Purple

Spores: Part One

Things since the attack had been strange in Angel Grove to say the least. Pig monsters, weather witches, and just an eerie feeling around the downtown area had started to plague the town. It was like on one of those monster-of-the-week tv shows and the thrall of the Zeo Crystal was making Angel Grove appealing real estate to unnatural creatures. Luckily, the town rested easy knowing they had a colorful gang of protectors.

But for the protectors, they were always on alert. Still, things had been quiet the last few weeks since Homecoming. Everyone was officially out, officially dating their partners. Zack was still somewhat of a lothario, but that just became an amusing character trait. At least the rangers had busted down the wall normalcy at Angel Grove High. Nobody cared if people were in queer relationships anymore.

But normal or not, Billy was still getting used to the whole 'relationship' aspect of it all. He enjoyed calling Jason his boyfriend. He enjoyed making out. But every time something got heavy between them, he stuttered and made an excuse about homework and they stopped. It's not that he didn't want to go to the next step, he was just scared. What if he wasn't good? What if, and this is very unlikely, but what if once it happened Jason dumped him? What if he said something incredibly stupid that made Jason look at him in a different way? There were a ton of things that ran through his mind, and they were probably all just his mind sabotaging him as it always did. Billy was often stuck in his own head with these things.

He walked alone from school. He stayed late working on a science project. He had to be supervised by a teacher because Billy had a habit of creating things that blew up. That's why he had Saturday detention until he graduated. But he genuinely enjoyed inventing things. It was pretty much common knowledge that eventually he'd have a career in a STEM field, he just wasn't sure what yet. There were so many exciting avenues to explore, especially now that he knew there was the potential to work with alien technology. He tended to gush too much about these things and end up leaving his friends staring blankly at him. But no matter, sometimes the most exciting conversations held were with himself. In fact he was so lost in thought that he almost didn't hear his name being called out from behind him.

"Hey stranger!" A soft, feminine voice rung out from his side. He finally snapped back to reality and saw Kimberly Hart staring back at him, clutching the straps of her backpack as she fell into step with him.

"I was just studying at that new juice place and saw you walking. Figured I needed to head home myself." She said with a radiant smile. Billy nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Have you and Trini had sex yet?" He said bluntly. Billy didn't know how to properly transition into discussions. It was part of his charm. His bluntness that came out of left field. Kimberly went wide eyed and blushed.

"Uh... wow Bill, straight into the hard hitting questions. Really my head is spinning." She chuckled.

"Um... we've dabbled." She nodded, raising an eyebrow.

"That's a very weird question by the way. Why you ask?"

Billy shrugged, answering quickly. He was never one to waste time.

"Jason and I haven't. I always make up an excuse when we start heading there. I just thought I'd ask to see if I was doing something wrong." He said, a genuine tone of confusion in his voice as he did. Kimberly just gave a little half smile and bumped him with her shoulder, to which he gave his signature confused look.

"You're not ready. That's okay. Jason's a cool guy. I think he gets it."

"It's just..." Billy started. But they heard a loud crash and what seemed to be a muffled scream coming from an alleyway to their right. Suddenly they shifted into ranger mode and headed toward the danger.

"I don't see..." Billy said before he was interrupted by a gross squelching sound. The two peered into the dark end of the alley to see a large misshapen mass, shaking and convulsing as it made gross swallowing sounds. Upon closer inspection they could see a hand, a human hand, disappearing into its large mouth.

The two posed, starting to morph, but they startled the gross creature, who had just finished its meal. And when it saw them, it stretched back its gelatinous head and wailed before jumping toward them. It screeched, knocking them back with what looked like spores shooting from glands on its back. They coughed, inhaling whatever it was, before hitting the ground and gagging. The creature hopped inhumanely over the building before disappearing into the night.

"Am I crazy or did we just see a giant frog eat someone?" Kimberly said between wheezing on whatever they'd inhaled. Billy pulled himself up after leveraging his arm on a dumpster and nodded.

"Looked like a toad more specifically. We need to tell Zordon."