Golden Bells

    It was prom night in Angel Grove. Jason had worked up the courage to ask Jamie to an event that would require her to wear a dress. Miraculously, she had accepted. Jamie and Jason were meeting Tommy, Kimberly, Billy and Christina for dinner. Jason was worried. He knew Jamie's feelings about skirts, so he wasn't quite sure what he should be expecting. He was at the restaurant waiting with Billy when he finally asked, "What if she doesn't show up?"
    "Jason, don't worry. Christina's helping her get ready, so there's no way she can escape," Billy reassured Jason. Just then, Billy saw Christina and a barely recognizable redhead enter the restaurant. "There they are. I told you she wouldn't be able to escape."
    Jason looked at Jamie, his jaw hitting his chest. He had never seen this side of Jamie before. Her shoulder-length hair was out of its usual ponytail, slightly curled and pinned back with amethyst clips. Her eyes had been lined with a smoky kohl liner and a hint of plum gloss had been applied to her lips. Amethyst earrings hung from her ears and a matching pendant accented the slight V-neckline of the royal purple silk dress. Matching royal purple heels added two inches to her height.
    "Jamie? Is that really you?" Jason asked.
    "Who were expecting, Barney?" Jamie replied.
    Jason breathed a sigh of relief. Yep, it's Jamie, he thought, relieved. "I wasn't sure. For a few moments, I thought Gillian Anderson had finally answered my fanmail and agreed to be my prom date."
    Jamie preened at the praise, smoothing the soft silk of the skirt over her legs. "Well, let's not keep the others waiting. Let's go eat."
    Jason smiled to himself. It was definitely Jamie inside that dress.
    "How'd you do it?" Kimberly whispered to Christina as Jamie and Jason joined the table.
    "It wasn't easy," the girl whispered back. "She wanted to wear a tux, but I just kept telling her that Mr. Kaplan states in the rules that one member of the couple must wear a dress, and I didn't think Jason would be able to find anything in his size. That convinced her on the dress, especially when I showed her that the skirt has lots of leg room in case she gets into a fight tonight. Then, I nearly had to tie her to the chair when I dug out my makeup kit and the hot rollers. The heels she accepted the easiest as soon as she realized that they weren't thin little stillettos but rather thick chunky heels. In short, I had to use a lot of feminine wiles," Christina concluded, laughing.
    "You did a good job. I like your dress, too, by the way. Where'd you find it?"
Christina grimaced at her silver-white taffeta and lace princess-style dress. "It's something my mom picked out for me to wear to a formal reception at the Academy. I didn't feel like shopping for a new one after the hassle of getting Jamie's dress, so I just decided on this. Besides, it's timeless, and Billy really likes it."
    "Well, he has good taste. You look great." Kimberly straightened her deep pink skirt so that the hem fell directly over her knees. "This one took forever to find. It's hard to find good dresses when you're this short." Christina just smiled at her.
    Halfway through dinner, Tommy, Billy and Jason told the girls about the surprise they'd been hinting at all night. "We, Richie, and Zack all chipped in and we rented a limousine for tonight," they told the delighted girls. "They'll be here later with Angela and Trini so we can go to the dance together." After dinner, Billy, Christina, Kimberly and Tommy all waited outside for their ride while Jason waited for Jamie to came back from the ladies' room.
    "Now is the perfect time to launch my plan!" Lord Zedd announced on the moon. "Tonight, my daughter will meet her intended! Goldar!"
    "Yes, Lord Zedd?" Goldar asked warily.
    "Disguise putties as the Rangers and their friends. Send them to Earth!" Goldar trudged out of the throne room to follow Lord Zedd's orders.

