The Unknown Ranger - Season 2

[GreenDTRanger]

If you don't follow along, please read Season 1 (http://rangerboard.com/showthread.php?t=46283)

I turned my back once again on the two woman and headed for the direction of the large explosion. If something major is going down Shaddam will be a part of it. The sudden sound of static made me pause. I looked down at where my communicator would be under the uniform.

“Can anyone hear me?”
“I raised my arm up. “Shouji?”
“Dave, I'm so glad you're all right. How's everything going on your end.”
How do I answer that?

“We're holding our own.” Kazu walked up to me, I'd forgotten all about him. “The prisoners are free, but we've had some casualties. How's everything on your end?”

“We've got control of the space port and I was able to tap into their security communication channels. I sent Lin to let you know, have you heard from her?”

“I'm here,” said Lin as she joined us “but I got distracted.”
Shouji continued “Things aren't going well. The others failed to bring down the shield. I have already sent the zords to help them but I'm not sure if it will be enough. I overheard on the communicators that the last explosion has apparently caused some sort of massive energy leak at the plant.”

“Another explosion is almost inevitable. We have to evacuate the planet.” The two helmeted Rangers looked at me. “That factory is connected to the security field around Daos. A large enough explosion would be felt through the shield and affect your entire planet. This whole world could be burnt to a crisp. And I still have no clue as to what the effects of prolonged chronoton radiation will do, especially at excessivly high amounts.”

“Then we will evacuate.”

The three of us turned to see Kou's mother. Her jacket now lay over the head of her son's body.

Not sure what to call her I said “Your highness, I think you...”

She raised her hand for me to stop speaking. “I am the rightful ruler of this planet, yes, but my people come first. Shouji, prepare all ships for departure. Kazu, begin the evacuation. Lin, see to my son and then help Kazu and Shouji. David and I will go to the plant.” Without another word, Lin and Kazu bowed and began what they were told to do. I turned to her highness. She simply said “Let's go.”

As we made our way towards the factory we ran into some obstacles. A handful of Gohma would appear out of nowhere and attack. But with the attitude and mind set I was in (and the Princess alongside me was no doubt in) we made short work of them. She no doubt wants some justice inacted upon Shaddam as well. As we got closer I saw what must have been the Thunder Megazord fighting a giant green snake with arms and legs. The Megazord could handle the arms and feet, but the tail and tongue kept flicking out and knocking the zord around.

We came to a quick stop when we came upon the top of a steep rock quarry. There is always a rock quarry. I looked down and saw a Green Ranger fighting a group of Kotpotros, while Shaddam stood back watching the whole scene.

“Pythor isn't a very strong monster, the zords will win like usual.”

The two us turned to see the speaker. Gara was standing there, her skull cap gone and hair freely flowing.

Before I had a chance to move, the Dai ruler flung herself forward and grabbed Gara. “Where is he, traitor. Where is my son?”

She wants Akomaru. She doesn't want to lose her other son. But what does she mean traitor? I stepped forward to ask when I noticed that Gara's forehead was plain, no eye socket at all.

Gara pointed down toward the rock quarry floor and there was a small figure descending downward. “He still seeks favor from my Master, as if Taisa didn't already know. He is fool.”

With that the Dai princess back-handed Gara as hard as she could before also beginning a descent down the quarry. I turned my attention back to the traitor. “Why Gara? Why did you betray your people?”

Gara picked herself off the ground. “Power, wealth, love. I bet you didn't ask Kaku the same question?”

I grabbed Gara's arms like they had been moments before, but I proceeded to slam her back into the nearest building. “Kaku was trying to save a planet of people from fighting until there was nothing left. You are just acting selfish. And for for what? Shaddam? You know he can't love you.”

Gara was startled by that. “Of course he does. Who are you to presume...”

“People like Shaddam only care about themselves and their own self interests. He's been willing to sacrifice his children for his own benefit. He killed his own father for his own benefit. He treats his wife, who is a Dai princess, like she was nothing. What makes you so special?”

“I am a loyal servant.”
“He will simply use you as he sees fit. You mean no more than a Kotpotros to him.”
“You don't know him.”
“I've been doing pretty good so far though haven't I?” I took her silence as a yes. I'm getting through to her. “What do you expect out of this? To be his wife? He would treat you and the children you have together just like he treats the ones he already has.”

I could tell that she was conflicted, but she still wasn't about to switch sides again either. “None of that matters now. You need to go to the power plant and deactivate the planetary shield.”

“I would never betray my Master like that.” The horror in her face meant she was still way too loyal.

“Think, you know more about it than I do. With the shields up, the plant explosion could destroy everything on this planet. Including your Master.”

She looked at me and knew I was telling the truth. She pushed away from the wall and ran towards the plant. I looked back into the quarry. The Thunder Megazord continued to fight Pythor, the Green Ranger continued to fight solo and was now showing signs of fatigue. Two figures continued down towards the quarry floor. With one jump I landed right in front of the first one.

“Hold it right there Akomaru.”

“You sound different brother.”

Apparently everyone knows the truth about Kou now.I was about to tell him when his mother finally caught up. “Akomaru, I'm so glad to see you.” She fell to her knees next to him and embraced him. “I love you so much.”

Akomaru immediately forced her off of him. “Don't touch me, don't you ever touch me!”
“Please don't say that. It hurts me to hear you say that.”
“I don't want to hear any of your lies.”
“It's not a lie, I'm your mother of course I love you.”

As touching as the Hallmark moment in front of me was I was distracted by the sounds of battle behind me. But then I realized that the immediate sounds behind me had stopped. I began to turn and I found myself being grabbed and thrown into the air. Upon landing I looked up to see the Emperor hovering over me.

“Thank you. You're going to save me some precious time later.” said the Emperor.

As I tried to get up the Emperor raised his hands towards where I had just been standing. I saw Akomaru's mother vainly trying to hug and protect her son, Kotpotros surrounding them and preventing them from running.

“NO!” But I was too late. With one blast from his hands the rocks behind mother and son exploded and began to crash down upon all of them.

The Emperor looked down at me and began to chuckle. “Now you're all alone aren't you my son.”

I looked around to see Daigo in a similar situation as me, pinned down by baddies. The sound of a loud lightning made me look up to see the Megazord's sabre put a finishing move on Pythor. And then a red beam of light shot out of the green center of the Megazord's chest and collided with Shaddam.

Ryou was standing next to me and pulled me to my feet. “Are you all right Kou?”

“I'm not Kou.”
“What?”
“WHAT!?!” The yell came from the Emperor, who had also just gotten up.

“I'm the Earthling. Zaidosu inflicted Kou with injuries that killed him. And now you just killed your other son. You've made sure that you could never posess these powers now.”

The Emperor began to shake his head. “No, no, NO! You did this!” He said this while pointing at me. “You will pay. ALL OF YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!”

The eye in the middle of his forehead began to glow bright red. Black smoke began to pour from his third eye and surround him like it had the last. But the smoke cloud began to get bigger and bigger. And soon a giant Shaddam emerged. His clothing had now become like the leather outfir I had seen him in before, but was now the color of the Emperor's robes. The smoke continued to linger around the giant body and the skull cap now had an open space for the third eye to see through.

Ryou continued to stare up when he said “I don't think the Megazord can handle another battle so soon, especially with just me piloting.”

“Activate the Tigerzord!”

The both of us jumped at the voice. Saba. I had completely forgotten about Saba during all this.

“Saba's right, I'll have to do this myself.”
Ryou wasn't pleased. “You can't.”
“I will. You get Daigo to safety.”

Ryou just looked at me and nodded. He went over to Daigo who was still laying on the ground. The Kotpotros had apparently bailed during the whole growing thing.

I knew what to. I raised my hand into the air and called out “I need White Tiger thunderzord power now!” Up in the sky there was a small flash of light and the light came shooting towards my raised hand. I caught it without any problem and it turned out to be some sort of clear sphere. I picked up Saba with my other hand “What is this?”

“A blessing from the heavens. You have been accepted as the possesor of the power.” Saba said.

With that the ground started to shake. I looked down towards the end of the quarry. Man this goes on forever. It looked like it might have been some sort of naturally formed ravine, and the end just happened to be a quarry. That is when I saw it. The Tigerzord was charging towards me.

I started running towards it and with one jump landed on the zord's head. I braced myself inot a beter standing posture and gave my first order. “Tigerzord, ram him!” The zord let out a loud roar and picked up speed.

Shaddam wasn't prepared for a full on assault so quickly and began to fire energy blast randomly towards us. He missed, but he unintentionally urged the Tigerzord on more. We picked up more speed then BAM! Contact!

Shaddam was knocked down, and the force of impact knocked me down as well but I was barely able to remain on the zord's head.

“Get inside.” ordered Saba, and as he said it a hatch opened up behind me. I complied and jumped in.

I ended up in a large control room. There were five columns before the viewport, and on top were spheres that looked like static electricity generators. The center one was the most dominant and important so I placed myself behind it. Behind where I stood was a circular ring of glass orbs similar but larger than the one I received from the sky, and each was marked with some sort of symbol. There was a circular hole on the console in front of me. This must be where they go, extra firepower. I dropped the smaller sphere into the console and the zord began to hum.

“You are now in command of the zord.” said Saba.

I noticed another slot on my left side. Saba goes there to control the zord.

Saba shouted “He's gotten up!”

I looked outside and saw the fallen Emperor rise. I held out Saba horizontally in front of me. “Tigerzord, convert to Warrior mode NOW!” With the last bit I turned Saba head side up and jammed it into the console. I heard the whirring of electronics and machinery, and then I was face to face with Shaddam.

“White Ranger! White Ranger!” I heard the voice but wasn't sure where it was coming from. I looked towards the plant, it was Gara. “The shield's are down.”

“TRAITOROUS WITCH!” Shaddam was screaming bloody murder now. He reached out and picked up his lieutenant.

Her doom sealed, Gara looked back at me. As loud as she could she screamed “His eiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaHHHH!” The blast from the Emperor's eye finished her before I could make it out.

But I knew what she meant to say. His eye, destroy the eye. I activate the my sword and started forward.

Shaddam had a sword materialize out thin air and easily countered my first strike. He then began to press his maneuvaerability advantage.

“Saba, order the Megazord back. It's in the way.”
“Done.”
“Can we radio control it to fight?”
“It would be too complicated to control both Megazords at the same time.”

But then I thought of the night I first saw them, and them obeying me without question. “Thunder Megazord, attack Shaddam. Draw his attention.”

The Thunder Megazord's eyes lit up and drew the Thunder sabre. It slashed the Emperor's back. Shaddam was confused but turned to face his new attacker.

Saba was too. “Most impressive. How did you do that?”
“I have no idea. Saba, does the Tigerzord have enough power for a finishing move?”
“No, the Emperor is much too powerful. We'll need more power ourselves.”
“Fine. Red Dragon, disengage Megazord but continue fighting. Mega Tigerzord, POWER UP!”

All the zords responded to my command. The Red Dragon in warrior mode used it's staff to continue fighting. The other four attached to the Tigerzord accordingly. I glanced at the back wall, and while I didn't understand what the symbols meant I knew what the orbs were capable of.

Shaddam gave the Red Dragon a lucky blow and it stumbled back. He turned back to me once again. “You will not save this planet Earthling!” And with that he slammed his fist into the power plant. The explosion was enourmous.

The energy leak, the chronotons. There is no time to chance it. I have to give him everything I've got. I grabbed each sphere from the back wall and dropped them into the console. I placed my left hand over the control orb. “Full power!”

My arm began to glow, and golden energy poured out of my hand into the control systems. And without even my thinking it, but wishing it, the Red Dragon came up behind the Emperor and grabbed him. The Emperor struggled but couldn't break free.

“You can't do this. I am Emperor Shaddam Taisa. I am GOHMA!”

“No, you're just gone.” I raised my right hand and pointed at my target. “Firebird, finish him.”

The Mega Tigerzord lifted it's right arm where the Phoenix Thunderzord had attached itself. The Phoenix disengaged and went flying straight towards my foe's forehead. Then the golden energy flowing out of my body went shooting out the Tigerzord's mouth, now located in warrior mode on the chest. Much more powerful than what I was giving it, the caused the Phoenix to burst into flame. It is a true Firebird.

“Systems are overloading!” shouted Saba.

I didn't care. I kept my eyes watching everything infront of me. The Firebird continued it's path and collided with the Emperor's forehead eye. I had seen many defeated giant monsters destroyed, but they were all pale in comparison. The resulting shock wave from the explosion sent the Tigerzord flying backwards. I was slammed first into the front columns and then into the back wall.

When everything stopped moving I tried to get up. There were no lights and only minimal light was coming in through the front viewport.

“Saba, is everything all right?”

Complete silence. I tried to reach up to him but I wasn't tall enough. I held out my arm into what little light I had. My scrawny arm with a chi changer was all I saw. I demorphed.

I looked back up and could make out Saba's silhouette. I jumped up and grabbed ahold of Saba's handle. I braced my legs against what should have been the floor and pulled. I pulled it out fine, but I also ended up falling at least five feet and landed flat on my back.

“Ow.” I just laid there for a few seconds. I was sore and exhausted, but I was feeling a little bit of relief. Until I noticed a ship hovering over the viewport. What now? My communicator beeped.

“Power Ranger, this is Taikwa from the Karovan fleet. Do you need assistance, we can get you to safety?”

“What about the rest of the people of this planet?”
“We have allies from many worlds who are helping with the evacuation. Do you require transport?”

“Yes, take me to your leader.” I'm suprised I said something so classically cheesy, but I didn't care. The war was over. Now I can go home.

[Cuiran]

Nice! Things moved along at a good pace, and while David is all of a sudden controlling Megazords (go figure?) the story was a lot of fun to read. It'll be interesting seeing how Dave and the Dai and his friends back on Earth end up connecting, since with Dairanger in existence, Kiba/White Ranger is a part of their group, too.

[GreenDTRanger]

I sat in the co-pilot chair and simply stared out the window. A feeling of numbness had now overcome my body as the ship ascended through the atmosphere. Many ships streaked back and forth past us in quick blurs. Saba lay on my lap, and had made no intention of speaking.

“Are you sure you're all right?”

Why do people ask me this so much? I looked over at the woman next to me. Taikwa was still steering the ship, not looking at me. She pushed some of her bushy brown and blond streaked hair behind her ear. I noticed a circular patch on her sleeve, with blue and red square in the design, with yellow rectangle almost making a cross symbol. “Yeah.”

“Good.”
Thanks for being so concerned. I resumed my staring out the window. We passed a blue circular ship, and I believe the back of the engine nacelles looked like fists. I heard the activation of a few buttons.

Taikwa to Commander Kinwon, please respond.”
“Kinwon here, what's your status?”
“Please inform our guests that I have the last Ranger with me and am en route to you now.”
“Acknowledged, Kinwon out.”

I sat up in my seat and looked back at her. “I'm not a Ranger.”
Taikwa gave me a quick glance of acknowledgment. “So that wasn't you fighting in the Megazord battle I saw.”
“It was, but...it's a little hard to explain.” For the first time my thoughts came back to Kou. Everything is happening so fast.
“I've heard little bits here and there already, I think I've got a small understanding.”

Silence returned to the cabin as we approached the Karovan flagship. To me it looked like the love child of a Trek Galaxy class starship and a Star Wars Star Destroyer. I merely gawked at the size of it as Taikwa landed our ship in the shuttle bay. We disembarked and I looked at everything around me. Other ships were coming and going, I saw groups of Dai being led around by people in similar uniforms as Taikwa's.

Taikwa tapped on my shoulder and pointed towards a door on the far wall. “This way.”

I followed. First through the door, which led onto a simple corridor. Down the corridor and onto a vacant elevator.

“Bridge.” was all Taikwa said.
Voice activating computer systems. Roddenberry would be happy. When the doors opened we stepped onto an active bridge. There were two long consoles in the center of the room. The one in front of the view screen had three people sitting behind it, doing their duties. The consoles behind that had two men standing and working it's systems. Every single part of the walls that weren't doors had some sort of computer terminal on it with people franticly pushing buttons. But standing in front of the view screen was a balding older man with what hair he had going white, talking to two people I actually recognized.

I called at them. “Shouji, Kazu.” All three of the men turned. I waved and walked over, but my Dai friends met me half way. They both stopped right in front of me and there was a moment of awkward silence.

Kazu spoke up. “How did it go?”
“Kou's mother and Akomaru didn't make it. Same with Gara.”
Shouji's turn. “And the Emperor?”
“Last I saw he was blowing up into a billion pieces.”

“That it phenominal news.” The balding man walked up behind the Dai. They parted so he could come forward.

Shouji performed the introductions. “Dave, this is Commander Kinwon from KO-35. Commander, this is David Cranston, ally to Zordon and the Earth Power Rangers.”

Kinwon smiled and said “Then this would be a traditional greeting.” He extended his hand.

shook his hand and gave a friendly smile. “Pleasure to meet you.” I turned back to my friends. “Where are the others?”

“Ryou and Daigo are in the infirmary. They had some serious injuries, Daigo especially. Lin is in the...” Kazu started to trail off.

I had a guess where she was. Kou once again came to my thoughts. “I would like to speak with her if that's okay?”

Kazu shook his head “She is somewhat preoccupied at the moment. Lin has many personal and political matters she must deal with right now.”

Of course, I should have known. “How is the evacuation going?”

Kinwon walked over to one of the wall computers and read the main terminal. “We have well over half of the planet evacuated already. But due to our ship complement almost at maximum we are about to leave orbit. The Eltarans, Triforians and Aquitians are also more capable of handling the planets current environmental problems right now than we are.”

“What do you want to do Dave?” asked Shouji.
“About what?”
“Do you want to go with us to KO-35, or are you ready to go home?”
They may have some sort of funeral for Kou. “I'll come with you.”

Kinwon pointed to Taikwa, who was still hovering over by the elevator. “Taikwa will take you to one of the guest quarters. I must return to my attention to my ship's duties.” Kinwon walked back to the front of the bridge and began to speak with one of his officers.

I was tired, and the effects were now starting to catch up with me. I was having a few problems trying to focus. The three of us walked over the elevator and got on with Taikwa. Shouji wanted to check on the others in the infirmary, so the elevator first took us to the medical deck. Daigo was still in bad shape, but was now sleeping. Ryou was still in pain but was at least walking around. He was ordered by a physician to stay in the infirmary, he joked about being incarcerated against his will. I didn't really find it funny, and neither did the prisoners in the next couple of beds who had been freed from Shaddam's jails. The doctors ordered all of us out. Shouji and Kou went to their quarters, and Taikwa took me to one right next to theirs.

Taikwa showed me the room. “You should be comfortable in here. If you get hungry or thirsty the synthetron can provide food for you. Bathing and other personal duties can be done in that room over there. And If you need anything else that computer terminal will be able to help you.”

“Thanks.” I laid Saba on a table, then began to take off my power box.
“Your welcome. If you'll excuse me, I should really return to my post.”
“Of course.” I took off my holster belt and placed it and the power box next to Saba.

Taikwa walked out, and as the door closed I collapsed on the bed. My body was exausted, but my mind refused to rest. Images kept flashing through my head. Gara hovering above me and laughing. Kaku being blasted with my own weapon. Zaidosu standing over me, sword raised and about to strike. Cradling Kou in my arms as he died. Akomaru and his mother holding each other as they were buried under a rockslide.

I got up, sleep was not coming. I walked over to the synthetron and pushed one of the buttons. “Replicators, huh. Think of all the Trekkie nerds who would love to be where I am. Why am I talking to myself?”

I opened the synthetron and a dish that looked like pink macaroni and cheese was inside. It tasted like bad tomato juice. I put it back and looked through the synthetron menu. With a couple modifications I got my mac and cheese and a glass of milk.

I pushed my gear towards the center of the table and sat down. As I ate I activated the computer and decided to read up on KO-35. These people were having problems too, just like Earth was having and like what Daos had been. Some big evil named Dark Spectre was constantly trying to take over. He was also apparently trying to take charge of something called the United Alliance of Evil. And while he had caused many problems for the planet, Dark Spectre's forces backed off not long after the disappearance of a little Karovan girl. The girl's brother said she had been kidnapped but no trace of the girl or evidence of a kidnapping were found.

I couldn't stand anymore negativity so I turned off the monitor. My mind felt like mush and my body felt even more exausted. I dragged myself to the bed and got under the covers, hoping I was finally tired enough to go to sleep. I had more nightmares. Flashes of Trini smiling at me interspersed with images of Kou dying. Only the Kou part of the dream was much less vague and eerily accurate to what had happened. Me fighting all kinds of different monsters. Sometimes I was morphed as different Rangers (some I had never seen before), sometimes not. Sometimes alone, sometimes not. Fighting. People dying. Fighting and people dying. Over and over and over and over and ...

“Dave. DAVE!”

I felt myself being shaken. My body felt cold and wet, and not the least bit rested. I looked up to see Ryou sitting on the bed. I sat up and rubbed my forehead.

“Are you all right?”
“I'M FINE!” My angry outburst suprised him. I felt so guilty about it too. “Sorry, I'm just not much of a morning person.” Ryou stood up so I could get out of bed. I placed my dinner remains back into the synthetron and ordered up a new glass of milk. “You're obviously feeling better.”

“Yeah, and Daigo is awake now. But the doctor's want him to stay in the infirmary and get some more bed rest.”

I nodded and drank my milk, but then I noticed the bundle under his arms. “What's that?”

Ryou held the bundle out towards me. “They're for you, some fresh clothes. And I wanted to let you know that we have arrived at KO-35.”

[GreenDTRanger]

I quickly showered and changed into the clothes Ryou had given me. They were very similar to some of the Karovan uniforms I had seen, except they were black instead of tan. The white turtlemeck shirt was a little too form fitting for someone as thin as I am, so I kept the jacket mostly buttoned. I started to collect my belonging when I realized I wasn't sure if I would be coming back to the ship. I crammed my regular clothes into my power box before putting it on. With the still silent Saba hanging from the opposite hip as my blade blaster I left my quarters. Ryou had been patiently waiting outside. He gestured and we began down the corridor.

As we walked, crewmembers immediately moved out of our way. Many also began to obviously whisper with each other after we had passed. Once again I started to get the feeling of some sort of tourist attraction. Ryou must have realized it because he started to seem very uncomfortable.

I should help keep his mind off of it. “So, where is everyone else?”

“Lin is already planetside, making arrangements foe the memorial service. Shouji is waiting in the shuttle bay to accompany you down. We thought you might prefer to be down there.”

I appreciated the gesture. While I was a little more interested in exploring the ship, at least on the planet I wouldn't be in anybody's way. We both got on an empty elevator and without even thinking about it I said “Shuttle bay”. I felt another small, geeky Star Trek rush.

Ryou continued. “I would come too, but I have to speak with the Commander about relocation possibilities. Generous as the people have been KO-35 would not be able to accomadate us and the natives. And Kazu is now speaking with the scientists about our powers.”

Wait a minute! “What's wrong with the powers?”
“They're gone. The others say that as they were evacuating we all demorphed. And we haven't been able to use them since. Whatever happened yesterday completely drained our powers.”

Oh, no. That's another thing that is my fault. When I ordered full power the zords took me literally. My hand fell onto Saba's handle. That explains why you have been so quiet. “Surely someone can help.”

“Both the Eltarans and Karovans have been trying to create Ranger powers that tap directly into the morphing grid itself without the use of some sort of mystical artifact. They haven't had much success.”

“The morphing grid is too powerful. Items like the Power Coins we use on Earth are somehow able to balance the high energy output naturally. If they're successful, they would have to implement so many safeguards that the powers wouldn't be as powerful as they could be.” That also made me realize something. “What do the chi-changers use?”

“It is a combination of our natural chi and ...” But Ryou didn't get to finish. The door then opened up onto the shuttle bay. I saw Shouji standing nexy to an open shuttle hatch. I gave Ryou a small wave good-bye and headed for the shuttle.

Shouji noticed my approach. “Ready to head down?”
“Sure.”

We climbed into the hatch and saw a woman sitting at the helm controls. She turned at the sound of our entrance. “Please strap yourselves in as I begin launch prcedures.”

Shouji and I complied. Once settled, Shouji leaned over to me. “I contacted Earth. Zordon was getting worried about you.”

I smacked myself in the head. I can't believe I didn't think to contact home. “Does he know what's going on, why I'm here.”

“I explained the situation and he understands. He also says he hasn't explained your absense, Zordon figures you should tell them what you feel necessary.”

That's a conversation I really don't want to have. I hope Trini is keeping Billy and the others distracted. If memory serves there is some sort of school sponsored ATV race coming up. “Anything else?”

Shouji shook his head. “No, just that he would see you soon.”

The trip down was uneventful, and I was finally getting use to space travel. Shouji and I disembarked at a landing pad. We walked over to what looked like some sort of information desk and got directions to the church. The walk was quiet. At least he's not asking me if I'm all right for the millionth time. Then I felt guilty for thinking something so negative about a people who had been nothing but nice to me. I distracted myself by looking around and Shouji was either doing the same or just leaving me alone.

KO-35 really did look like Earth, but the architecture and structural designs were odd. The pathways had square arches over them, and we passed a triangle shaped hospital. It was then that I saw two figures staring at us from across a courtyard. They were guys, both of them looked a little bit older than me but not much. One of them had platinum blonde hair and as they got closer I saw that the other had long brown hair with blonde streaks. Must be trend for this planet. Both of them came running over and came to a screaching halt right in front of me.

The blonde one was smiling and imediately blurted “Are you Power Rangers?”

I was a bit taken aback. I pointed with my thumb towards Shouji. “He is, I'm ...” How do I answer that? 'It's complicated.'

Shouji saved me the trouble. “I'm Shouji, I was the Dai Blue Ranger. This is David Cranston from Earth, he was temporarily our White Ranger.”

