Double Act

Chapter 1: Day of the Dino

Part I

A/N: AU sequel to New Girl. Set in September, 2003 – June 2004, since it's meant to take place during a school year for the Dino Thunder rangers, and this makes the most sense.

After her ranger gig in Blue Bay Harbor, Kennedi made the decision to stay there for the fall semester. She has a job, good friends, and the only thing missing is her sister. Of course, she does visit quite often, but it's still not the same. Now, over in Reefside, it's Kira's turn to start her own ranger adventure and to be later joined by her sister. The singer already knows her sister was one and knows her sister is a ninja, but what happens when strange things start to happen to her?

Pairings (by the end of this story): Kennedi/Hunter, Kira/Conner, Tommy/Kim, Ethan/Angela, Trent/Krista

Kennedi won't be featured a whole lot for a while, but once I turn her into a ranger she will be.

Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the show.

Kira Ford sighed as she walked the halls of Reefside High on the first day of senior year. It was supposed to be the best year of her high school life, but it wouldn't be the same without her sister there. Of course, Kira knew that her twin sister Kennedi had decided to stay in Blue Bay Harbor for the semester, wanting to play fall ball there, but it meant they couldn't spend all of senior year together.

The dirty blonde didn't mind her sister's decision to stay. She figured that it also had to do with wanting to get to know her teammates better. Yes, Kira knew about her sister's adventures as a power ranger on the team in Blue Bay Harbor earlier in the year. It helped when she knew Kennedi was a fire ninja and an orange ranger showed up the same day Kennedi moved to Blue Bay Harbor. She missed her sister, but she knew at some point they had to go their separate ways and no matter what, they would always find their way back to each other.

Kennedi did visit a few times each week to catch up and the two girls would spend the day doing whatever they wanted. Now that school was starting again, visits would be shorter. They couldn't practice their music as often, and they knew things were going to be complicated with that. Kira shook her head at her thoughts as she made her way to her homeroom, where her first class would be.

She took a seat at the table closest to the door. She didn't particularly care for science, but it was a required course and she had to take it. The classroom was filled with activity, her fellow classmates moving about. As expected, Cassidy Cornell, Reefside High's future reporter, was talking to her camera man Devin about how they needed to find their next big story and fast. Everyone knew who Cassidy was, since she was always butting into matters that didn't exactly concern her.

The teacher walked in. He was a man with short, spiky dark hair wearing a lab coat and glasses. For some reason, Kira thought he seemed familiar. She couldn't figure out why, but she could have sworn she saw him before. "Guys, settle down," he ordered. "Take your seats, please." Students calmed down and took their seats. "I'm Dr. Oliver, and this is first period science. Before we start, are there any questions?" Cassidy raised her hand. "Yes?"

"Cassidy," she stood. "Cassidy Cornell." The class groaned. "Dr. Oliver, as you may know, I'm the anchor and field reporter for our school TV station." Another groan from the class. "Anyway, I'm sure our viewers are wondering…well, you don't really look old enough to be a teacher." She turned to her friend. "Devin, are you getting this?"

"Cassidy, I promise you, I'm old enough," Dr. Oliver assured. "So let's put the camera away." Devin and Cassidy sat down. "For now, let's talk about you guys and what you expect of yourselves in this class. Because that's what's really important." He noticed an empty stool. "Is someone missing?"

Lunch time found Kira making her way to a picnic table outside she usually sat at with Kennedi, when her sister was still there. She wanted to perform something today, and this table was where they always did. Though singing wouldn't be the same without her sister by her side, the girl knew how to make a song into a solo act for brief, spontaneous performances. Once she was situated on the picnic table, she began playing and singing. By the time the chorus came around, a crowd had gathered.

"I wanna know
know where you're at
I'm at the front
but you're still at the back
oh
can you tell me where
tell me where you're at
freak you out
freak you out
freak you out
freak you out
freak you out
freak you out."

She finished the last chorus and was met with applause from those gathered around her. "Miss Ford," a voice caught her attention. She turned her head to face Principal Randall, Conner McKnight trailing behind her. "I'm afraid you need written permission to perform on school grounds."

"Are you aware that kids who play an instrument have a fifty percent higher chance of getting into college?" Kira blurted out, hoping it would get her out of trouble. Their old principal didn't mind that Kira and her sister used to play on school grounds, feeling it gave the students a nice little break from their lessons during lunch.

"Well," Randall looked her over. "You're hardly college material, now, are you, Miss Ford?" Kira gaped at the woman in disbelief. "Now come with me." Randall walked off and Kira followed her. Conner fell into step beside the singer.

