Fic: Reporting Live - Countdown to Destruction (6/6)
Title: Reporting Live
Chapter Title: Countdown to Destruction
Rating: PG
Summary: Jimmy Jameson thought the only things worth reporting on in Angel Grove were the martial arts tournaments. But that was before Rita attacked.
Word Count: ~1,750
Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Saban!
Continuity: Countdown to Destruction
Notes: This is the final chapter of the Press Conference fic. Thank you all so much for reading. Extra thanks to my amazing betas - harmonyangel, lielabell and queenriley.
Chapter 1 - The Power Rangers
Chapter 2 - The Green Ranger
Chapter 3 - The Destruction of the Thunderzords
Chapter 4 - The Zeo Rangers
Chapter 5 - Passing the Torch
Chapter 6 - Countdown to Destruction
Sometimes, Jimmy wondered how he could ever have thought that the Power Rangers would fail. They had never failed before. It didn't matter what they had been faced with - evil Rangers, Putties impersonating them, their Zords being destroyed, brand new villains... the Rangers had always bounced back from it.
They hadn't faced anything like this before. Angel Grove had been invaded. Astronoma was threatening to destroy everything unless the Power Rangers surrendered themselves. And there was no sign of them. He had to believe that they would come through, just as they always did.
Jimmy shivered, even though he was sitting near a bonfire that had been set up. It wasn't safe to go into any of the buildings - so many of them had structural damage, and the ones that didn't were filled with Quantrons.
"Do you think the Power Rangers have abandoned us?" someone asked timidly, and Jimmy's jaw dropped in disbelief. There was no way that the Power Rangers would do such a thing. He had doubted the Power Rangers in the past, they all had, but the Power Rangers had always come through for them before. They had to be regrouping, trying to come up with a plan. There was no way that the Power Rangers would abandon them, not when the very fate of Earth itself was at stake. The Rangers wouldn't do that. They couldn't do that.
"The Rangers have never let us down before. We have to believe they'll be here," someone said, and Jimmy recognized the speaker. Farkus Bulkmeier had been in his office once a week for months a few years back, trying to convince him that he would discover the true identities of the Power Rangers and that Jimmy should print an article about his quest to do so. Jimmy had politely ignored them, and had never been more pleased than to discover that Farkus and Eugene Skullovitch had joined the junior police patrol and were too busy to try and figure out the identities of the Power Rangers. Still, it was nice to see that someone else was defending them.
The Power Rangers had never let Angel Grove down before. They had to be off coming up with a plan. The world would be saved.
Jimmy just had to keep believing that.
*
When Astronoma's deadline approached, everyone gathered in the town square. Not that they'd had a choice in the matter - they had been rounded up forcibly by Quantrons almost as soon as the sun had gone up.
Jimmy tried not to think that this could be the last time he ever saw a sunrise.
Some small part of his mind whispered that he was a reporter, and he had a job to do. This was either going to be the greatest story of his career - cataloging how the Rangers had triumphed even against these unbelievable odds - or else nothing would matter. But that tiny thought was enough. He believed in the Power Rangers. He knew that they wouldn't let Angel Grove and the world down. He was a reporter, and he would get his story.
He lifted his head up. Even if he was wrong, and the Power Rangers had already fallen, it didn't matter. He was a reporter, and he was going to get his story.
"Power Rangers," Astronoma announced from the rooftop. "You're cowards! You would sacrifice this whole planet. I'll ask one last time. Where are the Rangers?"
There was a long pause, and nobody stepped forward. Jimmy knew that the Rangers would be here. This was their moment. This was when they were supposed to make their big dramatic entrance and show up and defeat Astronoma once and for all.
Where were they?
Astronoma smiled. "As you wish," she said icily. "Let the destruction of Earth -"
"Wait!" a voice called. Jimmy, like everyone else, turned to see who it was. Farkus Bulkmeier stepped forward. "I," he proclaimed in a loud voice, so that everyone could hear him. "am the Blue Ranger."
"Yeah!" Eugene Skullovitch added, as he stepped forward. "I am the Black Ranger!"
As that obnoxious scientist who was always insisting that he had found aliens (even though Angel Grove was constantly being invaded by them) stepped forward to say that he was the Red Ranger, Jimmy realized what they were doing. He watched as more and more people stepped forward, proclaiming themselves to be Rangers. Angel Grove would not be defeated.
"I am a Power Ranger!" he yelled out, as he too stepped forward, ready to help defend his city.
"Fine then," Astronoma said. "Destroy them all!"
