Disclaimer: The usual stuff. Most, if not all, of the characters in this story are mine and are the rightful properties of Saban/Toei Entertainment. Blah, blah, blah, -blah-blah-blah…

“Drew…”

“Yeah?”

“What do we do now?”

“What do ya mean Joe?”

“I mean, what do we do now?”

“She’s got a point there D.” the tall African-American youth commented.

“Well, I dunno… Ever since that wave hit us-!”

“Zordon Wave.” Joe corrected.

Drew gave his sister a taunting sarcastic smile. “…Whatever… since then, the Mantrons seemed to have been defeated we can relax; so what’re you worried about?”

“What I’m worried about is the last time someone else did our job for us, we had face an even bigger menace.”

“So?” Drew shrugged.

“’So’, I’d rather not go through that again”

“What? We’re the Beetleborgs! We can handle anything that’s thrown at us. C’mon, we always win; just like in the comic books. Right Roland?”

“Um-hmm.” The teen responded apathetically. He had sat down in his favorite chair, the least dusty chair in the Hillhurst mansion. He responded without looking up from his magazine.

“What?” Jo exclaimed. “You mean you’re not even worried in the least simply because a comic book says that we’ll always win?”

“Well… yeah…”

Jo practically dropped her jaw through the floorboards. She looked at Drew as if she were going vomit at his explanation. “Roland? A little help please?”

Roland simply flipped another page in his magazine.

“Hey, what’s your problem anyway?” asked Drew. “You’re acting like Mom when it’s that ‘time of the month’ or something.”

“Ugh! Dreeew!”

“Well, girls do mature faster than boys.” Roland commented without looking up from his reading.

“Roland!” Jo exclaimed.

“Yeah, sounds like the ‘Big ‘P’ to me…” Drew added.

“…. (Sigh)… I… (Groan)” unable to respond intelligibly, Jo stormed out of the den into the next room, slamming the double doors behind her.

Drew laughed hysterically as he flopped himself on the coach next to Roland. “Man! That was fun-nee! Good one Ro’!” He raised his hand for a high-five.

“She has a point y’know…” Roland said nonchalantly.

Drew stopped laughing. “…Oh no, not you too…”

“Drew, have you ever thought about it: the comic books and us? The comic book is just that: A COMIC. We’re real. I never really thought about how much a danger we are to everyone else until a few weeks ago…

“Ro… You’re starting to scare me man… What’re you getting at?”

“What I’m getting at is that we’re not THE Beetleborgs. We’re not the comics.”

Drew just stared at Roland blankly. He was not following…

“Look at us…” Roland started.

“Sigh… Look, Drew… Look at us… Look at what this wish has done to us. Our lives are completely different from the comics.”

“… What?” Drew asked. “What the heck are you talking about?”

“Look at how we’ve changed… Because of my super-speed, I’ve grown faster than the both Jo you…”

Drew took note that Roland did have an amazing grow spurt over one summer, and his voice had gotten so deep that he didn’t recognize him sometimes; especially when he was in Borg-form.

“Jo… well, Jo is kinda hard to explain, but somehow… she just looked… different one day.”

Drew never thought about it much. He just thought that his little sister was going through what his mom told was ‘changes’.

“I’m not sure, but I think the reason Jo got so short and skinny was because of all the extra strength she was using. I can’t explain why she looks like the ‘old Jo’ now.”

“Well, then what about me?” Drew challenged.

“Exactly my point… You haven’t had any major change. Probably because your power is mental based whereas Jo’s and mine are physical based. My assumption is that these changes may become more apparent or severe as we get older. Another thing that doesn’t happen in the comics…”

“You’ve been reading the ‘Fantastic Four’ again, huh?”

“Well, Nana does own a comic book store…” Roland finally put the magazine down, revealing his face; his eyes stared sadly into space. “Well… she had a store…” Before any signs of his emotional state could form on his face he hid behind the magazine again.

Suddenly, Jo came crashing through the wall with a punch. After dusting her hands, she motioned back to her destructive art. “For instance…” apparently she had been listening from the next room the whole time.

“ Uh… Good point Jo. In the comics, nobody seems to care how much damage was caused.” Roland continued. “A lot of people lost their homes, jobs… even dreams and loved ones in that invasion.”

Jo just nodded her agreement with Roland.

“I’m… sorry Ro…” Drew apologized. “But it the Crustaceans were only part of the invasion, it was some alien forces! And that’s our fault? ”

“Drew…” Jo looked him dead in the eyes. “… Yes. It is our fault.”

“WHAT?!” Drew jumped up and walked around to the opposite side of the coach, setting it as a barrier between himself and Roland and Jo.

“It was our wish that started this whole mess.” Roland said nonchalantly.

“NO! That was Flabber! He goofed it up!”

“Really? What are the Beetleborgs without their enemies; Superman without Lex Luthor; Spider-Man without the Green Goblin?”

“Power Rangers without monsters…” Roland continued.

“The Rangers are heroes!” Drew became enraged.

“Blast it Drew! Don’t you get it!” Roland exploded, but he still did not reveal his face but his hands were crushing the pages of the magazine. “It’s time to grow up! We’re not the comics, were real, but were not-real- heroes! Not like the Power Rangers!”

Drew could not think of anything to say. He just looked back and forth between his sister and his best friend. He could not believe that they were giving up what every kid had ever dream of being. What he always dreamed of being: a real-live superhero. He nodded his head; admitting defeat for this round while at the same time activating his telekinetic power to lift himself off the floor and out of the room.

“Drew…” Jo said as she blocked the doorway. Before she could say anything further however, she was ‘pushed’ aside. The front door was already open as Drew picked up speed. Jo ran after him.

