Bite Me
Part IV
by MegaSilver

In the basement of Club 20’s, Jefferson sat on the sofa in front of the TV with Kimberly on his lap as he rubbed her shoulders. “Darling, you were wonderful tonight,” he commented.

Kimberly had a pouty look on her face. “You’re just being nice,” she grumbled.

“Hon, there were six of them and two of us and one of them was a Slayer. And we’re still alive!”

“Not for long, though.”

“It’s not a problem,” Jefferson assured her. “I called some old friends when we got back, and they should get here bbefore sunrise. Then we’ll really have some fun.”

“Mmm… I hate it when things don’t go my way,” Kimberly whispered as Jefferson continued his massage therapy. She closed her eyes and put her face up close to his. “It makes me… very horny.” She pressed her lips up against his and placed her tongue in his mouth.

***

“I thought you two left town!” Tommy snapped at Rita and Zedd. He knew he’d have to be prepared to Morph in a moment’s notice.

“We did… until Zedd’s bathroom habits got us evicted from Daddy’s place!” Rita remarked, rolling her eyes at Zedd.

“Oh, shut up! I never liked it there, anyway!” insisted Zedd.

“What do you want?” demanded Tommy.

“Want? Why, we want just what you do: to see the Machine Empire vanquished, wiped out, obliterated… off this sector of the universe!”

“And,” added Rita, “we came to offer a mutually beneficial deal to you!”

“What deal?”

“Oh, I’ve been monitoring your activities since we left a few days ago. I’m well aware of little Vampire Kimmy trying to bite your neck… and if it wasn’t for the fact that I needed you, quite frankly, I wouldn’t give a damn!”

“You know about Kimberly?” Tommy suddenly felt a twinge of hope but tried to shove it away for the moment.

“Yes… and I have just the thing that can help you!” Rita held up a jar containing an iridescent green fluid. “Do you know what this is?”

“No, I don’t.”

“It’s the regenerative blood of a Mohra demon. We picked it up on our way back. Its curative capabilities render the demon immune to conventional attacks—and have the power to restore a human body to a living state.”

“You mean—”

“If Kimberly touches this blood, it will infect her body and revive her life force, thereby burning out the demon within and pulling her soul back from the ether—and POOF! Your girlfriend’s back!”

Tommy took a step forward. “All right,” he said. “What’s the catch?”

“Here’s the deal. Zordon is thus far unaware that we have returned,” explained Zedd. “You do whatever you must to make sure it stays that way and continue fighting the Machine Empire as usual. We will launch our own attacks on them to complement yours until they are no more. Agree to this, and the cure is all yours!”

“So what do you say?” Rita cocked her head. “Do we have a deal?”

Tommy looked at the ground for a moment, breathing hard. For a moment, his conscience told him that if a deal seemed too good to be true, it probably was, but he shook it off. Zedd and Rita versus the Machines? There was no way they could win. As far as Tommy could tell, there was nothing to lose.

“I'll do it,” he finally agreed. With that, he reached out and took the jar Rita held out to him.

“Se ya ’round, Tommy-boy!” Rita laughed as she and Zedd disappeared.

***

Jefferson awoke to a loud beating on the door. “Hey, Jeff, ya in there?” someone shouted from outside. “Open the door before the damn sun rises already!”

Jefferson squinted and moaned as he pulled on some clothes. “I’m COMING!” he shouted. Before leaving the bed, he leaned down and kissed the still sleeping Kimberly on the cheek. Geez, she’s wiped, he noticed. Must’ve been her first time. He opened the door and in came a small mob of gangster vampires.

“Could you have been any slower, man?” one of them muttered.

“I was sleeping,” Jeff grumbled.

“At this hour?”

“Yeah. I got myself a girl,” he grinned.

“Seriously?”

“And boy, is she a help. Just wait ’till tomorrow night—we’ve got some huge spoils she dug up for us.”

***

Tommy set the jar on the table he and his friends sat at in the school library. “This is it,” he told them.

“The cure?” asked Katherine.

“As far as I can tell.”

“What is it?” questioned Adam.

“It’s the blood of a Mohra demon. It gives them the power to regenerate—and if it infects a body, it’ll revive it. If it touches a vampire, it’ll also burn out the demon and pull the person’s soul out from the ether.”

“Where did you find it?”

“I—read about it in one of those books,” lied Tommy. “I caught a magic book shop open early this morning and bought it.”

Rocky held up the jar. “So—how do we go about this?” As he spoke, the ten-minute bell rang.