Thanks a lot Shouji!

The long haired brunette spoke up. “I'm Andros and this is my friend Zhane. So you're from Earth. You must know Zordon?”

It was one thing for other Rangers to know of Zordon, but I didn't know he had a reputation amongst civilians. “You know Zordon?”

“Sure. He's a friend of mine.” said Andros. “I bet you have all kinds of interesting stories, do you want to come with us?”

I wasn't really tempted, but I did want to know how they knew of Zordon. I turned to Shouji. “Can I go?”

Shouji just looked at me and smiled. “As long as you are at the church by this afternoon. Does your communicator work?”

I checked. “Yeah.”
“All right.”
I began to walk off. “Thanks Billy.” I paused and looked back. “Sorry, the blue got me little confused.”
“No offense taken. It would be an honor to be considered your brother.”

I doubt Billy would think that. I gave Shouji a promise that I would be back and left with the two native boys. We headed out towards a place that, while not a park, had lots of trees and growing plants and flowers everywhere.

Zhane did most of the talking, with Andros keeping a quiet interest. “So what can you tell us about what you've seen? What is your planet like?”

“It's not all that different from here.” I started having flashbacks to similar conversations with Kou and Lin and I got both a little frustrated and upset. That could mean rough times ahead for you, pretty boy. He didn't notice.

“So you are a Power Ranger though.”
“Technically I guess you could say so.”
“Have you always wanted to be a Ranger?”
“Not really, just sometimes. But I wasn't going to turn them down either.” I would have prefered better circumstances of receiving them though. Again I started thinking about Kou.

“I plan on being a Ranger someday.”
“Oh, really.” I think I found another universal constant. Active Rangers = kid and teenage wannabes.

“But I want to be unique, like the Ranger on Triforia. I want to be the only one of my kind.”

I'm going to have to do some research on these Triforians. “What about you Andros? Do you want to be a Ranger?”

Andros had gotten distracted as we kept walking. The place we had come upon was overgrown and had a dying look to it. He stopped and just began staring at one spot. “Red. I want to be a Red Ranger.” Andros raised his hand out in front of him and some sort of colorful ball came flying out of nowhere to him. He caught it easily. He just stared at it before heading off in a different direction.

I didn't get a good look at the ball but I was thinking about what made me see the ball. “Andros is telekinetic.”

Zhane just looked at me like I was an idiot. “Most Karovans are.” He then proceeded to follow his friend.

What is going on? I asked Zhane.
“I just realized where we are. Andros' sister was kidnapped from that spot several years ago. I wish someone would just burn that place anyway. Hardly anyone goes there anymore.”

So Andros is the one I read about last night. “If we had some marshmallows we could have a party.”
“What's a marshmallow?”

It was then that we came upon Andros sitting next to a stream. He chucked the ball into the water and watched it float away. I only got a brief glimpse but it wasn't a ball, but it was spherical in shape. I felt responsible because they were trying to keep me occupied. I sat down next to Andros. “Sorry about your sister.”

Andros continued to watch the water. “Thank you.”
“How old was she?”
“We were young, she was a little bit younger. I'm not exactly sure since we don't keep track of the day we were born.”
No birthdays! That alone is depressing. “I kind of know how you feel. I lost a cousin.”
“How?”
“There was an accident. My uncle and his two kids were thrown off a cliff. Uncle William saved his daughter, but his son Ryan fell into the water. Ryan's body was never found.”

Zhane was apparently wasn't willing to be in a bad mood. He stuck his head in between Andros and me and said “Come on. Let's get out of here and go do something.” He then grabbed us under the arms and tried to help us up.

Tact, Zhane. I wonder if they have it on this planet. Andros was obviously as willing as I was to brood and mope around, but Zhane's overly cheeriness was getting irritating. As we began to walk Zhane immediately began again.

“Come on tell us a story, David.”
Again, I was perfectly willing to just revel in misery. “Like what?”
“Like where you got this sword.” And with one quick movement, Zhane had pulled Saba off my hip.

I struggled after it. That is Kou's sword, not a toy. “Give it back.”
Andros had my back. “Give it back to him Zhane.”
Zhane began swishing it around, but he was still able to keep it out of my reach. “Nice, but weirdly shaped.”

“I said give it back, NOW!” And with that Saba came out of Zhane's hand and came to me. I caught it and looked at Andros. “Thanks.”

Andros was confused. “I didn't do it.”
I just hugged Saba close to me. “I've got to go.” I turned and began retracing my steps. I was a hungry, tired, sad, depressed, frustrated, confused and angry all at once. I need to do something about this.

[GreenDTRanger]

I walked out of the triangle shaped hospital with only the faintest bit of relief. Since there was so much going on with aiding the Dai it was kind of difficult to get anyones attention. But once someone realized I was the 'Earth boy' I had been moved into the nearest examination room. I spoke with one of the doctors and a some sort of feline alien, who was a visiting scientist. They did a few tests and spoke about possible explanations to my sudden psychic abilities. I was able to get a copy of my test results and had them downladed into my navigator.

As I read I wandered into a nearby courtyard next to a red apartment complex. I sat down on a fountain's edge and tried to process everything.

“Hello David,” It was Zhane. “Can I sit?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“I want to apoligize.”
“I overreacted, it's just that this sword” I said while gripping Saba, “belonged to someone very important.”
“I also wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“Talking to Andros. Sometimes when he thinks about his sister Karone, he gets so...”
“...angry and helpless. Like he should have done something.”
“Exactly.”
“He went through something very traumatic. And is still trying to deal with it. The fact that you don't know if she is alive or not just makes it even more difficult.”

As we sat there Zhane got a funny smile on his face. “How did you get your sword back. I didn't know people from Earth were telekinetic.”
“We're not. The doctors I spoke with think it has something to do with my body reacting to the two different environmental conditions on the planets I've been too.”
“I don't understand.”
“First, I go to a planet where having psychic abilities is not uncommon. Then the morphing powers I used belonged to someone who had the potential to posess greater psychic powers. Then I come to a planet where most people are telekinetic and my body adjusts again.”
“I think I get it now.”
“Plus, the doctors think if I practice I can make it permanent.”
“So all Earthlings can learn these abilities.”
“Possibly, I don't really know yet. The only thing keeping the powers acting is the morphing energy in my system. Which is slowly fading.”

Zhane sat there nodding. I could give him the overly technical explanation. I decided against that. “How do you guys know Zordon?”
“He's an old friend of Andros'. I've met him a few times. He use to come to KO-35 but hasn't been in quite some time.”
Since Rita broke out of her dumpster. I looked at my communicator. “Zhane, I need to go. I'm supposed to be meeting the Dai Rangers.”

We both stood. I extended my hand. Zhane just looked at my hand. “What are you doing?”
“It's called a handshake. It's a way of saying hello, good-bye or coming to an agreement or understanding.”
Zhane copied what I had done and we shook.

“I still can't believe it. I know a Power Ranger. A real hero.” Zhane then turned and hurried off.

I just stood there. Hero. The last word Kou spoke to me. You're really going to be having some hard times ahead of you. But if Zordon and I have any influence with this government I'll try to get you your chance.

The walk to the church was anything but pleasant. Apparently word had gotten out who I was. People kept walking up to me, congratulating me and wishing me well. I was getting very close to screaming at the people when I realized how close to the church I was. I pushed my way through the forming crowd and ran inside the building.

I looked at the large room I now stood in. It was just like being inside a large cathedral. But where most I had been to were kind of cold, dark and somwhat foreboding; this was very warm and pleasant. Cozy even. The windows that ran along the walls looked out onto well cared gardens. I then started looking at the occupants now meandering around the room. A couple of people with big purpleish heads. Aquitarians

I then saw a three men in a black oufits and capes trimmed with gold speaking to a giant blue dog. They noticed me and all together they said “Excuse us Cruger.”

As in Freddy?

The three of them then came over to me. Cool. Alien triplets.

At the same time they spoke “Are you David Cranston?”
That is different. “Yes.”
“We will take you to Princess Lin.”

One stood on front of me and the other two got on either side of me and began walking towards the end of the hall. As we passed the giant blue dog named after a horror movie serial killer bowed. All together they said “We have heard of your exploits.”
That's just great “Oh really.”

What then surprised me the most was they then spoke seperately. The one on my right said. “It took great courage to come to the aid of the Dai.”

The one on my left agreed. “It must also have taken great wisdom to accomplish your task.”
The one in front of me said “It took great strength of heart and shows that you will someday do other great things.”

Would this never end? Over the last couple of days I could literally feel my heart hurting. Right now it felt more like a painful rock.

Instead of taking me into where the service was going to be held, they led me down a side hallway. The lead triplet knocked on the first door on the right.

“Enter.”

The man in front of me opened the door and let me pass in. I saw Lin sitting on the edge of a quite lavish bed.

“Hello Dave.” Lin rose up and walked over to a side table. She picked up a small object and came to the door. “Thank you, Trey.”

All three men bowed and closed the door as they left. Lin reached for my hand and led me further into the room.

“This is quite decadent for a church.”
Lin smiled. “Yes it is. This used to be the home of the Karovan royal family before becoming a democratic society. This castle is now used for both political and religious purposes.”

I stood in the middle of the room and turned to look at everything. Not too shabby.

“Dave.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you recognize this?”
I looked at her hand and saw a ring, too big for any normal person's finger. “No.”
“I found it in Kou's hand. I figured he might want you to have it.”

I took the ring form her and after closer inspection realized what it was. It was part of the statue Kou had ... been next to. I saw no real importance to itexcept as a worthless keepsake. I'll put it with the mape Kaku gave me. But now was a perfect opportunity. I flicked my wrists and activated the chi-changers. I unstrapped them and handed them to Lin. “You should have these.” I then pulled Saba from my belt and handed the sword to her as well.

“I can't accept these. Kou gave them to you.”
“Yes, you can!” I spoke in the same unexpected angred voice I had spoken to Ryou. I coughed tried to compose myself. “What I mean is, if you ever want you're powers back you might need those.”

Lin placed the stuff I gave her onto the bed. “A celebration is being planned. To honor our victory and our great hero from Earth.”

That was it. “I'M NOT A HERO!” I snapped. Everything I had been thinking for the past two days came pouring out, including the tears I had been forcing back. “I don't deserve a reward or banquets or praise! What did I do? I'll tell you what I did! I came here and was here all of WHAT!, five minutes before the Gohma tracked your people to your homes! All those people were killed needlessly because of me including your leader Guhon! Then Kaku was killed trying to protect me and I had been so distrustful of him for no reason! Then Kou! Poor, poor, sweet and innocent Kou was killed defending me! He had spent his whole life alone and he finally gets his mother back and he dies protecting ME! He had so much ahead of him, so much to look forward to. Then his mother and I found Akomaru. She was getting to him, she really was. Akomaru also wanted nothing more than his mother's love and then they were killed! You're people could probably be still living on your own planet if I'd done something better or faster or quicker! What did I do that was so damn important! Nothing I did was important. What did I do that mattered! NONE OF IT MATTERED!”

I was breathing heavy, trying to catch my breath. My eyes were completely watered over and I was wiping my eyes and nose with my sleeves. Lin had been frozen to the same spot during my entire tantrum. Her smile was gone and her face was pale. She just stared. Didn't move, didn't even look like she was breathing. Then slowly, ever so slowly Lin walked over, stopped right in front of me and smacked me in the face as hard as she could. I looked back at her face, which was now bleached with a quiet rage.

“How can you say ... 'it doesn't matter'. Haven't you realized? I meant everything to us!” Lin was getting quite close to yelling herself now. “My people have been in a life and death for far to long, to the point where even the oldest of my people can't remember a time when there wasn't conflict. Then a complete stranger to us, a child by both my planet and his own people's perceptions comes to us. Just by you coming to us you set in motion the events that ended our struggle. You ended a war that has been going for 6000 years in two days!”

Even though I had no intention of doing so, I almost felt like laughing. “That is a complete oversimplification! What about all the people who died? Like Kou!”

“We have lost many over the ages. But everyone, including Kou knew that if it was for the greater good it was worth it. Tragic as they're passings are, none of them died in vain.” Lin then raised her arms into the air and spun around a couple of times. “Look at me Dave. Look at my people. We're free. We're free now because of you and your actions.”

I was calmer now, but still could not accept it. “You would have won eventually.”
“Now because of you, that possible 'eventually' was actually yesterday.”
“What about your planet? What about your powers?”
“According to the scientists I recently spoke with, the chronotons will age my planet several thousand years before they disperse enough for people to live there again. And the powers were tools to be used. And now the time of the Thunder Rangers of Daos has passed."

“I still...”

But before I could finish that was big thud, like someone had just run into the door. Lin and I both quickly turned our heads to see Shouji come in.

“Your highness, I have some news that Dave needs to know. We have just heard that Lord Zedd is heading towards Earth.”

[Joravenel]

Great to see that you are continuing this story. I hope that Dave will stay as a ranger and go home to help out the rangers against Lord Zedd. Thats all for now.
Captain J

[GreenDTRanger]

I just stood there not sure what to do. “What? Who's Ed? Huh?”

Lin answered “Lord Zedd. He is Rita Repulsa's master.”

That can't be good “I have to contact Zordon.”

“I can get a shuttle prepared for the both of you quickly” said Shouji before turning and running back out the door.

I knew an awkward silence was coming and would only intensify on the shuttle trip. I turned to her and bluntly spurted “Got my own transportation”. I thought of the Karovan flagship's bridge and teleported out.

I looked around to find myself in front of the main viewscreen with a whole bunch of crewmembers staring in suprise. I didn't see any officers I recognized, so I pointed at the guy sitting at the console in front of me. “You, I need to contact Earth immediately.”

Even though he was definitely older than me, he imediately complied with a stuttering “Yes sir.” I stood next to his console and entered the Command Center's communication wavelength. The crewmen glanced at me and said “Channel open”.

“Zordon, Alpha, one of you please respond. It's David.”
A couple of seconds went by before a loud “Aye-yi-yi” came over the speakers.
“I missed you too Alpha, but there is an emergency.”
“We know,” came Zordon's booming voice, “Lord Zedd has arrived. The Rangers are confronting Zedd's putty patrollers right now. But I am afraid that is not the worst of the news.”

“Zordon, this is Kinwon.” I jumped at the sound of his voice. I hadn't realized he was there, but did notice Kazu next to him. “Do you need any assistance?”

“It is good to hear from you again Kinwon, but unfortuneately I do not think there is anything you can do.” Zordon's voice actually had a twinge of sadness to it.

Again? Finding more and more about Zordon has been interesting. “What is the problem Zordon?”

“As you are no doubt aware Zedd is Rita's master. He is also much more powerful than she is. I am afraid that the Rangers are not powerful enough to face this threat. Not even the zords will be of much help.”

“Maybe our zords could.” Everyone turned to Kazu, who in turn looked directly at me. “David used them to destroy the Emperor, who was extremely powerful himself. Maybe they would be of better use to you.”

Zordon's response “That seems plausible, but time is of the essence. Contact me again if you can do something, while Alpha and I try everything on our end.”

I heard the comm line disconnect before asking, “Aren't the zords ruined?” I hadn't done much of an inspection before leaving the Mega Tigerzord.

Kazu shook his head “No, only the Megazord cockpit in the Lionzord's back sustained real damage. Everything else is intact. A replacement cockpit has even been begun. And Lin had intended to give the zords to you anyway.”

Upgrading Tommy's dragon would seem the easiest. But would that mean he would have to become leader? Or would they be based on color and Zack would become the White Ranger? What did he mean give them to me. Stay on topic! “What about a power source?”

“The zords are literally down to zero. So modifying them to accept a different Ranger's powers source could work, especially if they where at their full power.”
“That's a problem. The Earth Green Ranger's powers are waning.”
“Can they be restored?”
“Not completely, maybe with the passage of time.” Which we don't have.

Kinwon interjected. “My ship is at your disposal. Use anything you might need to get done what you need. At her highness' request the zords are already headed for Earth.”

Kazu and I walked over to a science terminal. I took out my navigator and linked it to the computer. “These are the specs on Earth's Rangers, they're powers and coins.” As Kazu looked them over I began a comparison of the dino and thunder zords.

“Modifying the zords to a different Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink Ranger looks very easily doable. Black Ranger in a green zord is a little more difficult.”
“Can you think of a way around it?” My comparison then displayed that the powers could be compatible, but not at once. Jason could use the T-Rex or Red Dragon, but not both at the same time. Too much of a power drain.

“Actually I think there is. Your weakening Green Ranger might be the answer.”
“How?”
“In general, anybody can pilot a zord no matter what powers it. If a Pink Ranger needed to pilot a blue zord she could, so a Black Ranger piloting a green zord is doable. But I still need to program into the Lion that the Green Ranger is unable to power it and the zord will search for the next available source.”

“Like a perfectly willing Black Ranger.”
Kazu nodded. “Once the Lion repels the weakened dragon coin and is able to make a solid connection with the mastodon coin, it should gradually begin to accept the Black Ranger as it's primary user. Form a symbiosis with the powers. But there may be too many things to modify. I'm not sure if we can make the necessary changes in time.”

“Alpha still knows the zords better than I do. If there is a way to do that he could help.” I turned around and startled the same crewman again. “Reopen the comm channel back to Earth.”

The poor guy did as instructed and looked at me and nodded when ready. I nodded back and gave a smile of appreciation. “Alpha, it's Dave again.”

“Do you have anything.” Alpha's squeeky voice was sounding a little panicy.
“I'm sending you what I can right now, but the Thunderzords still have some problems.”

“Can you teleport the zords to us?”
The stellar cartography chart on the monitor above me showed that the Thunderzords were already halfway to Earth. “I think so.”
Zordon commkanding voice then said “Do it. The Rangers are now trying to employ their zords.”

I looked to Kazu. He had finished uploading new command codes into the Thunderzords computers. I began the teleport sequence. I looked at the sensor readout of the ship holding the zords. The ship's cargo hold was now empty. “Zords are away, Zordon. ”

“Good work to you, David, and your allies. I have intercepted the teleport beam with an electric storm to return the power of thunder to the Thunderzords.”
“Zordon, Pirantishead has frozen four of the dinozords.” said Alpha.
Were we too late?
“David, Alpha and I must work quickly. You have done all you could. We will contact you as soon as possible.”

And the line was cut again. I fell back in my seat, looked to the ceiling and covered my face with my hands. A swarm of butterfly's had taken flight in my stomach as I dropped my arms and looked to my companion.

Kazu was staring at my face. Or more specifically, my cheek. “What happened?”
I leaned forward and looked at my reflection in the consoles. My face was still a little puffy and swolen, and a noticeable hand shaped print had begun to form. “Nothing. I was ... speaking with Lin when we got word of what was happening.”

Kazu didn't seem convinced, but didn't want to question me about his new ruler. “Maybe you should go to the infirmary. I'll inform Kinwon of what's happening.”

We both rose from our seats and headed in opposite directions. I got inside the elvator and ordered my destination. I got to the appropriate floor when I suddenly realized I didn't know where I was. I wandered the corridor with officers and crewmen moving out of my way, and again I noticed several whispering stares. I found the infirmary, and made small talk with Daigo while a nurse attended to me.

Another hour went by before I got word from Zordon. Apparently he and Alpha had been able to recalibrate the morphing grid and merge the two sets of zords. And there had been no fallout from the Lionzord since half of it's functions already drew power from the mastodon coin.

Daigo was released from the infirmary that afternoon and since I didn't want to return to KO-35 we spent the afternoon together. Kazu and Shouji joined us later and informed us that the funeral/memoreum had been set for the next morning. Most of it was spent in the simudeck, which is exactly like a holodeck on Star Trek. We tried different programs, nothing strenuous (for Daigo's sake) and nothing overly fun (on my behalf) and talked. Daigo told me about his child hood and about the girlfriend he had lost. Kazu told me about how he had grown up in the country and had ran away from home to live in the cities. Shouji wants to become a proffesional boxer.

For some strange reason I felt very comfortable with them, but then again I'm also used to Blue and Yellow (and now Green) Rangers hovering over me anyway. As it got late they walked me to my room and showed me where the clothes cleaner was in the closet I had never bothered to look in. I ate, studied the computers some more, set the computer alarm and went to bed. I still had the same nightmares but they came fewer and less intense.

I actually felt a little better the next morning. I put my regular clothes back on but decided to wear the black Karovan jacket too. It is a funeral after all. By the time me and the three former Dai Rangers shuttled down and got to the church, the services were about to begin. The five Dai Rangers apparently were intended to make some sort of special entrance, so I began to head into the main chamber by myself and grab a seat wherever I could. But as soon as I entered music went off and everyone in the gigantic room turned and looked at me. I froze like a deer in headlights. It wasn't until I felt Lin take my hand and whisper “Let's go” that I was able to get my legs to work. This feels like a bad wedding. And I'm escorting a Queen down the aisle! At the very first pew in the very front row, Lin instructed us all to sit down.

A coffin was noticeably present at the end of the aisle. A man in a pale and simple robe was walking on the stage. I figured he was the minister. But as I looked I noticed him standing in front of giant machine. When the music ended and everyone was seated he turned to the congregation. “Her Royal Highness Queen Tenpuusei Lin of Daos has requested a special speaker for these proceedings.” The minister then gave a low bow and walked off stage. The room fell dark. Then a blue column of light began to extend from the machine on stage. And from the ceiling, a giant floating head began to descend.

ZORDON!!!!

“I greet all who have come in this horrible time and I apoligize for my holographic image.” It was him. “Now is a bittersweet time. A time of both celebration and sorrow. A great tragedy has happened. A boy, and future ruler, has passed.”

My shock was immediately replaced with regret and guilt.

“But not only that, many families have lost their loved ones and an entire population has lost their planet. Today is most definitely a time to weep. Everyone affected by these horrible sets of circumstance must take there time to mourn. To remember better days, happy times, those precious moments that still live in your minds with perfect clarity. ”

Lin had a tear falling down her cheek and noticeable sniffling could be heard behind me.

“Unfortuneately, there is one thing we all know but wish we didn't. Happiness and sadness are forever entertwined. You cannot have one without the other, and the good that has come from these times must not be forgotten either. A great enemy has been defeated, and those same people are free. A freedom not available to them for thousands of years has finally arrived. This makes it a time of glad tidings.”

Did Zordon just look at me?

“Now the people of Daos are left with an uncertain future. And dwelling too much on the past will not ease the challenges that lie ahead. The fallen gave everything they had to make sure that their people would have the freedom they now posess. You must honor the sacrifices of your missing family and friends by continuing on with the dreams they lost their lives for. You must continue to persevere, continue to be strong, continue on as you know they would have wanted you to.”

Okay, that time he definitely looked at me.

“But most importantly, continue to have the memories of love in your hearts forever. May the power protect you all.”

And with that the holographic image faded. About half the people in the room then decided to get up and leave. Most turned and headed for a reception area that had been set up. I then saw that only Dai remained seated. Ryou leaned over and whispered “We have a custom. Family and the closest of friends are left to mourn for the deceased first in an undisturbed silence.”

“Do you wish me to leave?”
Lin's desperate “Absolutely not” caught me off guard. But the look in her eyes alone was pleading with me not to go.

“Is there anything specific you request of me?”
Lin smiled in appreciation and said “We all mourn in different ways. Please do as you wish.”
I then stood up and walked up to Kou's coffin. The cover was half clear so I could see his face. All wounds and bruising he had when he died were completely gone. He looked so peaceful, like he was having a pleasant dream. I then started thinking about every single time I had seen that smile. I said a prayer, asking that someone watch over him wherever he was.

There were flowers next to the coffin. There was a huge white bouquet just within reach. One of the flowers caught my eye. I pulled it from the collection and just simply looked at it. The flower wasn't completely in bloom, it had been plucked too early. How ironically appropriate. When I started to choke up I looked down at my friend for the last time. I don't know what you want from me, Kou. But I'll will make you so proud. I let my hand linger on the casket, and when my eyes began to tear up I knew it was time to say good-bye. With my head hung low, I turned and walked out.

There were still many people quietly talking in the foyer. Many people offered condolences and simple conversation. An Aquitian even offered help on getting home if I planned on leaving soon. The buffet table was of course alien delicacies. An elderly man from Edenoi instructed me to eat something. I sampled a potato soup, but the smelly cheese and meat (and what I thought were crackers) already mixed in made me feel nauseous. The room then seemed to become unbearably stuffy, with the constant strangers constantly coming up to me.

The first door I tried led me out into one of the well cared gardens. The fresh air blowing and the sunshine felt good. I sat on a bench and just watched everything around me. A grounds keeper going from bed to bed watering the flowers, the movement of people inside, the few people who had also come out here before me, the flowers and trees, the sky. Everything was so calming and I felt better than I had in days.

“Dave.”

I looked up to see Lin. I stood up but finally realized I had forgotten something. I bowed “Your highness.”
“I wanted to apologize for hitting you.”
“It's all right.”

We both kind of stared at the ground and surroundings. I found the walls of the church very oddly fascinating. “Have you decided how you're getting home Dave?”
“Someone named Cestria offered to help me. She said if I teleported to Aquitar first I could then teleport straight home.”
“Oh. You're not staying?”
“I really can't. I've been gone so long, I really think I should be getting home.”
“Then I want you to have this.” Lin then handed me a small container about the size of a ring box.

“What is it?”
“Something else I think Kou would want you to have.” I was then distracted by a figure waving from the church doors calling my name. The figure came closer, but I recognized the big purple head.

“Pardon me Your Highness,” said Cestria, who then turned to me “but I am preparing to leave. My people are not as physiologically compatible with other planets and I must return home.”

I found myself looking at the box in my one hand and the unblooming flower in the other. My mission is complete and I have payed my respects. It is time to go. I looked at Lin, who had begun to tear up again. “Will you please say good-bye to the others for me?”
“Absolutely.”

