Gemstone Rangers

As soon as he discovered the location that Tiara had given him, Joe knew that alerting his brothers and Briar Rose was of the utmost importance. He wanted to save Tiara more than anything. Seeing her held captive by Lord Pylor was not an option for him. For the telepathy, Joe was thankful. If it wasn’t for that ability, he never would have located the girl he loved. Please be okay, Tiara. You may hate all of this, but it’s ultimately what saved you, Joe thought.

While he waited for Kevin, Nick, and Briar Rose to join him, Joe kept a close eye on Tiara’s thoughts, not wanting anything to happen to her. Though Tiara was being transported to a semi-safe location, Joe was sure of the fact that Pylor would try something. And, he was not willing to see that happen. Damn it! Would you guys hurry up? I don’t want to see anything happen to Tiara, Joe thought as he impatiently awaited his fellow Rangers’ appearance.

A few moments passed before Briar Rose and his brothers appeared at his side. “Where is she?” Briar Rose asked.

“The place where it all began,” Joe replied. “Archimedes and Pylor’s alma mater. That’s where Tiara’s being held. So, where’s going to need one piece of information yet in order to find her: Archimedes needs to tell us the name of his alma mater so that we can go find Tiara.”

“Agreed.”

◘♠♣♥♦◙

Archimedes sat in front of his blank computer screen. He couldn’t watch anything that was going on, for he knew that his niece was in trouble. And, he was not willing to see that, not at all. “What am I going to do?” Archimedes wondered, his hands to his head, tangled in his shaggy black hair. “She’s my niece. I could never let anything happen to her. It’s the reason I even granted Tiara’s request nine years ago; it was to protect Tiara and her friends.”

“Only one thing can protect her right now,” a voice said.

“Which is what?” Archimedes inquired, answering the mysterious voice.

“Your alma mater? What was its name?” the voice asked.

Unsure of the reason for this odd question, Archimedes did not immediately respond. The question was so unprovoked and was so random that Archimedes did not deem it worthy enough to provide a response. When the question was not answered, a second voice came booming in his ear. “Your alma mater! To save Tiara, it must be revealed immediately,” the voice said.

If all that was required of was to give the name of his alma mater, Archimedes knew that he had to. And, the voices that were asking him belonged to that of Kevin and Joe Jonas respectively, meaning that they were attempting to save Tiara. “Westmont. I went to Westmont,” he said.

“Good. We’ll have Tiara back as soon as we can then,” Joe said.

“I hope so,” Archimedes replied. “I hope so.”

◘♠♣♥♦◙

While Joe was busy acquiring the location, Kevin stood there waiting with Nick and Briar Rose. He was concerned for his brother and Briar Rose, knowing how worried they were about Tiara’s well-being. Briar Rose was Tiara’s best friend, while Kevin knew that his brother was irrevocably in love with Tiara. Knowing this, Kevin had a bad feeling that either his brother or his close friend would do something drastically stupid in order to rescue Tiara from the evil clutches of Lord Pylor. Neither one wanted to see anything happen to her, so they were bound to do anything they could to help her. Kevin was afraid that one of them would do something stupid, and out of character in order to help Tiara.

Now that they were Power Rangers, a mistake like that could cost them. They needed to logically, strategically. If they acted emotional and irrational, things could go terribly wrong. Why, they could even lose a member of their own team—before she even accepted that this was her fate—and everything Archimedes did not want would come to pass. Such a thing was unacceptable. There was no way that Kevin and the others could let something like that happen. So, it seemed as if he and Nick needed to keep a close eye on Joe and Briar Rose in case they did something to jeopardize the rescue operation they were on.

“I hope Tiara’s okay,” Briar Rose stated.

“She will be,” Kevin replied, reassuring her. “Joe’s getting the location from Archimedes, so it shouldn’t be too long before we’re about to rescue Tiara from Pylor’s clutches. She’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” she asked.

Nick nodded. “Yeah; we’ll get her. Besides, she’s always been tough. I may not have been close to you guys over the years, but I am well aware of how tough Tiara has always prided herself on being. Why else would her uncle have designated her as the shark? Until we’re able to go rescue her, Tiara should be able to hold Pylor off, whether she’s captured or not.”

“Let’s hope so,” Briar Rose intoned.

Kevin was about to speak when he saw Joe come sprinting over. He could tell that his brother had a location for them. “So, where are we headed?” Kevin asked his triplet brother.

“Westmont. We’re going to Westmont College,” Joe replied.

Kevin nodded. “Let go then.” As they teleported out of the forest, he elbowed Nick. Before they went out in search of Tiara, there was one thing that needed to be taken care of. “When we split up, keep an eye on Joe. He’ll do anything to protect Tiara, and we can’t let that happen.”

“You going with Briar Rose?” Nick asked.

“Yeah,” Kevin nodded.

Nick laughed. “Good luck with that. Briar Rose is just as bad as Joe, maybe even worse. She cares more than anything about her friends, and Dustin. There’s no way in hell that Briar is just going to sit back and wait while there’s a possibility that the outcome of all this is that her best friend might get killed. She’ll want to do something about what’s going on.”

“True, but you’re with the boy in love with Tiara,” Kevin countered.

“Joe’s in love with Tiara?” Nick asked.

“For years,” Kevin answered.

“Yet, Tiara hates him,” Nick replied. “What is he thinking? There’s no way that Tiara will ever grow to love him the way he does her. Hell, no one even seems to know why Tiara hates him so much.”