Tommy took the jar from Rocky. “I think we’d better leave at lunch and find out where Kim and her boyfriend are hiding. That’ll give us time to ambush them before the sun sets.”

Tanya gathered up her books. “So, we’ll meet outside the school at noon, then?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. I’ll drive us to Autumn’s. See you guys later.”

***

Autumn regarded the green liquid in the jar. “Are you sure this will work?” she said to Tommy. “We might not have any extra time to spare if it doesn’t.”

Tommy took a deep breath. “I’m as sure as I’ll ever be.”

“All right. We must leave now if we are to hope to catch them with plenty of daylight left. We’ll start at the park where we last saw them last night.” She pulled out a box of stakes and crosses. “Everyone, get armed.”

***

Billy worked through the history program with Alpha on the Power Chamber computer. “I don’t know, Tommy,” he said into the communication device. “Normally we could trace Kimberly’s bio-rhythms to pinpoint her path and location, but she’s dead. The last location we can give you is the place where she was vamped.”

Tommy sighed. “Keep trying. We’ve got to find them before they can get the jump on us.”

“I know. I’m trying to calibrate the history program to search for the path of Kimberly’s DNA. If it works, it should be up in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, Billy.”

In the park, Katherine walked up to Tommy. “I feel I owe you an apology,” she said to him. “I should never have talked Kimberly into taking up gymnastics again.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Tommy assured her. “Besides… if anything, it was my fault for encouraging her to go to Florida.”

Autumn overheard this conversation. “You can’t spend your whole lives wondering, ‘What if?’” she told them. “As protectors of our world, it is our responsibility to let go of the past and do what’s right to preserve the future.”

Tommy nodded. “You’re right,” he murmured. “Thanks for everything. And I’m sorry I’ve been so rude to you since you came here.”

“I forgive you,” Autumn assured him. “Though I don’t understand love like you’ve experienced it, I have to accept it as part of who you are. Just like slaying is so important to me.”

“Thanks.” Just then, Tommy’s communicator beeped. “What’s up?”

“Rangers, we’ve got it!” exclaimed Alpha. “Kimberly is in the basement of the abandoned Club 20’s. I can all but guarantee that she won’t be going anywhere before the sun goes down, and you have plenty of time, anyway.”

“Thanks, Alpha!” Tommy turned to his friends. “We should probably Morph to protect ourselves if they try to bite us. Autumn, maybe we should ask Zordon if there’s any armor you could use.”

Autumn shook her head loaded her crossbow. “I can hold my own.”

“All right, then. It’s Morphin Time!”

***

Kimberly sprayed one last shot of gel into her hair and added an extra layer of pink eye shadow.

What I wouldn't dismember for a reflection right now…

She turned around to see the Slayer standing before her.

“Just how you do your makeup with no mirror is a mystery to me,” commented Autumn.

“Smartass.” Kimberly raised a fist, but Autumn blocked it.

Within seconds, Autumn had Kimberly subdued and tossed her over to the Red Ranger. “Do it!”

“Right!” agreed Tommy.

“You’re not doing anything to me!” Kimberly grunted.

“Huh?” All of a sudden, vampires appeared from every room in the basement.

“ATTACK!” ordered Jefferson, donning his demon face.

“Circle them in!” Autumn instructed the Rangers. Quickly, the four moved to create a perimeter around Tommy and Kimberly while Autumn fended off the vampires.

“Tommy, give her the blood now!” Tanya shouted.

“Gotcha!” Tommy reached to unscrew the jar, but in the moment his grip was loosened, Kimberly flung it out of his hands. “Somebody get it!”

Adam dove to catch the jar just before it hit the ground, dusted a vampire in his path, unscrewed the lid, and ran over to Tommy. “Get with it, Kim!” he said as he splashed the blood onto her shoulder.

Kimberly winced as the blood began to glow, spreading around her skin and infecting her body. She felt something melt out of her; at the same time, something else was flung into her in its place. The glow of the blood faded and disappeared, her eyes glowed bluish-white, and her heart began to beat. She looked around in shock, then up at the helmet of the Red Ranger. “Tommy?”

“Kimberly?” Before they could get another word in, a large female vampire penetrated the defending circle of Rangers and tackled them both to the ground.

“And it starts all over again,” she laughed as she eyed their necks. As she was about to make a lunge for them, Autumn staked her from behind. The vampire turned to look at her killer, then burst into dust.

“Get her out of here!” Autumn ordered Tommy. As Kimberly and Tommy ran upstairs and out of the building, Jefferson grabbed Autumn and held her tightly.

