Sorry it took so long to get this story up here; it's taken me a while to gather my thoughts. Here's my version of Dominic becoming part of the group. It will take place during the Rhino Nexus story arc, so as usual, where the script overlaps with the script of the show, Disney owns the rights, I don't. Hope you enjoy it. Now to get the usual stuff out of the way.
Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated characters, names, places, events etc. Where the script overlaps with the scripts of one of the episodes, again I do not own the rights. Anything not covered by the above rights should be considered purely the creation of the author.
Rating: T – May be some adult material.
Timeline: Following the events of "Left Outside Alone" and "Wolves Make Bad Patients."
The sky melted slowly from a deep purple into a blazing orange in the early hours of the morning as a single small ship pulled into Ocean Bluff harbour. A young, blonde man looked out over the skyline thoughtfully. Not many of the other passengers were out on deck yet, but he wanted to see the next stop on his travels. He always liked the feeling of arriving in a new city. Six long years of travelling had lead him around much of the world, but recently he'd felt an unexplainable, irresistible pull to touch base with his past back in the states with Pai Zhuq.
Dominic had been more than a little curious when he started feeling the power drawing him back to the temple, but that hadn't been satisfied. Although he had written to Master Mao to find out why he would suddenly be getting these feelings after all this time, he hadn't received a reply. It had been almost four months since he'd written, and while he knew it took letters a while to arrive, it shouldn't have taken this long to get a reply. Pulling out a page from a telephone directory, he inspected the address he'd circled on the sheet. He'd heard that his long-time friend RJ had opened a restaurant in the city, and since this pizza parlour was the only place that had opened within the last two years, he figured that this was likely to be the place.
"Jungle Karma." He sniggered to himself inspecting the ad. It was just RJ's sense of humour to theme his restaurant after his past in the Pai Zhuq temple. He had half expected to see the emblem of the Order of the Claw somewhere in the advert. He had heard that RJ had become a master since he'd left. It didn't really surprise him. Between the two of them, RJ was always the more focussed and driven. Now, it seemed like his old friend was the most likely way to find out why Master Mao wasn't returning his mail.
RJ woke up to find Lily getting ready. The two of them were feeling considerably better following their recent ill health. It made his day to see her so bright and cheerful again. Seeing her applying some makeup in the en-suite, he came over behind her, placing his hands on her hips.
"How are you feeling today?" He asked her, kissing her cheek and reaching past for his razor.
"I'm feeling great." She told him, turning and stroking a little concealer onto the end of his nose. "I'm absolutely starving though."
"Well a couple of days of eating practically nothing will do that to you." He replied, wiping off the makeup chuckling. "I'll make you something."
"Do you need to go into town later?" She asked him.
"I do." He answered, switching on his razor and beginning to shave. "Why, do you want to come?"
"Well you and I still have to do a little shopping." Lily chimed in cheekily, taking amusement in RJ's uncomfortable flinch as she said this. In his delirium he had promised to marry her if he got better. She had kind of guessed that he wasn't being serious, but that didn't mean it wasn't fun to make him squirm a little. She'd already told herself she'd drop the subject and let him off the hook at some time soon, in the meantime though, she was having too much fun with him.
"We'll see what we can manage." He replied with a barely visible gulp. He knew he'd dug himself into a hole with that one. He was still trying to figure out what he planned to do about it. "In the meantime, are you sure you're up to working today?"
"You know I'm feeling a lot better." She told him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him softly. "Besides, one more day in bed and I'll go completely mad."
RJ could sympathise, he knew she was normally such an active person that it had been particularly bothersome for her to remain in bed and recover. He also had to admit that it would be good to see her back in the restaurant. Leaving to allow her to finish getting ready, he started getting dressed. Today was the day he was planning to his books. He'd been putting it off for a while now, so he knew that he'd be out of the restaurant most of the day.
The sun was fully up by the time the ship arrived in the harbour. Dominic hefted his large bag of belongings onto his shoulder, before stepping off the gangplank onto the dock. It had taken quite a while for the old tub the captain called a ship to clear customs, but Dominic couldn't really complain. He didn't have money for any other method of transport. Now all he had to do was find the restaurant.
Dai Shi struggled through a thick, deep forest. He had been on the trail of the Rhino Nexus for days now, and he knew that by now the Overlords would have noticed his absence. It would only be a matter of time now before they started looking for him. Forcing himself into a clearing, he took the opportunity to check the map. He knew he was on the right track. Forcing himself onwards despite his exhaustion, he noticed a tall, gnarled old tree towering far above any of the others.
"The Rhino Nexus." He breathed with a smile, beholding his destination. It was still quite a distance away, but at least now his objective was in sight. At least now he could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It took almost until noon to find it, but Dominic finally found his way to Jungle Karma. He looked around at the decor and had to try hard not to laugh. He didn't need to see RJ, he knew at once he'd found the right place. Only he could get away with designing a restaurant like that. Seeing that the only staff member in the restaurant hadn't noticed him arrive, he decided to have a little fun with her. Pulling off his coat and bag, he put them in the corner before straightening out his hair.
