"Setting The Record Straight"
Interview 1 of 12

Written By: The 61 Minutes News Team (Pink-Green-White-4ever and
Shawn30)

Summary: With two years of false news reports, lies written in many
articles, privacy-invading prime time exposes, and unofficial books
written about them and their former lives as Power Rangers the
original twelve decide to finally set the record straight in a
series of one-on-one interviews with Barbara Walters.

Timeline: Early 2007. Power Rangers Dino Thunder took place,
although Tommy and Kim reunited during it. All will be explained in
their own words. EVERYTHING else is canon, but keep in mind the
Rangers are adults now and we're writing this as if the events in
the PR universe happened in real life.

Rating: R for no holds barred adult language.
Couples: Outside of Tommy and Kim just keep your eyes open *evil
grin*

Email: newsteam@...

Authors Notes 1. In early 2005 secret Government files were
accidentally opened to the public revealing the names of the first
twelve Power Rangers. The C.I.A were covertly keeping tabs on
everything that took place in Angel Grove during the Rangers tour of
duty and discovered over the years the identities of the Power
Rangers. They never learned all the details of what happened behind
the scenes with Zordon or the various enemies they fought, but
enough intelligence was gathered that names and addresses were
discovered. Upon being ousted to the public, the former Rangers
anonymous lives were over as they became instant, overnight
celebrities.

But the lights of stardom tend to fade and after while their privacy
was being invaded from all sides. Former friends and family members
began writing books and giving interviews for money. News crews
hounded their residences. Paparazzi hounded them everywhere they
went, as well as their work places. Nighttime news programs ran
intense exposé on their lives, loves, and pieced-together history as
Power Rangers. Outright Lies, crazy assumptions, and rude invasions
of
privacy have led the former Rangers to finally break their silence
and tell their story in their own words.

As is posted on the ABC: The View.com profile of Barbara Walters,
she has arguably interviewed more statesmen, Presidents, and stars
than any other journalist in history. She is so well known that her
name and a brief biography is listed in the American Heritage
Dictionary. And when the former Ranger's new publicist contacted her
to conduct the interviews she jumped at the chance to bring the
story of Earth's greatest heroes to the world in their own words,
while humanizing the larger than life warriors that risked their
lives to protect the world for so many years.

Choosing a small, intimate studio audience while allowing call-in
questions to be taken live on the air, the former Power Rangers will
at last tell their story, answer Barbara's pointed questions as well
as your own concerning their professional and private lives. Expect
the unexpected as this prime time interview series will air on HBO
instead of network television.

Authors Notes 2: Kimberly Ann Hart-Oliver opens the new
groundbreaking series, followed by her husband Dr. Tommy Oliver,
Jason Lee Scott and Trini Kwan. The next series will involve Dr.
Billy Cranston, Adam Park, Katherine Hillard, and Aisha Campbell.
The last series gives us Tanya Sloan, Rocky DeSantos, Zackary Taylor
and Justin Stewart. Concluding things will be a huge round table
discussion with all of the Rangers present.

Authors Notes 3. Rita Repulsa first attacked the Earth on August 28,
1993. That's twelve and a half years ago. Our walk down memory lane
begins now...

--

"I'm Barbara Walters and welcome to Setting The Record Straight, an
in depth look into the lives of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers,
Earth's first defenders, in their own words," the seasoned
journalist announced as she sat in a chair on a small, quaint stage,
not unlike the stage for her television show, The View. In the
audience, a group of twenty-five specially picked guests sat,
waiting for the start of the interviews the world was dying to
hear. "My first guest is perhaps the most well known of the group
of twelve, out of uniform." Images of gymnasts performing on the
various apparatuses and snap shots from the Pan Global Games and
Olympics started appearing.

"In 1996, she wowed the world by coming from an relatively unknown
place to capture gymnastics gold as a member of the United States'
Pan Global Games' Women's Gymnastics Team, as well as earning
several other individual medals." Clips of a petite brunette in a
red, white and blue leotard begin flashing. "She also participated
as an alternate for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games for the United
States, coached the 2002 United States Pan Global Women's team and
was the United States Women's Beam and Floor Coach for the Athens
Games." Pictures of Kimberly coaching at various events flashed
before a large image of the Pink Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger
appeared.