The Quantrons and others stepped forward to attack, and Astronoma leveled her staff at them, energy shooting from it, but the people stood firm.
"Hold it right there!" someone else yelled, this time the voice coming from the rooftops. Jimmy looked up, and saw five teens standing there. Their clothes were dirty and ripped, but there was something about the way they held themselves, and his jaw dropped slightly, as he realized who they had to be, and what they were about to do. "We are the Power Rangers!" the one in blue said. "Let's Rocket!"
With a flash of light, five Rangers stood there where the teens had just been. The Silver Ranger stood in the center. The Red Ranger was missing.
"Them?" he heard Bulkmeier ask incredulously. "No way!"
The rational part of Jimmy's mind realized that the Rangers were teenagers. At least that explained where the previous Rangers had gone - they must have graduated and left Angel Grove. The rest of him was more concerned with the swarm of Quantrons that were coming towards them.
"Come on, let's get in there!" Bulkmeier shouted. "Who's with me?"
With the rest of Angel Grove, Jimmy rushed forward to take back his city from the invaders.
*
The battle had been won, and things were starting to return to normal. The National Guard had shown up to help start to rebuild the city; it had been the worst damage that Angel Grove had ever taken in a monster attack. And Jimmy had a story to write.
The true identities of the Power Rangers.
Only a year before, Jimmy had decided that he didn't want this story and now here it was, just waiting for him to write about it. And it was a story. But what he truly wanted to write about was how the citizens of Angel Grove had stepped forward to protect themselves. That was the story. Not that the Rangers weren't important - they had done very well for a bunch of newbies. Not that they were new at this, it had been over a year. But they weren't his Rangers.
It was still nice to know who they were after all this time.
If he tried hard enough, he was sure that he could figure out who the other Rangers were. He kept glancing at the Angel Grove high school yearbooks that he'd managed to pull from the ruins of the Gazette's archives. It would be easy. But it would be wrong. The new Rangers were having enough problems hiding from the media - everyone wanted to know everything about them. They had saved the world, but it had ruined their lives and any chance for privacy.
He deliberately closed the yearbooks, put them back on the shelf, and went back to his desk. It was a minor miracle that they'd managed to restore power this quickly, but at least it meant he wouldn't have to dig out his ancient typewriter for this article.
"Mr. Jameson?" a voice called hesitantly, and Jimmy looked up. He gasped when he saw the six teens standing in his doorway.
"Rangers," he said as he got to his feet. "It's an honor. I'd just like to thank you for all that you did to save Angel Grove. To save everyone." Somehow what he said didn't seem like enough.
"You helped," Cassie Chan, the Pink Ranger, said. She looked tired. They all did.
"What can I do for you?" Jimmy said. He gestured around his office. "Please, take a seat. It's a mess, but..."
"Actually, we were hoping you could do something for us," T.J. Johnson, the Blue Ranger, said. "We spoke to, um, the other former Rangers, and they agreed that we should probably give some sort of an interview. And you helped us out before, back when we first started. We were hoping that you could do it again."
"There are a lot of misconceptions," Ashley Hammond added, squeezing the Red Ranger's hand. "Especially when people found out that Andros and Zhane aren't from Earth. We want to correct some of that."
"And help protect the older Rangers," Carlos Vallerte said. "They didn't ask for us to accidentally spill the beans like this." He ran a hand through his newly shortened hair.
"I'd be glad to do anything that I can for you," Jimmy told them.
"We appreciate that," Andros said.
"Do you want me to tell me about your sister?" Jimmy asked. Andros hesitated, and nodded.
"Karone was under a spell," he said quietly. "She's going to spend the rest of her life trying to make up for what she did while she was Astronoma, but we'd like for people to understand."
"People forgave the Green Ranger," Jimmy told him. "It will just take some time."
"We have all the time in the world."
"Two of them even," T.J. agreed.
*
His article was published the next day. The first official interview with the Power Rangers. It was light and happy and featured some explanations about how their powers worked, as well as including a plea for people to respect their privacy, and the hope that they could forgive Karone for what she had done as Astronoma.
It was one of Jimmy's better articles, if he said so himself.
But the article that was actually getting the attention was by a little known sports writer in Los Angeles. Kimberly Hart was from Angel Grove originally, and like many reporters from Angel Grove, she was given the chance to write her own reaction to what happened.
It was her article - Why the World Doesn't Need Power Rangers - that got all the attention that day. And Jimmy couldn't blame them - it was the article that he himself had wanted to write. But he suspected she knew more about it than most.
