Disclaimer: The Power Rangers are property of Hasbro (now) and I lay no claim to them. Geese Howard is the property of SNK
Authors’ Note: This story contains f/f references.
Epilogue 1: Forbidden Choices
By The Q team
The Howard Enterprises helicopter landed on the roof of the Mariner Bay Corporate Headquarters of Howard Enterprises. The pilot of the helicopter opened the door to reveal its two passengers. Kimberly Hart and Katherine Hillard. Pink Morphin Ranger and Pink Zeo Ranger.
They had only recently come out of cryo-stasis to find a world gone mad. The UAE attacked the Earth when they were liberating Aquitar from Scorpina/Cestria and her own evil alliance. Both were injured and had to be placed in cryo until their injuries healed. When they were released they found people of Earth were accusing the Power Rangers of abandoning them when the planet needed them most. And so-called 'real journalists' that wouldn't write 'sugar coated stories' about 'so-called heroes' were pushing the resentment towards them.
There had been some conflicts the Rangers were being called into where they met some unruly citizens calling for them to be unmasked, and others shouting "Where were you?". The anger was getting worrisome, as some Rangers almost seemed to be caught up in the rage of the protesters.
The search for Zordon was not getting any easier. While his new plasma tube was almost complete, he could not be located on the Morphin Grid. It was like he had disappeared from it. But Billy knew that would be impossible. Without the plasma tube Zordon had no connection to the physical world. And there was no other plasma tube for him to be in, that any Ranger knew of.
But that was neither here nor there. At the moment Kimberly and Katherine were responding to an invitation. An invitation from Katherine's Psycho Ranger duplicate Ivy. Both looked at each other wondering what this was about when a butler came forward and introduced himself.
"Ah Ms. Hart? Ms. Hillard?" Both Kimberly and Katherine nodded "Yes." They both said.
"This way ladies. Ms. Howard and her plus one are waiting for you." Both Kimberly and Katherine followed the page but they both wondered who the 'plus one' was.
"I thought Daniel/Daavid was dead." Kimberly said. The page said "Mr. Kane has indeed passed away. Ms. Howard has another 'plus one'". Katherine asked who that might be.
"Explanations will be handled by Ms. Howard." The page said as they arrived at the penthouse's main room. In it was the painting Ivy and Kiim saw earlier with Kimberly and Katherine naked in an embrace in the center of a waterfall. Their heads and torsos visible while their bodies were immersed in water from the waist down. The water surrounding them as it fell forming water walls and steam as eyes behind the water were all around them. Their bodies close together as they looked ready to kiss.
"What?" Katherine asked as she saw the painting in total disbelief. She could not believe she would be caught in a moment like what she saw before her.
"That's what I want to know." Kimberly said as she studied the painting as well. Studied the image of her in it, and of Katherine, and what they were doing. Kimberly herself couldn't believe she would be in such a position as the painting lay before her.
Then Kimberly and Katherine heard a series of meows coming from two sides of the room. On the top of a balcony stood a snow white furred cat sitting on the top of the banister of stairs leading down to the main room. On the other banister was a brown furred cat that sat on its respective top opposing the other side.
The cats then walked down the banister railing to the bottom. They then jumped off the end of the rail and crossed over across Kimberly and Katherine. The brown cat rubbed herself across Katherine's legs while the white cat rubbed across Kimberly's. Both purring the whole time. Kimberly and Katherine wondered about the two cats and reached down to pet them. That was when the two cats then swiped their claws at then causing Kimberly and Katherine to draw their hands back. "Guess they are kind of frisky huh?" Kimberly asked.
_Oh you have no idea Kimberly._ the white cat thought as both cats then made their way to chairs set across from where the girls stood. The cats then climbed up into the chairs and sat down. Then the next second both cats started to sparkle and change.
They transformed into human females. Exact duplicates of Kimberly Hart and Katherine Hillard. All sitting in sexy poses. Kattherine's duplicate, called Ivy Howard, sat sexy in her chair, while Kimberly's duplicate, still calling herself Kiim-for now, sat cross legged in her chair both flaunting their beauty and physical assets, within reason, to the girls before them.
"Ivy?" Katherine asked. Kimberly asked "Kiim?"
"Yep." Kiim said. "Biilly reawakened some old tricks Ivy had in her DNA that she inherited from you Katherine."
"And for laughs and giggles Biilly gave Kiim the same abilities." Ivy said. "So now you have Psycho duplicates that are transforming cat girls…that flaunt what they have."
"I gathered that." Kimberly said. "But why are we here?"
"Does it have something to do with this painting here?" Katherine asked which looked like Kimberly and Katherine in an embrace. Katherine could not hide her disbelief of her image in the painting with Kimberly about ready to kiss her nude and in a watery lagoon.