"When the Power Rangers first appeared in 1993, many little girls
around the world were given their first live female superhero in the
form of the Pink Pterodactyl Ranger." The television screens were
suddenly filled with the image of the Pterodactyl Dino Zord rising
from the pit of a volcano at an incredible velocity, then zooming
off into battle in an unbelievable display of aerial acrobatics.
Flashes of energy from the Pink Ranger's Power Bow strike the 'Z' on
the chests of multiple putties with perfect accuracy.

"And when her time in a uniform came to an end, she valiantly passed
her powers on to a friend, successfully ensuring the legacy of the
Pink Ranger would live on." One moment the television screen showed
the petite Pink Ranger standing with her teammates and then it
morphed to show a much taller Pink Ranger in the same stance.


"Please help me welcome original Pink Ranger, Kimberly Hart-Oliver."

The audience clapped and cheered when a petite brunette walked onto
the stage from behind a large backdrop. Barbara greeted her with a
firm handshake and then the pair settled into the chairs in front of
the audience, the cameras rolling as the crew listened on in as much
interest as the audience. "Thank you, Kimberly, for agreeing to
come tonight."

The twenty-eight year old smiled brightly. "I'm happy to be here.
It's been a long time coming, to be quite honest."

"Now, to give all of you a bit of personal background on Kimberly,
she's twenty-eight, married," Barbara emphasized, causing Kim to
grin and nod. "She owns her own gymnastics academy in Reefside,
California, and she was the original Pink Ranger of the Mighty
Morphin' Power Rangers." The audience applauded; the sound was like
thunder to Kimberly's ears in the small space of the stage. "Now,
Kimberly, since you're the first of the Rangers to speak out, would
you please tell us how the Power Rangers came to be?"

"Sure. Well, you see, in 1993, on a mission to the moon, two
astronauts opened a space dumpster and released Rita Repulsa and her
minions from their 10,000 year captivity." At that, Kimberly made a
face but continued. "When Rita attacked Earth that first time,
there was this massive earthquake in California, and suddenly Jason,
Zack, Trini, Billy and I found ourselves being teleported from the
Youth Center to the Command Center. That's where we met Alpha 5 and
Zordon. Zordon gave us a quick explanation of what was going on,
and then told us he'd picked us, five ordinary teenagers," she
paused, as if her mind had gone back to that fateful day before she
remembered where she was. "To be the defenders of Earth; he gave us
our morphers and the original power coins, and charged us with
becoming the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."

Barbara stared at her, a skeptical look on her face. "Just like
that? Zordon just picked five teenagers at random to be the Power
Rangers?"

Kim chuckled. "Just like that. We were pretty resistant at first,
except Jason, but we got over the shock pretty fast; we didn't have
much of a choice, considering we found out we were really fighting
for the survival of Earth."

"That's very interesting. Kimberly, everyone in America, and around
the world for that matter, is dying to ask about the inner workings
of the original Ranger team. Would you describe to us what your
base of operations was like?"

A soft, gentle smile graced Kimberly's lips as she thought back to
what the Commander Center looked like. "Believe it or not, we were
prepared for that question to get asked, so Billy, Trini and Justin
put together a small presentation for you."

On a large projection screen to Kimberly's left, an image of a
building on a lone mountain appeared. "This is the Command Center
from the outside. It was in the mountains of Angel Grove. One of
the reasons no one ever found it is because it was surrounded by a
cloaking shield, so that anyone who didn't possess the power or
wasn't directly teleported in wouldn't be able to find it."

The next image was of a room lit by a central light and dozens of
tiny twinkle lights. There was a main area of the room, made up of
a ring of what looked like high tech computers, and to either side
of those computers were objects – one side was a tall, light blue
tubular structure and the other a large, glass ball on a
pedestal. "Now, Kimberly, what's this?" Barbara asked, pointing to
the image.

"That Barbara is the main room of the Command Center. The circular
area is where all our computers were. If you think your home
computer is awesome, you should have seen these ones, and of course
the later computers in the Power and Turbo Chambers. I never
learned how to really use any of them, because they intimidated the
hell out of me. The large glass ball was what we called the Viewing
Globe. Its basic function was to let us see what was going on in
the outside world. Any time there was an attack or Zordon and Alpha
needed to show us something, it appeared in the viewing globe. I
always likened it to a big television screen, only this one had
universal cable."

The audience laughed at Kimberly's quick joke before Barbara spoke
up again. "And that large tube structure, what is that?"