Cestria and I took a couple steps back. She asked “Ready?”
I nodded, then looked back at Lin. “Good-bye, You're Highness.”
“Good-bye, my White Knight.”

In a flash of white light Lin disappeared and I found myself in some sort of sparse blue room. I looked for the light source and saw that the windows were looking into water. Cestria walked over to a computer terminal. “It will take me a moment to reconfigure our long range teleporter for Earth.”

I specifically requested Angel Grove. I'm not ready to compile a mission file for Zordon yet. I then looked back at the little box in my hand and had a sudden urge to open it. Inside was a gold coin. I walked closer to the light so I could see it better. There was a picture of what looked like a furry cat that had just gotten wet, and was upset and hissing about it. I flipped it over, and on the other side was a symbol. Kou's, or I guess, the White Ranger's symbol. Then it hit me. This was the chi-changers energy source.

“I have the coordinates ready Dave.” Cestria instructed me into a circular booth. As she made the last calculations she just looked at me. “I have never met an Earthling human before. Are they all like you?”

“The only one I can think of like me is my older brother.”

Cestria smiled at me. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Same here.”

In another flash of white light I found myself standing on a beach. I looked around and recognized one of the rock formations. I still had a lot to do before I could go to my house, but it didn't matter right then.

I'm home

**

The evacuation of Daos was almost complete. The remaining contingent of scientists and rescue efforts were making there last ground sweeps of the planet.

“What happened here?” said a male Karovan security officer.
His companion, an Edenoi woman, replied “Only the destruction of the Gohma Emperor. This is where the Megazord battle was.”

Another womanly figure approached. “What is the situation?”
The security officer responded “Lt. Taikwa, we have finished our examinations of that factory and this is our last sweep of the grounds before heading back up.”

“Good, I need a ...” But as Taikwa watched, she swore she could have seen the rocks move. The raised her hand and allowed her telekinetic abilities to remove some of the rocks. “Get a medic, NOW!”

There was a small hand sticking out of the rubble. As the Edenoian ran for help, the Karovans both started using their natural talent to shift as many rocks as possible off. Covered in what looked like the remains of a white dress, was a small boy.

Taikwa felt his neck and listened for a heart. She looked at her officer and said “He's alive.”

[Cuiran]

Ooooh, very interesting twists. This story's still shaping up well -- I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Lin and the Dai, if that last section is any indication -- and as always, David's evolution as a character continues to hold my interest.

Will he have a chance to act more like a kid once he gets home? Or will he be stuck in his new role as a mature Ranger? Looking forward to finding out. ;)

[Joravenel]

I agree with Cuiran. Great chapter and I am loving this story. Thats all for now.

[GreenDTRanger]

I walked down the beach and enjoyed the salty breeze blow on my face. I’m so glad to be back. I kept my mind empty and focused on the waves, trying to soak up the peacefulness around me.

“Hey, little geek!”

Oh, crap! “Hi Bulk, hi Skull.” I turned around to see the bumblers. They were wearing one piece swimming outfits in prison stripe black and white. Something they should probably get used to wearing. “What’s going on?”

“Nothin’ much,” said Bulk “where have you been the last week?”
“Week? You may need to retake math this year because I’ve only been gone six days.”
“Nu uh, we saw you last Friday and it’s Friday again.” said Skull. He started counting the days off on his fingers and lost track after Monday.

If it’s Friday I really have been gone a week. All that space travel and different planets having different times means I lost a day somewhere. No wonder I was getting so tired. That means I have to fast track and take care of everything as best I can today. “Guys, I really need to go.” I turned and began to walk off when I felt my arms being grabbed and me being picked up into the air.

“We’re on a mission.”
“Oh really, good for you. I still need to go.”
“We’re going to find out the identities of the Power Rangers.”
I almost laughed out loud at that.
“All we want to know is where you got this.” Bulk reached down and took my blade blaster.
Ohnoohnoohno. “It’s just a … toy. Yeah, a toy. Was just going to play a little Power Rangers on the beach is all.”

**

Lord Zedd stared down at the Earth below. He had noticed a white energy streak head towards California and was curious who dared come to this planet without his knowledge. “Goldar, who is that boy that teleported to Angel Grove?”

Goldar looked to where his new master was pointing. “That is the younger brother of the Blue Ranger.”

“Interesting, I remember a message from Scorpina mentioning him. I think it’s time he was introduced to Lord Zedd.”

**

I continued to struggle with the arms holding me, until I heard a familiar noise. A noise similar to someone blowing bubbles underwater. Bulk and Skull confirmed it for me.

"PUTTIES!"

I dropped to the sand as Bulk and Skull dropped me and ran for it. I noticed that the other people nearby were making a hasty retreat as well. I picked the blade blaster off the ground and and turned. Instead of being grey with black stripes, these putties were more silvery. And each had a large 'Z' on their chests.

They probably work for Zedd. The first putty came at me and I blocked it's first two punches easily enough. The third caught me on the side of my jaw. "Ow!" I rolled with the punch and ended up back on the ground. I've never been hit that hard by a putty. Zedd must have done something to make them stronger. The putties continued to surround me and wouldn't give me an opportunity to get up. I slowly began pushing myself backwards in the sand, preparing to make a run for it. It was then all the putties jerked their heads and looked at something behind me and backed off a little. I then felt a pair of muscular arms reach around my chest and lift me back up.

"You doing all right?"
I'm saved! "Just fine Jase. Come on, we can take them."

Jason let go of me and with one kick knocked down three putties. I went straight for the one that had knocked me down. It attacked me with the exact same punch combo. When it came in for the third punch, I grabbed the arm and jerked it wide so the putty was facing me. "That... " I punched the putty as hard as I could in the chest "HURT!"

The 'Z' symbol glowed momentarily, before the putty burst into clay parts and disappeared. I was momentarily thrown. No way is it that easy. That would be plain stupid to have a ... I saw Jason punch another putty in a similar way as I had. The same glowing and dismemberment. Okay, it is that easy. Within a couple more minutes we had cleared out the putties. As I stood there enjoying the triumph, I realized something. I had been in a few putty fights before, but this is the first one I got to see to the end.

It was then that I got spun around and Jason picked me up once again and squeezed. "We have been so worried about you. Billy and Kimberly were starting to freak out. Trini's been trying to keep us all calm and reassured, but she wouldn't tell us anything. Neither would Zordon or Alpha."

"I went off planet." Jason had obviously been in the ocean before the fight, because the sea water on his bare chest was getting my face and hair all wet. But I didn't care. I was home, fighting alongside my Red Ranger. Kim was worried about me?

"We kind of figured that." Jason placed me back on the ground with his arm draped over my shoulder. "What happened? Anything exciting?"

Subject change. "Jason, I've been gone longer that I intended and there are several things I need to do to catch up on."

Jason seemed a little disappointed but backed off. "Fine. I'll go inform Zordon on what just happened."

I gave him a smile to show that I wasn't angry or anything, checked for any watchers and teleported out. First, I teleported to the camp I was supposed to have gone to and got price lists. I went into the nearby town and cashed the check Dad had given me to cover camp and extra spending money. I then teleported back to Angel Grove and snuck into Zack's house and got all my stuff. At home I found a note from Mom and Dad to Billy saying they were at our friend Ko's gardens, and that they would be spending the afternoon there before heading off to Mariner Bay to see Uncle William. I called and left a message with cousin Dana while I unpacked my unused stuff. As I hung up a breathless Billy accosted me in my bedroom, followed closely by Kimberly. They reacted in the same way Jason had. Hugging me, telling me how they had missed me and how much they had worried.

"What happened? Jason said you didn't tell him anything." asked Billy.
I stood there and finally let my mind start to examine everything. I hadn't allowed myself to do it at all before, because too much was going on. I had to remain strong then, because alot was at stake. But I was home now. In my own bedroom. With my older brother who would protect me and a friend I could trust implicitely, and with four other friends who would be over immediately if I had needed them.

I started to cry. Little tears of a comforted joy, followed by a flood of fears and regret. The whole story spilled out. From my first landing to Daos to saying goodbye to Lin in the garden. Certain parts of the story made Billy go pale. It was then that I noticed that his glass frames were different and he wasn't wearing his favorite overalls. Kim spent most of the story with her hands over her mouth. At some point during the story I had sat on my bed, and when I was done she joined me and gave me another hug. Under other circumstances I probably would have tried to milk it, but I was just happy she was there.

Billy tried to find alleviate the situation. "So our new zords are actually what the Dai used."

I nodded. "I know this is going to sound weird, but those zords mean a great deal to me. Can you try to take good care of them?"

Kim put a finger on my chin and had me look at her. "I promise you we will take good care of them." She then hugged me again, and everything started to get better

**

Lord Zedd sat on his throne, his metallic fingers strumming along the arm rest. "I can sense the morphing grid's energies within that boy. But they are weak and slowly draining. Soon they will be too weak to be used."

"Yes, Master." added Goldar "apparently the boy was involved in the battle over the planet Daos. The Gohma Emperor was defeated."

Zedd rose from his throne. "The only thing of real value on that planet is the Sword of Light. Maybe with the planet abandoned I might seek it out." He stepped of the throne pedestal and began to pace.

"What about the boy, Lord Zedd? Should we capture him and use him against the Rangers?" Goldar seemed eager to please his new master in any way.

Zedd shook his head. "The boy intrigues me. Plus he has given me an excellent idea. The Green Ranger's powers are also weak. Weak enought that if something were to happen the Rangers would be down one member, and would be that much easier to conquer." Zedd then gripped his metallic fingers into a fist as energy shot randomly out. "But before that, FINSTER!"

Finster quickly came from his nearby workshop. "Yes Lord Zedd."

"Scorpina spoke of something called the Sword of Power in her message with the boy. Finster, I want you to find out as much about it as possible so I can begin the destruction of the Green Ranger." And with that Zedd threw back his head and laughed.

[Cuiran]

Still pretty awesome, and it's still a lot of fun seeing you tie everything -- the Sword of Power, the Sword of Light, Andros, Tommy's fading powers...I'm looking forward to seeing how David's presence changes things, and how the others react when they really see him Ranger up for the first time!

Keep it up! It's been a whole lotta fun so far and I'm really hoping to see this story go all the places I know it can! And I do hope Lin and the others reappear, too...they were too close to David for it to be a final 'goodbye'. Lookin' forward to it... ;)

[os_prfan]

I'm really enjoying this. It's just a shame it took me this long to find this fic. You're doing a remarkable job at tying in Dairanger with the normal PR continuity. I've seen it attempted a number of times, but you're one of the few who's actually doing it right, in my opinion. I'm just curious as to how you're going to handle Tommy losing his Dragon Ranger powers. Keep up the good work. I'll have to remember to nominate this for FFotM for next month. :023:

[GreenDTRanger]

The rest of the summer went by very oddly. One moment it would seem to be dragging and then it seemed like everything was passing me by. Billy gave mom and dad a simplified explanation for my return, that someone I had befriended had died. A few times they tried to get me to 'return to the world' but I prefered staying alone in my room. Billy was oddly much more active and social lately anyway, so that helped keep them off my back some. The rest of the gang was very respectful about giving me my space.

While Alpha was happy to have me back, Zordon was a little different. “While you have become a tremendous asset to us David, it may not have been wise to send you out into the field so soon.”

And with that I was benched again. I was surprised at how much I didn't mind. I continued on with my usual duties at the Command Center, but in a reduced capacity. Zordon might have cut me out of the team completely if I hadn't insisted on helping take care of the Thunderzords. These were entrusted to me, and I'm not about to let anything happen to them. Any of my other spare time I spent wandering the underbelly of the Command Center; the zord bay with the unused Tigerzord, the unused chamber directly below the Command Center. There was so many unused chambers that I unintentionally started coming up with different uses for them.

Zedd had only attacked once more after my return. But again, I was serving only in a minor capacity. When Zordon deionized, Alpha left the Command Center while the Rangers fought Primator. I was very angry not to have been informed of something like that. First, because of Zordon (“You only help maintain the balance of the morphing grid that keeps Lord Zedd from accesing it.” I had yelled), then because of Alpha (“I could have helped the boy a lot easier than Alpha had” and “I would have known that wasn't Billy” were what I regretfully yelled at the robot).

With my less than sunny disposition and occasional bouts of shouting, I was not looking forward to the new school year. The news of my advancement didn't help either. But this was one of the few things I had ever seen Dad adamant about, so I agreed to deal with being a Freshman.

I woke on my first day of school in a better mood than usual. I opted to walk instead of getting a ride so that I could have more time to compose myself. And fight off the urge to puke up my breakfast. At 7:56 AM I walked into the school gym not really sure what to expect.

Most of the students were on the bleachers while a few huddled groups were clustered together talkingon the floor. I saw that the bleachers were seperated into all the grades, 7th through 12th. People I knew were in the 7th grade section, gesturing for me to come to them. I gave a small wave in reply and started walking toward my new class. I saw the gang (minus Billy) sitting over in the sophomore section. Kim spotted me and pointed me out to the others, who all turned and waved.

At least I won't be alone. And hey, Zack got those dreadlocks he wanted. Since they were sitting near the freshman/sophomore divider, I figured I would sit near them. But the most direct route was straight through the bleachers themselves, and the bottom row was completely filled with cheerleaders. I stopped at the 8th grade/freshman line and looked at the girls in front of me. “Excuse me, I'd like to get through please.”

The two girls stopped talking and noticed me for the first time. The girl on my left had brownish hair with blonde streaks and gave me a courteous smile. The girl on my right had blonde hair and (from the look of disgust she gave me) a superiority complex much too high for a junior high cheerleader. “Wrong place shorty. You go over there.” She jabbed her thumb toward the seventh graders.

I know where you can go too. The boys locker room. Under a bus, run over. HELL! But she probably wasn't the best person to vent on in front of most of the school and faculty. “Actually, I'm a freshman because of good test scores. Does being a cheerleader explain your grades.”

I really hadn't thought the comeback out, and in hindsight it was lame and made no real sense. But the brunette's mouth dropped in a silent laugh (even though I had kind of just insulted her too). The blonde stood up and she was a at least a half a foot taller than me.She honestly can't believe this is intimidating. I glanced at the group. The five of them were staring at me with confused or curious expressions on their faces.

The blonde girl noticed my glance and looked over her shoulder. “Thoser are your friends. A muscle bound airhead, that weird quiet Asian girl, mullet man, a dancing moron, and that stuck up Kimberly!”

Bad move blondie! But it also made me remember where I had seen the girl from before. “You're names Jessicca isn't it?” Her shock obviously proved she had no idea how I knew her. “Jason, Trini and Tommy are three of the greatest martial artists in this school, if not town. Zack is one of the greatest dancers. And you're just mad a Kim because she wouldn't sponsor you in that girly-pseudo-stuck-up-elitist group of hers. And when Tommy had his hair like that, Kim liked it. Does your boyfriend like that stringy, bleached mop of yours?”

A few of the kids surrounding us had now taken notice. But they were making absolutely no intentions of interfering. This girl had a reputation for being a bitch, and I was a little kid standing my ground and dishing it out too. The crowd was fascinated. Me and her continued to stare each other down. I was getting bored, but I wasn't about to back down either. A hand came from left and jerked me to face a new direction.

“I think you owe the lady an apology.”

Lady?!? I remembered her reputation and whoever said that was way off. The hand turned out to belong to Shawn, an arrogant baseball player. I saw Jason, Zack and Tommy immediately jump from their seats with intent of coming down. I shook my head and Kim and Trini did their best to hold the guys back. I didn't care how much bigger this guy was, I knew I could take him. He went to the Stewart's karate school. But I didn't have too.

“Shawn, don't you have anything better to do than pick on people smaller than you.”
“Back off Valertes! This has nothing to do with you.”
“It has nothing to do with you either, but you're butting in. Why can't I?”

One of Shawn's cronies tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the gym doors. Mr. Caplan just then entered. Shawn reluctantly let go of me and tried to scare me. “Watch your back,” and then with dramatic emphasis “little boy.”

The girl who had picked on me got up and walked off with Shawn's group. I turned to face my hero. “You're Carlos, right? The soccer player.”

“Yeah. You're, ... uhm ... it begins with a 'D' doesn't it?”
“Dave.”
“Right. Look man, you sure you're okay.”
“Believe me when I say I've faced worse.”
“Come on. The assembly is about to start.”

We turned back to bleachers and the brunette girl was still sitting there. She had watched the whole thing with an unsure interest and was now staring at her feet. As Carlos and I went up a few levels and sat down she kept throwing shy, brief glances at us. I looked over at the gang and they seemed much more relaxed than a moment ago.

Mr. Caplan's voice then boomed through the loud speaker's. “Settle down please. Everyone, please settle down.”

*

Lord Zedd stood on his palace balcony, red energy shooting from his visor plate towards Earth. “So, this David isn't quite the goody-goody the Power Rangers are.”

Goldar obediently responded. “The boy is suprisingly resourceful, my Lord.”

“Yes, yes he is. It is almost impossible to think he defeated the Emperor of the Gohma.” Zedd stepped off the balcony and began to pace. “How exactly did he do it?”

Goldar immediately backed off, giving more room for Zedd to walk. “He temporarily became a Ranger himself, and destroyed the Emperor in a zord battle.”

Zedd knodded in acknowledgement. “Summon Finster, I need him to construct something.”

**

“Hello new students. And welcome back you older students. This looks to be a promising year at Angel Grove High.” Mr. Caplan's enthusiasm was less than inspiring. “Last year, was the beginning of something new and different to our city. We had lots of ups and lots of downs.”

Someone from the junior's section shouted “Like football being cancelled.” Most the students nodded and voiced an agreement.

Carlos whispered “What exactly happened with the football team? They weren't great but they weren't horrible. No one really knows.”

I did. “It was the head coach, he was so desperate for a winning season he was willing to do just about anything. First, he let my brother Billy join the team to keep the team's GPA up. And then he crammed steroids down the throats of whoever was willing. Then he tried to force it on ones who didn't want it. Most of the team had to go into drug rehab. There were so few left and there was no time to begin training a new team so Caplan forfeited the year. I felt bad for my friend Tommy though. He worked like crazy to get to be the quarterback.”

Mr. Caplan responded to the shout, but I missed. He continued on anyway. “One thing that is going to happen this year is that the school boards for Angel Grove and Stone Canyon are going over the seperation of our school districts. If any changes are made, that means we could be receiving some new students. But unfortuneatly it also means we may have to transfer some of our illustrius alumni too.”

The gossiping teens picked up again. Stone Canyon are our sworn enemies, our biggest rivals. I knew I was safe but there could be some unhappy people if this goes down.

“But now for the exciting news.” Mr. Caplan starting to get really excited now. “There are plans being worked on right now for a World Teen Peace Summit.”

No one had any idea what that meant.

Mr. Caplan continued. “The basic premise is that teens from around the world will join together to talk and discuss all matters that strive to keep our countries seperate and our planet divided. Politics, religion, war, history, cultures. And then they will work to find peaceful and cooperative measures to deal with any and all problems.”

Again, no really cared.

“Did I forget to mention that it will most likely be taking place in Sweden.”

Now people were interested.

“Best of all, due to our city's ... circumstances...”
Like spandex superheroes, space monsters, and giant robots.
“... Angel Grove is one of the school's being considered for this great honor.”
More like trying to milk the city's sudden popularity.
“And I would like all of you to try your hardest, and maybe one of you will be chosen. If you have any questions, please see with a faculty member or one of your club or class elected officials.”

Mr. Caplan then gestured to a collection of students not far behind him. I saw Billy amongst them. As head of the Junior United Nations, Billy would be a shoe in. The students were dismissed and teachers began passing out schedules. As I stood in the mob waiting for my name I had nothing to do but think about it. Billy would be the best choice. But he would have to leave the Rangers. We would have to replace him. Who would do that? I could. Could I replace Billy as the Blue Ranger? Would I even want to after the last time I wore a suit? I was interrupted when some guy in a black trench coat and sunglasses ran into me. He then proceeded to keep moving without looking back.

“You're not excused.”
“Cranston. David.”

**

“This is a most clever plan, Lord Zedd.” said Finster.
“I know, this is one of the most brilliant things I have ever thought of. It was then that a man in black trench coat and sunglasses teleported in. Zedd began to glow in anticipation. “Did you succeed?”

The man nodded once before transforming into a putty, and began to jump up and down excitedly.

“Perfect.” The red aura around Zedd began to glow and pulsate. “Before the end of the day, not only will the Rangers lose one of their closest allies, but I may bwe able to destroy them in the process.

[os_prfan]

I'm glad to see an update to this story, even if it's taken so long. I really like the tension you've developing between David and Zordon/Alpha. Keeping him sidelined when he could very easily be helping out the others is a good way of keeping readers on their toes. I found the scene where David stood up to the guy in the bleachers (I forget his name) rather amusing. All in all, a good effort. Keep up the writing.

[Joravenel]

Dude, awesome. Can not wait to find out what is Zedd's plan and what are Zordon and Alpha up to. Can not wait to find out what happens next in this awesome story. Thats all for now.
Captain J

[Dragen]

Kaku looked at me with confusion before handing me two items: a map and a small red gem. “If you can escape, look for a statue holding a large sword. The map can then lead you safely out of the Forgotten City. If you run into any serious danger use the gem to call upon Tor.”

So when are we going to see this Tor???

So what going to happen to David???

When are you going to update the story again... please say soon!!

And how many Seasons of The Unknown Ranger are you going to do... I hope its alot, as I think it would be good.

(I've read both Seasons of The Unknown Ranger, within about four hours... as I like it so much ;))

And could you please sand me a copy of Season one and two to me, as it would be easier coping and pasting it onto word. And could you send any fether chapter to me... (PM me for my e-mail address)

[Dragen]

When is the next chapter of your story?

[GreenDTRanger]

My morning went by rather easily. I had a class with Mrs. Appleby, then a science class with Mr. Wilton. My gym class was a mixed assemblage of different grades and to be quite frank, I was rather scared of. When Shawn began creeping closer and closer, I let it slip to Carlos the true origin of how Zack had lost his finger in a gang war. How it was chopped off after flipping off a rival group’s leader. I then waved emphatically over at Zack, who was playing basketball on the other side of the gym. I didn’t see Shawn for the rest of class. The strangest thing was throughout classes I would get a strange tingle up my left arm, but it always immediately went away. I had a tiny throbbing in my temples but I was able to ignore it easily.

Lunch time I wasn’t really looking forward to either. Because of scheduling, I wouldn’t see any of the gang until my lunch hour was almost over. I walked into one of the school’s open areas and sat at a bench. I looked around. Absolutely no familiar faces, and almost everyone was way older than me. I decided to make the best of it and get a head jump on my homework. I was mostly done when a perky voice said “hello”. I looked up to see the brunette cheerleader from that morning, the friend of the blonde I had gotten irritated with.

“I’m Ashley, do you mind if I sit?”

I waved her to the bench across from me. I had no real interest in what she had to say so I returned to my work. She didn’t seem bothered by it.

“I wanted to apologize for what happened this morning, and for my friend.”
Some friend. “No problem. I would rather like to forget it myself.”
“I just wanted you to know you shouldn’t have to worry about her anytime soon.”
Still not caring, I asked “And why is that?”
“Apparently one of the teachers caught her smoking in one of the restrooms.”
“When are people going to learn that smoking cigarettes isn’t good for you.”
“It wasn’t cigarettes.”

My head jerked up in attentiveness as my jaw and pencil dropped. My knowledge of illegal drugs was limited, but I knew it couldn’t be good.

Ashley continued her story. “Apparently she has had problems with this before. While Mr. Caplan is lenient with a bunch of things he has zero tolerance for that stuff.”

“Great friend you got there.”
“My parents never did like her.”

**

Lord Zedd watched with intense interest down at the Earth. “What is this? Does the boy have a little girlfriend?”

“Disgusting” said Goldar as he peered down to the Earth, without seeing what was going on. Finster took that moment to make his appearance. “Master Zedd, I have finished.”

“Perfect! Send it to Earth immediately!”

**

I don’t know if it was the absurdity of someone getting expelled on the first day of school or the fact that it happened to someone I didn’t like, but I lightened up. I even started chatting with Ashley. As we talked I saw Carlos walking across the grounds. He was going in a different direction but he took a moment to wave and I waved back. Ashley turned to see who I was waving to and immediately jerked her face forward again. She just stared at the picnic table, trying not to smile.

“Are you blushing?”
Ashley gave me a look of complete shock. “I am not!”
“Do you like Carlos or something?”
“NO!”
I smiled. “You’re a bad liar.”
“I have to go.”

And with that Ashley grabbed her bag and stood up. But she also tried to walk away with her leg still around the bench. Where I had seen her standing one moment I immediately saw a pair of legs flailing in the air. I hopped up and saw her lying on the ground. I went to her side and I desperately fought the urge to laugh. But the amusement was still obvious in my voice, “You okay.”

Ashley laid there in a semi-state of shock. “How bad was it?”
“I wouldn’t wear that bright yellow underwear ever again.”
She clasped her hands over her face and began to ramble “OhmyGodOhmyGod…”

I grabbed her arms and began to help her up. “It’s not that bad. It’ll look a whole lot worse the longer you stay there.”

She reluctantly got up, her face was completely red. I bent down and began picking the spilled remains of her spilled purse and back pack. When I picked up what turned out to be an unused tampons Ashley grabbed everything from me and said “I’ve got to go.”

Ashley hadn’t gotten more than a couple steps when I told her to wait. I bent down once again and picked up a little white and black striped stuffed animal I hadn’t noticed before. “You forgot this.”

Ashley turned around and got a puzzled expression on her red face. She took the plush animal from me. “This isn’t mine.”