“I know,” Kevin replied. “And, it is that love for Tiara which currently fuels him. He’s trying to prove to Tiara that this feud between them is stupid and wrong; he wants her friendship back.”

“Just her friendship?” Nick asked.

“For now,” Kevin stated.

Nick rolled his dark brown eyes. “Well, Joe is definitely in for a rude awakening. There’s absolutely no way that Tiara will ever accept the fact that Joe loves her. Whatever happened between them nearly a decade ago will not fix itself by him going to save her.”

“Which is exactly why you need to keep an eye on him,” Kevin reminded his brother. “You need to make sure that Joe doesn’t do something stupid while we go to rescue Tiara.”

“And, you must do the same for Briar Rose,” Nick retorted.

The quartet landed on solid ground again, standing in front of Westmont College. After standing there a few minutes, Nick turned to face them. “Joe, come on. Let see if we can find Tiara.”

Joe nodded. “Fine.”

This left Kevin standing alongside Briar Rose in the courtyard of Westmont College. He knew that his brother was right; Briar Rose cared too much. Since her twin brother was Kevin’s best friend, Kevin had seen this firsthand over the years. Now that Tiara was held captive, Briar Rose would do whatever she could to help her best friend. As a friend, this was a noble gesture. As a Power Ranger, it was a reckless decision that could ultimately get her killed. So, he would need to keep a close eye on his best friend’s sister, to ensure that she did not do something stupid. As he stood there, something occurred to Kevin, something that Archimedes mentioned about his past with Pylor. Knowing this, it was obvious as to where Tiara was being held. He grabbed Briar Rose’s arm and pulled her along as he ran off. “Come on. I think I have an idea as to where Pylor might be hiding Tiara.”

“Where?” Briar Rose asked.

“The blown up Chemistry Lab,” Kevin replied.

Briar Rose shrugged. “Makes sense.”

“That’s what I thought,” Kevin explained. “He lost his face here fifteen years ago, so I’m thinking that he wants for Tiara to lose her life here. Why Tiara, we won’t know until we face Pylor though.”

“Then, let’s go.”

◘♠♣♥♦◙

When Tiara woke up this time, she saw what looked like glass surrounding her. It was blurry, but Tiara saw what looked like glass beakers creating a wall around her. And, in those beakers was a bright green liquid. What the fuck? What the fuck is going on here? Pylor has seriously got some explaining to do: like why I’m at my uncle’s alma mater and what he’s trying to do. I had to have been capture for a reason. What’s he doing?

“Is everything ready?” Pylor asked.

“Nearly,” came a woman’s reply. “The explosives just need to be set up. Then, you can get rid of Carter’s niece and get your revenge on Archimedes for what he did to you all those years ago.”

“Excellent,” Pylor grinned.

Explosives? Tiara thought. See, this is exactly why I want nothing to do with this Power Rangers shit that my uncle wants me to deal with. Ugh! I never should have forced that fucking experiment to be done on us. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this shit.

◘♠♣♥♦ ◙

“No!” Joe yelled.

“What is it?” Nick asked. They were walking by the library looking for any sign of Pylor and Tiara when Joe called out. The brothers were walking in silence as they searched for the missing ranger, so Nick jumped when his brother screamed in reaction to nothing. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s going to kill her!” Joe exclaimed.

“Tiara?” Nick asked.

“No shit, Nick!” Joe yelled angrily. He was not about to let Tiara die. Not only was she Archimedes’s niece, but he was in love with her. There was no way in hell that Joe was ever about to let anything happen to her, not when there was something he could do about it. So, Joe broke into a run, leaving Nick standing back at the library, and headed to find Tiara. He needed to find Tiara before she was killed because of her stubbornness. Pylor was not allowed to kill her, and Joe was going to do anything in his power to protect someone he cared about, even though she despised him. To prove that he was worth being forgiven for his past transgression—whatever it was—Joe needed to save Tiara from dying at Pylor’s hand; he needed to rescue her from this terrible fate.

◘♠♣♥♦◙

“Joe, don't!” Nick called. But, it was too late. Joe was already gone. Remembering what his brother told him, Nick contacted the others. They needed to get Joe back before he did something completely stupid, like what he just did “Kevin! Briar! We’ve got ourselves a problem.”

Briar Rose was the one to answer. “Nick, what is it?”

“It’s Joe. He went after Tiara when it was discovered that he was going to be killed,” Nick explained. “Joe is about to something stupid and irrational in order to save her from dying.”

“Damn it!” Kevin yelled. “Nick, I thought I told you to keep an eye on Joe. He may think he’s being brave in going after Tiara on his own, but it’s stupid. He could die himself with what he’s doing.”

“I know that, Kevin. That’s why I told you,” Nick retorted. “We need to go stop him before he makes such a stupid mistake. Now, where are you guys? I’ll meet you over there.”

“Headed towards the old Chemistry Lab,” Kevin replied.

“Okay, I’ll meet you there,” Nick replied. It was after that in which Nick concluded the conversation and left to meet Kevin and Briar Rose. He knew this was his fault. If he kept a closer eye on his brother, this wouldn’t be happening. But, since it did, Nick, Kevin, and Briar Rose would just have to deal with it. In order to keep Pylor from taking over the world, whatever stupid mistake Joe was about to make needed to be prevented, and Tiara needed to be rescued. Once that feat was accomplished, things might go back to normal.