    "Hey Jason, Jamie!" Zack greeted the disguised putties. They nodded in response. The limousine pulled away from the restaurant and headed towards the school.
    Back in the restaurant, Jamie finally left the ladies' room. She and Jason found what appeared to be their limousine waiting outside. "The others must be waiting for us. C'mon!" Jason pulled Jamie towards the car.
    "This is going to be cool. The only other time I had a chauffer, I was being arrested!" Jamie exclaimed. As the limo pulled away, the doors automatically locked. The divider between the passengers and the driver whizzed down, revealing the driver of the car. "Uh, Jason," Jamie started, "Do you see what I think I see?" she whispered.
    "If you think you see a putty driving this limo, then yeah, I see it," he replied. "Guys, take a look up there," he whispered to the others.
    Eight heads turned to Jason and Jamie. Simutaneously, the disguise transformations dropped and Jamie and Jason were surrounded by burbling putties.
    "Why do I get the feeling that my father really wants to ruin my life?" Jamie moaned as the car transported to the moon. Once there, Jamie was shoved into the now-familiar steel cage. "Okay, Zedd, what is it now?" she demanded. "What can be so important to you that you drag me away from my prom night? In case you didn't know, prom night is one of the most important nights of a young woman's life. Spill it, and it had better be good!" Jamie was not happy with the latest turn of events, to say the least.
    "Oh, be quiet!" Zedd glared at Jamie. "Tonight, you shall wed!"
    Jamie looked across the room where Jason was being held in a force field. "Really? But it all seems so sudden! I mean, Jason hasn't even asked me yet!"
    "Not him, you idiot! Do you really think I'd let you marry the Red Ranger?"
    "No, but I can always hope. So, if I'm getting married tonight, and it's not to Jason, whom I love, by the way, then who the hell is it?"
    Goldar stepped forward. "I am marrying you," he said, reluctantly.
    "You have got to be kidding. I mean, for god's sake, Zedd, he's not even my species, much less my type. Listen, if you want me to be married so bad, why not just send Jason and me to Las Vegas? We can go to a little chapel where the justice of the peace looks like Elvis and get started on the honeymoon right away. Whatta you say to that, huh?" Jamie looked hopefully at her father.
    "No."
    "Couldn't you at least find someone human?"
    "Enough!" Zedd roared. "You will marry Goldar tonight and that's final! Putties, escort my daughter to her chambers and take the Red Ranger to the dungeon. Roughly!" Jason and Jamie were dragged off in opposite directions.
    Jamie was thrown into a room which was empty save for one thing: the most hideous dress Jamie had ever seen. It was white, of course, with laces up the bodice and back, padding to enhance the cleavage, huge puffed sleeves, enormous fake purple roses on the wide hoop skirt, and a train Jamie would have sworn to be close to a mile long.
    "He has got to be kidding," Jamie muttered. "I don't think even an anime villianess would wear something that atrocious. Who was his designer, Fredrick's of Hell?" She paced the small room, frantically looking for either an escape route or a power source. Either way, she was out of luck. "Damn..."
    A timid knock sounded on the door. "My lady?" she heard someone say.
    "What."
    "It's...It's Baboo, my lady. We need to know if everything is all right."
    "Well, besides the fact that this dress could give me a heart attack from its sheer ugliness, the only problem I have is that it's pretty dark in here. Do you think you could find me a candle or two?" she asked sweetly, gritting her teeth.
    "I could try, my lady. I'll be back!" Jamie heard the pitiful creature scuttling down the hallway. She took off the purple shoes and examined the heel.
    "No good," she muttered. "It's too wide to pierce a skull. Besides, if I got blood on these shoes, Christina would cheerfully have my head for breakfast. No, I take that back. She'd be so sweetly forgiving that I'd cut off my own head." She leaned back against the wall. I hope he gets those candles, she thought. Maybe I can get enough energy from them to blast my way out of here and rescue Jason as well.

    In the dungeon, Jason was pacing the small circumference of the cell. I can't believe it, he thought. This time, Zedd has gone way too far. Marrying Jamie to Goldar? "Not if I can help it," he muttered.
    "But you can't, Red Ranger," Zedd's voice echoed. "She will marry Goldar in two hours' time, you can be sure of that!"
    "But she doesn't love him!" Jason protested. "Would you subject your only child to a loveless marriage? If you thought she hated you before, it'll be nothing compared to how she'll despise you after tonight, if you carry out this ridiculous plan." Jason's protests were in vain as Zedd was no longer listening. "I've gotta get out of here!" he thought wildly. He rattled to door to the cell, but it was tight. He tried to use the teleport on his communicator, but there was some sort of shielding that disabled it. Finally, he felt through all the pockets in his jacket and pants. "Thank God for hidden pockets!" he exclaimed, pulling out his morpher. Trying one last time, he tapped his communicator. "Tommy, Billy, Zack, Trini, Kimberly, Christina...anyone! Come in!"
    "Tommy here, Jase. What happened to you and Jamie? We've had Zordon and Alpha scanning for you ever since we found putties in the limo."
    "Lord Zedd strikes again. This time, he's decided that it's time Jamie got married, only he got to choose the groom. Goldar."
    "Oh, gross." Kimberly's comment spoke for everyone.
    "Anyway, I'm going to morph and try to break through the door of the cell I'm in. Could you guys get up here and help me find Jamie?"
    "We'll be right there, bro. Tommy out."
    Jason held his morpher in front of him. "Tyrannosaurus!" he called out. Standing against the far wall, he leveled his Blade Blaster at the door and fired. The bolt richoched wildly around the room. "Damn," he muttered, ducking. He called on the Power Sword. "Maybe just pure brute force will work," he gritted out. Jason's temper was beginning to show. "Hyaaah!" he called out, striking at the locking mechanism with the sword, sending sparks flying.