It was then that I noticed Shawn. Holding a baseball bat. Noticing that I had noticed him. Oh fu…

**
“ARISE MY MONSTER!”
**

I was distracted by a flash of light and Ashley screaming. Where she had been holding the paw of a small plush toy, she now held the claw of a large white cat monster. She had the sense to run, I took a second too long to gawk at it. I didn’t see it’s paw slash my chest, just the pain and the sudden impact of falling to the ground. Lots of people were now running away, while several took shelter behind trees, trashcans and other lunch tables.

I forced myself up. Too many people, can’t use my communicator. I hope the others get out of class soon. I need to stall. I felt the rips in my shirt. I looked at the monster. “This was brand new. My mother is going to kill me.”

“Not if I do it first.”

The cat monster began running at me. I was able to block one punch, but the monster grabbed the tattered front of my shirt and threw me over it’s shoulder. I rolled with the landing and it didn’t hurt as much. But I was starting to get angry, and the throbbing in my temples returned. The cat was now just standing there, looking bored.

“This is too easy. I’ll let my friends deal with you.”

I then heard the bumbling of the Putty Patrollers start. This I can handle. I then saw Shawn lying flat on the found behind a flower planter. His bat abandoned, I grabbed it and without waiting for a response asked “Can I borrow this?”

I avoided the advancements of the first two putties with ease with a cartwheel move Billy had learned from Kimberly. When I was upright on my feet again I rammed the end of the bat into a third putty’s ‘Z’. I got another with the other end of the bat. I then began to swing the bat around in circles trying to give myself more space and back the putties up a little. My head was starting to ache again and needed a moment of respite.

“Back off the kid!”

Everyone looked upward to see the Power Rangers standing on the school roof. Just long enough of a distraction for the monster to start to run away. Five of the Rangers charged after the monster, but the Green one landed right next to me.

Standing back to back, the Green Ranger arched his helmet around. “Doing okay?”
“Could be better.”

We both charged forward. Tommy was able to draw away the attraction of most of the putties while I tried to handle crowd control. One putty was harassing some students, one swing of the bat later and it was gone. I was able to get about nine people to safety when the ground started to rumble. I paused for a moment to look. The monster had now grown. And I saw the flying Thunderzords in the distance. I looked back quick enough to block the punch of one putty then another. I ducked and let them punch each other’s chests. My head was starting to throb very painfully now and looked toward the sky again. The Thunder Megazord was now formed and was walking towards the monster. Then it stopped. The Megazord just stood unmoving, rooted to where it was.

I got closer to Tommy and listened in on his active communicator. “Green Ranger, we need help. The zords are ignoring our commands.”

I looked up once again to see a flurry off attacks land on the Megazord.

I started to hear a tinge of desperation in Jason’s voice. “We’re having problems with the zords. They’re refusing to attack the monster!”

[GreenDTRanger]

I immediately looked at Tommy and wondered what the expression on his face looked like. He had continued to stare back and forth between his wrist and the looming monster. Then there was a slight head tilt in my direction.

He doesn’t want to leave me alone. I wasn’t going to cause anymore confusion. “Green Ranger-go help them.”

I was then staring into Tommy’s black visor cover. “I can’t leave you.”
“You have to.” Sensitive to the few people surrounding us, I got closer and began to whisper. “They need you more than I do, I can mop up a couple more putties.”

“You look sick....”
...and I feel like I’m about to collapse after my head explodes. I lamely said “I’m fine. Just GO!”

With that, Tommy teleported out of the courtyard. I turned to face the remaining putties. Just four of them. But if the Ranger’s are having problems I need to get to the Command Center. I took the bat and threw it at the closest putty as hard as I could. It went flying backwards, covering about half of the whole length of the area before exploding. The three remainders paused to watch the explosion before turning back to me. “Who’s next?”

The three of them disappeared in a flash of light. I was half tempted to collapse right there, but I saw the people. Emerging from hiding places, getting off the ground, coming from inside the school to see if it was over. And a couple were already inching towards me. I can’t deal with this now. I ran, got my bag, and forced myself through the forming mob. I bulldozed through people until I found an unoccupied restroom and teleported out.

Even before I rematerialized I felt like my head had become one giant throbbing pain. But once I was in the safety of the Command Center I suddenly couldn’t even stand. I landed like a heap in front of the viewing globe.

I felt a pair of cold metallic hands on my arm. “David are you all right?”
“I really don’t think so.”

Zordon’s loud voice did wake me back up a little. “Alpha, the monster seems to have just received another increase in it’s power supply. A large amount is definitely coming from the morphing grid..”

Alpha headed back to his controls. I struggled to get myself into a sitting position. I propped myself up against one of the auxiliary computer stations and watched the globe. Tommy’s Dragonzord was barely holding it’s own. “Zordon, it’s connected to the morphing grid?”

“Apparently. Earlier this morning I sensed a small disturbance in the morphing grid. Alpha and I had been able to localize it to the high school. But I was only able to pick up seven signals.”

“SEVEN!” I dragged myself to look up at Zordon. “Wasn’t the seventh the bad thing?”
“David, you are connected to the grid and the computers still register you as a Ranger.”
Oh yeah.
“Zedd must somehow have one of you cloaking whatever is causing the disturbance. Alpha, scan David for any irregularities.”

Alpha picked up a hand held scanner and did as told. “Increased blood pressure, body temperature is ... 105 degrees! Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!”
“Keep scanning Alpha.”

When Alpha looked at my arm the sensor began to beep. And it took him all of two seconds to find something attached to the communicator’s edge that I couldn’t see. Alpha pulled it off, dropped it to the ground and stomped on it. The pain in my arm began to subside, but when I heard something else scream out in pain I looked back to the viewing globe. The monster was now backing away from the Dragonzord. Tommy let a huge barrage of most of his missile inventory, and the Thunder Megazord (suddenly mobile again) delivered the finishing move.

~ ~ ~ ~

Zordon looked down at Tommy. “I am sorry, but things are not looking good. You’re powers were already weak and waning, but Alpha and I were still investigating other avenues of restoring them. But in this last battle, simply too much was used. You’re powers are now at extremely low levels. It won’t be long before you are unable to morph, much less summon the Dragonzord.”

“Is there nothing you can do now?” Tommy sounded sad, but was trying desperately to cover it. I stood in the shadows feeling guilty, fumbling with the Tiger coin in my hand.

Zordon wasn’t very comforting. “Only time and less frequent usage can prolong the powers. But as of now there is nothing.”

Tommy simply nodded and turned to me. “I’m going to meet up with the others. You coming?”
“In a little while.”

After the green flash of light disappeared I turned to Zordon. “It’s my fault isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t you’re fault, but the creature was drawing power from you and that power coin.”
“So it is my fault.”

Alpha tried to interject “Dave, no...”

“Yes. It makes sense now. Since that cat monster was drawing powers from my coin, the Thunderzords wouldn’t fight it. They thought it kindred and refused to harm it. And Tommy had to waste most of his powers fighting a monster he couldn’t beat solo.”

Alpha continued, “There was nothing you could have done. You didn’t know.”
“Maybe, but I still feel responsible.” If there was only some way I could set things right again. I continued to flip the coin over and over again in my hand. I looked down and I saw the symbol of the odd ‘v’ and claws. Remembered the emblem on the chest of the White ...

“Zordon, how are the power levels on my coin.”
“They were weakened also but they are still stable.”
“What if instead of focusing on restoring the Dragon coin, we work on this.” I held up the Tiger coin for Zordon to see.
“I still don’t think it a good idea for you t...”
“It wouldn’t be for me.”

Zordon just looked down at me. “Are you sure you would want to do this?”

“I think Kou would understand, and the others. We need help here. Now. We need the White Ranger.”

[Joravenel]

Dude, awesome as always. Can not wait to find out when Tommy becomes the white ranger. Will Dave still be a ranger or not? Thats all for now, sport fans.
Captain J

[GreenDTRanger]

My first month of high school wasn’t exactly a time I could look back fondly of. My altercation in the courtyard gave me a small notoriety. Nicknames like “Karate Kid Cranston” and “Black Belt Brain” started and died. Rumors I was a Ranger started, but were dismissed when people realized all six had been seen with me. Shawn and his cronies still gave me some problems, being the geeky brother of another known geek didn’t help. I figured with the politics of high school I was dead meat. But it turned out okay. The freshman class was actually enjoying the notoriety I brought with me. Most of my friends were in the 7th grade, Carlos and Ashley (independently) handled the 8th graders, and Jason and the gang protected me from jerk sophs like Shawn. The juniors and seniors who heard about what happened respectfully left me alone, but a few were actually interested in if I could kick their asses.

While I was able to keep up with school, Tommy was the one who needed the most help. His Green Ranger powers were finally depleted. Kim did all she could but he left town so he could try to figure some stuff out. In response, I had begun to feverishly work on my projects with a few problems. I had told the gang I was working on a new weapon called a ‘power cannon’ to compensate for the loss of a Ranger. I had to actually start constructing it when Jason was always asking for updates and Trini and Billy were always offering to help.

With my original plan I was having more success. In order to keep it a secret, Zordon had Alpha and I use the barely known lower levels in the Command Center. Alpha even rigged a transport portal for only his and my use so we could travel up and down instantaneously.

As for the powers and coin themselves, we really got lucky. Whatever had happened between Kou and I was incomplete. On my one outing I had just received a temporary morph. With its true owner deceased and my instant de-morph form the power overload, the coin had returned to a stand-by mode. Anyone could use it now. Again, while I had wiped almost all the power in my fight, Zordon said he could infuse the coin with “the light of goodness” to compensate. I had no idea what that was but it sounded good.

The main concern was the Tigerzord itself. It wouldn’t have the benefit of a dinozord to balance the damage and the power. I had to personally reprogram it to take power directly from the morphing grid instead of ciphering through the coin first. Give the systems enough of a jumpstart to compensate for Zordon’s ‘light’. This also meant that the user would now have to call ‘Tigerzord’ to access the powers and use everything smoothly.

Labor Day weekend arrived and Tommy had already been gone for over a week. I had decided I was going to take one afternoon off from everything. Mom was actually happy I wanted to spend a day in instead of disappearing like I did every other day. As I was preparing to read a stack of unread comics and unwatched videos and sitcoms there was the proverbial knock at the door.

“Guess what?” was Kimberly’s outburst.
“No idea.”
“Tommy’s coming back.” Kim was bouncing up and down, and mention of her boyfriend actually made her jump in place. “My mom forgot to give me this letter he sent. He’s coming back at the end of the week.” She kept waving the letter around so much I could barely get a look at it. “Do you know where the others are?”

“I know Billy and Trini went to the Juice Bar for lunch.”
“ ‘Kayseeyoulaterbye.” Kimberly spun around and hurried off, throwing a few good-bye waves behind her.

I closed the door mildly humored by what had happened at my door. But then I thought about what I had been able to make out on the letter. The date. The letter was written earlier this week. Tommy should be back this weekend. Why isn’t he back yet, he could be here by now. Maybe something’s wrong. Zedd did something. Maybe Tommy’s evil again. Oh crap, not evil Tommy again. My paranoia took over next thing I knew I was in the Command Center. “Is Tommy okay?”

I explained my panic attack and it rubbed off on Alpha. “What horrible timing. We’re preparing for the final stages. Almost all the Command Center’s power is going to be needed to finish.”

“Calm down both of you,” Zordon said. “David, use one of the auxiliary stations upstairs. They have back-up generators you can use to search for Tommy. Alpha, proceed with a general scan of Angel Grove to seeing if anything is wrong.”

I went up, found a station and started working. Needle in a haystack is one thing, needle in a hay field is another. Without a power coin and almost zero morphing grid energy in his body I knew it would be tough. I spotted a small blip heading for Angel Grove, but I knew Alpha would spot it. I ignored it and tried to localize the search around where I thought Tommy’s uncle lived, since that’s where Tommy was supposedly at. I finally found him about half a mile away next to a lake.

“Tommy respond. Can you hear me Tommy?” I rechecked the comm. Panel to make sure it was received. “Of course not. It was hard enough to get him to wear the communicator when he was a Ranger. Why would he wear it now?”

I began to set up the transport protocols when I realized there was another scan being used on the city not coming from the Command Center. I ran a scramble program so whoever (I assumed Zedd) wouldn’t figure out what I was doing. Tommy materialized soaking wet in nothing but a pair of orange swimming trunks. He looked like he was about to keel over in pain.

“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to scramble you.”
Tommy just nodded, but he was still grimacing. I helped up and began rummaging around for a towel.

“Why did you bring me here Dave?”
Where do I start? But I can’t beat around the bush. “Do you remember when I went off planet over the summer?”

“Sure.”
“How much did Kim tell you?”
”Not much. Just that you tried to help stop an evil dictator. And that a friend you made their passed away.”

I was a little surprised. Billy and Kim didn’t tell them hardly anything. I had figured Kim at least would have told Tommy everything. “That’s not quite all.”

Tommy shrugged. “I just figured you would tell us when you were ready.”
“Follow me.” I led Tommy to the stairs that no else seemed to know about, because Tommy was surprised by them. “While I was there I – acquired something. Something powerful we can use against Lord Zedd.”

“Wow! That’s great, man.”
“There’s one problem. Someone is needed to use it. It belonged to my friend and …” I briefly saw a flash of Kou’s lifeless body. “…I don’t think I could do it.” Even I noticed the crack in my voice, but I hoped Tommy had seen me wipe my watery eyes.

Tommy was starting to figure it out. “Do you want me to use it?”
“I thought about a few other possibilities. Richie, Curtis, a couple others. But you were the only real choice. Now isn’t really a good time to bring in a newbie.”

I led Tommy down a short corridor in the lower levels and pointed to a door. “So what do you say?” I opened the door and led him in. On a table in the middle of the room lay a helmet and costume only I recognized. “Tommy, will you be the White Ranger?”

[GreenDTRanger]

“Dave, can you hand me that?”

Tommy caught me off guard. While he was donning the uniform, I had started to stare at the helmet. Kou’s helmet. The one that had temporarily been mine. It now had a new owner. I picked it up, gave it a small squeeze and handed it over. Tommy now had everything except the vest shield.

“I’m not sure I understand, guys,” said Tommy as he fastened the helmet clasps, “why do I need to wear this now. Won’t I get one when I morph?”

Alpha answered “We have made a lot of changes and modifications to these powers. They are all part of this suit.”

“When you morph it will join with the original uniform and the powers will merge,” finished Zordon.

Butting in, I add “But we’re not done yet. "Up on the table.”
Tommy complied and I headed over to one of the computers. But Zordon didn’t want me here. “David, the Rangers are using the zords against Nimrod the Scarlet Sentinel. Return to your monitor station and assess the situation.”

Not sure what to say I stuttered “Oh…Kay.” I tried to access Alpha’s light doorway with my communicator. Nothing happened, but I could’ve sworn I heard something go bump in the ceiling. Alpha and Zordon continued on with their work while I did a quick check on the com/transport circuits.

“Should I set up the intermorphing sequencer before I regulate the energy converters, Zordon?” asked Alpha 5.

“Yes, Alpha. Meanwhile I’ll test the phase capacitance program.”
“There! Sequencer is online and working properly. I’ll start on the converters now.”
“Be careful, Alpha. A small mistake in the energy flow could spell disaster.”
“Right Zordon.”
“Alpha, recheck the quantum morphing pods and power array. We can’t leave anything to chance.”
“Right Zordon. Quantum pods are online. We’re nearly finished.”
“It is time to start powering up the morph-control circuits. Go slowly, Alpha. We can’t afford to overload.”

Everything in my diagnostic checked out. I took one final look at Tommy. He looked very uncomfortable lying on the table. Shrugging, I tried the white light doorway again. I found myself standing in the monitor room.

I went to the master terminal and discovered most of the recent computer memory had been downloaded. Billy. I cross checked the info and found nothing specifying any ongoing ‘projects’. An alert started beeping, meaning the zords had entered the hangar needing repairs. I activate the auto-repair machines to start. The external sensors revealed that Nimrod and two other monsters were still out in the mountains. Did they retreat? I spent the next several minutes checking the zords onboard computers to gauge the damage and see what would need done manually.

“Dave.”
I turned to the familiar voice and was struck dumb. The White Ranger stood before me for the first time once again.

“Dave!”
“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head, “I can’t seem to stop doing that today.”
“Alpha is bringing everything back up. Zordon said he was transmitting some instructions to you for my ‘grand entrance’.”

One glance and there were Zordon’s orders on one of the screens. A visual of the Command Center’s main chamber appeared on another screen with the five Rangers teleporting in. I forced myself to look at Tommy. “Nervous?”

“Not really. This is all just happening a little fast.”
“Sounds pretty normal to me.”
We listened to Zordon’s speech while double checking his instructions. When the instruction screen beeped ‘GET READY’, Tommy moved to a circular, glowing panel on the floor.

“Ready?”
The helmet nodded once. Just in time for Zordon to announce “And now my friends, I present to you … the White Ranger.”

Halfway through that last sentence I activated the panel under Tommy. Turns out it was some sort of anti-grav elevator. Not sure what to do and not wanting to stay in that room all by myself, I teleported to the Tyrannosaurus dinozord it access its repair progress. But curiosity got the better of me and routed the CC visuals to where I was. A helmet less Tommy was now arousing Kimberly from the floor. I wonder if she would have done that for me?”

Zordon interrupted the congratulations with “So Power Rangers … may I assume that you are pleased with the new leader of the power team?”

WHAT?!?! I dropped the large wrench I was holding in shock. And when the wrench landed on my foot I let out a yell of pain, but it didn’t stop me from hopping over to the monitor and grabbing it on both sides. Jason’s the leader. What is Zordon doing? But Jason seemed oblivious to his demotion and was smiling with everyone else. I just stared at the screen, barely listening now. The summoning of Saba and Tommy receiving his new weapon didn’t even affect me. I just shook my head in disbelief. Tommy gets new powers AND he gets to be leader! I was angry on Jason’s behalf, but a few stray thoughts of ‘it could have been me’ persisted.

The alarm sounded. Nimrod was attacking the industrial center. Rita’s dumpster had returned. Bulk and Skull had the dumpster and were trying to open it. And Lord Zedd had dispatched a new contingent of putties to look for Rita.

Zordon delivered the orders immediately. Billy and Trini were assigned zord repair, and I saw them ‘port into their zords. Jason, Kim and Zack got Rita and the putties. Tommy got Nimrod. “Go now, and may the power protect you.”

“It’s morphing time! TIGERZORD!”
“MASTODON!”
“PTERADACTYL!”
“TYRANNOSAURUS!”

With Billy and Trini now helping, I wasn't needed as badly. So I opened a direct com-line to Tommy so I could hear what was going on and reworked the visuals so I could at least attempt to see. Saba ordered the summoning of the Tigerzord and the new White Ranger complied. The Tigerzord Warrior mode was activated, and Tommy made use of practically every new weapon and trick he had at his disposal. He had the now solo Nimrod one the ropes, until the monster reactivated its two companions.

Something isn’t right. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Tommy didn’t seem to have complete control over his powers like he should.

Tommy ordered Saba to contact Jason, but the sword soon replied “I’m having difficulty getting through to the Red Ranger.”

Uh-oh. My open com-line was preventing any other outward communications. I cut the line and called Jason myself, “Jason, Tommy needs some zord back up.”

Without stopping to think about it, Jason immediately went into the motions “Let’s join the power of thunder.”

When the lightning struck to transform dino into thunderzord, I remembered. Whatever deities the Dai believed in, they had to approve the Rangers. They had done it to me. But I wasn’t even sure if they existed, or still existed. I sent out a frantic prayer. Whatever, whoever you are. Please accept this new Ranger. I know he is worthy. Since I was right behind the main cock pit, I risked going in. Jason hadn’t arrived yet so I went to the console myself. I could see Tommy still on the ground. Please! He needs you, I need you. Help us! As Tommy called for the Tigerzord again, a bright light shone in the sky and shot towards him. Instinctively, the White Ranger turned and caught it. I then realized Jason still hadn’t shown up. Without thinking, I grabbed the controls myself.

The Tigerzord was struggling to get up. Speaking to no one I said “On my way” and flew the Red Dragon over as back up. I then got a weird idea. So I landed the Dragon Warrior on the Tigerzord’s back, riding it. “Let’s do this.” The Tigerzord responded by lurching forward. The zords tackled past the underling and went straight for Nimrod, just like I wanted. “Strike!” I jerked the right control stick diagonally forward to the left, nailing the monster point blank with the Red Dragon staff. I turned the zords around for another pass. But Nimrod was waiting, and began blasting.

Tommy’s voice came over the comm saying “Disengage”. Reluctantly, I complied with my new leader. From the side lines, I watched the formation of the Mega Tigerzord. It was weird watching it from a different perspective, but I knew what it meant.

Nimrod is screwed. And with one Firebird attack, the monsters were gone. “Tommy.” The Mega Tigerzord turned as I walked the Red Dragon over. I extended the left hand to avoid the Firebird tail. While I’m not pleased about this leader thing, if the Dai gods can accept him, so can I. The zords shook. “You did good White Ranger.”

“So did you man.” The zords let go and formed defensive postures.
“Bring it on Zedd! The Rangers are ready and better than ever.” Even as I made that silly outburst, little did I know a small rift had started between the Rangers.



Epilogue

The next day, I went over to Tommy’s house to see how he was adjusting. His bedroom was in disarray and had just got back from shopping.

“Kim thought a new beginning required a new wardrobe.”
I answered “Kim thinks a new day requires a new wardrobe.” As I looked through his purchases, I had to poke some fun. “I also hope you bought a lot of bleach to get out all the grass stains you’re going to get.” I held up white shirt after white shorts after white shirt.

Tommy laughed but continued rummaging through his closet and dresser drawers. Another mound of various shades of green was growing on the floor. As another item hit the pile, I protested. “Don’t toss those jeans. Those are awesome.”

“Then you can have them.”
“Really.”
“Sure. Anything from that stuff you can have.”
“Wow, thanks.” I happily started to browse through Tommy’s rejects.
Tommy continued on with what he was doing. “I’m still really impressed by what you did yesterday.”

Slightly embarrassed, I said “Thanks. But I forgot to ask Jason why he never showed up.”
“Zordon told him not to,” responded Tommy. “Something about how you might want to be involved in the White Ranger’s debut battle. Jason wasn’t happy about it but he complied.” My question answered, I went back to snooping. I then shortly noticed Tommy looking down at me. “Things have changed a lot this last year.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”
“I was the evil Green Ranger. Then good Green Ranger. Then powerless civilian again. Now I’m the White Ranger and team leader.”
“And?”
“What have you gotten? You joined when I did. Considering all you do for us, all you’ve gotten in return is responsibilities and problems not even the rest of us deal with.”

Tired of craning my neck, I stood up. “Is there a point?”
“You’re a real part of the team. And my first major decision as team leader is to give you this.”

I wasn’t really sure how to accept the item in Tommy’s outstretched hand. “The dragon coin.”

“It may be powerless, but it still represents you’re importance to the team.”
Enjoying Tommy’s ignorance of where his current powers came from, I accepted the gift. Inspired, I traded him my white rimmed communicator for his green one. “Thank you.”

Tommy smiled, “You’re welcome. Now don’t you think we should head off to my surprise party?”

“How did you know?”
“I know Kimberly.”
“Sure, but I should run these clothes home first. You go on ahead.” As Tommy left me alone, I ended up looking at my new coin. “Now what can I do with you?”

[GreenDTRanger]

I didn't notice it at first, but there was a definite change amongst the dynamic of the group. We all still naturally saw each other at school and while doing all of our various extra-curricular activities, but there was a definite split in the group. Kimberly was deliriously happy to have Tommy back and clung to him like glue. I was more concerned with Tommy's powers and watching over them. And Billy, being the devoted big brother, wanted to spend more time with me. I had decided to myself that Billy was going to get the Peace Conference trip, since he had a 4.0 average, was President of the Student UN and was organizing that teen peace summit for next week. Which ended up putting him on the Tommy side. Jason, Trini and Zack were just simply ... distant. Planning activities for just the three of them, going off without telling any of us. After Halloween is when it became clear. When a monster attacked, the Blue, Pink and White Rangers would fight the baddies to a standstill and the others would arrive just in time to form the Megazord. As the leader, I brought my concerns to Tommy.

Tommy and Kim organized a picnic for the group, but they had it on a day I had agreed to help Ernie set up for a ninja competition. They seemed to be in better spirits, but they still arrived in their seperate groups of three. So instead I focused my attention on the competition. I personally wanted to beat the crap out of the cocky black ninjas, but thought me against the three of them kind of unlikely. As I watched the fight, I began to scrutinize the three Stone Canyon people. The shorter white ninja was definately the weakest fighter of the bunch, but I was pretty suprised by that spin kick that looked like they were floating. The second one was pretty average, nothing spectacular. The third one didn't get much of a chance, because as soon as they got in the ring it was over within another minute. The trophy was awarded and the winners demasked. Not trying to sound sexist, but I was a little suprised that a girl had ended up doing most of the fighting.

As the crowds started to disperse, Kim called me over. "Come on, I have some new friends you have to meet."

I forced myself past Bulk and Skull, who were trying to hand a baby off to another man. Tommy and Billy were already talking to the three Stone Canyon winners. "Hey you guys, this is Billy's brother Dave. Dave, this Rocky, Adam, and Aisha." Each one of them nodded and smiled as their name was said.

"Hi. And congratulations," I shook the winner's hands.

"Where did Jason and them go?" asked Tommy, beforing turning his attention to the ninjas "I wanted some other friends of ours meet you, too."

I knew. "Remember, they were seated closer to the back. They already left through the other door."

"That's too bad," said Aisha.
"Well guys, we should get changed. Meet you outside in a little while?" Rocky interjected.

As the group split up, I now had the unenviable task of taking down everything I had just finshed setting up not a half hour ago.