"That's Zordon's warp tube. It was the only way we could connect
and speak with him, because Rita had locked him in a time warp. He
use to just appear in it whenever we showed up, that is, if he
wasn't already in it when we arrived. The first time we were in the
Command Center, we nearly had heart attacks because he just suddenly
popped up out of no where. I mean one minute we're at the Youth
Center hanging out, the next minute we're in a weird room with this
little robot and a floating, talking head. Talk about trippy."

"And what about the rest of the base?"

"Basically, we had the main room, a medical room, and another room
Billy and Trini used to do experiments and create new gadgets and
gizmos for us to use. There were other rooms, but they were all
hidden from us most of the time, so we didn't bother with them until
we had to."

"What about your arsenal?" Barbara asked, looking from her notes to
Kimberly, who was smiling. Everyone in the studio looked to the
screen as images of the zords, weapons and suits appeared.

Kim smiled and turned back to Barbara. "We each had our own weapon;
Jason's was the Power Sword, Trini had the Power Daggers, Zack
commanded the Power Axe, Billy was given the Power Lance, and I was
graced with the Power Bow. Separately, these five weapons were
powerful, effective, and tuned to each of our personal styles. When
we put them together, they formed the Power Blaster, which took out
quite a few of the monsters back in the day. As the Green Ranger,
Tommy carried around a dagger-flute combination known as the Dragon
Dagger. It was used as a weapon and as the summoning device for the
Dragon Zord. When he later became the White Ranger, he carried
around Saba, an enchanted Saber that not only fought alongside him,
but that was capable of independent thought. If memory serves
correct, Saba was able to fight on his own if need be, as well as
help Tommy with controlling the White Tiger Zord." Kimberly paused
to take a sip of water from the glass next to her.

"As our abilities progressed and changes were made to the team, we
used them less and less. As far as Zords, each of us had a Dino
Zord, followed by a Thunder Zord. Shortly after Rocky, Adam and
Aisha joined us, our powers were destroyed, arsenal and all, and we
were forced to quest for Ninja powers, which included new suits and
new zords. Right before I left, the team underwent the final change
in zords, upgrading to the five Shogun Zords, thanks to a Lord Zedd
plan gone bad."

"That's wonderful," Barbara smiled, before looking down at her
notes. When she looked back up, she gestured to the
audience. "Right now, we're going to open the phone lines, and give
you the viewers, and our audience, the chance to ask Kimberly some
questions, and we're going to let her finally put to rest some
things you always wanted to know. Our first caller is Jamie from
Texas. Go ahead and ask Kimberly your question, Jamie," Barbara
spoke a little louder so the caller could hear.

"Hi Kimberly."

"Hello Jamie," Kim smiled, cocking her head to the side slightly so
she could hear the question as clear as possible.

"My question is, why has there never been a male Pink Ranger? I
mean, there has been male Yellow Rangers, why not a Pink one?"

Kimberly cracked up laughing right along with the audience when she
heard that. "Oh, wow, Jamie, to be quite honest, I don't think any
of the guys could pull off the pink spandex and the skirt," Kim
laughed. "Seriously though, if you notice with most Ranger teams,
including ours, the Pink Rangers have seriously defined what it
means to be the heart and soul of the team and most people don't
equate that with men. It's really a sexist view, if you think about
it, but it's very true. Whenever a Pink Ranger has been present,
she's been the center, or heart of the team."

"Can you explain that in more detail, Kimberly?" Barbara asked.

Kim nodded. "What I mean by being the heart and soul of a team is
that we Pink Rangers always seem to be the glue that holds the team
together. Typically, the Reds are the leaders, Yellows are the calm
collective ones, Blues more often than not are the thinkers or
jokesters, Blacks and Greens are the quiet introspective ones, and
then you have the other sixth color Rangers. They're the ones who
fill the cracks, personality wise. I'm not saying this is true for
every team, and at times it certainly wasn't for the teams made up
by the twelve of us, but that's just a typical overview."

"Thank you, Kimberly, and thank you Jamie. Our next question comes
from the audience," Barbara spoke, nodding to the young man who was
standing at the back of the room with a camera and lights shining on
him, and a microphone in hand. "Tell us your name and question."

"I'm Kyle from West Virginia."

"Hi Kyle," Kim greeted him, hoping to put the obviously nervous
teenager at ease. "What are you dying to know?"