Lily was checking the till roll to make sure the totals tallied when she became aware of someone behind her. Turning around, she saw a stern-looking blonde man in a plaid shirt sanding before her.
"Welcome to Jungle Karma..."
"Agent Fuller, Health department," he rushed out, flashing his wallet at her too quickly for her to register, "we've had complaints."
As the stranger began casting a critical eye around the restaurant, Lily's eyes shot wide in panic. She knew they'd had an inspection not that long ago. He said there had been complaints. What complaints? Had someone heard about her and RJ being ill? They'd had the flu, but admittedly many of the symptoms had been a lot like food poisoning. Maybe someone thought it was and knew they'd returned to work without getting a doctor's clearance. She rushed in behind the inspector as he pushed his way past into the kitchen. She saw Fran, Theo and Casey turning to face him and announced his identity before they could say anything to offend him and cause him to take drastic action.
"This is agent Fuller; he's from the health department." She blurted out quickly. Dominic managed to stop himself from laughing as he saw the panicked reactions on their faces.
"This is going to be messy. You better get the owner." He drawled, gesturing Lily out of the kitchen. "This counter is filthy; let's get this cleaned up, pronto."
Lily ran into the back room, finding RJ sitting in his chair, going through some paperwork.
"Lily, I really need..."
"RJ, there's some guy from the health department downstairs!" She interrupted him in a panic. "He says there have been complaints, he wants to see you."
RJ Pulled himself quickly out of his chair, running his hands through his hair to sort it into some form of order.
"How do I look?" He asked Lily. She knew he always got nervous when the health department sent an inspector around. He was always particularly conscientious about hygiene, but he had worked in restaurants long enough to know that even the cleanest of places could be caught at an inopportune moment. It wouldn't be the first time a perfectly run restaurant was caught in the middle of service by a particularly humourless health inspector and ordered to shut its doors halfway through service.
"You look fine." Lily told him. "He's in the kitchen."
RJ and Lily made their way downstairs, finding the blonde man with his head in the refrigerator, pulling out ingredients. He seemed to be smelling a packet of shredded cheese.
"This cheese smells bad." RJ heard him say in a somewhat familiar voice.
"Whao, whao, whao, whao whao. What's going on here?" RJ asked the man as he arrived from upstairs. "We had an inspection just last..."
Dominic turned around with an evil grin on his face. A large grin split RJ's face as he observed his old friend. He could tell by the looks on his friend's faces that they had fallen victim to one of his pranks. His sense of humour was a cruel and unusual one, which took a lot of getting used to. Casey in particular seemed unhappy, having been squirted in the face with tomato.
"Dominic!" He called out cheerfully, gesturing for a hug. Dominic moved in, greeting his old friend with a hug. RJ turned to the others to introduce him. "This is my old friend from Pai Zhuq, Dominic. Dom, this is Casey, Fran, Theo and Lily."
Fran waved weakly at the new arrival through a kind of strained smile. Casey had a look on his face that suggested he wanted to tear him a new one as he wiped his face with a cloth. Both Theo and Lily looked at him a little confused.
"Gotcha." Dominic said gently. He could already tell that his joke had been more than a little misjudged. They didn't seem too happy about being taken in like that. Casey in particular seemed quite upset. RJ saw the looks on his friend's faces and knew that things were likely to spill over and decided to take Dominic out of the equation.
"So what have you been doing with yourself? The last I heard you were wandering the world like a nomad." RJ began, leading him upstairs to the back room. "And you've got to hear about Dai Shi."
"Dai Shi?" Dominic asked, becoming interested in the conversation. As much as he was a joker at heart, he knew when it was time to get serious. "Dai Shi's been released?"
"Unfortunately yes," RJ told him, "Lily and the others are the protectors. They're helping me fight him."
"I was making my way across India when I just got this feeling I was meant to come home." Dominic told him, sitting on the couch. "I wrote to Master Mao, but I never got an answer. I suppose he's been busy and..." Dominic stopped as he saw the look on RJ's face fall at the mention of their former master's name.
"Dominic, when Dai Shi escaped, Master Mao was killed." He informed him, sitting down with his friend and placing an arm around him. "I'm sorry, I would have told you, but I didn't know where to find you."
"I should have been here." Dominic sighed, wiping away a tear. RJ knew how much he cared about Master Mao. His parents hadn't been there for him much as a kid, so it was kind of a blessing when Master Mao accepted him into the temple. In many ways he was like a father to Dominic, so he knew he would feel bad about not being there for him at the end. "I've been travelling for six years to find myself, and because of that I've lost him. I can't believe I was so selfish."
"Master Mao was the one who told you to go." RJ reminded him. "You weren't ready to stick around and accept the responsibility of being a protector. He knew that."
"But if I'd just stayed I could have done something." He reiterated.
"But you wouldn't have been happy." RJ replied.
Dominic got up from the couch and made his way over to the railing. It still upset him to hear about Master Mao's passing. Resting on the railing, he thought about what was happening. Without him there, Master Mao had chosen others to be protectors. RJ was mentoring them; he really didn't see why he had been drawn to return to Ocean Bluff. Anything he had there had gone when Master Mao died.