---
Beep - beep -be -be -beep - beep

I had already had to ignore my communicator once that afternoon because of all the people at the Youth Center. Every few seconds it seemed like Ernie had something else for me to do. Everything was about finished when I finally had a chance to respond. "What is it Zordon?"

"Teleport to the Command Center. I would request your presence here."
Are the others okay? If there was a big problem they would have kept trying to get me. But maybe something really bad has happened because I couldn't come. Could I be in trouble? Better confront it head on and ask forgiveness. I ducked into a supply closet and teleported out. As soon as I materialized I was ready to start begging, "Zordon, I'm sorry I ..." It was then that I noticed the room was a little more crowded than usual. Three new faces, three very new faces turned to look at me in addition to the normal six.

"He knows about you guys, too." said Rocky.
"This is all so amazing." said Aisha.
"Are you the Green Ranger?" asked Adam.
"What the - huh - no." I had to think about it. Does the coin automatically make me the Green Ranger? It's pretty much useless and I can't morph but... HEY! "What is going on?"

Kimberly answered "They sort of figured it out, you know, about us."
"How?" The crowd of teens slowly parted as Billy raised his hand. I crossed my arms. "William?" I got a brief explanation of his encounter with the snake. Completely ignoring his possible life and death struggle, I replied "You're really not that good at keeping the secret are you?"

Billy's jaw dropped and took a steps toward me. To avoid any possible discomfort on my part, I quickly hopped behind one of the computer consoles. Luckily Billy didn't get very far. Trini immediately got between us and followed me around the console. Everyone else was smiling, repressing small laughter.

"If you are now finished, I would have a few words with our new friends." Zordon said, immediately righting the situation.

The other Rangers joined me behind the consoles, I made sure I was firmly planted on Trini's left side. But all Zordon did was talk to Rocky, Adam and Aisha. I still wasn't sure if I was all that happy with the situation. I had personally prevented stuff like this from happening several times, and I'll admit I did throw a few frustrated glances at the revealers. But Zordon is still very good at reading people. He made Rocky, Adam and Aisha swear a vow (one almost exactly like the one I made up my time in the Command Center) and welcomed them into the family. Jason gave a quick hello before saying that he, Trini and Zack had to be somewhere. After they left everyone else started talking.

"I'm just really glad we made some friends before Monday." said Adam.
Tommy asked "Why's that?
"Oh, we haven't had a chance to tell you. We're transferring to Angel Grove." answered Aisha.
Rocky continued "The school districts were rezoned or something. That's why we came with Mr. Anderson. He was our guidance counselor and he helped us with the transfer papers at the high school this morning."
How convenient.

After everyone had left, I had decided to go work on the zords, see how bad they were. I didn't get very far before I heard Zordon's voice say "David, please come back."

"What is it now Zordon?"
"Trying times are fastly approaching, David. And capable as the team is we are not quite as strong as we could be. Observe the viewing globe, do you recognize this item?"

I looked at the glowing gem. I didn't recognize it as first. "What is it?"
"This is the gem that, upon activation, can be used to summon Tor, the Thunder Carrierzord."

Realization came flooding over me, as did Koku's cryptic words. "Tor. Tor is a zord. Oh, no! Zordon, that gem is lost."
"No Dave, we think we found it." Alpha said.
"That is why I asked you to remain, David. Considering your familiarity with the terrain, I think you are the best one for the job. We need you to return to Daos, the Deserted Planet."

It took me a couple moments to realize that I still needed to breathe. Walking didn't seem all that possible either at that moment. "But Zordon, the radiation..."

"I took care of that." answered Alpha, holding up my blade blaster belt. "I put a localized force field generator into this belt buckle. Just be careful with it, it's kind of sensitive."

"All you need to do is place the dragon coin inside the vacant morpher. You will be able to use what little powers that remain to help protect you as well. Leave when you are ready, but it must not be put off too long." Zordon stated.

"I'll go now."
"Are you sure David?"
"Yeah, it's Saturday. As long as I'm back in a few hours there shouldn't be any problems."

Alpha added "We haven't pinpointed the location perfectly yet, but I can give you the area we have limited it to."
"In the center of the city, near the castle."
Alpha's reread his information on the console before slowly turning his head towards me. "Yes. How did you know?"
I had started putting on all my traveling gear. "I was last person to see it."
"In order to help you look more quickly, I would also like you to try jetting." continued Alpha.
"What's that?"
"A new way of teleporting."
"What's so different about it?"
"Remember when you told me you always wanted to fly?"
I just looked at Alpha and gave the little robot a huge smile. My nervousness forgotten for a second. "Really?"
"Uh huh."

After a quick rundown of instructions from both Alpha and Zordon, I teleported out of the Command Center. My queesiness wasn't completely gone but I was holding up better than I thought. Within another few moments I materialized on a familiar grassy hill. Instead of heading down the hill to the road, I took a right up to a small cliff. I found myself looking down upon the outskirts of a familiar city. "Dave, welcome back," I quietly said to myself. Taking a deep breath, I began walking again.

I slowly took in my surroundings. At one moment everything would be lush and green. A few feet away, rotten ruin and decay. My navigator read that there were, for lack of a better phrase, temporal pockets drifting around due the explosion of radiation. Causing some things to be preserved and others to age extremely rapidly. And as I got closer to the city, more of the same. Entire city blocks of nothing but devastation and destruction. Fires continued to burn off waste and refuge. This planet won't be liveable for a very long time. If ever. Realizing my position in the city, I thought one pit stop would be okay. I walked and walked until I found the statue. Slightly uprooted and standing at an angle, but still it stood. I kneeled down in front of it, getting lost in thought. With my fingers I traced the dried blood stains that still remained on the statue's legs. "Kou. You didn't have to do it."

Before I could wallow in pity, I heard a noise behind me. I slowly turned and, of course, saw nothing. Even after I casually approached and inspected where I thought the noise had come from, nothing. If there is something out there I don't want to wait for it. I immediately jetted away, hoping I would be a little more difficult to track if there was anything out there. I pulled out my navigator again and continued my original search for Tor's gem. No life signs were registering other than mine. I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, but I also didn't want to run and have any undue attention drawn to me. I tried to remain calm. "Like Lotsa Heart Elephant says, slow and steady."

As I slowly approached the center of the city, a noise could definately be heard. At first, it seemed like a ringing sound. But the closer and closer I got, the more definite the sound. Metal impacting onto rock. Movement finally began to register on the navigator, but still no life signs. I finally got to one building that was adjacent to the castle's ground elevator. The noise was at it's loudest and one peek around the corner answered almost everything. Kotpotros! Dirty, ragged, and a bit slower than last time I saw, but definately them. A whole city blocked had been completely cleaned away, and they continued to move more. Could they be looking for Tor's gem too? Just about anybody would like a personal zord. There was no way I could take that small army, even in their weakened state. The building that contained the transport up to the castle had what I think was an attempt at a posh makeover. If it has already been found, there would be the best place to start looking. I started going over all the entrances in my head when it sudenly occured to me. I've never been here before. At least, not while conscious. It had to be a Kou, a whole Ms. Marvel / Rogue type of thing. Not only did I get the power but memories too. I hadn't really realized that I knew the whole city layout and could now read road and street signs.

The navigator alarm went off at the same time I got the feeling, the feeling of being watched. But not in time for the dogpile of Kotpotros that landed on me. Within another few minutes I had been chained and was being dragged to the transport building. I felt energy course over my body as I went in, decorative banners and torches were everywhere inside. I also noticed colorful globules floating around sporadically. Visible chronaton pockets? I was finally led into what resembled a makeshift throne room, with even more ornamental decoration. A punch in the gut had me crouching on the ground gasping for air.

"What have we here?"

I recognized that voice. It was a bitter hoarser and a bit monotone than last I heard but still undoubtable. I looked up to see a dark figure descend from the throne, the only thing visible was the white outer robe the Emperor had worn contrasting with the dark. "Hello Gara," I said as a pair of high heeled boots came into view.

"David Cranston, welcome back."

OOOOOWWWWWW!!!! High heeled boots to the face really hurt.

[GreenDTRanger]

I opened my eyes and felt very groggy. Was I knocked unconscious AGAIN? As I spit out a small amount of blood, I looked up at the woman in front of me. What little of her face that had been visible before was now covered. And the skin that was barely visible was unnatural at how pale it was. "Glad to see you too." At this time she decided to be a bit more personal, and punched the exact same spot she had just kicked. I was able to move with that attack better, but it still really hurt. "I think you loothenthed my tooth."

Gara simply smiled. "Good."

"It's only a baby tooth." And this time when I spit blood, I shot it toward her feet. "Had to go sooner or later."

Gara took a couple steps back, as to not get my blood on her white coat. But her eyes never left my face. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same, especially considering you're supposed to be dead."
"This is my home Cranston, you are the alien here. The invader involving himself that doesn't concern him. Again. Now tell me why are you here?"

"Like you don't know?"
"Explain yourself to me now?"
"I know why you're here, and you know why I'm here. I know that you know, and you know that I know you know. As for explaining, I don't think so. Can we just move past all this posturing."

My word soup did throw her off for a moment, but she just kept watching me. "Tor?"
I nodded. "Tor."
"You won't get it."
"You wanna bet."

Gara threw her head back and laughed. She proceded to remove a red gem from the confines of her robe. "I seriously doubt it. And your presence alone only guarantees success." There was a definite gleam in her eyes as she began to pace back and forth in front of me, quickly avoiding a couple of floating energy globules.

I didn't follow her reasoning, but I couldn't let her know that. "It's of no use to you."

"That's where you're wrong. Why would someone like me want a zord?"
"A personal assault vehicle, capable of massive amounts of destruction. That isn't at all difficult to figure out."
"Think harder, and a little more personally. Think of where you are."

That was a dumb move on her part, because I did finally realize the full extent of where Gara was going with this. But wait, she wouldn't have told me this unless she really wanted me to know. "The Thunderzords aren't just Ranger weapons, they're also connected to the political hierarchy of this planet. Without any members of the royal family, or even a trusted Ranger, there is no one to assume the throne. But someone with a control of one of the zords might just be able to gain legal control."

"Impressive." Gara just smiled at me. "The last recognized member of the royal family has abandoned this world, along with all her Rangers. Your Rangers now posess the Thunderzords, but you have no interest in this planet. All that remains is this one, lone zord"

I really hate that smile. "Great for you. Now you can use it to take control of a deserted planet."

Gara stopped her pacing and snapped her fingers. A couple more Kotpotros appeared, forced me to stand, and all of them continued to keep all my appendages pinned. Gara took a couple steps closer. "Why do I need a zord, when I can have the White Tiger power coin." And with that she reached for the morpher on my belt and removed the coin holstered in it. "Powerless or not, this is a symbol. A symbol of the true and rightful ruler."

Powerless? No it... SHE DOESN'T KNOW! I could finally turn the tables on her. "You've figured out some way to reenergize it, haven't you? Make the coin work again?"

"I won't deny that I always had a desire to bring the coin back home where it belongs. I couldn't chance it with your Rangers protecting you, or risking the chance of coming before Lord Zedd's notice." Gara kept handling my coin, shifting it around.

I tried to keep her attention on me. "But how? It's next to impossible to fix a damaged power coin. We've had a hard time of it on Earth."

Gara allowed her free hand to hover over a floating energy globule, almost caressing it. "That's the operative word, isn't it? Time."

"Those are concentrated chronotons. You'v been able to figure out the different time rates for each one."
"All simply based on color and shade. And now with this coin, the true power of ..." Gara took that moment to look at the coin in her hand. She was not pleased. "What is this?" She looked back at me. "What is THIS?!"

"The Dragon coin of the Green Ranger."
Gara stomped over to me, closing the gap between us incredibly quickly. "Where is the Dai coin?"
"Safe on Earth. I traded for that one."
The white's of Gara's eyes grew enormous, with nothing but black dots for pupils. "You traded ... a sacred..." Her body literally began to shake, and all that excess movement joined together as she brought the back of her right fist against the unswollen right side of my face.

The force of the blow hit me so hard the Kotpotro holding my right arm let go as I fell to the ground. As I knelt there groveling, I felt a small ping on the back of my head and a flash of gold land next to my hand. I quickly fumbled for it.

"You will pay for this indignity! I swear you will!"
And you just lost. "Sorry, but I think I've had just about enough fun today. Time to go home now." With that, I punched the Kotpotro holding my left arm right in it's stomach. Then, without even looking, I brought both my fists backward into the faces of the two Kotpotros holding my legs. I then lunged for Gara's left hand, where the forgotten red gem resided. I held her wrist with my left hand, as both are right hands struggled with her fingers. This lasted only a brief moment. I got desperate, and did something pretty dumb, even for me. I head butted her as hard as I could. She was instantly disoriented, and I quickly pulled the gem from her grasp. It wasn't until I released her that I realised how disoriented I was. I tried to shake it off as best I could, and stared at Gara's face. Her nose was definately bleeding, but it wasn't red. It looked more dark purpleish, like what you're blood is supposed to look like before being exposed to air.

Gara was definately more messed up than I was, but it didn't prevent her from yelling "GUARDS!"

Kotpotros started to pile into the room, and most of them looked to be in much better conditioning than the ones I had seen so far. They started to circle around me and I was at a loss. There is no way I can beat them. As I started to panic, I caught a glimmer of light at the edge of my vision. It was an chronoton globule, glowing bright white with streaks of golden energy. Kou, I hope you're watching over me now. Desperate, with the Kotpotros about to attack, I took my only chance. I threw my power coin into the globule. They collided, then slowly and slowly the coin moved to the center. Everything was forgotten, all eyes rested on that globule. The golden energies strands began to attack the coin, and the coin in turn began to glow golden. Then without warning, the coin was ejected from the chronoton globule, shooting out like a bullet and taking out two Kotpotros with it.

"GET IT. Get the coin!" Gara screamed.

But I was already way ahead of her. I had already dove across the floor, scrambling toward where the coin had landed. I picked it up, and without even thinking about it reached for the morpher as well. With Kotpotros breathing down my neck, I put them together and did the only thing I could. I screamed.

"DRAGONZORD!"

I felt the rush of energy all over my body. I had thought I would never experience that feeling ever again. I looked down at my gloved hands, then felt the golden shield on my chest. I looked at Gara (right in the eyes because I was once again taller), "Guess what? All better."

I pulled out the Dragon Dagger, waiting for them to make the first move. At the sight of several blasters being raised, I raised the Dagger to my helmet and began to play. The blasts ricocheted off my dagger's shield, taking several Kotpotros with them. A couple of them got smart and tried to come at me from the side. I easily tornado kicked the first and brought the Dagger heavily across the second. The remaining Kotpotros began to hold back, not sure what to do.

"GET HIM YOU WORTHLESS FOOLS!" Gara was really starting to lose it.

The Kotpotros were starting to crowd together, probably to attack all at once. I tried something Tommy did once when he was evil, and when he had fought the team to a standstill. I focused my powers into one giant energy ball and let it fly. I not only took out most of the Kotpotros, but I also blew a humongous hole in the side of the building. That needs some practice. I ran for the opening while the few remaining baddies tried to get up. The explosion had drawn the attention of all the working Kotpotros outside, who were coming to investigate. "There are definately alot more of you guys than I first thought." The fight was on once again. Even in their delapidated conditions, the sheer number of them was beginning to get tiresome. I would take down one, another two would pop up.

"YOU WILL DIE GREEN RANGER, IF IT IS THE LAST THING I DO!"

I looked up and saw Gara on top of the building. One jump later and I stood only a few feet away from her. She was completely crazed now. Gara had removed her cowl, letting her hair blow in the wind as I stared at her scarred face. Her purpleish blood staining her robes and everything below her nose.

"I used to feel sorry for you, Gara. Someone corrupted by a force stronger than herself."
"You did this to me, Ranger," said Gara, pointing to her face, "Making me turn against my master."
"You did the right thing."
"NO! I didn't. And I can prove my true loyalty by finally getting rid of you."

Gara lunged for me, letting out a wild feral scream at the same time. I easily dodged but she wouldn't let up. She very easily could have killed me if her actions weren't so clouded with anger. I finally pushed her off long enough to catch my breath. We began to circle each other. We're too evenly matched. This could go on forever. All I knew was that I had to stop her permanently, or she could comeback and try something again. And I was not needing an arch nemesis right then. I once again remembered the entire reason for my quest. The tiny gem still in my clutched fist. When I finally had an idea. "Have you ever heard of 'The Wizard of Oz'?" I threw the tiny gem into the air and shouted, "Tor, I need help!" Without waiting, I ran and jumped for the closest building. All I heard was Gara's screaming come to an abrupt stop. By the time I landed and turned around it was too late. I saw a giant robotic turtle resting on top of a collapsing building as it began to pancake to the ground.

I waited, not really sure how long. Just long enough for most of the smoke and dust to disperse. I decided to remain morphed in case anything survived, and for some form of protection against the now invisible chronoton globules. I first entered Tor's cockpit, and found the zord in perfect working condition. Unfortuneatly, it had no space traveling capabilities. I asked Tor to return to it's gem form, it was reluctant but understanding. I next spent several minutes searching the debris. Even Kotpotros who had avoided the building's destruction layed lifeless. "Whatever was keeping them going must have been in that building." I started to think about Gara, and wondered if what I had done was a too extreme. I've seen bleeding Dai before, their blood was as red as mine. Gara had been far too corrupted, her last minute sacrifice last time was too little, too late.

"Wait a minute, how did she even get here anyway?" As far as I knew, even the deceased had been rounded up by the Karovans. As a way of keeping track of everybody and see who might have been missed and to confirm that the Gohma were in fact gone. I jetted over to the landing ports and, sure enough, there was one Karovan shuttle. Gara survived an exploding building, she could have survived a collapsing one. Having seen it done only once before, I programmed the shuttle for launch. If she did survive, she wanted to come back to this planet. She'll be stranded, but she has been able to survive so far. And what if she has some sort of accomplice who helped her, they could still be around.

After I left the Daos' atmosphere, I took off my helmet. My face was still in pain, but I could feel the healing properties of my dragon shield taking care of that. "Mom would freak if she knew I had been fighting." I snooped around until I found an instruction manual. "Isn't it great that every single alien species seems to speak English." I laid in a course for Earth, and it would take a few hours on auto-pilot. I then began to mess with the communications systems, trying to get ahold of somebody. "This is ... uh ... the Earth Green Ranger. I'm trying to contact anyone from Space Patrol Gamma. Or anyone who can relay a message to the remaining members of the Daosian hierarchy." No response. I set up a continuous broadcast of the message and began to look around. The cockpit was set up for five passengers; three in the front and two on the side. Just like the original Megazord. The back was mostly the engines, so I decided not to touch anything. And one small auxilary room with five spare seats. But I lucked out and found a food synthtron not far from the cockpit. I activated it and looked inside. "So, we meet again." I closed the door on the pink, tomato flavored macaroni in disgust and searched for something else in the menu.

Time dragged on until I finally reentered my solar system, with no answer to my recurring hails. I used my communicator to contact the Command Center. "Zordon, Alpha, I'm coming home.

"Dave, welcome back,"said Alpha's cheery voice. "We were starting to get worried when we didn't hear from you."
"I'll explain everything when I get back. Get the zord hangar ready I might need somplace to land."
"Land?"
"Like I said, I'll explain everything when I get back."

It wasn't until I was almost at California that I noticed I was being hailed. "Unidentified Flying Object, please respond."

"This the Green Ranger, heading home to Angel Grove. Is there some sort of problem?"

I had to wait for the female voice to come back over the intercom. "I have been ordered to escort you to a NASADA landing strip. Do you know where that is?"

My dad only works there. "Yes."
"Good. You will follow me."
Man, that woman is very rude and condescending.

Within another fifteen minutes I was landing at NASADA. I powered everything down and put my helmet back on. When I began to disembark the clicking of guns made me stop. Cops and MP's.

The man in charge was speaking over his walky. "Contact Captain Earhart and thank her for her immediate assistance. She can head back to Turtle Cove now." His expression became even grimmer when he turned his attention to me. "Alien Life Form, I have been instructed to take you into custody."

"I'm no an Alf. And in case you hadn't heard, we're from Angel Grove."
"You will come with us to answer a few questions."

It was then that a jeep with two men in it pulled up, one in a lab coat was driving and another in a regular business suit. The one in the bussiness suit went charging through the soldiers. "Stand down, Lieutenant. Don't you recognize a Power Ranger when you see one?"

Everyone did as instructed, several quite reluctantly. I knew the man making the orders but played along when he introduced himself. "I'm Commander Norquest, welcome home Green Ranger."

"Uh, thanks."
Norquest led me back to his jeep. "Was your space mission a success?"
I have never seen Norquest this nice. "Yeah."
"Good. Now there is something I want to discuss with you, but it is rather difficult for anyone to get ahold of you Rangers."
"Like what? Have your gun happy friends back there interroagate us, or maybe you want to hook us up with a talk show."

Norquest chuckled. "Both fine ideas, but no." As we got to his jeep, my helmet hid my eyes from bulging out of my head. "This is one of our best scientists, Dr. Bryan Cranston."

Hi Dad! I dropped my voice an octave, when I shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."
"My sons will be so excited when I tell them I met a Power Ranger."
I desperately fought to keep a laugh from escaping my throat, but I accidentally blurted out a quiet "Doubtful." When both men looked at me quizzically, I responded "You know, because we Rangers are already around so much."

Within due time I found myself seated in Norquest's office. He didn't hesitate to state "I have a business proposition for you, and I'd be lying if present circumstances didn't make me somewhat greedy."
"I figured."
"You allow us to study that shuttle, and I mean NASADA, not the government. You allow us to study that vessel, and NASADA will fund a government sponsored monster alert system for Angel Grove."
"A what?"
"It is essentially a citywide alarm that would go off when a monster appears, giving the citizens of Angel Grove a little more time to get to safety."
"Why would the government sponsor something like this if they aren't really getting anything out of it?"
"We will still have to share information with the government, but only what you Power Rangers approve of."
"This sounds way too good to be true."
"May I be frank, Green Ranger?"
"Of course."
"Space is our future. You Rangers have made contact and have experience with aliens, no doubt both good and bad. Only with you're help can we best prepare ourseleves for that next step." Norquest stood and walked over to his window, where my shuttle was being dragged into a hangar already. "I mean look at that thing. An alien spaceship desighned almost exactly like one of our own shuttles."

I let the words sit for a moment before responding. He seemed geniune, and I didn't know Norquest to be a liar anyway. "I will leave the ship here. We can discuss things further at a later date once I have discussed it with our leader. As long as there is continuous and open communication there should be no immediate problems."
"I have spoken to the President on a couple of occasions about this, and he agrees."

It was then that I felt a small pain in my gut. I looked at my hands and noticed green energy was starting to cascade around my hands. "I need to go now."

Norquest turned to look at me. "I understand. And Green Ranger?"
"Yes?"
"I would understand if one day you found it necessary to take it back."
I nodded and was about to teleport away when I thought of something. "One small thing. If one day, I won't specify who, but if someone should show up needing help. And they know about certain things that they shouldn't. Don't think about it, just do what they say."

He clearly didn't understand, but still replied "Agreed."

--------

Ever since I demorphed in the Command Center, Zordon and Alpha began running continuous scans and studies on me and the coin. "So what's the damage Alpha? Will the team get a permanent seven members?"

Alpha said "Unfortuneatly Dave, but no."
Zordon continued "Whatever happened to the coin on Daos helped, but you're continuous use of the coin severely drained it's energies back to their previous levels."

I caught a glimpse of my healed face on a computer screen. "Great, the coin gets fixed and I immediatly turn around and ruin it again."
"There is still some hope, Dave."
"Like what, Alpha?"
"I don't know how, but the coin's energy matrix is much more stable. Given time, the coin could be useable again."
"Couldn't we speed up the process? We've done it before."
"Yes, but those were only temporary measures."

Zordon gave the final word. "David, you have once again done a great service to this universe. And I can understand you're eagerness to harness the powers again. But I think it would be best to wait and let the coin rest until the proper time it is to be used. You are already a valuable member of this team, Ranger or not.
"Thanks Zordon."
"I also believe that this new arrangement with NASADA could prove beneficial someday, and it will be your duty to be our ambassador to the outside world."

*********
On Daos, one solitary figure stood amongst the debris of a collapsed building. Some digging recovered the lifeless body of a black-leather clad woman wearing filthy white robes. They gathered up the robes and placed them in a bag containing dark and sinister remainders of the Gohma reign.

This person wondered what would happen next, but they didn't have to wait long. Within a couple days, six colorful beams of energy landed just outside the city limits. And one of them was white! This person tailed the Rangers, but their attention focused on the White Ranger. It was not long after that a dark shadow fell over the Deserted Planet.

A smile came to their face. "Serpenterra." With the giant zord distracted fighting the Red Dragon Thunderzord, the last survivor of Daos found it east to sneak onboard.

Proud of their cleverness, they had no problems finding a spot to hide inside the monstrous zord. Their mind began to think of all sorts of devilish torment to unleash upon anyone in spandex. They whispered a solemn vow. "I'm coming, Cranston, and I will destroy you. It may take time, but I will finish you."

[GreenDTRanger]

I had hoped that after my last trip into space I could relax. Let the normalcy of my life consume me for a while. I watched Billy frantically work on his World Teen Summit for a week. Rocky, Adam and Aisha enrolled at AGHS, but had personal things to finish up at Stone Canyon and wouldn't officially start until the following Monday. The spent their free time with Tommy, Kim, and Billy; familiarizing themselves with the town. Jason, Trini & Zack were still rather distant. One exciting thing though, I got to pilot the Carrierzord into battle against a four-headed monster. Jason and I ended up doing most of the work, too.