    Just then, Jamie was being forced into the awful dress. "The plans have been changed, Jamaica!" Lord Zedd boomed. "Your erstwhile consort has managed to contact your friends, so we must hasten the wedding!"
    "Don't call me Jamaica!" Jamie fumed. "Mom admitted that she was too far gone on painkillers when she named me that!" She swatted at the putties who were attempting to thrust her arms into the sleeves of the dress. Too bad Baboo didn't find those candles, she fumed. Then, I'd be outta here and not being trussed up like a sausage into this damn dress. Finally, the putties finished dressing her and began dragging her to the chapel. She caught a glimpse of herself in a reflecting wall. I look atrocius! she thought. I have to get out of here. There's no way on God's green Earth--or this dead moon--that I am going to spend my prom night with Goldar!

    Jason swung at the lock one more time. With a groan, the metal twisted and finally broke. "Finally!" he exclaimed, rushing into the hallway and almost bowling over Green Ranger, who was waiting for him.
    "Jase, we took care of your guard. Christina's got a lock on Jamie. We have to manually get her out of where they're keeping her. C'mon!" Green Ranger took Red Ranger's arm.
    They met up with the other Rangers outside of the small chapel. "What's the scoop?" Red Ranger asked.
    "The whole room seems to be blanketed by a field that disrupts our communicators, our transporters --and our morphers," Blue Ranger explained, looking up from his readouts.
    "Does that mean we'll lose our morphing if we go in there?" Green Ranger asked.
    "No, we won't lose our morphing, but even if we can get her morpher to her, Jamie won't be able to morph," Yellow Ranger told him. "She won't have the added protection if a fight erupts."
    "We'll just have to be careful, then," White Ranger said, standing up. She unholstered Saba as she continued, "We have to get Jamie out of there. I'm not about to let my best friend get hitched to a monster."
    "Right," the others agreed.

    "Zedd, you're not going to get away with this!" Jamie screeched as Finster placed her hand in Goldar's. "If Jason doesn't kill you, you can bet that Mom will! She likes Jason! And frankly, I value her opinion more than yours!"
    Zedd began to feel a touch of nerves. He had seen Leslie Zedden angry before, and it wasn't a pretty sight. He quickly shrugged off his feelings, however. "I will deal with both of them in time," he said casually.
    "How about now?" Red Ranger called from the back of the chapel. He was flanked by White Ranger, Blue Ranger, and Yellow Ranger on his left and Green Ranger, Pink Ranger, and Black Ranger on his right.
    "Jason! Thank God!" Jamie exclaimed, yanking her hand out of Goldar's.
    "You! You were not invited," Zedd growled, his body beginning to glow with a red battle aura.
    "We're friends of the bride," White Ranger stated. "Jamie, get over here, quick!" Picking up her skirts, Jamie dashed behind the wall of Rangers.
    "Not so fast, Rangers!" Zedd exclaimed. "My daughter will wed Goldar tonight!" He pointed his staff at the wall and Jamie found herself levitating above their protection and being pulled towards Zedd.
    "Zedd!" White Ranger exclaimed. She gathered her psychic energy and blasted him hard enough that he dropped Jamie. White Ranger saw the coming bolt and threw herself in front of the defenseless girl, blocking the evil energy. The other Rangers drew their Blade Blasters and leveled them at Zedd, coming to stand protectivly around Jamie.
    Zedd saw this, realizing that for tonight, he had lost. He called his henchmen to him and disappeared.
    "The fields are dropping!" Blue Ranger exclaimed. "We can leave."
    "Hallelujah!" Jamie exclaimed, throwing her arms around Red Ranger.
    "It's about time, too!" Pink Ranger exclaimed. "The king and queen crowning is in fifteen minutes!"
    "Auugh!" Jamie screamed. "Nuh-uh! There's no way I'm going back in this! My prom dress is ruined. Kim, Tommy, I'm sure you guys will be crowned, so I'll just congratulate you now. As for me, I'm going home."
    White Ranger gave Jamie a quick hug, whispering in her ear, "I want every sordid detail of what's going to happen tonight!"
    Jamie smiled wolfishly as she linked her arm through Jason's. "Everyone, enjoy prom. I'm sorry Dad had to ruin it for everyone."
    "Hey, we still have graduation to look forward to," Zack told her. "I'm sure every important event in our lives won't be ruined."

    Back in the throne room, Zedd watched the Rangers' revelry at the dance. "I haven't given up, Jamie, as sure as your name is Jamaica Teresa Zedden. I will find a way to separate you from Jason Scott, you can count on that!"

The End