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 a