A few days later, we were all, including T.J. and Cheryl, in my room when a vortex opened. This time, it was gold and red. Shawn and Ashley came out a few minutes later. The Rangers rushed in to give them hugs and handshakes. We explained everything to them.

Later that day, I took them all up to my cabin.

“My grandpa built this place,” I said, “I haven’t been up here in years, ever since I was a little kid.” I walked over to a big tree. “I used to climb this tree every other day after it helped me get over my acrophobia.”

Bea smiled. “You never told me about this place,” she said, “Or even that you had acrophobia.”

“I didn’t tell anyone,” I said, “It’s just one of those childhood fears. And about this place, would you believe I forgot about it?”

“Sure,” Bea said, “What made you remember?”

“I was at my dad’s last weekend, remember?” She nodded. “They were thinking of tearing this place down, but I talked them into keeping it. It’s technically mine, because Grandpa gave it to me then. But my dad pays the bills. It’s legally his, I guess. I just hold on to the owner slip.”

“Let’s go searching,” Feril said, “The area looks especially nice around here.” I grinned, remembering her affinity to nature.

“I’ve got some movies,” Shawn said. The Rangers and I all groaned. “Well, we’ve got to watch them eventually, or it’ll be wasted money on renting them.”

“Let me guess,” I said, “Scary movies, mostly zombie flicks?”

“That’s right,” Shawn said.

“Luckily,” I said, “I brought some of my own movies, from my personal collection. Well, that’s just the technical term for it. I’ve got a pretty good sized movie library.”

“Good,” everyone but Shawn said.

We spent a few hours walking around before we settled in to watch the movies. First, we were reluctantly talked into watching a few of Shawn’s movies.

“Man,” Tom said, “You pick the worst movies, Shawn. At least you didn’t get Children shouldn’t play with dead things.”

“It’s too hard to find,” I said, “Just for rent, much less to buy.”

“Good,” Feril said.

“Oh, that’s right,” I said, “I forgot about your reaction to the movie.”

Feril shuddered. “It’s a little unsettling that you know all there is about each of us,” she admitted.

“I guess it would be,” I said, “I’m sorry, Feril. This place isn’t anything like Shawn’s mom’s, mainly because it’s not on a lake, but it’s still pretty cool. Out in the mountains, a desolate place like this. Kind of reminds me of Evil Dead, one and two.”

“Good point,” Shawn said, “Speaking of which.” He held up the Evil Dead trilogy.

I sighed. “I think that the only good one is Army of Darkness,” I said, “Now that’s cool. But that does look like the only three decent zombie like flicks you’ve got, unless you have Return of the Living Dead part two.”

“Just so happens, I do,” Shawn said.

“I’ve still got to get used to human culture,” Ashley said, “And being away from earth for so many years didn’t help, especially after Adam died. At least I found someone else to try to take his place in my heart.” With that, she gave Shawn a kiss, much to the surprise of the other Rangers. I didn’t look surprised. While I hadn’t written about it yet, I knew that those two were going to end up together.

“Whoa,” Feril said, “When did the two of you become an item?”

“Technically, the first time we stayed at my mom’s cabin,” Shawn said, “But we really got together a few worlds.”

“Well, let’s get started,” I said, “Anyone have objections about watching Return of the Living Dead 2?” They all shook their heads. “This is the best of the movie picks you brought, Shawn, except for Army of Darkness.”

“I know,” Shawn said, “Just because I like the scary ones doesn’t mean I like the funny ones too.”

“Sh, it’s starting,” T.J. said, trying to sound like the girl at the start of Monsters. We all laughed. We all sat back, with the couples sitting together, and T.J. and Cheryl sitting kind of far away from each other, and watched the movies. We gasped during the few really scary scenes, and laughed at scenes like when the zombie at the hospital says the wrong President.

When it was over, I started going through my choice. Shawn started to object, but we came to an agreement that we’d take turns getting movies out of our choices. “Have you Rangers seen Spaceballs?”

“You mean you don’t know?” Kat asked teasingly. I scowled at her. “Well, I haven’t, in any case.” The others shook their heads as well.

“Cool,” I said, “That’ll make it even better. It’s hilarious.” I put the movie in and a little while later, we were all rolling around on the floor, laughing our heads off.

When we were done, we went out onto the porch to watch the sun set. “It’s pretty,” I said, kissing Bea, “But it’s not as beautiful as you.” The others rolled their eyes at our flirting.

“It’s really nice here, Lucas,” Tom said, “If I could, I’d stay here.”

“That’s the plan, dude,” I said. Tom looked at me weirdly. “How would you, Kat, Shawn, and Ashley like to stay here until you guys leave? If they want to, Will and Feril could keep staying at Bea’s.”