Kyle grinned. "I've always been drawn to the fact that the girl
Rangers kicked butt, but I have to ask – why was the Pink Ranger the
only one with a skirt until Zeo, if the Yellow Ranger was also a
girl? And what's your opinion on that?"

Kimberly smiled and bit her bottom lip as she came up with an
answer. "Well, to be honest, we weren't the first Power Rangers to
use the original powers, and I think the Yellow Ranger before Trini
and Aisha was a guy, so that might explain the suit. As far as my
opinion on it, I honestly think that the Yellow Ranger not having a
skirt until the Zeo team appeared was kinda in tune with the women
who wore that suit. Both Aisha and Trini are girly, but no where
near as much as Katherine or I. And Zordon created the Zeo suits
specifically for the Zeo team, so I think he went with the skirt for
the Yellow Ranger so it could help ease Tanya's transition into the
team."

The young teenager seemed satisfied with the answer and handed the
microphone back before sitting back down. "Thank you, Kyle. We're
going to go back to the phone lines for our next question. Our
caller is Anna from Seattle. Go ahead Anna."

"Hi Anna."

"Hi Kim!" the caller quipped. Just from the voice, everyone in the
audience could tell she was at least a teenager. "My question is,
obviously, you're the shortest of the Rangers, was that a curse or a
blessing during your time in uniform?"

Kim frowned before she took a deep breath; she hated being asked
about her height. "It was both," Kim told her. "I'm only five-foot-
two, and a lot of the time, the bad guys were way taller than me.
In fact, Goldar was taller than Tommy and Jason, and they were the
tallest two on the team. In battle, sometimes, it presented a
problem because it made me easy prey for the monster of the week or
whoever we happened to be fighting. However, there were times when
I was able to use it to my advantage. In those times, it allowed me
to knock my opponents off stride and get the upper hand. There were
numerous times when the monster we were facing thought I was an easy
target, or that I wasn't worth going after, and that was usually
when I proved them wrong."

"Cool! Thanks!"

"Our next caller is Alexandra from New York City. Alexandera?"
Barbara announced, waiting for the caller to come on.

"Most of the battle footage I've ever seen of the Pink Ranger has
been that you were often the damsel in distress. Is that true, or
did you just let everyone think that?"

Kim wanted to roll her eyes but refrained. It wouldn't do any good
to get mad about it, since she knew it was a valid question. "I'd
like to think I can kick ass with the best of them," Kim saucily
replied, causing the audience and the caller to laugh. "When we
first started, I didn't have an ounce of Martial Arts training, only
gymnastics and a little self defense, so I'll be the first to admit,
initially, I played the damsel in distress, especially after Tommy
joined the team. That changed over the course of the first year
though, and was evident most, I think, right after Tommy originally
lost his powers. I learned that in order for us to be an effective
team, I had to carry my own weight. Each of the others had to
gradually learn to let me defend myself, to let me learn, and that
helped a lot too. I think the same can be said of Katherine. I
really think we both learned there was more to us than being the
pretty little cutesy Pink Rangers. I know Zack once said given his
choice of the five of us, he'd least of all like to see me pissed
off, angry, and on the war path."

Barbara nodded and turned to Kimberly, after looking at the card she
held. "Speaking of fights and playing damsel in distress, how did
you hide the side effects of the fights – the bruises, the extreme
exhaustions, etc, from your parents? Obviously they never knew, or
if they did, they never said anything."

The former Pink Ranger looked pained by that question. "Well,
truthfully, my parents weren't around all that much during my Ranger
days," Kimberly spoke, lifting her head to stare at Barbara. The
journalist, and the camera, caught the pain etched on her face and
in her eyes. "My father had just remarried and my mother was
seriously dating my stepfather at the time. With my brother away at
college, and me being involved in numerous school activities before
I became a Ranger, they pretty much left me to my own devices.
Added onto that, I'm a gymnast. If I fall just right, I could
certainly duplicate a lot of the visible wounds I received as a
Ranger. I like to think I was a pretty decent kid back then; I
didn't get into a lot of trouble, and I had an awesome group of
friends. My parents never really noticed, or if they did, they
never said anything."

"Surely, they had to have said something at some time?"

Kim shook her head. "I think I can probably remember once or twice
when my mother asked me why I was so tired, but because we had
gotten so good at making excuses for our disappearing and keeping
our identities a secret, I was able to lie pretty convincingly about
it being just too much stress from school and sports and other
activities."