Kira noticed this and turned to him. What a bitch, she mouthed to him, and he held back a laugh. Though they had grown apart since entering high school, Conner, Kira, Kennedi, and Conner's twin brother Eric have been friends growing up. Kennedi was better at staying Conner and Eric's friend than Kira was, and part of that had to do with Kira's crush on Conner. She would try to be careful with what she said around him, not wanting anything to slip out that could ruin their friendship.

Little did she know that Conner had felt the same way. Growing up, he, his brother, and the Ford girls were always hanging out, and even when they separated into their own cliques in school, they tried their best to maintain a good friendship. The soccer player had only told Kennedi about his feelings for her sister, hoping she could help set something up. So far, all he had gotten from it was being sucked into a deal where if he didn't ask Kira out by Prom, then Kennedi would be allowed to do whatever it took to get them together.

As the three were walking, the sprinklers suddenly went off, startling them. Conner found it amusing while Kira was trying to save her guitar from being wrecked.

"Ethan James," Randall's gaze caught sight of the only boy with an umbrella. "I should've known."

"Sit!" Randall barked as she directed the three students to a bench outside her office. The two soaking wet teens and Ethan sat on the bench, not wanting to get into more trouble than they already were in. Randall did not look happy, and neither did the students. Kira was mad because this meant she couldn't go visit her sister like she had promised.

"Principal Randall," Ethan began. "I'd just like to mention the fact there's absolutely no hard evidence linking me to that unfortunate sprinkler accident." Kira and Conner gave him an odd look.

"Save it for Judge Judy, Mr. James," Randall glared. "The three of you have detention…for one week, starting today. Now, if there are no further questions…"

The teens began to ramble off excuses.

"Computer club…"

"Soccer practice…"

"Rehearsal…"

Randall cut them all off. "I didn't think so!" Without another word, she stormed into her office.

"Okay," Kira breathed. "Somebody seriously needs a hug."

"Dude," Conner looked past Kira and over at Ethan. "Computer club?"

Ethan rolled his eyes.

After being informed that Dr. Oliver would be in charge of detention for the week, the teens had to accompany him to the museum on the outskirts of Reefside. Tommy didn't seem too happy he had to do it, and it looked like he was trying to hide something. Kira couldn't shake the feeling that he felt familiar somehow, but she put that on the back of her mind as the four rode silently in the jeep. As they neared the museum, Ethan spoke up.

"Whoa," he gasped. "Check out the T-Rex!" Tommy pulled the jeep to a stop and the four hopped out. They walked over to the gate, which was chained shut.

"That's weird," the science teacher muttered.

"Oh well," Conner sighed. "No museum for us."

"Great," Kira grinned. "Let's go home."

Tommy wasn't going to let them off that easy. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you guys have a look around the grounds? If any of you guys find anything prehistoric, I'll cancel detention for the rest of the week. I'm going to see if I can find someone to tell us when they're opening up."

The teens shrugged and walked off, heading for the woods.

"So let me get this straight," Conner spoke. "They have a club just for computers?"

The three teens soon found themselves wandering along a path in the woods. Kira had her phone out, trying to get a hold of her sister to explain why she wouldn't be able to visit today. Conner noticed this and wanted to ask if he could talk to Kennedi to see if she could confirm something his brother had told him, but figured that he could call her himself later. "Hey, did you guys ever hear the story about the guy who was hiking up here and fell in the giant sinkhole?" Ethan asked.

"Must've missed that one," Kira mumbled.

"Come on," Ethan groaned. "It was on all the urban legend web sites."

"Dude, you know this isn't computer club, right?" Conner raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I guess you're too big and bad to surf the web," Ethan huffed. "Well, what do you do in your spare time?"

Conner snorted. "Me? I go out with girls," he answered, looking to Kira. "You know, they're the ones at school that smell really good with the long hair and the makeup."

"Oh, it's like that, is it?" Ethan scoffed, stopping him.

"Yeah," Conner nodded. "It's like that."

"Whatever," Kira rolled her eyes, walking past the two. Conner scoffed once more, smirking after her as he followed. Finally, Kira heard someone pick up on the other end. "Hey, Ken…"

"All I'm trying to do is give you guys the heads up," Ethan shrugged. "Stuff happens out here. Just don't come crying to me when you fall in a giant sinkhole."

As soon as he finished the sentence, the three fell into a sinkhole.

"Kira?" a voice screamed over the cell phone that had fallen out of Kira's hands. "Kira, you there?" Kira scrambled to grab her phone so she could assure her sister she was indeed alive. Conner and Ethan scrambled to their feet as well, wondering why there were sinkholes in the middle of the woods. From what they could tell, they were in some sort of secret tunnel.

"I'm here, Ken," Kira sighed. "Listen, I'm gonna have to call you back later, okay?"