“Drew… Drew! Drew wait!” she called after him. But he was gone. Stood out on the porch and watched her older brother sail high over the field and over the treetops beyond until he was out of sight. Drew was never able to exert that much control over his telekinesis for this long. Roland’s statement earlier echoed in her mind and caused her heart to quicken.

“My assumption is that these changes may become more apparent or severe as we get older.”

She turned around and started back in, but changed her mind and sat on the porch to wait… to wait as long as it would take Drew to come back.

In the den, Roland finally deactivated his speed powers. He had been using them to move faster than the naked eye could follow to wipe away his tears.

“No… no. That’s not how it happened... ” Roland sighed, shaking his head. “…Not exactly how it happened. …But it’s pretty close to how I think it would have turned out. I just mostly sat there, hiding behind that blasted comic. Tryin’ to think of a way to tell Drew…”

Roland swallowed hard as he tried to talk through his tears.

“(Sniff) But maybe I can tell you…” He could see through his endless flow of tears. That was all right though, he did not want to see…

“Sorry for lyin’ to you… again.” he forced a smile for a second. “…Guess old habits are hard to break, huh?” A sob suddenly exploded out of him and he could not stop himself from falling into a crying fit. A few minutes later, he had calmed down enough to finish. The lump in his throat made it even more torturous to talk but he continued.

“The tax collectors didn’t waste anytime getting out and making claims and stuff on the damages around the city. Man, those people are more vicious than any Crustaceans I ever faced. How did you handle them?”

He waited for a reply that he knew would not come; but he hoped… Oh God, how he hoped…

“I went down to the Comic Shop to sift through the what I could to get the place back and running. Even at super-speed, its going to take me a long time even to get it up to ‘medieval standards’.” He did not laugh this time.

“Even then, how am I suppose to run the store? I’m only a kid… They’re not going to let that happen.” He pulled up a near by chair and plopped down in it. He looked down at the floor; watching his tears quickly form a puddle. Roland suddenly stopped sobbing and his breathing calmed. He took a breath and calmly said…

“… You know Dad’s dead, right?” he said without lifting his head. “Y’know, my father, your son… I told you about it yesterday… or was it the other day?”

Maybe the blunt statement would shock a response.

…No such luck.

Suddenly, Roland stood up; with such force that he knocked the chair away doing so.

“Arrgh! How wish I never made that GOD DAMN WISH!”

Blinded by rage, Roland kicked the chair at super-speed! In an instant, he realized what he had done! At the speed, it could smash through the wall and damage life sustaining equipment; this was after all, the ICU ward. In that same instance, he caught the chair in mid-flight, set it down, and was by the side of…

“Oh no, oh no…. I’m sorry, Nana. I’m sorry…” he said apologetically, stroking her hand and what little of her head was not bandaged as gently and slowly as he could. “I didn’t mean to curse like that in front of you… I’m sorry… forgive me…”

The hospital staff came rushing into the room to investigate Roland’s outburst. What they saw they had seen more than their share of times and it never gotten easier.

Roland, at Nana’s right beside with his right arm stretched across her body holding her left hand. The first two fingers of his left hand were only parts of his hand able to stroke a small batch of her forehead not bandaged. His face was buried in her shoulder, listening to her heartbeat, instead of over her chest; he did not want to take the chance of dislodging one of the tubes that feed oxygen into her lungs. The staff all left the boy alone with only one nurse to watch over him.

Roland remained like that for half an hour before the nurse laid a hand on his shoulder, signaling the time to leave. With weary reluctance, Roland moved away with the nurse only to fall to his knees into a fit of sorrow and violent retching. The nurse knelt beside him, comforting him the whole time. Five minutes later, she supported the emotionally drained Roland as he staggered out of the room. They stopped at the doorway and the nurse was called away to aid in a code blue. Roland nodded that he would be fine and propped himself up on the doorframe.

Two doctors pass by Roland, the younger one, obviously an intern by the way he spoke.

“So who’re we trying to save today.”

The older doctor gave him a quick elbow jab in the ribs and motioned his head in Roland’s direction.

“Ow! Sorry Carter…”

Doctor Parker Lewis whispered as he and Kubichek walked further in the room to examine Nana.

“Can you please try to be a little more courteous… and professional, will ya Koob? The poor kid looks like he wants to be in here himself.”

“Hey, I said I was sorry all right? So what’s her story anyway?”

“She was caught under a collapsing wall during the attack. Suffering severe head trauma, cause of the coma, several broken ribs. The list goes on but you get the idea…”

Standing fairly close to Roland, Kubichek started to feel the repercussions of his actions. This woman was probably all this kid ever had now… He glanced back at Roland for a moment before returning his attention to Nana’s examination. He heard fingers snap their behind him.

“Chances? Hey!” Kubichek turned as he suddenly felt a gust of wind lift up his surgeon coat. He turned and saw no reason that such a strong gust should have existed. He also noticed that Roland was suddenly gone.

“What is Koob?” Doctor Lewis asked.

“The kid… that wind… gone… but I just saw… never mind…” he exasperated.

As they started to leave, Lewis stepped on something. After picking it up and examining its cover he laughed.

“What?” Kubichek asked they made their way down the hall.

“It’s a Big Bad Beetleborgs comic! Ha! I haven’t read one of these since I started med. school. I’m surprised it’s still around.” He handed it to Kubichek

“Oh. Don’t get too excited, next issue is the last one. It’s getting canceled.”

“That so huh? Humph, oh well.” Lewis replied. “C’mon, let’s go down to radiology, there’s this intern I think is your type and…