This was it, the moment I had been training for. I looked right at my best friend and smiled.
“You’re going down, Dev!”
“I think you’ve got that backwards, Kali.”
He smiled back but as soon as the instructor said go, I made the first attack. I went to knife-hand him, but he quickly dodged. We fought back and forth for a few minutes, each of us landing hits on the other but neither one of us surrendered. Finally, Devon managed to knock me down and get me in a “kill” position. The bell rang, signaling the end of the match…and Devon as the winner.
“Devon Daniels wins the first round of the karate tournament. Kalindi McCall has been eliminated,” the instructor announced. People clapped as my best friend helped me up.
“You put up a good fight, Kali. Almost had me a couple times,” he smiled as we walked off to the side. The next two competitors got on the mat. We sat down at the booth and ordered some drinks.
“Yeah well, almost isn’t good enough,” I said defeatedly. I wasn’t mad at him, he earned it. I was upset at myself for not training harder.
“Hey, look at me,” Devon said and I looked up at him. “You did your best. You’re an amazing martial artist. I just got lucky somehow. Remember how many times you’ve beaten me in normal sparring matches?”
I smiled a little and nodded. “Thanks, Dev.”
“Devon!” we heard an all too familiar voice say. We turned and saw his dad, and he didn’t look pleased. “I thought you were going to that job interview I set up for you.”
Before Devon could say anything, I stood up. “I’m sorry, Mayor Daniels. It’s my fault, I entered Devon in the karate tournament at the last moment because I wanted to see if I could win against him, and like the best friend that he is, he did it with me,” I lied, standing up for him. My best friend gave me a look. His dad eyed me warily, then nodded once.
“Next time, I’ll set up an interview for both of you. There’s no sense in wasting your time with karate. If you’re not going to study, might as well do something useful like work. Come on, son, we’re going home,” he said simply.
Devon sighed and stood. He gave me a hug and I hugged back. “Thank you, Kali,” he whispered. “Catch ya later?” he then asked in a normal voice level.
“Yeah, you know where to find me,” I smiled a little.
He smiled back then went off with his dad. I sighed and sat down again. I knew how hard his dad was on him, my parents were the same way-always trying to get us to be like them or do more rather than play video games and karate. That’s how Devon and I became best friends a couple years ago, and our parents know very well that we hang out a lot. They just never have the chance to hang out with us, with Devon’s dad being the mayor, my dad being in the military, and my mom being the lead engineer for Tech-tonic International.
I stood and packed my things after a few minutes. There was no reason for me to stay and watch the rest of day 1 of the tournament without Devon.
I changed out of my karate uniform and then walked down to the plaza. I sat on a bench, reading my favorite Ranger history book for the millionth time, the one about the Wild Force Rangers. I got lost reading it again and suddenly I was jolted from my focus by screams and people running away. I immediately jumped up and ran the opposite direction, towards whatever was freaking people out, leaving my stuff behind.
That’s when I saw a motorcycle monster and weird robot dudes creating havoc. “Hey, freaks! Don’t you know it’s rude to scare people off?” I called. In an instant, their attention was turned to me. That’s when the fear kicked in.
What the hell did I get myself into? No going back now…time to put my karate skills to use.
“You get one chance to leave. We’ve got more important things to do,” a girl with long dark hair dressed in a black and yellow-striped outfit said as she stepped out from behind a column.
“Not a chance! I won’t stand by and watch you destroy Coral Harbor.”
“Very well, you’ll regret putting your nose in our business. Tronics…get her!”
That’s when the weird robot dudes came at me. I took a deep breath and fought them for a few minutes. Just as I was starting to get tired, I saw three Power Rangers show up! “End of the line, Roxy,” the Blue Ranger said.
“Wrong. We’re just getting started. Cycletron, destroy them,” the girl ordered and the motorcycle monster obeyed. Seeing my momentary distraction, the Tronic bot things who had remained near me knocked me down. Before I could react, the Red Ranger jumped in and fought them off.
Wait a sec…something about his fighting style seems awfully familiar…
Then, he held out his hand. I gratefully took it and he helped me up. “Are you ok, Ka…er, miss?” he asked.
That’s odd…he sounded like he was gonna say my name, and his voice sounds familiar too.
“A little bruised up but I’ll live. Thanks,” I smiled.
“Good. Get to safety, we got this from here,” he replied before running off to join the others.
“No way, I don’t know who the others are but I’m gonna help you, Dev,” I whispered to myself. I was positive the Red Ranger was my best friend. How or why I didn’t know and to be honest, I didn’t care. I was proud of him and no matter what I was gonna help, too even though I wasn’t a Ranger. I was about to run back into the fight when I noticed the girl, Roxy and a guy with blonde hair wearing an outfit identical to Roxy’s except in black and red stealing something in barrels. Whatever it was, I had a feeling it would be bad if they got it.
So, I ran over to them. “Stop right there!” I yelled and got into a fighting stance. Both of them chuckled.
“So you survived the Tronics. The Rangers don’t have a chance against us, and you’re not even a Ranger,” Roxy taunted.
“Maybe not, but that’s not gonna stop me from fighting to protect the city!”
“Go, take the Morph X to Evox. I can handle this girl,” Roxy then told the guy. He nodded and put a key thing into the device on his wrist, instantly teleporting him and the barrels away.
Dang it, he got away with whatever that was! At least I can still help by trying to defeat her.
Then, Roxy did the same thing as the guy, but instead of teleporting away, she morphed! She immediately charged at me and I barely managed to dodge her first attack. We fought back and forth for a few moments, until she managed to get a good hit on me. I fell back hard on the concrete. I groaned and held my left arm.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Roxy said with an evil chuckle as she got in position to kill me. I closed my eyes and braced myself for her final attack, but it never came. I opened my eyes and saw the Yellow Ranger fighting Roxy. I went to get up, but searing pain shot through my arm.
Ow ow ow ow, yeah I definitely broke it.
I went to stand up again, but carefully this time. I watched the two of them fight for a minute until Roxy retreated. The Yellow Ranger came over to me. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah…just a little banged up but yeah I’m good. Thanks for the save,” I replied, managing a small smile.
“Ok, you should get to someplace safe. We’ve got this.”
“No way, this is my city too, and I want to help protect it.”
“Thanks, and maybe someday you can but not right now. Go to Grid Battleforce when you can, you might be able to help that way.”
The Yellow Ranger left and I sighed. I knew the smart thing to do would be to get out of here and go to the hospital but I chose to stay in case there was some way I could still help. I stayed nearby and watched. The Rangers defeated Cycletron and I was about to go over to them when suddenly a giant version of Cycletron appeared!
I should’ve seen this coming. Zord time!
I momentarily forgot about my broken arm as I got excited to see their zords. In no time, two giant vehicles appeared: a red and black race car, and a blue transport truck. Overhead, a yellow helicopter flew to join them. The Rangers teleported into their zords. The race car turned into a robot and the blue truck into a gorilla! The chopper shot at the giant robot from the air. After a few minutes, the battle finally ended with the Rangers being victorious.
“Yeah!” I cheered excitedly but then stopped and cringed as the pain returned to my arm.
Okay…maybe it’s time to go to the doctor’s now.
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