“Hi, cutie,” he grinned. Autumn looked around for help, but she was surrounded by a thick layer of vampires with the Rangers hopelessly attempting to reach her.

***

Not too far away, at Hemery High school in Los Angeles, fifteen-year-old Buffy Summers sucked on a lollipop as she exited the building with her three friends, discussing the upcoming dance. “So, I’m like, ‘Dad, you want me to go to the dance in an outfit I’ve already worn? Why do you hate me?’”

“Is Tyler taking you?” her friend Jenna asked.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Where were you when I got over Tyler? He’s of the past. Tyler would have to crawl on his hands and knees to get me to go to the dance with him. Which, actually, he’s supposed to do after practice, so I’m gonna wait.”

“Okay,” said Jenna. “See you later.”

“Bye,” said Georgette.

“Call me. Call me. Call me,” Buffy told each of her friends as they left. She sat on the steps, took off her coat, and made herself comfortable.

***

“You’ll never win,” said Autumn through clenched teeth. “They’ll call another one if you take me down.”

“Maybe,” grinned Jefferson. “But I prefer to take my chances with her.” With that, he thrust his hand upwards and snapped Autumn’s neck.

***

A middle-aged man approached Buffy. “Buffy Summers?”

“Yeah? Hi! What?” Buffy gulped.

“I need to speak with you.”

“You’re not from Bullock’s, are you? Cause, I meant to pay for that lipstick.”

“There isn’t much time. You must come with me. Your destiny awaits.”

Buffy bit her lip. “I don’t have a destiny. I’m destiny-free, really.”

“Yes, you have,” the man contradicted. “You are the chosen one. “You alone can stop them.”

Buffy licked her lollipop. “Who?”

“The vampires.”

For a moment, Buffy was speechless. “Huh?”

***

“AUTUMN!” cried the Rangers as the Slayer fell to the floor.

“And you’re next!” hissed Jefferson.

Outside, Kimberly and Tommy emerged from the club, running away as fast as they could until Tommy heard his communicator. “Tommy, you must get the others out of the club right away,” Zordon told him. “Alpha and Billy are warming up the microwave beam to torch the building. The fire should be more than enough to take out the vampires. I’ll get Kimberly to safety.”

“I’m on it!” agreed Tommy as Kimberly disappeared in a column of white streaked with hot pink. He dashed back into the building. “Guys, we have to—AUTUMN!”

“It’s too late!” Adam told him. “She’s gone.”

“Well, get out of here! We’re gonna have to torch the place!”

The other Rangers fought their way through the crowd of vampires and made a break for the stairs. As soon as they were outside and a block away, a thick yellow and purple beam hit the building, setting it fast ablaze.

“Power down!” called Tommy. The five Rangers watched as the building burned to the ground, the sound of dying demons inside barely audible.

“I wish we could have gotten the body out of there,” remarked Katherine sadly.

Tanya put a hand to her shoulder. “Me, too.”

***

That evening, a Jeep Wrangler pulled into the driveway of Kimberly’s grandparents with Tommy and Kimberly inside. “Alpha said they managed to get a notice back to the Council of Watchers,” he told Kimberly. “So at least her watcher’ll know what happened.”

Kimberly shook her head. “I can’t believe I did all that.”

“Hey.” Tommy turned her head to face him. “You listen to me. It wasn’t you, okay? It was a demon inside of you.”

“I know but—all those people, and Raymond and Autumn—and what I did to you and with Jefferson—it’s going to take me a while to move past that.”

“Kim, before she died, Autumn told me that we have to let go of the past and do what’s right to preserve the future,” Tommy said. “You were a Ranger once. If anyone can do that, you can.”

Kimberly’s mouth curved into a small smile. “You’re right.” She kissed Tommy. “Thank you for saving me. Again.” She opened the door. “I’ll never leave you again. I promise.”

“And I’ll be here for you every time you need me,” said Tommy as he exited the car to walk Kimberly to her door. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

***

Buffy tried to scream at the vampire pinning her down, but it died in her throat. Finally, she realized that she’d have to fight this thing and shoved him off her. As quickly as her shocked body would allow her, she scrambled over to grab a stake and flipped the vampire over when he tried to pin her again. Looking back at Merrick, the man who’d summoned her, she shrugged, ran over to the vampire and drilled the stake into his chest. “Oh! Not the heart!” She found the right spot and shoved the stake in. As soon as it was driven through, the vampire exploded into a cloud of dust, and Buffy was thrown backwards, in a total shock.

As Buffy stared blankly at the spot where the creature had met its fate at her hands, Merrick came up to stand behind her. “You see? You see your power?”