POWER RANGERS
CHANGING NATURE
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
(contains spoilers for "Fighting Spirit" and "Dimensions In Danger")
Tommy Oliver knew what it was like to have his back pressed against the wall.
He hated it when such a feat occurred in a literal sense.
Thrown against the stone blocks that enforced Lord Drayvon's castle by his robotic doppelganger, Tommy felt tiny fragments of glass pierce parts of his skin as his helmet cracked upon impact.
He got up, one side of his face exposed by the crack, and fiercely stood his ground as his doppelganger closed in on him.
"You haven't been Dino Thunder Black in over a decade, you're old, but I'm a robot, I'll never age" the doppelganger boasted.
For the doppelganger, seconds would pass after uttering this, precious, final, fateful seconds before Tommy unleashed the full might of his master morphing energies on him, resulting in his final and complete destruction.
But for someone who was fully tuned in to the Morphing Grid, these taunting words took an eternity to sink in.
Mainly because the forces within Tommy were deliberating them.
"Indeed Tommy, why is this?" said the avatar of the Green Ranger in his head.
"Is it due to fear?" said Zeo Ranger V.
"Do you consider your time in Reefside a burden on your life?"
"Do tell Tommy" said Dino Thunder Black.
Tommy stood before all of the Rangers he had been in the center of a still and lush forest, his hand reached outright, beckoning them to join their hands with his.
"Please, there is no time, we must unite our forces, you must come together for me, like you did before" he said
"We came together to bestow you with your dino energies, you have squandered the gifts we have given you" said Zeo Ranger V.
"No, no that's not true, you don't know what it was like, I was trapped in that Ranger form by Trent, I spent months locked in the suit before I submitted myself to the dangerous experiment that led me to discover all of you, waiting within myself"
"Prolonged exposure to an abundance of Morphing energy gave you communion with the very grid itself" explained the White Ranger.
"Right, you gave me back the power of my Dino gem after it was shattered by the experiments , but did you ever think to consider that you were sending a wounded dog back into a war zone? Even when I realised my Dino Gem powers couldn't be entirely destroyed, that my communion with the Grid could heal all of my morphing energies, the memory of what I went through with the Dino gem and power remained, the trauma remained, I'm only human"
"Did you tell Katherine about it?" said the Green Ranger.
"I had to place one foot forward and become more of a force than I'd ever been before. Training in martial arts leads to great acts of discipline"
"You don't trust your wife to lick your wounds, even now, you think seclusion gives you strength, but life with no anchor only weakens you" revealed the White Ranger.
"No, I will not be left in this state, this form does not represent me at my best, too many responsibilities from my past, as a teacher and a mentor, rely on it. I could not focus with this power, can't you see that? The powers I had before had more purpose to them, when my focus was the mission, the wars against sorceresses, sorcerers, machines and pirates. The names changed, the powers changed, I did not, until I was forced to" Tommy explained.
"Then use our strength to hide your limits" said the Green Ranger as he gripped Tommy's hand.
"Accomplish your mission, win this war, and live up to your responsibilities" said the White Ranger as he added his hand to the ensemble.
"Be that force, change your nature, but never forget where your true power lies" concluded Zeo Ranger V, and joined the trio.
All four individual halves of the same whole looked at each other, nodded and fused into one ball of glowing light, which flickered and manifested as a glimmer in Tommy's mind.
The precious seconds spent in eternity passed, and Tommy soon vanquished his foe by changing from Black to Zeo Red, to White and then to Green, and dealt lethal blow after lethal blow.
As the doppelganger was destroyed and Tommy made his way out of Lord Drayvon's lab as it exploded, he joined with Wes and the others, including Katherine.
"What happened back there?" she asked.
"Nothing I couldn't handle" Tommy said, gripping Kat's hand.
"What's the matter?" she said.
"After this is all over, there's something I'd like to tell you" said Tommy, the spirits within urging him to ask one other thing.
"Can you handle it?" he asked.
"Look around you, is that such a hard thing to ask?" she said, and dashed off after the others.
Tommy smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and ran after her.
"Never change" he said.