More importantly though, the choice for the World Teen Peace Summit were also being released. I was in class when Mr. Caplan announced it over the intercom on the following Monday. While everyone was shocked that three people from Angel Grove ended up being chosen, I was more shocked more by the who. I've been worrying about losing one Ranger, now we've lost THREE! Since it wasn't a real emergency, I couldn't just up and leave class over this new knowledge. Unfortuneately, right before class ended, the whole room got knocked unconscious by a pink cloud, myself included. By the time everyone woke up, school was already over. I went to the Command Center as soon as possible, but found out the Power Transfer had already taken place. I jetted around town, finding that they were already packed and gone. Trying my luck, I went to the airport. I arrived just as their cab pulled up outside. As a skycap hurried out to help with the luggage, I suddenly got very angry. "Leaving without saying good-bye." My rage fought the water wanting to brim in my eyes.

Jason, Trini and Zack all turned at the sound of my voice. Each one smiled, I didn't reciprocate. Zack, in his ever jubilant fashion, was the first to speak. "Dave, so you heard. Isn't it great!"

"Oh yeah! Wonderful." I very sarcastically said.
Jason came over at this point. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? Today was going just like any other day: classes, bad lunch and monster attacks. Now you guys are hurrying to catch your plane to SWITZERLAND."

My outburst drew a few stares, and a reprimand from Zack's mom. "You behave yourself in public, David Cranston!"
"Yes, Mrs. Taylor."
"Do your parents know you're here."
"Billy does."
Mrs. Taylor harumphed at that. I knew what she was thinking, but didn't care. A young child parading around town is inappropriate. Mom is going to hear about this.

Trini placed her hand on my arm and led me into the airport, where the commotion would best cover our conversation. "Davey, we have to do this. It is a remarkable opprtunity."

"I know that. It doesn't make it any easier."
Trini just smiled at me and gave me a hug. I accompanied the assembled to their departure terminal. They said their farewells to me, and I stood back and allowed the parents to say their farewells. Trini was the first to enter the door to the planet, Jason was just gabout to go in when I heard someone call for me. I turned to see Billy and Adam Huh? hurrying towards.

Zack heard the call. "I was wondering who else was going to see us off?"
Billy gave his best wishes. I looked to see if Jason had noticed, but even if he had a very pushy security guard was making him keep the line moving.

"Oh Zack, this is Adam. Remember, he's replacing you." said Billy.
Adam shook hands with his predecessor. "I've really wanted to officially meet you. Timing has just been really lousy."
"Hey, it's A.O.K. We Black Rangers got to stick together, right."

The last boarding call was made, and Zack made a rushed round of good-byes. Jason's parents couldn't take any more and ended up walking away almost right away. Zack's dad didn't need to do anything, because Mrs. Taylor was balling enough for a few people. Trini's parents clung to each other, quietly.

As the plane left, Mrs. Kwan turned to me, Billy and Adam. "Do you boys need a ride?"
Billy declined. "I have my car."

As the three of us left, I couldn't help but wonder. What comes next?

------

The Serpenterra stowaway found life hiding in Lord Zedd's palace rather easy. With only five permanent residents, there was plenty of unused areas to rest and live in. Keeping occupied wasn't a problem either; exploring when the others slept, swiping food whenever hungry, looking through Zedd and Rita's darkest magical tomes for secrets and spells to steal. Everything went rather smoothly until the return of Rita Repulsa herself.

Rita's annoying and pushy personality was irritating, even in hiding because her voice carried all over the castle. But the stranger made good use of the time: watching Rita conspire against Zedd, watching Goldar conspire against Rita, and Zedd continued his plans for world domination. Several months went by before deciding to reveal themself to the unknowing hosts. Walking into the throne room, Rita and Zedd quit their bickering at the sight of the stranger.

"Just who in the galaxy are you?" Rita asked.
"How dare you enter my castle!" bellowed Zedd.
But the stranger did not budge. "I dare anything," and removed his hooded cloak.

Rita gasped, and in shock Zedd blurted, "But that's impossible. You're all supposed to be dead."
"Obviously not. But I've come to ask a favor."
"The Audacity! Why should I ever help you?"
"Because I know things you might find of interest. Like a certain potion your new wife concocted almost immediately after her return."

Rita's already open mouth was joined by bulging eyes of suprise. They were instantly replaced with a begging smile. "Come now Zeddy, of course we'll help him. He no doubt could help come up with some nasty ways to get rid of the Power Rangers."

"I can help you, but on my terms. I have plans of my own to work on, that slightly conincide with yours." Zedd wasn't convinced and marched to his throne in a huff. Rita was desperate to keep any of her secrets quiet, so she agreed for both of them. "We can work out the particulars later. But as a sign of faith, I have one request."

Frustrated, Zedd sat upon his throne. "Oh really? What's that?"

"That some time in the near future, you attack the Ranger's with something of my choosing."

-------

Life continued, and I gradually started getting used to the new arrangement. The new Ranger's were learning and doing pretty well, but I had noticed a tendency for Tommy to play the role of the Lone Ranger. Tolerable for a brooding, part time Ranger but completely unnacceptable in a team leader. But the team still functioned well, and there was really nothing I could do about it. I had continued on with no real problems until after the book fair.

"WHAT AREN'T YOU TELLING ME?"
Zordon just continued to stare down at me, remaining calm and rational. "David, I'm not sure what has precipitated this outburst."

"Where did he come from?"
"To whom are you referring?"
"This... Mondo the Magnificent or whatever his name was. Who was that?"
"He was an old acquaintance of Rita's who was presumed destroyed long ago."
"No, no, no , no, NO, Zordon! Where was he from?"

"But he's gone now, Dave," spoke Alpha, braving himself to come out of the shadows, "does it matter anymore?"

I immediately turned on the android, but I couldn't be mad at his innocence. "It could, Alpha."
"Why?"
"He was Gohma, Alpha. It was unmistakeable." Explaining it made me feel a little better, but my anger was slowly being replaced with fear.

"David, I will try to answer your questions as best as I can. But right now you must get to school," suggested Zordon.

I got to school just as the buses were filling up. The Freshman and Sophomore classes were going to a historical area of Angel Grove. Upon arrival, Mrs. Appleby tried her best to corral people for a specific tours without too much success. I found a secluded bench and tried my best to hide from people. All I could think about was the Dai and the Gohma. I still hadn't heard from anybody. I would have thought that Lin or someone would have contacted me after finding out that their homeworld had been destroyed by Lord Zedd. My mind started to linger on about Kou, mixed with some guilt because I hadn't really thought about him much lately. I stared at the throngs of students, wandering around, talking and laughing without a care in the world.

"Zordon said something was wrong. Do you want to talk about it?" asked Billy, handing me a drink.

I shook my head. "Not really." I stared at the ground as I played with my drink's straw.
"He said that guy we fought yesterday reminded you of something."
I didn't really want to, but I felt it best to level with Billy. But I was unsure of what to tell him. Even the night I broke down in front of him and Kimberly, I hadn't told him the complete 100% truth of everything I had been up to. I hadn't told I had been the White Ranger, then the Green Ranger, and was even now secretly trying to fix the Dragon coin. "He looked exactly like a Gohma that I personally confronted on Daos."
"You think that there were other of these - Gohma - to survive?"
"Absolutely. I already know of one Gohma known to have survived seeming death. And then to see that Mondo guy..." Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a lone figure, looking at me. I focused my eyes on him and jumped up in suprise. But mid-jump I made the mistake of blinking and as I looked closer there was nothing there. Without even thinking I mouthed the "Kou."

"What is it?" Billy kept looking where I was but was obviously confused.

Before I could respond, Aisha and Rocky came running our from behind some trees. Rocky immediately started waving at us "Guys, you have to see this."

Needing a distraction, I quickly headed over with Billy following behind. Rocky took point and led us back into the trees. Within a few moments we came into an open area that didn't get many visitors, judging by the amount of overgrown grass and weeds. We soon found Adam standing amidst several rockpiles and large stones. Upon closer examination, I noticed letters and numbers on some of them. "This is an old graveyard."

Aisha agreed "Yeah, but now for the weird part."
We continued on to where Adam stood, in front of a gravestone. Billy and I looked down and gasped at the same time. Now I know how Marty felt in Back to the Future III. While the gravestone itself was slightly worn around it's sides, the front of the stone was perfectly preserved. It read: THOMAS OLIVER. And right below the name, was the Power Rangers thunderbolt emblem.

Rocky said "Please tell me this is some sort of relative of Tommy's."
Billy knelt down to get a closer look. "Tommy's adopted, so I doubt that it is a direct ancestor of his."
"Guys, we know what this is," said Adam.
I knew, too. "This has to be Tommy's clone. The one who was left in the past."

We all just stood there staring for a few moments. We could still hear the miscellaneous noises of other students nearby. "We need to call Tommy," said Aisha.

"I agree," Billy said, raising his communicator. "Tommy, come in." Nothing. "Kimberly, are you there?" Still nothing. We all threw each other a few glances. It was when I raised my communicator to contact the Command Center that Robogoat, Octophantom and putties appeared before us. Rita and Zedd had gotten into the habit of trying to overwhelm us with monsters that had already been destroyed, but that wasn't really working for them either.

Robogoat simply ordered "Get 'em" and the fight was on. I held back and let the putties come for me. I easily avoided a charge from one putty, and landed a kick in the stomach of another. Out of nowhere, I received a kick to the back and found myself liying in front of the tombstone. I placed my hand on it, to brace myself as I got up. As my fingers traced the lettering, I felt something move. I glanced up and noticed that the 'O' in Oliver was noticeably different, and was sticking out slightly. Before I could get a better look at it a pair of hands grabbed me and yanked me back onto my feet. I quickly dodged a wide punch from one putty, and elbowed my two captors as hard as I could in their chest Z's. I wanted to get a better look at the stone, but Aisha's yell of "BILLY!" made me quickly turn. Octophantom was absorbing Billy into his jar, and Adam and Rocky were running for him.

"NO! Hold back!" I was suprised at how quickly they both froze, but the monsters took advantage of the hesitation and disappeared.

Rocky immediately turned on me. "Why did you do that? We could have saved your brother!"

I didn't back down, and I got in Rocky's face about it (metaphorically speaking, he was still taller than me). "You need to study up on past monsters a little more, because there was a much better chance of you and Adam being snatched, too. And sorry Aisha, this isn't a sexist thing, but three Rangers have a better chance of defeating this than one."

"I understand, and you're right. It makes sense." said Aisha, coming to stand next to me.
"Do you think they're trying to overwhelm us?" asked Adam, "Too many monsters for only half the team?"
I shook my head. "I haven't been this under-whelmed since Billy and I saw that Kurt Russell science-fiction movie."

"So what now? Who's in charge now?" started Rocky. Without any sort of hesitation, Adam and Aisha immediately said "Dave is." I was taken aback slightly at how quickly they said it, but Aisha added "he's got the most experience."

I noticed a small bit of disappointment in Rocky's eyes. Red Rangers are generally leaders, and Rocky really hasn't had a chance to be one. We've always had one of the ... It was so simple, I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner. "This is the first time we haven't had at least one of 'veteran Rangers' with us. That's what they're doing. Seeing now well the Earth can be defended by one powerless non-Ranger and three newbies who are still learning the ropes." But all three were looking to me for guidance, just as I knew our other three members knew I would be able to save them. I straightened my shoulders and took command. "Aisha, go to the Command Center and inform Zordon of anything he doesn't already know. Then help Alpha begin searching for Tommy and the others. Rocky, head to rock quarry. The original battles with Robogoat and Octophantom ended there, so they might have returned to something familiar. I'm going to investigate something here first. Adam, you'll stay here for the time being. I may need some help."

My orders were followed by a red and yellow teleportation beams whisking away the others. Adam just wondered, "What are we doing?"

"I need another look at that grave." But before we could do anything I heard a voice not far behind me.

"You are unbelievably quick, Cranston. It's very annoying, but then again I wasn't really trying."

I knew that voice. I smiled and spun around "Kou, is it really..." I completely froze, didn't move, didn't blink, I even stopped breathing. Of all the people to survive.

The speaker took a couple steps closer, using Lord Zedd's staff as a walking stick. "What's the matter Cranston? You look a little ... green." The emphasis on the word green was not lost on me. But my eyes had drifted to this speakers own eyes. Or more specifically, the closed third eye in the middle of his forehead. I finally forced myself to speak, still not wanting to believe it.

"Akomaru?"
Akomaru merely glared. "You remember me. I had been hoping to catch you alone. So..." I was still in shock, so when Zedd's staff was raised I didn't react in time. Adam did, but it didn't save him. He was blasted back so hard that he collided with the Oliver grave, and collapsed unconscious.

"ADAM!" That was more than enough to force me into action. I grabbed Akomaru by his jacket lapels and partially lifted him up off the ground. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?"

"I never knew you had such a temper," Akomaru chuckled. Without Adam, we were now down four Rangers. And I was not in the mood to put up with bad-guy posturing. I pulled back my fist and let fly the strongest punch I had ever thrown in my entire life. Akomaru crumpled like a heap in front of me. I ran over to Adam and checked for a pulse. He was breathing but I didn't want to take any more chances, so I used his communicator to teleport him to the Command Center.

"You almost ruined my clothes." Akomaru was now standing and dusting himself off. Gohma blood was trickling from his mouth.

"That look doesn't really work for most people, unless you go to catholic school or are in a rock group." Akomaru just watched me, leaning on Zedd's staff for support. I must have hit him harder than I thought. "What do you want?"

"I have several things in mind, there is just so much I am not sure where to start." Akomaru bagan to casually walk around, like we were to friends remeniscing. "I was very suprised that you so casually threw away the gift my dear brother bestowed upon you, Green Ranger. May I call you Green Ranger?"

"No." It was then that I noticed there was a slight glow emitting from the staff. "Have you joined forces with Lord Zedd?"
"That moron! Of course not."
"He blew up your planet."
"I know, and he'll pay for it. How do you think I got off before Daos was destroyed since someone else took my ship."
"Why not just stay with your people? There was nothing left for you there?"
"Because I had ..." Akomaru paused, then smiled wide enough that I could see his purple stained teeth. "You're trying to keep me distracted, aren't you? Off balance, hoping I might let something slip."

Crap! It was then that my communicator went off. "Go ahead."

Zordon updated me. "Adam is still unconscious but should be fine. We have freed the other Rangers and they are already helping deal with the monsters at the quarry. Are you all right, why didn't you come with Adam?"

"I was preoccupied with ..." I saw Akomaru hold a finger up to his mouth, clearly wanting me to be quiet about something. "...something. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"I told Rita it wouldn't work," shrugged Akomaru. "New or not, Rangers of any caliber are capable of adapting quite well. Look what you did mere minutes after you first got the powers."

"The staff is protecting you, isn't it? Zordon can't sense you."
"You really are too bright for your own good."
"Why are you doing this? What do you want?"
"I would prefer that you worry and fret, instead of enjoying blissful ignorance." And with that, Akomaru disappeared.

I stood there and tried to think of what he might be up to. He doesn't want to take me out now, or he could have just done it using Zedd's staff. He definately has something planned. And that was the main flaw in him coming to me. I can plan too. It was then that I remembered where I was and why I had stayed. Not nearly as interested as I had been before, I returned to the grave. Might as well get this over with before returning to the others. After a few moments, I was able to pull the letter from the stone. There was a small whole just big enough to reach a couple fingers in. I hesitated at first, but why would Tommy (or a clone of Tommy) booby trap his grave. I reaced in and sure enough felt something move. I clamped onto it with my fingers and pulled it out. I couldn't believe it.

It was a Dragon power coin of the Green Ranger.

[GreenDTRanger]

As the end of the school year approached, I was always trying not to panic. And although he hadn't made any more appearances, I knew Akomaru was somewhere waiting for me to lose it. The thought of that was the only thing that probably did keep me sane. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction! Zordon was keeping quiet about the whole situation. That is probably what suprised me the most. I tried to think of all the different reasons why he would do that: Zordon figured I could handle it; or he didn't consider Akomaru that big a threat; or since it didn't involve the other Rangers in any major way yet it was best to keep them uninvolved. None of them really made enough sense to me.

It hadn't even sunk in that I had finished my freshman year of high school without any major problems or difficulties. I, of course, missed a class here and there due to my other responsibilties. But since my disappearances usually meant a monster attack was coming soon I usually got away with it. I had always wondered how the others never seemed to get in trouble for skipping school. Now I know why. I was able to maintain a high enough GPA that I got high honor roll every semester (Dad though it could have been a little higher). And thanks to the others, especially Kim and Aisha, I got involved in several clubs and activities I wouldn't have normally (Mom thought I was spending too much time with older kids).

While Zordon and Alpha continued working with the dragon coins, I began to think more and more about the Tommy clone. I went to the main source first. "Tommy, what would you have done if you were sent into the past?"

"I don't know, man. Probably what I do here, carry on the good fight the best way I can."

It made sense. But I finally decided the best way of learning about the Tommy clone was up to in the past was to see a museum curator. I told the truth, I had found the grave and was curious. A Dr. Vaughn was more than anxious to talk about him.

"Well Dave, the legend says that five strangers appeared in Angel Grove and were followed by three giant monsters. Then two heroes appeared, one in green and the other in white. These heroes defeated the monsters and when it was time to return home, the Green Stranger decided to stay."

I sat in Vaughn's office, absorbing the story. That is fairly accurate. "What did the Green Stranger do? Did he settle down, start a family...?"

Dr. Vaughn began rummaging through files and cabinets. "No, he became an explorer. Thomas would leave for weeks and months at a time, but he always returned to Angel Grove."

"Where did he go on his travels?"
"All over. I've been able to track his movements to Mexico and once to Japan. He spent lots of time with different Native American tribes. He also went up and down the California coast line many times. Most of the places still exist today: Blue Bay Harbor, Reefside, Mariner Bay, Turtle Cove."

"What do you think he was up to?"
"As to the exact specifics, I'm still not really sure. Thomas kept notes and journals, I 've found plenty of evidence to support that. It's just no one has been able to find them."

"How do you know that he isn't just a folk tale or a legend?"
"Thomas would tell the people of Angel Grove stories upon his return. Epic stories about colorfully clad heroes fighting monsters and demons. And the use of colossal machines when things became too dangerous."

I was beginning to have a couple theories, but I needed Dr. Vaughn to connect the dots. "So."
"SO!? It sounds exactly like the Power Rangers. I've been making inquiries for years into these stories, but ever since the Power Rangers appeared two years ago I knew I was on the right track. Only recently have I been able to confirm similar tales from the Turtle Cove area."
"So?"
Dr. Vaughn plopped down in his chair and gestured for me to lean forward. He whispered "I believe that Power Rangers have always existed. I think that Thomas Oliver was one, and he spent his life tracking down legends of other Power Rangers."

I believed him, but I felt Dr. Vaughn was getting dangerously close. Suppose he finds something of clone Tommy's that leads him to our Tommy, or the others. Exerting as much disbelief as I could, I said "Interesting."

Dr. Vaughn got very defensive. "I know it sounds preposterous, but I think it makes sense." He sounded like a man who desperately needed someone to believe him.

I had better stay on his good side, just in case he does find something. "I won't go so far as to say I don't believe you, but I would prefer something a little more concrete first. Right now it sounds more like suspicion and supposition."

Dr. Vaughn smiled with relief. "Then I will be more than happy to find you some. What's your name?" He got out a pen to take down my info.
"Dave Cranston."
Vaughn didn't even bother to write it down. He just dropped the pen in frustration. "This is all a joke, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Which one of them had you do this? Was it Doris? Kevin? What did they give you? Did they pay you?"
"Doctor, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Vaughn proceeded to go to his door and rip it open in anger. I decided it might be a good time to leave. He angrily said, "I guess now you'll tell me you know a William Cranston."

I was almost out the door when he said that, but I quickly spun around. "What did you say?"
Still intent on slamming the door in my face, Vaughn rephrased his statement. "Now you're going to tell me you know a William Cranston."

I knew I was taking a risk, but if he knew something I needed to know. "He's my brother."
Vaughn continued to look me over for a few moments, not sure what to make of me. "Older brother?"
I nodded.
"Follow me."

Vaughn grabbed a set of keys and blew past me out of the room. I could have sworn I saw a smile, too. He led me to a large storage facility connected to the main museum. It was like walking into the final scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Rows and rows of labeled crates stacked to the ceiling, doing nothing but collect dust. I was led to a nearby corner that looked like it got a little more attention than the rest of the room. Vaughn turned on a desk light and began examining a clipboard.

"Recently, some new items were unearthed. I haven't had a chance to fully go through them yet." He set down the clipboard and began laying things out one at a time from the closest box. "Only a couple people have seen this." He then extended an envelope. I didn't recognize the writing, but the envelope said: To Be Opened Only By William or David Cranston. Mr. Vaughn was almost giddy with anticipation, then let out a gasp. "Look at the back."

I flipped it over. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 1995! I once again thought Back to the Future III. Then I realized something. Not long before Tommy was cloned we had all sat down as a group and had a marathon of all three movies. The third was the last movie all of us had seen together. Thomas was sending us clues from beyond the grave. Mr. Vaughn held out a hand, "May I open it?"

I could try to run with it, but to him it is a historical document. I gave it back to him, and waited patiently for it to be opened. Mr. Vaughn read it out loud:

"My Friends,

Not much time has probably past for you, but I am now an old man. Don't feel bad for me. I have led a life of great adventure and travel. I have gotten to see parts of the world in their beautiful prime before civilizations expanded onto them. I have no regrets, but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss you. Especially a certain girl in pink.

I'm writing this to one of you guys because with your smarts you'll know what best to do. Go to the home of our father figure, and look around the outside. I bequeth my life's work to all of you. And to my other self, don't be afraid of your interests. Explore them more, it is a very fulfilling life.

May the Power protect you all,

Tommy."

I wasn't exactly what my reaction should be, dumbfounded was definately how I felt. Vaughn just looked at me quizzically. "You know what this means don't you?"

"I have to go." And without a second thought, I ran. I ran through the storage room, through the back offices, through all the exzhibits. I plowed through some military guy as I exited the main doors, but I couldn't stop. I had to keep going.

****

Vaughn tried his best to follow behind the boy. But his over-weight, middle aged physique couldn't keep up to a teenager running at full steam. He arrived at the main museum doors gasping for breath. Trying his best to yell "wait" with every other step and failing. He got to the doors just in time to see a naval captain in uniform getting up off the pavement. "You okay, sir."

"Yes, fine. What was all that about?"
"Uh, nothing too important."
"Dr. Jacob Vaughn?"
"Yes."
"I have an appointment with you this afternoon."
"Oh, yes, of course. Follow me. I was very interested in your letter. What is this all about?"
"It's about your research. I'm willing to offer you some monetary compensation for some small collaboration."

****

Within a few minutes of reading the letter, I had already gone through a Command Center's lower chamber to find what I needed. With a shovel in one hand and a navigator in the other, I headed back up. But as I passed one storage room I had a strong compulsion to stop. It felt like something was drawing me inside it. I entered, and the first thing I saw was the Wizard of Deception's wand. The Rangers had been led to believe it was destroyed, but Alpha had been told to hide it away. Considering my plans had everything to do with clone Tommy, I thought what the heck. I picked it up, and placed it as securely as I could in my khaki pant's pocket.

I spent the next half hour walking around the perimeter of the Command Center. I kept constantly checking back between the navigator and my surroundings. Unfortuneatly, dirt looks like dirt, no matter what the time your in. I couldn't find anything anywhere. I made several complete rotations around the Command Center without any progress and was getting rather frustrated. I was almost ready to give up when I finally noticed something. Near the second Command Center entrance, I finally found a small mark on the wall. Tommy knows that I'm the only one who ever really uses that door. It was very, very small near the bottom of the wall, and looked very much like a small crack or even just a dirt stain. It was a down arrow with the vertical line resembling a crude thunderbolt. JACKPOT!

"Dave!"
I had just stuck the shovel into the ground. I turned to the android standing at the main entrance. "Yeah, Alpha?"

"Zordon has sensed a disturbance in the morphing grid. He wants you to check it out."
"Why can't he get one of the others to do it?"
"The others are all currently occupied with finals at school."
I walked over him and handed him the shovel.
"You're just to see what's going on. Contact us if you need back up."
Simple recon. Where have I heard that before?

I landed at an empty construction site. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. After looking around I found a small area roped off with police tape. I ducked under the barricade and found what looked like a large manhole cover. The symbols and emblems were not from Earth. This has to be it. On top of it was a small crumpled up piece of paper. It read: Called DWP, can't come 'til tomorrow. The construction workers probably couldn't continue so called it quits for the day.

"What are you doing here, Cranston?"
A slight chill went up my spine, but I would show nothing. "That is none of your business, Akomaru."
"You have no problems interfering with my afffairs, so why should I have any problems interfering with yours.?"
"Well - you are evil." I turned to see him standing not that far away, holding Rita's staff. "Zedd not want to share his toys today?"

Akomaru gave me a weak laugh for my bad joke. "No, no. Rita was more than happy to lend it to me."
"You won't be able to hide this from Zedd. If it caused enough of a disturbance to alert Zordon, then Zedd had to have felt something."
"Rita is currently ... keeping her husband occupied. Newlyweds and all that."
EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! I did NOT need to hear that! Bad mental image! Bad mental image! "What, are you two plotting against Zedd now?"
His smile weakened, but he tried to blow off my question. "Perhaps. Perhaps not."
Whoa! Lucky guess. "I'm really not in the mood for cryptic double-talk. Just tell me what you're up to. That way, I can stop you then get on with my day."
"You are getting increasingly arrogant."

Akomaru began to walk closer. I placed myself directly between him and the manhole. He was not amused anymore. "Oh, please. You have no weapons. You haven't morphed once since Daos so I take that to mean you either can't or simply won't. You're powerless against me."