"Does it hurt that they obviously lacked in caring about your well
being?"

"Yes and no. I often wondered why they couldn't see, but I've come
to accept that deep down, the power either kept them from finding
out, or they saw and were in denial."

Barbara nodded. After looking down at her notes again, she looked
up and had a most serious expression on her face. Kimberly fidgeted
when she saw the look and instantly knew she was about to get a
really hard question to answer. "What was your family's reaction to
finding out you had been a Power Ranger?"

A grimace crossed Kim's face, memories of the moment her parents had
shown up on her and Tommy's doorstep coming to mind. "Oh wow, you
know, my parents reacted about as best as can be expected,
considering, as I've said before, they really had no clue. There
was a lot of yelling, a lot of accusations, and a lot of guilt laid
on my shoulders," Kimberly relayed the story honestly. Two years
had passed since that argument, and still there was tension between
her parents and her about her having kept her identity a
secret. "Neither my mother nor my father has come to grips with why
I never told them. My brother yelled a lot, but he's pretty cool
with the idea now."

"Why didn't you ever tell?"

"Zordon had three rules when we started; three basic rules we had to
follow unless we wanted to lose the protection of the power we
bore. The first one was that no matter what, we couldn't use our
powers for personal gain. Second, we were never to escalate a
battle unless Rita, Zedd, or whoever forced us to. The last, and
most important, was that we were to keep our identities a secret; no
one was to know we were Power Rangers."

Barbara looked dead serious when she asked, "Why?"

Kimberly let out a heavy sigh. "Honestly? I think Zordon was
afraid that, what has happened since everyone learned who we are
would happen, and we wouldn't have been able to deal with it. Not
to mention, if we'd told our parents, they'd have been more of an
obvious target than they already were with the baddies knowing our
identities. Our parents and loved ones got pulled into quite a few
adventures with us without knowing it."

"Was it hard to balance school, sports, friendships, relationships
and everything else in a teenager's life with the demands made on
you to save the world?" Barbara asked.

Kim let out a tiny sarcastic laugh at that. "Oh yeah. You have no
idea. I went from being the most popular girl in school to, for a
while, being a complete outcast. I missed more school
extracurricular functions than you could shake a stick at. I ended
up giving up cheerleading and dance squad, art club, and a multitude
of other things in the beginning."

"But you kept your gymnastics? And made time for Gardening Club and
a school play?"

"We had to pick and choose what went and what stayed. I did the
school play only because both Jason and I were in it, and the fact
that there were two of us made it easier," Kim spoke, hinting at her
earlier comments about running off at any given moment. "Gymnastics
I kept because number one, I'd been doing that since I was four, and
number two, it was the best way to keep me in shape for fighting
putties, monsters, and any assortment of other bad guys on an almost
daily or weekly basis. As for Gardening Club, by the time that came
into reality, we'd been Rangers for over a year and I was able to
balance my life a little better. As my tenure went on, I got better
at managing my time and finding a way to have a life outside of
being a Power Ranger."

"Did your and Tommy's relationship suffer?"

Kimberly smiled fondly. "Yes and no. We didn't always get the nice
alone, only the two of us time we wanted, but the fact that we were
both Power Rangers made it easier. We didn't have to keep secrets,
or rush off in the middle of dinner on each other. I think going
into battle together the way we did, first as Green and Pink and
later as White and Pink, strengthened our relationship in ways I
couldn't begin to describe. It drew us closer together, but it also
allowed Rita and Zedd, and later Divatox, to have a major hand
against the team. If something happened to one of us, the other
usually flipped out a bit."

"When we come back, we'll talk to Kimberly about the wilder rumors
and we'll take more questions from the viewers at home and the
studio audience."

- -

"Welcome back to Setting The Record Straight, I'm Barbara Walters.
We're talking to original Pink Ranger, Kimberly Hart-Oliver. We're
going to go to the audience again for the next question."

"I'm Michael from Oregon."

"What's your question Michael?" Kimberly asked. He was about thirty
or thirty-five and looked fairly relaxed, which made Kim hope for a
mature question.

Michael smiled. "Rumor has it that Hugh Hefner and Playboy has
offered the five original Ranger women a deal to pose nude or semi-
nude. Have you agreed? And if you haven't, what do you think about
things like that?