"Okay, but what was that screaming?" Kennedi wondered.

Kira blinked a few times before answering bluntly. "I fell down a sinkhole." Before her sister could question it, she hung up and turned to the two guys. "Well, either of you geniuses have any idea how to get out of here?"

"All right," Conner came up with one. "You guys stay here where it's safe. I'll climb up and come back with help." Kira and Ethan stood aside as the boy in red began to scale the rock wall. He was barely five feet off the ground before he slipped and fell onto his back.

"Back already?" Ethan joked.

Deciding their only way out was to continue through the tunnels, the three took the path in front of them. Conner was leading them, figuring it best that if something happened, he should be the first to go. Of course, Conner didn't like the idea, but agreed to it only because it meant he could protect his crush if something did happen. During their walk, Kira had started singing to calm herself down. "Freak you out, freak you out, freak you out…" she muttered.

"Babe, can you keep it down?" Conner asked, unaware the word had slipped out. "I'm trying to stay focused here."

"Did you just call me babe?" Kira demanded. As far as she knew, most friends didn't call each other babe like Conner just did. She turned to Ethan. "Did he just call me babe?"

"I don't know," Ethan shrugged. "I wasn't listening. I'm still grooving to your tune."

Kira walked forward until she was facing Conner. "What?" he asked. "Just chill out, why don't you?"

"Listen," Kira glared. "You know my name is Kira, so use it. And if you can't, write it on your hand or something so you can remember." She walked off, Ethan following her.

Conner just stared after her, dumbfounded.

The trio once again found themselves stopping. This time, it wasn't because of something someone said, but rather because they found something. Before them set into the wall was a skeleton of a dinosaur that looked rather huge. None of them were making a move to touch it, afraid something might happen if they did. "This screams Jurassic Park to me," Kira muttered.

"This will get us out of detention forever," Conner scoffed. He reached for the jaw and pulled it. The wall that stuck out a bit in front of Ethan slid upward, revealing a room. Cautiously, the three walked inside, noting how it looked like an odd lab of some sort, an elaborate basement to some sort of home.

"I could do a crazy video in here," Kira looked around in awe.

"Whoa," Conner breathed, moving toward Ethan. "This must be, like, the mother ship for you, dude." In the center of the room stood a cart with a giant black rock on it. On the rock sat three different colored gems, one red, one yellow, one blue.

"Normally," Ethan grinned, taking it all in. "I would be insulted, but when you're right, you're right." He saw Conner was about to touch the red gem. "Yo, don't touch that."

"Why not?" Conner wondered as Kira moved over to join them.

"You really are taking this dumb jock thing to a whole new level," Ethan pointed out.

Conner rolled his eyes. "Look, I have sat through enough lame science classes to know that thing looks pretty prehistoric. And if I don't have to miss practice…"

"I hate to agree with him," Kira piped up. "Really, I do, but I already missed one rehearsal and my sister will kill me if I miss another." Slowly, the three reached out to take the gems. Conner grabbed the red one, Kira took the yellow, and Ethan snatched the blue. The gems glowed for a moment, confusing the three. "Well, what are they?"

"I can go online later and see if I can find out," Ethan offered.

"You in front of a computer," Conner smirked. "Wait, let me put on my surprised face."

"You know," Ethan looked at him. "Ten years from now, when your hair line's receding and you're playing pickup soccer in the park because your dreams of turning pro never quite worked out, I'll have my own multibillion dollar software business. Yeah." Conner shared a look with Kira. Kira then proceeded to leave. "Where are you going?"

She turned back to the two. "I don't want to think about what kind of a freak lives in a place like this, and I sure don't want to be here when it gets home." She continued on her way out.

"Right behind ya," Conner agreed, and the boys followed.

The three finally found their way back outside into the woods through a hole in the tunnels. They didn't quite recognize where in the woods they were. They dusted themselves off as they got back to even ground. "A compass," Ethan realized, figuring that if he had one, he could get them out of there. "We need a compass. Anyone have a compass?"

"I was going to bring one," Conner huffed sarcastically. They stopped as they felt a sudden wind blow by them.

"What was that?" Ethan demanded.

"The wind?" the singer suggested hopefully.

"That ain't the wind," Ethan denied. "As much as we'd like it to be, it ain't." Two green portals flashed before them and spit out scaly, dinosaur like creatures. Kira felt a sense of dread fill her, getting the sense she was going to be pulled into what her sister had done earlier in the year.

Conner spoke quietly. "Don't…move."

"Great idea," Kira hissed. "Make it easy for them."

"New plan," Ethan declared. "Run!"