“Awesome,” the Rangers all said.

“It’s settled then,” I said, “Now, let’s go check out some of the rest of the movies.”

We went inside and Shawn got Army of Darkness out for us to watch. By the time it, and the next movie I chose, it was late, and most of the others were fast asleep.

Bea, T.J., and Cheryl were still awake. “It’s hard to believe,” Cheryl whispered, “Your team of Power Rangers is right here, asleep before our very eyes.”

“Most of them anyway,” I whispered, “I know what you mean. They’re a good bunch of people to have as friends.”

“It’s just so weird,” Bea said, “When you first started writing their adventures, did you have any idea that this would happen?”

“Nope,” I said, “I’ve hoped that this would happen, but I never thought it actually would. A temporary six person team instead of four, my own personal team of Power Rangers sitting right here, talking to me, Kat telling me how much I look like Tom, and then you agreeing with her.’

“Well, you do,” Bea said.

“That’s very flattering,” I said, “But I know I’m not near as good looking as Tom.”

“To me, you are,” Bea said, with a kiss. “And I guess now that you’ve got a chance to try to have a relationship with the one Power Ranger girl you’ve always wanted to, I should step down. I’m not anywhere as beautiful as Kat.”

“To me you are,” I said, hugging Bea closer. “I don’t want to lose you again, Bea, not for anything. Though, if breaking up is what will make you happy, then I’ll let you go, no questions asked.”

“You are so sweet,” Bea said, “Thinking of me more than yourself. You are so unselfish. And that’s what I love about you. I don’t ever want to leave. I love you too much to be able to just walk away. I love you, Lucas Harrell, with all of my heart.”

“And I love you, Bea Hightower, with all of mine,” I said. We kissed and then settled down and fell asleep.

The next morning, we walked down a little nature trail we hadn’t noticed last night. Feril was obviously enjoying the scenery, and Will was trying to show enthusiasm for her sake.

“This place is so beautiful,” Kat said.

“And so are you, Kat,” Tom said. Now it was mine and Bea’s turn to join in the rolling of eyes over their flirting.

All of a sudden, our wrist computers started chirping. I hit my communications button. “Go ahead S-1,” I said.

“GigaTron has sent a new virus monster,” Samurai-1 said, “And some gigamites to cyber sector eighteen.”

“We’re on it,” I said, “Will, Feril, do you two want to stay here with your friends? We should be able to handle this on our own.”

“No way,” Will said, “Besides, I need to battle check my new weapon.”

“Same here,” Feril said enthusiastically.

“Let’s go then,” I said, hitting the main button. “Uplink: Servo.”

“Uplink: Spryte.”

“Uplink: Tinkerer.”

“Uplink: ‘Smith.”

“Uplink: Dataflood.”

“Uplink: Spider.”

We digitized and took care of the virus monster and gigamites easily. Will charged up his trident to finish off the virus, while Feril used her webbing to tie up the gigamites, so that we could take them down easily.”

“Download.” We spiraled back to reality and found ourselves in the cabin. The other Rangers were there, waiting on us.

“Whew,” I said, “That was tough, even with six members. Fourth toughest battle I’ve been in.”

“What was the first three?” Tom asked.

“The one when I got kidnapped,” I said, ticking them off on my fingers. “The one when Bea joined, and the one when T.J. joined.”

“Wait a minute,” Kat said, “You were kidnapped?”

“Yep,” I said, “I was kidnapped right before Will got here. I spent about a month as Gigatron’s prisoner, while he had sent a clone into the team.”

“Once here,” Bea said, “The clone started treating us badly. He dumped me like a bad habit.”

“And beat the crap out of me,” T.J. said.

“And gave me a verbal lashing I’ll never forget,” Cheryl said.

“We like to call it the month of hell,” I said, “A month none of us will forget as long as we live. I got free, we broke Gigatron’s hold over my clone, and he went to live elsewhere, promising never to darken cyberspace again, though we parted friends, and he said that he’d come back every once in a while.”

“The month of hell, huh?” Tom said. I nodded. “Kind of like the ‘Year of Hell’ two part cliffhanger on Star Trek: Voyager.”

“Yep, though not nearly as severe,” I said, “None of us died, we gained a new friend and we remember what happened.”

“Unlike the crew of Voyager after the second episode,” T.J. said.

“Please, don’t mention Star Trek: Voyager,” Feril pleaded, “I lived there for the longest time, after my parents and Blister got killed. The reality I stayed in was one of the ones that were destroyed by the Vidiians.

T.J. came to stand beside me. “Who’s Blister?” he asked me in a whisper.

“Her best friend,” I whispered, “She died with Feril’s parents.”

“Oh,” he said. We walked around until it got dark, watched some more movies, and then fell asleep.

Part IV
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