"I had the same reaction." Ivy Howard said as she stood up, dressed in a white business suit with black shirt and pumps complimenting her white jacket and short skirt. "I thought there was no way you two would do something like I saw there."
"Us however, that's another matter." Kiim said as she stood too dressed in a leather jacket with a pink bra lie top and leather pants with boots. "Thanks to Biilly a door has been opened to us we never thought we'd go through."
"And I think you two are about to go through it yourselves. Or at least thinking about it when you're trying to forget it." Ivy said. Kimberly and Katherine looked at each other confused as Ivy said "Don't try to deny it. It has been buried in the back of your minds ever since the Q….explored the possibility."
"A 'possibility' Biilly explored with us." Kiim said. "Among others."
Kimberly and Katherine thought of their 'forced moment' at the hands of the Q. They both saw Cestria not wanting to let the moment go in their mission, despite their best efforts to move past it. They were both in relationships with boys at the moment. Kimberly was looking at Samoht while Katherine was still in a relationship with David. But for some reason there were individuals that kept trying to bring their moment of forced contact to the forefront.
"That was….a moment of violation." Kimberly said. "That was not us."
"Was it?" Kiim asked. "I am as much you as you are me. And I am exploring that possibility just as Ivy is right now."
"So our question to you is…." Ivy said as she paused before asking "What's stopping you?"
Kimberly and Katherine had to admit they had no clear answer. What was stopping them?
"Perhaps we can discuss it, over brunch." Ivy said as she turned towards the Kitchen with Kiim by her side. Kimberly and Katherine looked at each other and decided this was Ivy's party, and they were the guests.
"Let's see what our host has to say." Katherine said as both she and Kimberly followed Ivy and Kiim to the kitchen.
As they entered the main hallway Ivy directed Kimberly and Katherine's direction to the portrait in question as both girls took in the entire sight of the painting. It looked like an oil painting in 3-D with both of them naked and immersed surrounded by waterfalls from the waist down in an embrace with them both ready to kiss with eyes in the waterfalls looking on. Kimberly and Katherine looked on confused. Not to mention disbelieving what they were seeing.
"What are we looking at?" Katherine asked. "Why are we like this?"
"You tell me." Ivy said as she referred to the name plate on the bottom. 'Forbidden Future?' Kiim also pointed to who signed the painting 'T. Yardvale.'
"Whoever this 'T. Yardvale' is he thinks this is going to happen between you two." Kiim said. Kimberly and Katherine waved their hands and said "No. No. This can't happen. We would never do this."
"Why?" Ivy asked. "Because you only like boys?" Both Kimberly and Katherine were taken aback at the bluntness of the equation. It was Katherine who asked "What do you mean?"
"Look at your own histories." Ivy said. "It's always been about boys. Even before Tommy you only entertained dating with boys. Never the opposite sex. Why is that?"
"We were always told…." Kimberly started to say. It was then that Kiim said "Exactly. You were always told this was the way it should be. Whether your parents. The world around you. People of authority. You were always told you had to be with a boy. You could never have feelings for a girl. What would have happened if you did? Would you have felt dirty for it?"
Kimberly and Katherine had no answer. They were too busy wondering if what Ivy and Kiim were saying wasn't true. Ivy then added "Maybe you were only told you were supposed to feel dirty if you did have feelings. Could you have just stomped them down and buried them as you went along with what the world wanted you to go along with?"
"What are you getting at?" Kimberly asked. "What does this have to do with the Q and their toying with us?"
"Biilly toyed with us the same way." Ivy said. "And it left us with lingering questions. Questions you are refusing to ask yourselves. For whatever reason."
"There's nothing to ask." Katherine said. "We were violated. The Q took over our minds and bodies and made us…." Ivy just said "I know. We felt the same feelings when Biilly did the same."
"But Biilly opened a door within us much like the Q did with you." Kiim added. "We just chose to go through it. And no it's not about finding 'pleasure' with one another, or to sate the pleasures of others to watch us…..express emotion for amusement."
"The emotions the two of you may…,or may not, have are real." Ivy then said. "The choice you two have before you is simple. Do you explore these…new frontiers before you…"
"Or do you go back to the boy's club where its safe like the 'good' girls you are." Kiim asked. Kimberly and Katherine stood looking at one another, then looking at the painting before them of them in their embrace in the center of a waterfall spring. Not thinking about the eyes looking on Kimberly and Katherine were wondering how a picture like this could come to be. Neither one saw themselves, or the other, in that position.
_But the Q did._ Kimberly thought.
_Cestria did._ Katherine thought. Both then thought _Who else does?_
And both girls couldn't deny there was definitely something within them lingering beneath the surface. Some sense of feeling. At first they thought it was just the forced shared experience they both had. But there was something else there two. Something the shared experience brought to the surface.