With that he arched Rita's staff at me. I dodged out of the way and fell partially down the small incline. I heard a large explosion and covered my head as a large clouds of dirt fell on me. I tried to gather my bearings and quickly realized I hadn't been the target. Another loud crash made me realize he had in fact been targeting the manhole cover. Even as the dust began to disperse, I could see a large object rising upward. It was a large egg! I looked at Akomaru, triumph on his face. He was ignoring me, his attention entirely upon the egg.

Akomaru raised Rita's staff high into the air. "Ivan Ooze, COME FORTH! I now release you. Together we will reclaim what is rightfully ours and destroy anything in our way. Bring our enemies to their knees and destroy them utterly."

Great, I'm awake for a monologue.
I wasn't exactly sure of what I could do. I couldn't block that spell and the others couldn't get there in time. I then felt a weight on my right leg and remembered I wasn't completely defenseless. I pulled out the wand. I knew next to nothing about magic, but it was all I had. I stood up and pointed the wand at my foe. At the same time, energy shot out of our magical instruments and impacted with each other. The wand began to shake in my hand, but I knew I couldn't stop. Akomaru also had grim determination on his face. It was then with my peripheral vision I noticed what our magic was doing. At the point of impact, something was forming. It was just a blob of energy. The more I watched it, the more it grew, and the brighter it shone. And as it grew it also was inching closer and closer to me. It was definately feeding on the wand's magic, and was now heading for the source. I had no clue what we were conjuring, but I couldn't let up. When the energy mass finally reached the wand, I felt a shock go up my right arm with the sound of another explosion going off in my ear.

The next senstation I felt is that I was cold. And laying on something hard. I opened my eyes and sat up. It was night and I could see the egg from where I was. It was then I realized I was in the incomplete building, at least 100 feet away from my last position. I forced myself up while my legs kept trying to refuse to hold me. Why didn't the others come looking for me? As I looked around I also discovered I no longer had the wand. "Crap!" I slowly stumbled back to the egg but didn't see the wand anywhere. If I was carried over there, whoever found me could have taken it. But if I was blasted that far, the wand could have flown in any direction. I did find my navigator not that far from the egg. It was battered but still functional.

"What did you do?"
I turned to see Akomaru, stumbling over several dirt mounds also quite a ways off.
Again he said "What did you do to me?"
"What I did to YOU? Uh-uh. I think the real question is what YOU did here."
"If you hadn't interfered ..."
"Do you honestly expect me to feel guilty for stopping your sinister plot?"
"... and now I can't find Rita's staff."
I'm not really sure why that resonated, but that didn't sound good either. I then began programming my navigator to track high energy outputs, like the wand and staff. Before I could finish I heard a car door slam.

"What was that?" asked Akomaru.
I did a quick scan. Two humans, with guns. With my peripheral vision, I then got a glimpse of the yellow tape that still surrounded the egg. "Cops!"

I grabbed Akomaru by the scruff of his collar and dragged him into the construction site as quickly as I could. He struggled but I wouldn't let go.

"What do you think you're doing?"
"I have no real desire to be taken home in police custody AND have to explain to my parents what I was doing out here this late at night."
"I wouldn't know. Someone killed my parents."
I was starting to get very ticked off now. "Your father killed your mother. And he almost killed you."
"While he was fighting you, Cranston. With powers that were supposed to be mine."
"You're not going to make me feel guilty for stopping your father. And the fact I had your brothers powers made it poetic justice."
"Oh yes, you honored his memory by stealing his powers. Then what do you do with them? You just gave them away to a failed Ranger who couldn't even control the powers he used to have."

I was about to make an angry retort and respond with some physical violence. But then a voice out of nowhere said, "Is someone over there?"

Both of us ducked behind some piled up bricks. A flashlight beam passed over our location a few times. I waited a moment then signalled to Akomaru to come out. It was a cop, the noise of our argument must have caught his attention. Keeping as low as possible, we headed for cover. I wanted to be as close as possible to watch the egg and try not to draw attention. The cop was returning to his partner, who had already fallen asleep on watch. I found a good spot at the side of the egg mound where we could go unnoticed.

Akomaru whispered "What are we doing here? If you're so concerned about being caught then maybe we should leave."
"Somethings not adding up. It's been hours, why didn't the Rangers come looking for me? And if Rita had something to gain she wouldn't have just left you here. Whatever it is it's connected to that egg. If you want to leave, fine, I'll defeat you some other time. But I'm staying."

"I'm not going to leave a potential serv... ally in the hands of the Power Rangers. That egg will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine."
"Okay, Wayne. But live in the now. We still have no clue what's going on."
My navigator began beeping. I checked the readout.
"What's happening?" asked Akomaru.
"Massive energy readings heading this way. One is almost identical to Rita's staff. Over ... there."

I pointed over to the egg. The curious cop had just gotten to the top of the mound where the egg stood. Red energy began to appear out of nothingness and four bodies took shape.

Rita's shrill voice is always recognizable. "What do I care about some stupid egg?"
"This is no ordinary egg," boomed Zedd.
"Well I say we just hard boil the thing."

Then a pig monster I've never seen before spoke. "Me too. I'm starved."
"That's because you're a pig." I recognized the sound of Goldar's voice too.

"They didn't abandon me," proclaimed Akomaru. He then started to stand up.
"Wait!" I put my hand over his mouth and pulled him back down.
"Afraid you'll finally get what's coming to you."
"No, but even you should see something is not quite right here."

Pig monster aside, they looked wrong. Goldar's gold armor looked more armor-like. Zedd's voice sounded harsher, his metal frame and staff were sharper (and shinier), and the 'Z' on his head piece was lower than usual. He had no leg braces, but did wear metal booties. Rita herself just looked different.

"She could have had another mystical facial," simply stated Akomaru.
"That still doesn't explain the others. Whose the pig?"
Akomaru shrugged and we looked back. The second cop had been awakened just long enough for Zedd to knock both cops unconscious. Both bodies fell limply to the ground.

With that completed Zedd turned back to his original target. "Now, let's crack this egg." He raised his staff and electrical energy shot toward the egg. I glanced at Akomaru, who was staring and studying every detail of what was going on in front of us.

The egg itself coalesced with energy. The claw that held the egg released itself and fell away. A crack formed at the top of the egg and proceeded halfway down the shape before the egg split itself in half. And then - nothing.

Rita walked forward and stuck her finger in. "What? You spent 2000 years looking for a tub of SNOT?!"
"Patience, motormouth," warned Zedd. "Watch."

The snot in the egg began to grow. Flowing upward into a small tower of goo. The goo then took physical form and let out a long, centuries waiting yawn. Then cracked it's neck. Twice. Why would a shapeshifting puddle of goo have a skeletal system?

This new being looked at it's surroundings and noticed Zedd's group for the first time. "Ladies and gentlemen, 'The Ooze' is BACK!"

[GreenDTRanger]

I was quite anxious to hear what was going on by that alien manhole cover. Unfortunately, it was taking all I had just to restrain Akomaru. I had to mouth "shut up" a couple times but he was still not really compliant.

"Afraid of capture? You should, you know."
I hushed him again. As quietly as I could I responded. "That isn't Rita and Zedd, at least not ours. Something has happened, and we have to figure out what it is."

"We?"
"We're stuck here together. We'll probably need each other to get back."
"The great David Cranston needs my help!"

Once more, Akomaru was getting on my nerves. Once again I felt compelled to hit him. I would have too if Ooze hadn't said, "What is that odious stench?"

I looked back up to see Zedd and company had already left. Ooze was just standing there, looking around. Then he said, "Smells like… teenagers." At the exact same time, we both ducked down lower. Ooze looked at the cops laying at his feet. He cocked his head at one, then pushed them both off the small hill with his foot. The unconscious bodies landed limply right in front of where we hid. Then Ooze disappeared out of sight.

I risked half standing. Nothing. “Okay, first we get these guys to safety. Then we have to figure this out.”

Akomaru gave me a very dirty look and grumbled under his breath, but he did as told and grabbed one of the cops. I grabbed the other and started dragging as quietly as possible. We got to the unfinished building without interruption and secured the cops behind a port-a-potty. We then chanced looking for Ooze, who hadn’t gone far. Ooze was slowly walking around the site, arms outstretched, eyes closed.

“What is he doing?”
Akomaru simply answered; “Sensing, he’s searching for something.”

I was shocked at how freely he gave that information. Not missing a beat, no comments or retorts. I was still reeling when Akomaru directed my attention back to Ooze. Ooze had stopped what he was doing and was now looking to the sky. Ooze reverted to some sort of puddle right there on the spot. It was then that I saw six colorful beams of light fall from the sky and land in front of the manhole hill. The light turned into six people who I immediately recognized.

“Those teleportation beams are certainly different.” And as I watched the group head for the manhole cover, I realized something else. When did Billy get so … ripped?

Akomaru took advantage of the situation and pushed me into the pillar we hid behind. “You had better not do what I think you’re thinking.”

“Which is…?”
“Calling for the Rangers, using the situation to your advantage.”
“As opposed to how you wanted to use it to your advantage just a minute ago. Sorry, but no.” I shoved my accuser off. “Something is really not right here, but I’m think we’re on some sort of parallel world. But I don’t know if this is a classic Trek ‘Mirror, Mirror’ alternate world, or a Earth 1/ Earth 2 co-existing thing, which then leads to the possibility of a multiverse. Is it naturally connected to ours, or did we force our way here? But then we could have been…”

“Am I supposed to understand anything you’re saying? What‘s a multiverse?”
“It’s the idea that every possible reality does in fact exist.”
“And I was supposed to understand that?”

I was about to explain but then realized on what we were missing. “Wait a minute.” The two of us peered around to see the Rangers talking to Ivan Ooze. I was afraid I wouldn’t hear anything but Ivan’s voice carried so I got what he said. But then Ooze said “Meet my kids!” and generated purple energy from his hands that struck the ground like lightning. The purple residue on the ground quickly grew into several purple monsters with dreadlocks and body armor.

“Bye bye kiddies!” was Ivan’s last words before transforming into purple light and teleporting in a manner very similar to the Ranger’s. The fight was on. The Rangers split up and took on the baddies. They were good, but a little more aggressive than my team. I was completely shocked at the gymnastic prowess Billy was exhibiting. I knew he was getting better, but is my Billy that good now? But the creatures were stronger, and quickly backed them to a wall. I glanced at Akomaru, there was a gleam in his eyes and a slight smile on his face. He was clearly enjoying it.

“Come on.” I grabbed Akomaru’s arm and dragged him in the direction Billy and Kimberly were flipping. The other Ranger teens quickly joined them. The six of them were outnumbered and overpowered. I knew what was coming next, and it was my turn to smile.

Tommy didn’t disappoint when he cried, “IT’S MORPHIN TIME!”
“PTERADACTYL!”
“TRICERATOPS!”
“TYRANNAOSAURUS!”
“MASTODON!”
“SABRETOOTH TIGER!”
"WHITE TIGER!"

Akomaru and I gasped at the same time. Tommy said “White Tiger” instead of “Tigerzord” like I normally would expect. That coin hasn’t been invoked like that since Kou! Things obviously happened differently here than they did back home. I didn’t get much chance to think it over as Akomaru quickly got up and started running. I then realized that during the morph the monsters had turned and were now heading towards where we hid.

I didn’t have enough time to go anywhere. All I could do was stand up and hide behind one pillar to the best of my abilities. All the purple monsters ran past me without so much as a glance. As they broke off into different directions, I took a chance and bolted after my traveling companion. Took a left and went down one corridor. Almost panicked over whether to go up some stairs or take another left. Going upstairs never works in movies. When I heard the sounds of six pairs of boots heading my way I quickly made the next left. Akomaru was nowhere to be seen, same as with the purple guys. And I had just ran into a construction area with lots of planks, metal pipes, tools and other miscellaneous items laying around. I wouldn’t be able to go through there quickly or quietly. I heard the faint echoes of the Ranger’s talking and tried to duck behind the nearest pillar. In the dark, I hadn’t noticed that the floor was incomplete and in different areas, was different heights. The sudden three foot drop didn’t hurt but was a little unsettling. Now covered in complete shadow, I looked out.

That’s -- different. I found myself gaping at their costumes. Instead of the traditional spandex, they were in some sort of battle armor. They looked kind of overly bulky. I was torn over whether I liked them for their practicality or hated them for their general design. Tommy gestured towards Aisha, I didn’t hear what he said, but she in turn called out, “Activating power beam”. The animal eyes on her helmet lit up like flashlights. I had been toying with the notion of augmenting our traditional weapons and tools, but hadn’t gotten around to it with any serious intent. But someone here has. I then heard Rocky call out, “Activating power scope”. The black space between the helmet T-Rex’s teeth now had a visor that more than resembled Cyclops’ ruby quartz visor. They were now getting pretty close to me now.

“Talk to me, Rocko. What have we got?”, Tommy queried.
Rocky answered, “The readings are all over the place. I don’t know what these purple creeps are made of but I can’t lock ’em down.”

It’s a helmet sensor! It could still detect humans easily enough! Still not sure how good it would be to confront the Rangers (especially when they were preoccupied with looking for monsters to bash), I decided it was best not to stay there. I ducked as low as I could and tried to run. I was almost to safety behind a completed wall when I heard Rocky yell, “Over there!” I spun around. He was pointing in my direction but not directly at me, but the monster that had started to follow me.

The purple monster lunged forward. It was too quick for me to defend myself, so I fell backwards and let his momentum carry him over me. With one flip I was on my feet one second later. My adversary was still struggling. Once it was partially up, I grabbed it by it’s own dreadlocks, spun it around a couple times and directed it to slam into the wall. The purple monster was staggering but not done yet. So I kicked it in the face as hard as I could. The monster crumpled to the ground. “Sorry Michael, I’m just not you’re type of babysitter.” It was then that I noticed my eyes were burning. “Maybe Mom is right about me being too young for contacts.”

“Cranston!”
It was very loud and annoyed, but still technically a whisper. Akomaru proceeded from behind the wall, hand clutching his chest. Great, we had the same idea for hiding spots.

“You startled me.”
“Boo-hoo.” Again with the annoying me, and we were getting into an even more dangerous situation. “We don’t have time for this kind of crap.”

I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was equally angry or frustrated, but instead Akomaru seemed - intrigued? Since it didn’t seem important, I put it out of mind and looked around. During my small skirmish, all the Rangers had separated and were now gone. The sounds of fighting could be heard from all directions.

“Come on,” I ordered. The two of us discreetly backtracked to the stairs and went up to the second floor. Billy was in the process of knocking a purple monster over a metal grate. He then activated a weapon I had never seen before to go help Aisha. Akomaru and I headed over to the edge to see what was going on. The Rangers were regrouping, the group of purple monsters was noticeably smaller.

Tommy came flying off the third story, flipped several times in mid air and landed perfectly next to the other Rangers. “I’d like you guys to meet Saba.” I heard Tommy say. The White Ranger then threw his sword into the air. Saba spun around and floated up higher and higher into the air. Saba then released energy beams from his eyes and snapped the cable holding a humongous metal trash bin. The bin fell on the monsters and a purple puddle began to ooze out. Pun not intended.

I turned to Akomaru. “Since when can Saba fly?”
“How am I supposed to know? I’ve never seen it do that. What I want to know is why Rangers make those ridiculous postures after defeating an adversary.”

As I turned back to the scene I noticed Saba hadn’t returned to Tommy. Saba continued to hover in the air, and was now looking back and forth between Akomaru and myself. Akomaru noticed him, too. The jig is up! We’ve been spotted! Saba’s mouth opened a couple times, but I didn’t hear what he said. He was then surrounded by white energy tendrils and simply disappeared.

“Did you do that?” I nearly spat the words out at Akomaru.
“No, that did that.” Akomaru pointed down to the Rangers. The same energy was enveloping them, and all six demorphed before our eyes.

“What’s going on?” asked Kim.
Billy was already fiddling with his communicator. “Alpha, come in.” He got nothing.

My first instinct was to use my own communicator to try and help, but I froze. My mind was filled with all kinds of problems and paradoxes that could happen. I could only watch as the Rangers ran off out of the construction site.

“What now?”
I looked at Akomaru. He was still incredibly anxious about what was happening. Crap, so was I. And here he was expecting me to be the hero, find a solution and save the day. “I’m not sure.” Akomaru threw up his hands with frustration, got up and began to pace. I tried to explain it to him. “We’re not supposed to be here. Anything we do here could have drastic repercussions on this planet.”

“We’re already here, we’re already interfering. And are you so arrogant to believe that you are so important that you can alter and change the course of history for an entire planet!”

I stood to counter his argument. “All right, Q. Let’s unravel this tapestry. Mess up someplace we don’t belong, which only screws with their potential future.”

All we could do was stare at each other. Subtext was becoming less and less like sub and more like text. This could have gone on further, but Akomaru decided to be the one to not pursue it

“Enough of this, you‘re only confusing me and yourself” Akomaru interrupted. “You said we may need the aid of these Rangers to get home. Now they may not even be able to. I say we go, and explain the situation to them NOW! We could still catch them.”

I wanted to disagree so badly, but I couldn’t settle on anything myself. Good, distract the mind. Better for both of us. “All right. Zordon has more experience with this sort of thing than I do. He could still probably help us without causing any drastic changes to anything. And even if something does happen he could probably fix it.” I raised my communicator. “This is Dave, someone please respond.” Only static. “Zordon, Alpha, anybody, answer me!”

“Is there some sort of interference?”
“Not that I can tell.”
“Could they be on a different wavelength frequency?”
“Possible, but they’re so close my communicator would easily match their comm frequency. The only way something like this could happen was if the entire communications network was down.”

“Teleporters, too. Otherwise your Rangers would have used them.”
“Something bad must have happened at the Command Center. That could explain the demorphing.”
“Ivan Ooze, had to be. And if he is like the one in our universe, he and Zordon were enemies.”
“He was headed for the desert.”

I turned and looked at what little skyline was visible. It gave me a funny feeling in my stomach, like I wanted to throw up. This feels so wrong, but I don’t know what else to do. I looked back upon someone I considered an enemy, and said something which was foul to my own ears. “Let’s go to the Command Center.”


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Message to my readers (all 47 of you)! I’m sorry for the lateness in this chapter. I started a new job that has demanded most of my time. Just wanted to let you know that I don’t intend for this story to just disappear into the cyber-void. I have some big stuff planned, especially for Zeo and Turbo. But I figure better to wait a little while longer for better chapter than a rush job. Like the tree monster in Season 1, had a good idea but was rushed to make monthly posts.

[GreenDTRanger]

As Akomaru and I began the trek into the desert, I continued to wonder if this was the right thing to do. But it always left me with the same conclusion, Zordon will solve this. I wanted to attempt to protect the secret location of the Command Center. Not taking short cuts, doubling back constantly, simply going the wrong way - anything that would make it difficult for Akomaru to repeat the process back home. Unfortunately, all we needed to do was follow the trail already left by six pairs of running feet.

“We could have at least brought something to drink, you know,” complained Akomaru for what seemed like the dozenth time.

“Shut up. We’re almost there.”
“I don’t intend to die in a parallel universe.”
“You’re not going to die.”
“Easy for you to say. This isn’t your world either, but I’m sure these Ranger’s will do as you ask and next thing I know you’ll have a Megazord blowing me up just like my father.”
“SHUT UP!”

My voice echoed across the semi-quiet desert as I turned and bore down on Akomaru. My eyes were burning again but I didn’t care. Things would be even better if I could do a Carrie White impersonation, or maybe like Drew Barrymore in Firestarter. But Akomaru wasn’t startled, he just simply nodded.

“Temper, temper, Cranston. I thought someone like you would have a little more self control.” Then he just simply walked by me as if nothing had happened. “Well there it is.”

I caught up to the annoying jerk to see what he saw. And sure enough there stood the Command Center. While it looked the same, the shape and color seemed slightly off. As we approached, I noticed something was covering the entrance. When we got to the door, we discovered purple slime.

“Ooze has obviously been here.”
“Thank you, Mr. States-the-Obvious.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Before I could stop him, Akomaru grabbed hold of the door handle. This was followed by an electrical discharge up his arm. He immediately released it and jumped back a few steps.

“It’s not fatal, but it does sting.” Slightly gleeful, I turned away from him and reached for the handle myself. “Only certain people are allowed -- OUCH!” A sharp and tingly sensation was coursing up my arm after I released the door handle.

“What happened?” asked Akomaru as he rubbed his arm.
“I’m not sure. This has never happened to me before.” I leaned forward as close to the door as I dared and peered in. An emergency security door was now in place. “Look’s like there is dome sort of lock down in their,” and then I realized something, “and me without a coin.”

“What does that mean?”
Explanation time AGAIN! I took in one quick breath before responding. “The Command Center is operating with all security functions in effect. I would also guess that power is low all over the place. The computer systems themselves would revert to their most basic of programming for the maximum effect. This means ‘no one may enter without a power coin’, which is one of Zordon’s primary rules.”

“Ooze did,” was Akomaru’s simple rely. The simple truth of it wanted me to knock him out cold with my numb arm. “Surely these aren’t the only entrances.”

I stood and pondered that for a moment. I then blurted out “Wait here!” and bolted for the side of the Command Center. A vague recollection was brewing in my head as I tried to remember.

“Hold on!”
“What?”
“I’m coming, too.”
I scoffed at him. “No, you’re not!”
“Why not”
“I don’t trust you.”
“I don’t trust you either. But aren’t we supposed to be putting aside our differences for the time being?”

Again, I was caught with annoyingly simple logic. The numb arms were being replaced with very warm ears and pink face. But I thought I knew a way to protect myself. “Swear it.”

“Swear what?”
“That you will not reveal anything you see here?”
“Certainly.”

The quickness of his response really bothered me. “Swear it upon the honor of your father, the Emperor and the Gohma dominion.”

That definitely threw him for a loop. And I could merely look on as he seriously considered it. With a nod, he responded “Very well. Which way?”

We ended up walking north until the Command Center was barely visible through all the huge rock formations that made up the landscape. It took us about an half hour to find what I was looking for. I stopped in the middle of a small clearing where shrubbery and long grass were covering a dirt mound.

“This has to be it.”
“What? Where are we at?” The sound of Akomaru’s voice told me that he was going to start whining and complaining again.

“The back door to the Command Center.” I walked to the mound and started pulling away the hanging grass. Within moments I found a crevasse large enough for one person to walk through. “Shall we?” I went first, but Akomaru caught up so fast he kept walking on my heels. There was lights, put the power was so low most were just barely flickering.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean no?”
“I’ve never been this far back in the Command Center. I’ve never had a reason to.”
“Wonderful!” Akomaru threw his arms up in exasperation.

I pulled out my Navigator when I finally decided I needed it. I thought it would provide a good distraction from Akomaru’s rambling but it had the exact opposite effect.

“I forgot you had that. Why didn’t we use it earlier, we could have gotten here a lot faster?”
“If someone remembered I still had it, then that person wouldn’t have needed my help to get this far.”
“You’re just so clever aren’t you. Oh, what now?”
“There is supposed to be a left turn here. The layouts between the two Command Centers must not be the exact same.”

“Great, maybe we can just die down here. End all of our problems. Maybe one of those legendary California earthquakes will occur and cave the ceiling in on us. I can die like how you killed my mother, and how you tried to kill me the first time.”

That’s it! “What is you’re problem?”
“YOU ARE! I thought it was bad with my father and grandfather, but now everything wrong with my life all seems to lead back to being you’re fault.”

“Well I’m sorry, your Highness, but being a royal pain in my ass is not going to make your situation any better!”

“It’ll do for now. Besides, it’s fun trying to make you as miserable as I feel everyday.” Akomaru glanced over my shoulder. He smirked. “This way.”

I turned and looked at the wall. Sure enough there was a sign.

COMMAND CENTER
====>

After a few more minutes of walking I started to recognize parts of the storage levels. I found a flight of stairs and within a few more minutes we ended up where the main chamber was supposed to be. The giant doors stood ajar, purple ooze sliding off the jagged interior of the frames. I would have gasped at how different the room was from home if it hadn’t been completely trashed. Light columns, control consoles, everything seemed to have something wrong with it. But I hadn’t realized what was straight in front of me: Zordon’s energy tube shattered.

My mouth opened in astonishment. Then I noticed a small robot walking around the bottom of the tube staring at a gray lump lying in a pile of crystals. I was shocked. Without even thinking I rushed forward, avoiding debris to get to his side. “Zordon?”

At one end of the grey pile of material was a head. It slowly turned towards me, and attempted to smile.

It wasn’t until I spoke did Alpha notice my presence. “Dave, how did you get here? You’re supposed to be off planet.”

Oblivious, I could only say the most obvious thing. “It was Ooze wasn’t it?”
Alpha nodded.

Akomaru didn’t care for what going on, and needed to voice an opinion. “What a dump. Are we done with this sob story now?”

“Shut up!”
I was almost distracted by Alpha jumping up in surprise. “Aye-yi-yi! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”
“He’s with me Alpha.”
“Why?”

A slight cough brought everyone’s attention back to the body in front of us. Zordon was trying to speak, as the twinkle in his eye was now no longer noticeable. “You’re … not … ours.” He understood.

“No, I’m not.” It was almost ridiculous, I was trying so desperately not to cry. “I think our two worlds are parallel to each other. A dimensional rift was accidentally opened and Akomaru and myself were pulled through.” I slowly reached out my hand and placed my hand on Zordon’s cool cheek. This I found incredibly odd since Zordon doesn’t even have a physical body back home. “But I’m here now, and I’m going to do all I can to get you better. Okay?” My voice cracked really bad with that last word.

Zordon gave another weak smile and closed his eyes. I sniffed as I wiped the first tear off my cheek. I caressed Zordon’s bald head as caringly as I could before turning away. Alpha was now walking to the console what appeared to have this world’s version of a viewing globe. Akomaru paced in the back, bored.