Kimberly started laughing. "Yeah, see, Playboy would only ask me to
pose if they wanted to run an article on short women!" Kim teased,
causing the audience to crack up laughing. "To answer your question
though, as a group, no, they haven't asked us. If the others have
gotten offers, they haven't said anything to me about it. I know
the boys have gotten offers from Playgirl, but again, those haven't
been discussed with me, except Tommy's, and in which case, you know
the answer to that."

"Our next question is from Dale in Arizona. Go ahead Dale."

"Yeah, Barbara, my question for Kimberly is has she ever had a
relationship, sexual or otherwise, with any other member of the team
other than her husband?"

"Dale, it was a big, fat orgy around the Command Center back in the
day. We were doing it whenever and wherever," Kim sarcastically
supplied, watching Barbara's eyebrows arch and several members of
the audience wince. "No, I've never had any kind of relationship
with any of my teammates, my husband excluded, other than friendship
and a sibling like relationship. I grew up with Jason, Zack, Trini
and Billy, and they are like my brothers and sister. Even though
I've only known Aisha, Rocky, Adam, Kat, Tanya and Justin since high
school, they're family too. I can't imagine them being anything
less or anything more, than that. Saving the world gave me few
options to find someone and when I did, I didn't realize it until
I'd given him up. In my heart, I've always known Tommy was the one
for me, it just took some growing up to finally accept it and do
something about it."

Barbara nodded. "Our next question is from the audience."

The Pink Ranger straightened her shoulders and prepared for the next
question.

"I'm Melissa from Detroit," a young woman from the audience
announced.

"Hi Melissa," Kim tried to smile. "What's your question?"

"Katherine replaced you as Pink Ranger when you left, and according
to the press also dated Tommy for a while. Knowing that, what's
your relationship with her like?"

Kim grinned. "The media would like to make both Kat and I out to be
moody bitches that are constantly at each other's throats, but in
reality, it's not true. If I didn't love and respect Kat, I
wouldn't have given her my Ninja powers, and I wouldn't have given
her my place on the team when I left for Florida."

"What about her and Tommy?"

"Granted, Kat had a crush on him when she first arrived in Angela
Grove, but she didn't act on it until well after I broke up with
him, and even then it was only once he'd given any indication he was
ready. I can't be anything but grateful to her. She's been an
outstanding friend to both Tommy and I, and she helped heal a lot of
the damage I inflicted on his heart."

Kimberly visibly swallowed back the start of what looked like
tears. She had known questions about Tommy and Kat would be brought
up, she just hadn't thought they'd hurt as much as they were. She
was grateful for all Kat had done; she was just upset with herself
for creating the situation she had.

Barbara got Kimberly's attention and started. "While we're on that
subject, you've already admitted to writing the letter, but could
you describe your frame of mind when you sent it and the after
effects of that time of your life on the person you are now."

The former Pink Ranger remained quiet for several long seconds. The
tears she'd been holding back when talking about Kat were now
finding their way down her face. Barbara grabbed the tissues off
the table next to them and held it out to Kim. The petite brunette
took a couple and dabbed at her eyes.

"It's a hard subject for you, isn't it? To talk about the letter,
it probably brings back memories you'd tucked away."

Kim nodded and kept her head bent. "You…uh…never realize how…how
stupid something you've done is…until it's all said and done." When
Kimberly looked up, her face was flushed and she had tear-stained
cheeks. The tissues she'd taken were wadded up in her clenched
fist. "I was a seventeen-year-old kid away from home for the first
time. Like a lot of kids, I was blinded by something flashy and
full of empty promises, only I didn't realize that until it was too
late."

When Kim paused, she noticed how quiet the studio was. It was a
little eerie for her to pour out her feelings and thoughts to a room
full of strangers, not to mention the entire world. "I gave up the
best thing to ever happen to me because I was dazzled by something
that quickly lost its shine, and it took me almost ten years to
learn my lesson and get it back."

Barbara nodded and handed Kimberly some more tissues. "How did you
and Tommy finally get back together?"

At that, Kimberly gave a relieved laugh and took a shaky breath. "I
moved to Reefside in 2004, to open my gymnastics academy.
Unbeknownst to me, Tommy was living there and teaching at the high
school, so when I invited Trini and Jason to visit, he was with
them. We reconnected, even after everything that happened between
us, and in 2005 we got married just before our identities as Rangers
were leaked to the media."