With that, he, Conner, and Kira took off through the woods. The creatures chased after them, refusing to let them get away. Kira knew that despite similar things happening in Blue Bay Harbor earlier in the year, this was definitely not the same. Conner and Ethan jumped over a ditch, and Kira tried to do the same only to fall into the side. The boys helped her up and they continued running. After running a little more, she tripped on a root and fell over. Before the boys could help her again, she faced the creatures and screamed. This wasn't an ordinary scream, though, as it blew the creatures back and had the boys covering their ears in pain.

"What," Ethan breathed as they got Kira standing. "Was that?"

"I have no idea," Kira admitted. The gem in her pocket began glowing. She dug it out and images of a pterodactyl flashed through her head.

This time, when the creatures charged, the teens took off in separate directions. Deciding to use her newfound power, Kira stopped and let out another scream. Using what her sister had taught her, she began to fight off the other attacking creatures. Conner and Ethan were trying to fight them off as well, figuring out their new powers. Conner found everything around him slowed down, but rather it was him speeding up. Ethan's skin became rock hard, turning into some sort of armor.

When the creatures were gone, the teens regrouped. "How much do I love detention?" Ethan breathed, a grin on his face.

"Hey!" they heard a voice call. The three pocked their gems as they turned to see their science teacher running toward them. "Are you guys all right?"

"Yeah," Ethan answered. "Couldn't be better."

"Nothing out of the ordinary happened?" Tommy asked, looking skeptical. After all, he had just been chased by a giant mechanical dinosaur statue.

Ethan shook his head. "Nah. Just your routine hike in the woods. Lots of furry little creatures."

"And a few scaly ones," Kira muttered under her breath. Tommy heard it, but Conner intervened.

"So," he changed the subject. "Did you get into the dino exhibit?"

"Uh…they're still working the kinks out," Tommy answered. "We better get you guys back. Come on." He turned and began walking away. The teens followed at a slower pace.

Kira spoke to the two beside her in a whisper. "Don't you guys think we should tell him?"

"I don't know about you," Ethan looked at her. "But I've got over a thousand sci-fi DVDs. You want to know how many times the dude with super powers ends up in some freaky government lab lying on a table with wires in his head?"

"Even I know that," Conner added.

Tommy turned to them, noticing they were falling behind. "You guys coming?"

"Okay," Conner spoke as the three were back at the school. Tommy had dropped them off, knowing they'd have to grab their cars or that their parents were picking them up there. "So, we all agree no one talks about this to anyone, no matter what." They had avoided discussing this until they were the only ones in the area.

"I can do better than that," Kira faced the two. "I'm out of it," she handed Conner her gem. "Just forget I was here, and I'll do the same."

"Wait," Ethan frowned. "How come he gets it?"

"Well, here," Kira took the gem back and gave it to the computer geek. "Now if you excuse me, I have a sister to go see."

Conner tried to get her to explain her reasoning. "Hold on," he dragged her back. "We're in this together. It's not something you can walk away from."

"This is something more in my sister's territory," Kira pointed out. "Ask her to take my place."

"Dude, come on," Conner groaned. "You know she wouldn't understand this."

"She would more than you think," Kira grumbled. Before the boys could question her, she continued. "You know what? I give up." She began walking away, Conner and Ethan doing nothing to stop her.

Down the path a little bit, she felt the wind pick up, just like it had in the woods. She froze, right before more of those creatures came and kidnapped her.

"Kira!" Conner shouted as he and Ethan saw this, running over to help. Before they could do anything, Kira was gone, only her backpack remained. Conner picked it up.

"She's gone," Ethan muttered.

"Don't forget to take out the trash," Kelly called to Kennedi as the dirty blonde headed into the back of Storm Chargers. It was the first day of school, and she was the only ranger from her team to still be in high school. She and Dustin still worked at Storm Chargers, and Hunter did as well when he had the time. Kennedi hardly saw Hunter since he started training for the army and teaching at the Thunder Ninja Academy. Her other teammates also taught at their academies, and Kennedi taught at hers.

"On it," she called back, grabbing the trash bag ready to be dumped. She walked out the back door and outside, tossing the trash bag into the dumpster behind the shop.

Out of nowhere, she felt the wind around her pick up. It was no ordinary wind, and something told her to fall defensive. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by strange, scaly creatures. As they crowded around her, she began to fight them off, refraining from using her fire powers so the security cameras wouldn't pick it up.

However, she was overpowered and vanished with the creatures into a green portal that opened up, just as someone arrived in the alleyway to help.

A/N: Ending it here. Almost 4,000 words for this one little chapter, and I didn't include every scene of the episode. I will try to feature Kennedi quite a bit before I make her a ranger, but she won't become one for a while.