The two Ranger girls stared back at the painting again and noticed the signature of T. Yardvale. The Doctor had mentioned the possibility of another villain operating behind the scenes. Someone calling himself 'The Valeyard'. Could this painting have something to do with him?
"What are you going to do with this painting?" Katherine asked. Ivy sighed as she looked at it.
"I'm really not sure." She said. "I mean I could hang it over my mantle and stare at it wondering if this is a pursued possibility or not. Maybe I should give it to you and see what Zordon says about it."
"And if I took it Biilly would just drool over it." Kiim said. "He doesn't need more 'toys'." Kimberly and Katherine both heard the acid in Kiim's voice upon hearing the word 'toys', and wondered just what Biilly was doing to her Psycho Ranger counterpart.
"I say just hold onto it." Kimberly said getting back to topic. "No way it would be put up in my house. Family would freak."
"Or mine. Same reason." Katherine said as she and Kimberly both turned to leave. Ivy however said her final peace as she looked at Kiim by her side.
"But that's not the bigger question is it?" Ivy asked as both girls were almost through the doorway. Both girls stopped and turned to see Ivy and Kiim holding hands affectionately. And both Kimberly and Katherine knew what that question was.
Can, and should, they do the same?
The chopper pilot was instructed to take Kimberly and Katherine back to Power Mountain. But what they saw was fresh in their minds.
And their memories.
They remembered the Q treating them like toys. Moving them around for their own amusements. And then….afterwards.
And from there confusion. They knew they had been violated when the Q usurped control of their bodies and minds. But there was still the part in the back that knew what was happening. And while they hated the violation of the Q……
…..they didn't hate the sensations. Or the feelings they were sharing.
Kimberly and Katherine both had to admit they liked the feeling in being in one another's arms. But that's not what they would do. Is it?
They both remembered their old selves. Kimberly the mall rat, dating the popular guy in Tommy, cheerleader. Katherine, just as much a shop a holic, as well as dating Tommy, until it didn't work out for either of them.
Those girls seemed so in the past. So two dimensional to what they were now. What they were thinking about now.
And whether they should continue with these newly discovered feelings. Or even if they were real. _They were real to Ivy and Kiim._ Kimberly thought. _Could they be real to me and Katherine?_
"You thinking the same thing?" Katherine asked. Kimberly looked at Katherine and asked "Am I that transparent?"
"Only to me." Katherine said. She then asked "Are your thoughts in a whirlwind too?" Kimberly couldn't help but smile and nod.
"People go crazy at the slightest thought of them losing their 'darling daughter' as they expect her to be." Kimberly said. Katherine nodded "Or the thought of losing a good son." She added. Kimberly nodded in agreement to that.
"I wonder." Katherine said. "Why didn't he do that with the boys? Why did Q choose us?"
"They probably couldn't handle it." Kimberly said. "Everything about a boy is wrapped up in an identity of power. They can be punished for the slightest deviation from that identity."
"Billy never cared about that." Katherine said. "Bulk and Skull came off more buffoonish than tough. Not to mention brotherly, like Jason and Tommy."
"And we were never 'sisterly'." Kimberly answered. "Perhaps the Q thought we'd be a better bet, especially with our reactions after."
Katherine then asked "Was it really that terrible? I mean, being toyed with definitely was. But was what we did….terrible? Did we….perhaps discover something about ourselves we never would have asked ourselves?"
Kimberly had to think. "No, it wasn't terrible. In fact, I did enjoy it. And…."
Katherine asked "And what?"
Kimberly then said "If I did do it again. I'm glad it was with you." She then looked down and noticed her hand was close to Katherine's. Their hands were practically touching.
Kimberly and Katherine left the question hanging. 'Were they willing to pursue a relationship with one another?'
And, 'Were they in love?'
The feelings were there. Both girls knew it. But they weren't sure they had the ability to confront those feelings and see what was revealed. They then wondered if they should try to go back to what they were hoping the 'lie' would come true.
Kimberly and Katherine knew there was no lie that could hide what they were feeling. As they went back to the Howard Enterprises Helicopter to take them back home both girls noticed they had been holding hands the whole time.
Their feelings were cracking through their emotional armor. How long before they committed to those feelings?
Ivy and Kiim couldn't wait to find out. They watched from the outdoor balcony as Kimberly and Katherine crossed over to the chopper. "So what do you think? Will they? Or won't they?" Kiim asked.
"I think we're in for a wait before we find out." Ivy said as Kimberly and Katherine boarded the chopper that flew them back to the Power Chamber. "But what about you?" Ivy asked. "What have you been thinking about?"
"I'm thinking it might be a good idea to have a name of my own." Kiim said as she thought of losing her Psycho Ranger name. "Got a good idea too."
"Really?" Ivy asked with a smile. "What is it?"
Kiim paused before she asked "How does Amber Hart sound?"
To be continued?
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