"Are you happy with the way your life has turned out?"

"I've never been happier," Kim responded, a bright smile making her
look beautiful despite the evidence of her crying jag.

Barbara smiled and nodded, and then her face turned a tad
playful. "Will you tell us what your husband is like behind closed
doors?"

Twinkling laughter escaped from Kimberly as she threw her head
back. "Oh sure. What would you like to know?" Kim grinned, knowing
her husband was backstage and most likely blushing to the roots of
his hair.

"Well, for starters, is he like every other normal man, or is he
different?" Barbara started.

"Tommy's as normal as normal gets, aside from the extra job in
spandex he does once in a while," Kim cracked, causing the crowd to
laugh. She noticed a lot of the guys in the audience looked very
intent to hear what she had to say about her husband. "Seriously
though, I make him take out the trash, do dishes, clean the garage,
wash the Zords, scan the city for danger, reach things on high
shelves I can't reach with a chair or step stool."

Barbara and the audience cracked up at Kim's description. "What
about your relationship?"

Kimberly's face went serious. "I've never loved anyone the way I
love him. He is my stars, my moon, my night sky all wrapped into
one. I've been with other men, I've been by myself, but I've never
gotten over him. No one else has ever mattered more," Kimberly
sincerely told everyone. "I could have lived my life just fine on
my own. I was happy, content, and successful, but just the sheer
quality of my life with him is so far beyond what I ever imagined
I'd have. People tell me all the time, and did even when Tommy and
I were together the first time, that love at first sight isn't real."

"What's your answer when they say that?"

"That they obviously don't know diddly-squat about love," Kim
fiercely spoke. "It was love at first sight for us, right from the
get go. We may not have been able to recognize it as teenagers, but
it was there. I've never had with anyone what I have with him, and
I know why now. He's my other half, my soul mate, as cheesy and
clichéd as that sounds. I can only think of one other thing that
could ever make me feel remotely close to what Tommy does, and that
would be to have children."

Barbara nodded and then her face schooled into a serious
expression. "Everyone's I've talked to is dying to know what
happened to the man you left Tommy for?"

Kim did roll her eyes then. "He recently released a c.d. of love
songs titled Heartbroken by the Pink Ranger," Kim told everyone.
The audience laughed. "I'm serious. I thought it was a joke too
until yesterday when the five of us girls went into the Times Square
Virgin Mega Store and saw the display. To be honest, Anthony and I
only saw each other's gym image – he was a coach and I was an
athlete. We were together for four years, and right after the
Sydney Olympics we went our own ways. I wanted out of the limelight
of gymnastics and all he wanted was a famous girlfriend and athlete
to coach."

"When we come back, we'll take more questions from the audience and
we'll get more in depth about the Rangers behind the helmets."

- -

"Welcome back. We're going to take the next question from our
studio audience."

"I'm Miles from Florida."

"What's your question, Miles?"

"Kimberly, how do you deal with the obsession your fans and admirers
seem to have with the Ranger "Couples", particularly you and your
husband's relationship?"

"Wow, good question. It's kind of creepy, really. Other than Tanya
and Adam, there aren't any other `official' couples from our group,
I think," Kim laughed. "As far as Tommy and I, we always got teased
by the others when we first became a couple, so the attention isn't
new. The fact is, in some ways, its flattering that the fans are so
into our relationship, but it can be a little frightening. I mean,
our every move is speculated for hidden meanings."

Barbara's expression turned mischievous. "Speaking of speculation,
are you and Dr. Oliver expecting?"

Kim grinned. "See, there you go. That's one of those `are they or
aren't they' questions. I'm not going to confirm or deny that
because that's a private matter, and if we do have kids, neither
Tommy nor I want to subject them to the media. We both want kids,
and when and if we have them, they'll be welcomed with open arms."

Barbara nodded and moved on. "Our next caller is Markita from Iowa."

"My question is, who would you like to see play you and your
teammates in the up coming live action movie?"

Kim giggled. "Hmmm, let me think…." Kim started, a finger tapping
her chin. "For Jason, it would have to Ben Affleck, Katherine
definitely Scarlet Johansson, Trini would be Lucy Lu, Aisha's would
have to be Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child, and Tanya's would be
Zoë Saldana. For the other guys, I think Nick Cannon would do an
unbelievable job as Zack, Chris O'Donnell as Rocky, Matt Damon could
pull off Billy, and I think for Adam, it would have to be one of his
favorite actors and martial artists, Phillip Rhee."