Chapter Title: Countdown to Destruction
Rating: PG
Summary: Jimmy Jameson thought the only things worth reporting on in Angel Grove were the martial arts tournaments. But that was before Rita attacked.
Word Count: ~1,750
Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Saban!
Continuity: Countdown to Destruction
Notes: This is the final chapter of the Press Conference fic. Thank you all so much for reading. Extra thanks to my amazing betas - harmonyangel, lielabell and queenriley.
Chapter 1 - The Power Rangers
Chapter 2 - The Green Ranger
Chapter 3 - The Destruction of the Thunderzords
Chapter 4 - The Zeo Rangers
Chapter 5 - Passing the Torch
Chapter 6 - Countdown to Destruction
Sometimes, Jimmy wondered how he could ever have thought that the Power Rangers would fail. They had never failed before. It didn't matter what they had been faced with - evil Rangers, Putties impersonating them, their Zords being destroyed, brand new villains... the Rangers had always bounced back from it.
They hadn't faced anything like this before. Angel Grove had been invaded. Astronoma was threatening to destroy everything unless the Power Rangers surrendered themselves. And there was no sign of them. He had to believe that they would come through, just as they always did.
Jimmy shivered, even though he was sitting near a bonfire that had been set up. It wasn't safe to go into any of the buildings - so many of them had structural damage, and the ones that didn't were filled with Quantrons.
"Do you think the Power Rangers have abandoned us?" someone asked timidly, and Jimmy's jaw dropped in disbelief. There was no way that the Power Rangers would do such a thing. He had doubted the Power Rangers in the past, they all had, but the Power Rangers had always come through for them before. They had to be regrouping, trying to come up with a plan. There was no way that the Power Rangers would abandon them, not when the very fate of Earth itself was at stake. The Rangers wouldn't do that. They couldn't do that.
"The Rangers have never let us down before. We have to believe they'll be here," someone said, and Jimmy recognized the speaker. Farkus Bulkmeier had been in his office once a week for months a few years back, trying to convince him that he would discover the true identities of the Power Rangers and that Jimmy should print an article about his quest to do so. Jimmy had politely ignored them, and had never been more pleased than to discover that Farkus and Eugene Skullovitch had joined the junior police patrol and were too busy to try and figure out the identities of the Power Rangers. Still, it was nice to see that someone else was defending them.
The Power Rangers had never let Angel Grove down before. They had to be off coming up with a plan. The world would be saved.
Jimmy just had to keep believing that.
*
When Astronoma's deadline approached, everyone gathered in the town square. Not that they'd had a choice in the matter - they had been rounded up forcibly by Quantrons almost as soon as the sun had gone up.
Jimmy tried not to think that this could be the last time he ever saw a sunrise.
Some small part of his mind whispered that he was a reporter, and he had a job to do. This was either going to be the greatest story of his career - cataloging how the Rangers had triumphed even against these unbelievable odds - or else nothing would matter. But that tiny thought was enough. He believed in the Power Rangers. He knew that they wouldn't let Angel Grove and the world down. He was a reporter, and he would get his story.
He lifted his head up. Even if he was wrong, and the Power Rangers had already fallen, it didn't matter. He was a reporter, and he was going to get his story.
"Power Rangers," Astronoma announced from the rooftop. "You're cowards! You would sacrifice this whole planet. I'll ask one last time. Where are the Rangers?"
There was a long pause, and nobody stepped forward. Jimmy knew that the Rangers would be here. This was their moment. This was when they were supposed to make their big dramatic entrance and show up and defeat Astronoma once and for all.
Where were they?
Astronoma smiled. "As you wish," she said icily. "Let the destruction of Earth -"
"Wait!" a voice called. Jimmy, like everyone else, turned to see who it was. Farkus Bulkmeier stepped forward. "I," he proclaimed in a loud voice, so that everyone could hear him. "am the Blue Ranger."
"Yeah!" Eugene Skullovitch added, as he stepped forward. "I am the Black Ranger!"
As that obnoxious scientist who was always insisting that he had found aliens (even though Angel Grove was constantly being invaded by them) stepped forward to say that he was the Red Ranger, Jimmy realized what they were doing. He watched as more and more people stepped forward, proclaiming themselves to be Rangers. Angel Grove would not be defeated.
"I am a Power Ranger!" he yelled out, as he too stepped forward, ready to help defend his city.
"Fine then," Astronoma said. "Destroy them all!"
