m all right,” I said, “The bruise should go away in a day or two, at the most, and I’ll have on a long sleeve shirt so that no one will notice.”

“I think,” she started, “I think we should break up, Will.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m a clutz most of the time,” she said, “Remember that time at the lake, when I gave you a black eye?” I winced at the memory. I immediately wish I hadn’t. Feril looked worse.

“You’re not a clutz,” I said, “Come here.” Before she could say anything, I gathered her in my arms. “I love you, Feril. Do you love me?”

“You know I do,” Feril said, “But I’m afraid that I’ll do something bad to you, as clutzy as I am.

“The only really bad thing you can do,” I said, “Is break up with me over something like this.”

“I guess you’re right,” Feril said. She grinned. “You sure know how to talk sweet to a girl, you know that?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I said, “But I do know what makes you feel better.” I gave her a quick kiss. “Want to go to Lucas’s?”

“Sure,” Feril said, “Bea’s already over there, isn’t she?”

“Yep.” I hit the main key on my wrist computer. “Uplink: Dataflood.”

Feril hit hers. “Uplink: Spider.” We digitized and went onto the web.

“S-1, open a tube to Servo’s house,” I said.

“Done,” Samurai-1 said.

“Download.” We spiraled out and found ourselves in Lucas’s room. Him and Bea were making out on his bed and didn’t notice us. I cleared my throat, and they both jumped a mile.

“Don’t do that,” Bea said. Feril and I collapsed on the floor, laughing. “What’s so funny?”

“The way you looked when you jumped,” Feril said when we stopped to catch our breaths. “It was the exact same look Will and I had the only time his father caught us in a make out session. You should have seen our faces.” We went back to laughing.

Bea started laughing too. When we were done, she was crying from laughing so hard. She made a grab for Lucas’s handkerchief. When she pulled it out, a little box fell out of his pocket.

She picked it up. “What is this?” she inquired of Lucas. She opened it, to find a stunning ring inside.

Lucas reached over and gently pulled it out of her grasp. “It was my mom’s,” he said, with a red face. “It was the engagement ring my biological father gave her. She gave it to me a few years ago. I like to keep it on me. That pocket is the easiest place to put it on person. It’s deep and doesn’t show the contours of the box.

Bea was looking at Lucas curiously, as were Feril and myself.

All of a sudden, another vortex opened. This one was... “No way,” I said. It was white and pink. Given the nature behind the colors of the portals, the two people jumping out of the portal had to be... “Tom? Kat?”

“Yeah, it’s us, Will,” Tom said as the portal closed behind them.

“Wow,” Lucas said, “I can’t believe this. The Power Rangers: Twilight Generation team, some of them anyway, right here. It’s so ironic.”

Tom turned to Lucas. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, “Who are you?”

Lucas and I both rolled our eyes at Tom. “My name is Lucas Harrell,” Lucas said, “And boy, do I have a lot to tell you, Thomas Oliver and Kathryn Hillard.” Before they could ask him why he knew their names, he launched into an explanation. With help from myself, Feril, Bea, and ultimately the files in Samurai-1’s data banks, we told them about Lucas’s creating our team and our adventures. Bea also introduced herself. When he was done, we were all sitting around in the living room. I had his arms wrapped almost protectively around Feril. Tom was doing the same with Kat, and so was Lucas with Bea.

“Let me get this straight,” Kat said, her hypnotic like voice affecting all three of us guys, even though we were all spoken for. “Tom’s grandmother was supposed to be in my place at first, and I was supposed to take her place?”

“That’s right,” Lucas said, “I felt like that had to change that, after what I wrote in End of an Era, so I put you as Tom’s cousin, but only by marriage. That way, there could be romance between you two and it would really be ethical.”

“This is just all too hard to swallow,” Tom said, “But I guess you couldn’t have gotten stories that detailed unless it was true.”

“Got that right,” Lucas said. He ran a hand through his hair kind of nervously as he looked at Kat.

Kat shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe how much you two remind me of each other,” she said, “The eyes, the long hair. I bet you’re really forgetful too, huh, Lucas?”

“Yeah,” Lucas admitted slowly, “You’d be surprise how often it gets me into trouble at school.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Tom said, “I get into trouble a lot because of my forgetfulness, too.”

“And your shyness around girls half the time, unless you know them pretty well,” Kat said, “But mostly the eyes. The same chocolate brown eyes. What do you think, Bea?”

“Yep, their eyes are a lot alike, right down to those long, thick eyelashes,” Bea said, “That dreamy brown, one of the prettier eye colors.” Both Tom and Lucas turned red, at the same time at that. “I’m probably just biased, but I think Lucas’s eyes are prettier .”

“You’re right,” Kat mused absent-mindedly, “Makes you wonder.”

“You two are a lot alike too,” I said, “The hair color’s different, yeah, but the way you think, sometimes alike.”

Bea and Kat looked at each other and burst out laughing. “Nah,” they both said at the same time.

“He’s right,” Lucas said, “If Tom and I are a lot alike, what does that say about our respective girlfriends?”

“They’ve got a good point,” Feril said.

“I haven’t thought to ask yet,” Tom said, “But where are we, exactly?”

“Cabot,” Lucas said, “A little town north of Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas.”

“Never been in Arkansas before,” Kat said.

“I have,” Tom said, “Nice place.”

“Thanks,” Lucas said, “My stepdad was offered a job in Tennessee, but he turned it down. I’m glad too. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have met Bea.” Bea blushed this time.

“Talk about flirting,” Tom said, “If you don’t mind my saying so, you two are two of the biggest flirts.”

“Just shows how much we love each other,” Bea said. She rested her head back against Lucas’s chest.

“I can’t believe that I start my junior year next year,” Lucas said, “The same about Bea and the rest of my friends.”

“I can’t wait to meet your friends,” Tom said, “Let me think. They’re T.J. and Cheryl, right?” Lucas nodded. “And they’re an item, aren’t they?”

“No,” Lucas said, sighing. “They used to be, but Cheryl met someone else, and dumped T.J. like a bad habit.”

“She didn’t dump him,” Bea said, “They mutually agreed that they were better off friends.”

“It’s funny,” Feril said, “Because I’ve seen a lot of looks T.J. gives her, and it looks like that certain thought might be only one way.” We all looked at her funny, because we all knew that she was telepathic. We had even started using that to our advantage in cyberspace. “I don’t use telepathy. Just good old empathy.”

I smiled. “That’s great beautiful,” I said, “I knew that there was a good reason I loved you.”

Feril grinned. When we looked up, the others were fast asleep, Bea with her head in Lucas’s lap, and Kat with hers in Tom’s. Feril and I got comfortable and soon fell asleep as well.

Part III
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