"So how long can you stay?" RJ asked him as the other Rangers arrived in the back room.
"Only a couple of days," he replied with a deep sigh. Theo placed Dominic's bag in the corner of the room before turning back to him. "If I stay in one place for too long I get antsy."
RJ was a little troubled by Dominic's reaction. He knew how much Master Mao's death would have meant to him, and he really didn't want Dominic to go off on his own again at this time. At least he had a couple of days to help Dom through this difficult time.
"Well, you're welcome to stay." RJ said cheerfully. "In the meantime we all have work to do."
"I could always help out." Dominic suggested as they made their way downstairs. "I'd love to make pizzas."
An evil smirk crossed Casey's face as he said this. Everyone could tell he was already trying to think of ways to get back at him for the tomato shower.
"I can think of something for you to do." He replied with a knowing nod.
A short time later down in the restaurant, Casey gave him a spatula and gestured to one of the tables. Dominic looked underneath at the multicoloured assortment of hard, discarded chewing gum welded to the underside.
"You want me to scrape gum?" He questioned the Red Ranger. He knew damn fine this was payback for the joke he played earlier. He kind of expected it. By the looks of the tables, they hadn't been scraped in quite a while.
"Well, I'm cleaning the toilets." He replied sarcastically. In truth the bathrooms had been cleaned hours ago, so he was really going to read a magazine for a few minutes. He just wanted to think of a really rotten job to give the new guy. "I'll inspect when you're done."
As Casey left, he didn't even notice that he'd left his solar morpher in his baseball cap on the counter.
Beginning to scrape the first piece of gum, Dominic looked over to where Fran was folding napkins on the counter. He knew he hadn't made a great first impression, and that he should try to straighten things out with the others. Since RJ was out with Lily and Theo, and Casey was in the bathroom, he guessed that Fran would be a good place to start.
"So did you go to Pai Zhuq too?" He asked her, making his way to the counter.
"Me?" She asked a little nervously. She really didn't know what to make of him. He'd been kind of mean when he tricked them all earlier, but RJ seemed to trust him. She'd never had reason to distrust his judgement before, so she figured that was good enough reason to give him a chance. "No, I've barely left Ocean Bluff. The only places I've been are in books."
"In books?" Dominic asked her. He never thought he'd find a way to connect with any of them so easily. He loved to read on long journeys.
"Yeah, why? Is that weird?" She asked. Dominic reached into his pocket and pulled out a paperback.
"I always carry a book with me." He explained, presenting it to her. "When I'm on my own they're kind of like my friends."
Fran giggled nervously as he said this. He seemed totally different from her, so it seemed strange to her that she could find some common ground with him. She'd hidden behind books, using them in lieu of friends for so long; she completely understood his views on the matter.
Dominic Smiled as he saw her reaction to this. He figured he'd found some level on which they could identify with each other.
"The Pirate's Skeleton." He quoted in a mock accent, causing Fran to laugh. "Will ye give me a read matey? Or will ye be a scurvy dog?"
Fran laughed at this and took the book he offered her. She figured he didn't mean any harm. He actually seemed kind of nice when he wasn't pretending to be a health inspector trying to shut them down. Neither of them noticed that in leaning across the counter, Dom had accidentally knocked Casey's glasses into the trash can.
"So, um…what's your…spirit?" She asked him.
"You know about animal spirits?" He asked her, his eyebrows rising a little in surprise. Normally those outside Pai Zhuq didn't know much about animal spirits.
"The others told me a little bit about it." Fran told him. "A while ago I was kidnapped by Dai Shi and Master Mao came to me." Fran almost wished she hadn't told him that. She could see a look of sadness in his face at the mention of his name.
"I'm sorry, I should have thought." She rushed out apologetically.
"It's alright." Dominic replied, turning back to her. "What did he say?"
"He talked to me, keeping me calm while I was imprisoned." She told him. "Then he taught me how to harness my animal spirit."
"He did?" Dominic asked. Fran nodded to confirm this. "Can I see?"
Fran looked around to confirm that the restaurant was empty, before concentrating and bringing forth her fox spirit. It was no longer the tiny cub it once had been, more like the size of a small cat, as though it were a few months old.
"I've been training in Kung Fu under Theo for months." She explained as Dominic watched the fox continued to pace on the counter. "Since I was able to channel the fox spirit, RJ's been giving me some training in using it. It's gotten a little stronger."
"I really like it." He replied. "Somehow it just seems right for you."
"So how about we see your animal spirit?" Fran asked him, gently nudging his shoulder.
"Uh, my spirit isn't really 'indoor friendly' if you get my drift." Dominic answered. "I carry the rhino spirit."
"I guess unleashing that in here would be like putting a bull in a china shop." Fran giggled.
"I guess it would." He responded. As Dominic and Fran laughed and joked with each other, Dominic felt his spirits lifting. For the first time since he'd arrived, he actually felt like he might be able to fit into this group after all. Maybe there was a place for him here.