The Quantrons and others stepped forward to attack, and Astronoma leveled her staff at them, energy shooting from it, but the people stood firm.
"Hold it right there!" someone else yelled, this time the voice coming from the rooftops. Jimmy looked up, and saw five teens standing there. Their clothes were dirty and ripped, but there was something about the way they held themselves, and his jaw dropped slightly, as he realized who they had to be, and what they were about to do. "We are the Power Rangers!" the one in blue said. "Let's Rocket!"
With a flash of light, five Rangers stood there where the teens had just been. The Silver Ranger stood in the center. The Red Ranger was missing.
"Them?" he heard Bulkmeier ask incredulously. "No way!"
The rational part of Jimmy's mind realized that the Rangers were teenagers. At least that explained where the previous Rangers had gone - they must have graduated and left Angel Grove. The rest of him was more concerned with the swarm of Quantrons that were coming towards them.
"Come on, let's get in there!" Bulkmeier shouted. "Who's with me?"
With the rest of Angel Grove, Jimmy rushed forward to take back his city from the invaders.
*
The battle had been won, and things were starting to return to normal. The National Guard had shown up to help start to rebuild the city; it had been the worst damage that Angel Grove had ever taken in a monster attack. And Jimmy had a story to write.
The true identities of the Power Rangers.
Only a year before, Jimmy had decided that he didn't want this story and now here it was, just waiting for him to write about it. And it was a story. But what he truly wanted to write about was how the citizens of Angel Grove had stepped forward to protect themselves. That was the story. Not that the Rangers weren't important - they had done very well for a bunch of newbies. Not that they were new at this, it had been over a year. But they weren't his Rangers.
It was still nice to know who they were after all this time.
If he tried hard enough, he was sure that he could figure out who the other Rangers were. He kept glancing at the Angel Grove high school yearbooks that he'd managed to pull from the ruins of the Gazette's archives. It would be easy. But it would be wrong. The new Rangers were having enough problems hiding from the media - everyone wanted to know everything about them. They had saved the world, but it had ruined their lives and any chance for privacy.
He deliberately closed the yearbooks, put them back on the shelf, and went back to his desk. It was a minor miracle that they'd managed to restore power this quickly, but at least it meant he wouldn't have to dig out his ancient typewriter for this article.
"Mr. Jameson?" a voice called hesitantly, and Jimmy looked up. He gasped when he saw the six teens standing in his doorway.
"Rangers," he said as he got to his feet. "It's an honor. I'd just like to thank you for all that you did to save Angel Grove. To save everyone." Somehow what he said didn't seem like enough.
"You helped," Cassie Chan, the Pink Ranger, said. She looked tired. They all did.
"What can I do for you?" Jimmy said. He gestured around his office. "Please, take a seat. It's a mess, but..."
"Actually, we were hoping you could do something for us," T.J. Johnson, the Blue Ranger, said. "We spoke to, um, the other former Rangers, and they agreed that we should probably give some sort of an interview. And you helped us out before, back when we first started. We were hoping that you could do it again."
"There are a lot of misconceptions," Ashley Hammond added, squeezing the Red Ranger's hand. "Especially when people found out that Andros and Zhane aren't from Earth. We want to correct some of that."
"And help protect the older Rangers," Carlos Vallerte said. "They didn't ask for us to accidentally spill the beans like this." He ran a hand through his newly shortened hair.
"I'd be glad to do anything that I can for you," Jimmy told them.
"We appreciate that," Andros said.
"Do you want me to tell me about your sister?" Jimmy asked. Andros hesitated, and nodded.
"Karone was under a spell," he said quietly. "She's going to spend the rest of her life trying to make up for what she did while she was Astronoma, but we'd like for people to understand."
"People forgave the Green Ranger," Jimmy told him. "It will just take some time."
"We have all the time in the world."
"Two of them even," T.J. agreed.
*
His article was published the next day. The first official interview with the Power Rangers. It was light and happy and featured some explanations about how their powers worked, as well as including a plea for people to respect their privacy, and the hope that they could forgive Karone for what she had done as Astronoma.
It was one of Jimmy's better articles, if he said so himself.
But the article that was actually getting the attention was by a little known sports writer in Los Angeles. Kimberly Hart was from Angel Grove originally, and like many reporters from Angel Grove, she was given the chance to write her own reaction to what happened.
It was her article - Why the World Doesn't Need Power Rangers - that got all the attention that day. And Jimmy couldn't blame them - it was the article that he himself had wanted to write. But he suspected she knew more about it than most.