“Alpha, where are the Rangers?”
“Phaedos, searching for the Great Power.”
I didn’t know where that was, but I assumed far. “And me? Where am I supposed to be at?”
“Attending a conference on Eltar for Zordon.”
That is really far. “Teleportation, communications, is everything down?”
“Almost. I’m trying to use every bit of power I can to sustain Zordon.”
“There’s got to be something I can do,” I said, glancing back to the huddled mass on the crystals
“I don’t think so. Maybe you should take the Radbug home,” Alpha tried to be hopeful, but my raised eyebrows reminded him of my situation, “you know what I mean, get some sleep. Maybe eat.”

With no other options, I agreed. “Zedd and Ooze will probably be lying low tonight, making plans and preparations.” I patted Alpha’s shoulder and headed for the door. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

Akomaru caught up to me. “So that was Zordon? I wasn’t impressed.”
I turned on him, shoved him against wall and placed my arm across his chest to restrain him. “I don’t care what you think!”

All Akomaru could do was look at me, his face in partial silhouette. “Hurts losing a father figure, doesn’t it?”

I pushed away from Akomaru in disgust. Without another word I turned and headed for the hangar, wiping away my tears in the comforting darkness.

[GreenDTRanger]

“I love snow globes.”

Ivan Ooze shook the small item in his hand. Tiny shrieks were just barely audible from the globe. He rose from the throne he had just commandeered and began to inspect Zedd’s great hall. Barren and rocky, with a big giant fan that seemed to serve no real purpose. Goldar and his pig companion continued to sing his praises. Ooze walked over to the railing and looked down at the Earth below.

“Now, it’s time for you.” Then with a chuckle and a casual shrug, Ivan placed the snow globe on the railing in front of him.

“I was wondering when someone was finally going to shut her up. I’ve been trying to convince Zedd to do it for ages.”

Ooze turned to the speaker, only to see a young man in purple, black and white robe. Amused, Ooze completely forgot about his new toy and approached the cocky newcomer. “You’re not an Earthling.”

“I’m Gohma.”
“Fascinating. What are your intentions?” Ooze slowly began to overlook the child in front of him, not really listening.

“To stay out of your way.”
“Smart lad.”
“Given one exception.”
Ooze knew that it was going too easily. Children are so annoyingly needy. “Which is?”
“The Green Ranger?”
“The Who?”

*******

“Will you quit your blubbering.”
“How many times do I have to tell you to shut up before it finally sinks in?”
“It wasn’t even your Zordon.”

Once I had gotten us to the hangar, we had to still find the manual release for the hangar doors. I did my best to keep my misplaced emotions under control as Akomaru and I both strained against the main lever of the door just to get it open wide enough for the Radbug. And considering the thin layer of dust on, well, everything and the humongous spider-web in the rear window, this Radbug clearly hadn’t gotten much use lately.

As we took off I enjoyed the cooling night air rushing against the side of my face. Akomaru was holding onto anything he could, his eyes bulging.

“Another reason to hate your planet: your flying vehicles are worthless.”
“I could let you out now and you could fall to your painful death from here.”
“Like you haven’t killed enough of my family, what’s one more to you.”

Even with the wind, the tips of my ears began to burn. I had no problems letting the car start swooping and diving in mid-air.

“AAAAHHHH! What is it?! What’s happening?!”
I just looked at him. “Turbulence.”

With that, he finally shut up.

I flew us to Angel Grove Park. It’s pretty deserted at night and presented the least chance of anyone spotting a flying car. As we landed, Akomaru’s cheeks briefly puffed out. I was horror stricken. “You are not blowing chunks in this car. You will not like cleaning it up by yourself.”

As I weaved us through the light suburban traffic, Akomaru swayed with the motion of the car. He continued to look sick the entire way. It wasn’t until we got to the alley behind the Cranston house that Akomaru jumped out. I stopped the car and put it in park. I got out and placed my clasped hands on the roof of the car, more humor in my voice than actual concern. “You okay, because it’s not that far to go.”

“I think you’ve gone far enough, Cranston.”

I turned to see a dark figure standing in my headlights. “Who are you?”
“Like you don’t know.”

As the figure took a couple steps forward, I was slightly horror stricken. The voice was very familiar, but the face. That face that continues to haunt me as both friend and foe. I approached to confirm. But considering the clothing and attitude, there was only one conclusion. “Akomaru?”

“Don’t sound so surprised, Cranston. You think I wouldn’t take advantage of this. Zedd and his imbeciles are out of the way. You, alone, with no back-up. We end it now, after all this time.”

I thought about it for a second. “It’s … only been a year.”

“A year that I should have spent grounding your bones to dust with my boot heel!”
“Did someone just graduate from the Supervillain School of Over-Dramatizing?”

The rustle of trash cans alerted this Akomaru to my traveling companion. The sick one stumbled forward, with something dribbling down his chin. “Who are you talking to?”

The two of them locked eyes and stared, jaws moving but uttering no sound. Both did even manage to lift their arms and point. The new one started to back away. “No. No, you’re dead. I know it. I KNOW it!” he turned and in a puff of smoke disappeared.

I went to my Akomaru to check on him. “You okay.”
“Please tell me I’m not some cowardly weakling in this universe.”
“I’m thinking no.”
“Why?”
“He’s got something you don’t.”
“Stop being secretive and just say it.”

I poked Akomaru in the middle of the forehead. The bump that had been on his forehead a year ago was gone. “He has his third eye. Fully developed. I saw it open.”

“That’s not possible. I don’t.”
“Do I need to point out all the other differences we’ve encountered so far.”
“But we’re still too young. The only way that could happen was if I ha-…” Comprehension dawned on him.

I nodded as some vague Gohma knowledge of Kou’s floated in my head. “Had adult Gohma powers. That wasn’t just you, that was the Gohma Emperor.”

~~~

My parents often take off for the weekend to visit friends and relatives. Lucky for us the same could be said for this Cranston couple. I scraped together a simple dinner of soup and sandwiches. Akomaru and I didn’t say much to each other for the rest of the night. After everything that had happened in the last couple of hours combined with that alley encounter had left us both very contemplative. I insisted on Akomaru sleeping in my parents room while I took my counterparts. It was weird. Same room, same belongings, only with the subtlest of changes. One poster was on a different wall, my school clothes from that morning weren’t thrown on the bed. I slept the best I could until morning but ended up in the kitchen eating bowl after bowl of all the different cereals in the house (I’m a cereal lover).

“I haven’t slept that well in ages. You should see the conditions I’m forced to tolerate on the moon. With all those monsters snoring and putty patrollers wandering the halls making that irritating sound.”

Akomaru had startled me out of my reverie. He in turn grabbed one of the cereal boxes and test the pieces one at a time. He wasn't being confrontational so I decided to go with it. I tried to enjoy the ridiculousness of this situation. “Don’t worry, crunch berries won’t kill you. But the food coloring can have some interesting side effects.”

Akomaru got a little concerned with that, but when he noticed it was what I was eating he shrugged it off. “So what are we going to do today?”

“We should probably go back to the Command Center and …”
“I’m not getting back into that junky flying contraption.”
“It’s all we got.”
“Just - not right now. I’m still a little queasy thinking about it.”
“Fine, okay. We’ll stick to the city for right now. Get a lay off the land and figure out what has been happening here. If something bad happens, we’re crowd control.”

“Oh we are, are we?” Akomaru chose this time to start to get an attitude again.

I stood up and looked him straight in the eyes. “Yes, we are. And once we’ve done all we can, then we report to Zordon.”

Since it was Saturday, I decided the best place to start was probably the park. We lucked out on that one. Despite the earliness of the hour, there were people everywhere. And there was a large group of kids surrounding a tall wizard in all purple. Kids were already walking away, holding little plastic jars and playing with the purple goop inside.

“Don’t you think it’s a little odd that a complete stranger is giving out stuff to kids and there are no parents around?”

Akomaru didn’t hear me. His head kept swishing back and forth, looking at the leaving children. “Oh no.”

“What?”
“I can’t be exactly sure.”
“Something bad?”
“Possibly very bad. We need to get one of those -- jars so I can be sure.”
“I’ll go. It’s just a hunch, but if they do work for Ooze, they might already know what you look like.”

I wandered throught the small crowd of kids still surrounding the wizard. When I came up to him, the wizard promptly handed me one. “Here you are young man. Do you want to take some to your friends who aren’t here? No reason they shouldn’t miss out.”

“This should be fine, the only friends I know who would be interested are out of town.”
“Suit yourself.”

As I turned away, I heard the wizard take in two quick breaths through his nose. Then one longer one. I heard someone do the exact same thing just last night. As I turned to look at the wizard, I looked closer to the face. There was a definite resemblance, but then I noticed he was now looking at me. The pleasant smile of the wizard was replaced by a blank one of suspicion. I held up the jar, gave him a big fake smile, and headed back to Akomaru as quickly as I could without seeming suspicious. I didn’t stop when I got to him either, but blew on past and wasn’t going to stop until I knew the purple guy couldn’t see us. Akomaru gave no questions, just followed. I didn’t stop until we got to a more empty section of the park with lots of trees for coverage.

"Ooze?" was all he asked.
"Live in person." I handed the jar to Akomaru’s outstretched hand. He unscrewed the top and just lightly dabbed his finger at the surface. The tiny bit he got on his index finger he rubbed around with his thumb and smelled.

“This is definitely hypnotic gel. It’s used to make people more compliant, shutting down their higher thought processes without causing major cerebral damage.”
I wasn‘t liking this. “How do you know?”
“There are different ways to make it, varying recipes. This follows a definite Gohma formula. But even this is tainted.”
“How so?”
“In all the different ways I know to make it, it’s not supposed to be this color of purple. What are you doing?”

I dug into my pant’s pocket and dug out my navigator. “When we were at the Command Center, I should have picked up a small scan of the gunk Ivan left all over the main chamber door. I’m seeing if there is a match.”

“That could be another problem. If Ivan is connected to this stuff, whether it be physical or magical, he’ll be able to control them.”

My scans confirmed a slight trace match. I was horrified. “All those kids…”
“Will be fine. The lack of a smell means this batch is very strong. A more underdeveloped mind, like a child’s, wouldn’t be susceptible.”

“Are we fine, can we fight it?”
“I think so.”

The wind picked up, and not by a little bit either. The rumbling of thunder from the cloudless sky was what caught my attention. It was then that I saw the black of smoke begin to form from the ground. One second later, this universe’s Akomaru materialized.

“You are not fine by a long shot, Cranston. Guess what Ivan is letting me borrow?” The three-eyed Akomaru raised both arms to the sky. Lightning shot from his hands, where the energy landed began to glow. And from the glow six figures began to grow, to become -- birds? Six squawking birds with light battle armaments. “I don’t know how Cranston brought you back to life, dear brother, but this time you are staying dead.”

I just looked at my companion. “Who would have thought we would end up fighting alongside each other on a parallel version of my world, trying to save it from an evil tyrant and your own doppleganger.”

It wasn’t lost on Akomaru. “Who do you think is more disturbed by this prospect, you or me? But let‘s just hope you can save this planet without almost blowing it up.”

[Red Slash]

Nice chapter :023:

[GreenDTRanger]

I didn’t like the odds, outnumbered, definitely overpowered, and with no help in sight. We are really screwed here.

“Where did you get Tenga warriors?” Akomaru asked his counterpart.
Emperor Akomaru gave a sign of mock surprise. “I’m would think a high and mighty prince like yourself would know their enemies a little better. They’re Tengu warriors.”

“No, they’re not.” Akomaru was starting to sound frustrated.

I quickly whispered to him, “Now is probably not the best time to argue cross-dimensional semantics.”

Emperor Akomaru glanced back and forth between us. “Have another one of those last minutes saves you heroes are so fond off being concocted right now?”

I wish. “Something like that.”

“Tell you what, I will delay your deaths a few extra moments if you explain how you survived, Kou.” The Emperor smiled, like he was offering us something special.

The Akomaru beside me gave me a distraught glance, but I was trying not to smile. Classic mistake. He just screwed up so bad. Time to milk it. “Couldn’t figure it out could you? You must have spent all last night wondering. How can you be so sure he even died. A lot of stuff was happening on Daos.”

It looked like I had rattled the Emperor a little bit. “I saw him fall. The two of you were fighting side by side. The Dai White Ranger, leading his peasants into a fight they couldn’t win. The Earth Green Ranger, trying to atone for the evil deeds in his past.”

My train of thought was completely derailed. “What? My evil deeds?”

Luckily, the Emperor didn’t notice my surprise. In fact it cheered him up. “I was quite surprised about them myself. Beating your Red Ranger into unconsciousness. Almost killing your Yellow Ranger. By the way, what is it your brother did to you so that you couldn‘t kill him?”

I was still completely startled by this news. I was the evil Green Ranger? I didn’t want to believe it, and it was starting to make me a little angry.

Akomaru grabbed my arm. He then whispered to me, “Snap out of it, Cranston!” He then took up the conversation on my behalf. “Maybe he realized he couldn’t kill family.”

“Sentimental rubbish. When are you going to realize it, Kou, our family is just too -- dysfunctional. But instead of just simply adhering to my simple request, you just ended your lives a little sooner. Tengu, destroy!”

“Do something, Cranston.” Akomaru took a couple steps back from the charging birds.

I had one action that I had been putting off. I quickly pulled out my navigator. The left side handle I separated from the main body and extended it so it pointed straight out left. I then shifted the bottom from a horizontal to a vertical position. I grabbed hold of the new vertical handle and pointed the extended side towards the nearest Tengu. My index finger felt a small lever, and I pulled it back. An energy beam shot out and got the Tengu right in the middle of the chest, knocking it on it’s back. The others birds paused to look at their companion. Akomaru was stunned too.

“Navigator, blaster mode. I’d say this could be considered a successful prototype.”

Akomaru quickly smacked me on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me you had that?”
“I just said it was a prototype, I wasn’t sure it would work. Why aren’t you doing something?” The rest of the tengus returned their attention to us and charged angrily. I blasted at them, but only got one. “Cast a spell at them or something.”

Akomaru was now starting to panic. “I can’t do that sort of thing yet.”
“Here,” taking a BIG chance I tossed Akomaru my blaster, “make yourself useful.”

I ran forward. I ducked under the outstretched arms of the closest Tengu, spun and kicked the next right in the stomach. I heard the blaster go off a couple times. I was then grabbed from behind by another Tengu and thrown to the ground. This tengu quickly tried to stomp on me. I blocked it’s foot with an arm cross but it’s strength was way more than mine. I shifted my body over a few inches and allowed the foot to crash down right next to my head. I took advantage and was able to land a pretty good kick on it’s beak. As the Tengu fell back holding it’s face, I got up in time to see it get blasted.

“CAREFEL! You almost singed my head!” I looked back at Akomaru. He was ducking in and out between trees, trying to avoid the rest of the Tengu. All of them were now ganging up on him. Weaker link, or more personal reasons? I looked at the other Akomaru. He was most definitely not pleased. I was about to yell “run” when this world’s Goldar materialized next to the young Emperor.

“The master wishes you to see him now at the construction site,” said Goldar.
Emperor Akomaru threw the gold monkey an angered glance and took a moment to ponder his course of action. “Very well.” He then looked back at me. “I’ll be back.”

“You do that, Arnold.” With a wave of the Emperor’s hand, all eight immediate problems disappeared. “What was all that about?” My eyes had started to twinge with some pain during the fight and so I began to rub them.

Akomaru came out from behind the trees. His eyes were fixed on me. “Are you alright.”

“Since when did you become concerned for my welfare? I left my contacts in last night by accident.” I extended my hand to take back the navigator. “I’d like that back now.” Akomaru looked at my hand, then slowly drew the weapon close to his chest. “Fine, be that way. The Emperor gave me an idea for a weapon I might be able to use. It’s risky but considering the circumstances, I don’t think these Rangers would mind.”

“You’re going to try to tap into these Rangers powers?”
“Yeah, so?”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Are you’re eyes naturally green?”
“No, blue. Why?”
“They just glowed.”
“What?”
“Green.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Then allow me to explain. Ever since your last trip to Daos I’ve noticed a change in you. You’re more irritable, and easier to anger.”

“My parents noticed it too. It’s something that usually happens around our age. It‘s normal.”

“In your case it’s a little more exceptional. Have you ever stopped to think that you recharged and morphed with an evil power coin?”

“It wasn’t evil. Tommy used it for almost a year.”
“I’ve heard the story. Rita captured him to be her finest fighter. He lay waste to your entire team. He was a noble dark warrior. Until he was freed from her control and tried to use the coin for good. At which point the powers slowly began to fade. Rita’s use of the mystic green candle was a good back up plan. But it ended up failing her too. You’re team recharged it temporarily, but the powers never stabilized for long.”

“I know all this. What does it have to do with me?”
“That coin was in the possession of Rita for 10,000 years, imbued with her magiks. When it was out of her control, it weakened. Then you recharged it on Daos, and used it. ”

I was frustrated. “I used it for good though.”
“You dropped a zord on top of a woman and collapsed a building. Isn’t that what you would call overkill? Over zealous? Majorly destructive? I barely know you, but I know that’s not you.”

He did have a point. I had often thought since then if there might have been another way. I had always justified it in my head with desperation. “Continue.”

“I’ll be honest when I say that the thought of using this against you has been a big part of some of my plans.”

I knew there had to have been something behind our short meetings. “You were checking my progress. See if it was working. No wonder you are always trying to mess with me.”

“I do that because I truly do hate you. But yes, checking up on you was necessary. The goodness of being surrounded by the other six Rangers has stunted the progress. Finding the mystical duplicate of the coin helped, but still it was progressing slowly.”

“So tapping into the powers here…”
“Where your counterpart was evil.”
“…while I’m corrupted…”
“And there are no Rangers here to stop you.”
“…could be a potentially big problem.”
Akomaru tapped the navigator. “I think I need it more than you do right now.”

I was about to say no, but then I realized I probably shouldn’t risk it. “Why are you doing this? Telling me all this stuff.”

“Because you’re right. And much as I really don’t want to admit it, I can’t get back by myself. I need help.”
“Set that thing to scan and let’s go.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I bet you wish we’d brought the car now.”
“I’m not the one who left his communicator behind.”

Akomaru and I were slightly gasping. We were now in the city, on foot. Akomaru hadn’t wanted us to take the car that morning, and since I didn’t want to risk getting pulled over for anything I agreed. And yes, I forgot my communicator, too. Since I couldn’t teleport or contact the Command Center I didn’t think to get it. I’d wanted to go back and get it, but it would have taken longer to double back for my watch, get the car, and manage through traffic (no flying during the day in residential areas if it can be helped).

There was also more traffic to deal with than on a regular Saturday. Some special comet was coming and people were coming from all over to see it. We thought about using the subway to get around quicker, but I had no money on me. I was then surprised to find out that this Angel Grove had a monorail system, but also, no cash.

So that had left us the tried and true method of pounding the pavement. The jaunt we had taken into the desert last night now seemed like it had been a breeze. The sun was so high it had to be close to noon and the temperature was slowly and slowly getting hotter. Akomaru was now trying to comprehend the readouts on the navigator, trying to locate Ooze and his minions or the other Power Rangers when they returned.

As we walked we came across a fire hydrant that had been loosened. Water was shooting out into the street and there were a whole bunch of kids maybe a couple years younger than me splashing and kicking at each other. The kids busy with not being hit by oncoming traffic, we took advantage and gratefully splashed handfuls of water on our faces and necks without notice. Feeling slightly refreshed, we started towards the construction site again only to have another problem arise.

“Hello, little geek. Who’s your dorky friend.” The large mass of a human being loomed in front of me.

“Sorry Bulk, but I’m a little busy right now.” Akomaru and I tried to go around him, only to be blocked by Skull, who had a jar of Ivan’s ooze. “Move please.”

“Yeah, or what.” Skull then laughed. He glimpsed over at Akomaru. “That’s a funny looking Gameboy. Lemme see it.”

I grabbed Skull’s outstretched left wrist, and raised his arm as I quickly ducked under it. I then jerked the arm down and twisted it behind his back. Skull let out a small yelp of pain and dropped the plastic jar from his left hand. “Or this.”

All the tweenagers then started paying attention at the start of a potential fight, me versus Bulk and Skull. Taking advantage, I then shoved Skull into Bulk. The two staggered back, fell of the curb and landed with a splash right in front of the hydrant’s onslaught of water. The tweens cheered.

Akomaru grabbed the jar of ooze, tossed the lid and covered his hand in the goop. He then placed his hand in front of the hydrant. Slightly purple water began splashing onto Bulk and Skull as they tried to get up. Soon not just Bulk and Skull were purple, but the tweens were too. Like in “Sleeping Beauty” when Flora and Merryweather changed the color of the dress back and forth instantly between pink and blue. Similar, but purple. Akomaru continued what he was doing until the jar was empty. “Give them an order. Hurry!”

“Um, okay. Bulk, Skull, go somewhere you can stay out of trouble.” Watching one kid almost kid get sideswiped by a cab made me add “And take these kids with you.”

Surprisingly both got up, both happy. Bulk said, “No problem lil’ buddy.”
Skull then gathered all the tweens around them. “Come on, lunch at Ernie’s, on us.”

The crowd then quickly took off with the kids happily cheering about the prospect of free food. I looked at Akomaru. I was livid and he knew it. “Before you start, try to remain calm. Your condition worsens with anger. Water weakens the process, the hypnosis will wear off quick.”

“Side effects?”
“Compliancy with slight bewilderment on where they are and how they got there. Aren't you afraid attacking those two humans might have some ramifications on your counterpart?”

"Not really. My Bulk and Skull are starting to get fairly used to people acting abnormally, so why wouldn't these versions. We gotta book.”

It was a little while longer before we got to the construction site. But we could hear the sounds of jackhammers long before that. As we approached trucks could be seen leaving with loads of dirt. Akomaru was as confused as I was. What is he digging up?

Before we could investigate, a boy with a backwards Nike hat got jumped in our path. “Don’t go in there. It’s not safe.”

“It won’t be if you don’t move.” Akomaru sneered while caressing the navigator.
“Don’t you dare,” I threatened. “Look kid, we can’t explain but we need to get in there.”
“Something could happen. Something bad.”
“Look kid…”
“Fred.”
“…Fred, we know what we’re doing.”
“That Ivan guy is dangerous.”
“We can handle Ivan.”

Akomaru stupidly blurted out “We can?”
Again, I made with the staring at him. “Yes, we can.” I then slightly nodded at Fred.
“Ah! Lying to younglings for a false sense of security. That’s very compassionate. Especially for superheroes”

Fred was so insulted by the first remark he didn’t catch onto the second half. “You guys are probably only a couple years older than I am.”

I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to Fred. My temper, plus the heat, plus the exhaustion, plus this was not doing me any good. “What exactly is happening in there?”

Fred threw a glance over his shoulder. “They’re digging something up.”
“Yeah, got that. What though?”
“Something huge and metal. And Ivan said there was another one nearby.”

Visions of horrible destruction flashed through my mind as I guessed at what that could possibly mean. “Look, Fred. You need to go someplace safe. If you can’t go home, go to Ernie’s. There are a bunch of other people there.”

“But my dad’s in there. He’s acting so strange.”
“Get some water. On your way, if you see anyone acting like your dad, splash them.”
Fred was unconvinced. “I wish the Power Rangers were.”
“I do too. Believe me, I really do. Now go!”
Reluctantly and slowly, with several glances thrown back to the construction site, Fred left.

Akomaru was getting bored. “What do we do now?”
“Now we sneak up on them, stealthily and secretivly eaves drop and find out what's going on.”
He cheered up. “Excellent.”

That turned out to prove unnecessary. While there were very few people around, we now understood what Fred meant by “strange“. It was like watching the Borg. The enthralled people went about their business of moving around rocks and dirt, completely ignoring us. We hadn’t gone in very far when the jack hammering stopped and was replaced by the sound of large gears and metal on metal. After almost two years of doing this sort of thing I knew that sound very well. We gave up on the stealth and quite boldly went to where the new metallic noise was coming from. We were fortunate to get a good view of a giant silvery robot arise from the Earth, and close enough to see that it was some sort of bug. Ivan Ooze was hysterically happy in front of it. Goldar and the pig monster staring in awe.

“How long have I waited for this moment.” Ooze was wearing a smile so big it could put the Joker to shame. “I finally get my revenge on Zordon of Eltar. I defeated his warriors. And now I can crush the planet he was so set on protecting. HORNITOR! Find Scorpitron and dig it up!!”

With that command, Hornitor’s eyes lit up. The pincers it had for a mouth clinked quickly for a few seconds. It took two steps, spun around, and began using it’s tail to drill into the ground.

Akomaru leaned towards me. “I don’t think the freeing process is going to take as long for that one.”
“Brilliant skills of deduction you got there.”
“Careful, you don’t want to get angry.”
“Anger leads to the dark side, and people wouldn’t like it if I got angry. I get it okay.”

Within another two minutes Hornitor struck something. Ivan rushed to the new find. Another couple minutes after that had a giant robot scorpion digging itself free of the ground

Ivan was loving every moment of it. “HORNITOR! SCORPITRON! DESTROY THIS CITY!”

“What are you two spies up to?”

I reacted first to see the Emperor sneering at us. I then looked back at the rising giants of metal. I then looked at Akomaru, his actions mirroring my own. Without any conscious thought, Akomaru and I had the exact same reaction. We ran.


CONTINUED IN THE UNKNOWN RANGER SEASON 3 (I promise...)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As I was trying to start Season 3, the finale kept getting longer and longer. So I felt this worked better to end this year. Especially since I already how I know how I'm ending Season 3 & Zeo (possibly Turbo too). :023:

[Angelfox]

wicked