"What about you and Tommy?"

The former Pink Ranger grinned. "Believe it or not, I think Natalie
Portman and Hayden Christiansen would work. We both loved them in
Star Wars, they have excellent chemistry, just like Tommy and I have
had since the beginning."

Barbara grinned along with the rest of the audience. "Next question
from the audience."

"Hi, I'm Shawn from Nevada, I was wondering, Kim, if you could
explain exactly where `The Flipside' is?"

Kimberly bent over laughing. "Oh, wow. Believe it or not, that's a
complete inside joke. I'm a gymnast, and we do flips, and I used
gymnastics heavily in my Ranger days. So, obviously, flipside plus
gymnastics equals joke. I'm surprised anyone remembers me saying
that, to be honest."

"It became your catch phrase," Barbara noted, causing Kim to smile
and nod. "Next audience question."

"Hi Kim, I'm Brianna, and I was wondering other than gymnastics,
what do you do in your spare time?"

"Well, Brianna, other than gymnastics, I love to garden. Believe it
or not, I've redone the entire landscaping around mine and Tommy's
house. I also love to paint, so I've been working on doing some
more paintings to hang around our house, or as gifts, and I've got a
couple that are going to go in the entry way of Little Crane
Gymnastics, which is my school. I love to sing and play guitar, so
I've been working with Tanya to write some songs and do some demos
in my spare time, but nothing major," Kim ticked off each of her
pursuits. "Other than that, I like to curl up with a good romance
novel, preferably Nora Roberts, or just hang out with my friends and
my husband."

"Getting back to your gymnastics, what was it like to win medals at
the Pan Global Games and then to go on to coach there and at the
Olympics?" Barbara asked, shifting the attention back to Kim's
former sport and current job.

"As much fun as I had winning the medals and competing, coaching is
so much more satisfying to me," Kimberly passionately told
her. "You've got all these athletes who are looking to you for
guidance, some who will go on to be international stars and others
who are just wanting to learn the sport. I find it fulfilling to
teach them the lessons I learned the hard way, to watch them grow
and mature. I definitely like being coach more than being the
athlete."

"We've got just enough time for two more questions," Barbara
announced. "First of all, you said your parents were divorced and
remarried, and you've spoken of your Ranger mentor, Zordon,
briefly. Did he provide the stability you lacked from your parents,
and how has his death affected you?"

Kim's mouth dropped open, not having expected that question. Tears
that she'd gotten control of some time before ran unchecked down her
cheeks. If for nothing else, because they were for Zordon, she
wouldn't wipe them away. Instead, she bore them proudly. "Oh God,
I should have known you'd ask that," her voice cracked as she
reached for tissues to blow her nose with. "No one but those of us
who shared his confidences and received his guidance will ever know
what it was like to lose him the way we did. Everyone talks about
losing their loved ones in wars or in the line of duty, but no one
who hasn't been in that line of duty really knows what it's like to
lose someone to it." Kimberly paused to choose her words
carefully. "Zordon sacrificed his life to save this planet, its
inhabitants, and the entire universe, and only a handful of us knew
it. He was father, mentor, confidant, but most of all, he was a
friend. He gave his life to restore the balance that was so far out
of whack that there was no other way to restore it but for him to
die. I miss him, every day. I miss his guidance, his wisdom, his
support. I miss him with every beat of my heart and with every
breath I take."

"Is he a part of the bond that is shared between the twelve of you?"

"Zordon's the reason there's a bond between the twelve of us," Kim
smiled through her tears. "He was the reason we were able to come
together, to fight the way we did, to keep going, day after day. He
believed in each of us, believed in the individuals we were and that
he knew we'd become, but he also believed in the goodness that
prevailed in our spirits, and in the team he knew we could and would
be, the team we were. He knew that when he started with five
teenagers, he'd have the best people imaginable to defend Earth.
I'm not saying we were always one hundred percent goody-two-shoes,
but we were trustworthy and honest and we fought hard."

"Thank you, Kimberly, for joining us tonight."

"It was my pleasure. I hope I answered some of those questions well
enough."

"You did. That's all we have time for this time. Please join me
next time when we interview Kimberly's other half, Dr. Tommy
Oliver. Thank you for joining us tonight, I'm Barbara Walters."