Thank you for reading my Dino Thunder fanfic. Before you begin, be aware that this is a Kirommy fanfic, and also know that while I have stuck close to the episodes in some areas, I have significantly shuffled the deck in others. I hope you enjoy it, and I would be grateful for any feedback.
Rumours of Thunder
A Power Rangers Dino Thunder story
By Mintaka14
The Reefside High corridor was almost empty except for the last few kids slamming their lockers closed. A breeze fluttered the Prom 2004 notices on the wall and sent stray chip packets scudding along the grubby vinyl floor. Kira had her hand on the science room door when she heard the sound of a desk chair being shoved back quickly from inside, and rapid footsteps heading towards her.
She could hear Dr Oliver saying, "You seriously need to rethink things, Cheryl. I won't say anything further, but I am going to have to report this to Principal Randall."
Kira stepped back just as the classroom door opened and Dr O came out. Behind him, Cheryl Armstrong was perched on the edge of the teacher's desk, frozen in an awkward pose with her face a mask of fury. Dr O was looking grimmer than Kira had ever seen him.
"Are you okay?" she asked tentatively, and he forced a smile.
"I'm fine. I just have to see Principal Randall about something, then I'll meet you in the carpark. Do Conner and Ethan need a lift to training too?"
"I'm not sure. I haven't seen them this afternoon, but I can hunt them down."
Dr O nodded briefly, and strode away. Kira glanced back into the classroom, where Cheryl was uncoiling herself from the desk. The cheerleader flipped her carefully toned sunset-red hair back over her shoulder and met Kira's gaze with a sharp, unfriendly look.
She sneered, "What are you looking at, teacher's pet?"
Cheryl shoved past Kira, knocking her off balance a little, and headed down the school corridor. Kira watched her go with a frown, her arms folded, until the cheerleader had disappeared around the corner, then she dropped her arms and went to find her team mates.
Rumours of Thunder Chapter 1
Kira was already at the jeep, leaning against it and tapping her boot on the tyre to the beat in her ears, by the time Dr O hit the carpark. He was frowning grimly at the ground as he strode towards the jeep, and his short black hair was rumpled as if he'd been running his hands through it, but his expression lightened a little as he looked up and saw her. Kira pulled the earbuds out of her ears.
"How did it go?"
"It could have gone better."
"So is Randall going to suspend Cheryl?"
Dr O gave her a warning look. "You know I can't talk about it. Principal Randall has the incident on file now. Forget you saw anything, Kira."
He reached across to unlock the door for her, and Kira hoisted herself into the seat, hauling her schoolbag with her.
"No Conner or Ethan?" he asked.
"Ethan's got some stuff to finish up first, and Conner's still at soccer. They're both going to make their own way to training afterwards. And I couldn't find Trent. So it's just you and me."
Dr O didn't say anything as he started the jeep, his attention fixed on the road as he steered the vehicle out of the carpark. Kira shot him a sidelong glance. He'd rolled his shirt sleeves up, and she could see the tattooed muscles in his forearms were corded with tension as he gripped the wheel. He didn't look like he wanted to talk, so Kira found herself humming under her breath, playing with a new melody line that had been niggling at her all day. It was starting to come together.
"I like that one," Dr O said eventually. "Is it one of yours?"
Kira stopped, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "It's a new one. It's nothing yet, but I think it's going to be good."
"All your music is amazing, Kira," Dr O said, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a brief smile. "Are you performing at the Cyber Café tomorrow?"
"No, Trent and I are getting together to work on our English papers. Thanks to Mesogog, we're a bit behind and I need to catch up before Miss Morrison gets on my case." She rolled her eyes.
"These mutant dinosaurs are always so inconsiderate," Dr O joked. "So what's up with Trent? He's skipping training again, and he's not working at the café this afternoon."
"Why would I know what's going on with Trent?" She felt her jaw clenching, and tried to let it go. "For the millionth time, we're not a couple."
Dr O lifted an eyebrow as if he didn't quite believe her, but he didn't say anything further, and Kira turned away to stare at the passing trees and street signs.
Eventually, she sighed and said, "Look, I know he's having more than a few issues with his dad. Maybe that's the problem."
"Anton Mercer was never exactly an easy man to work with," Dr O said. "But he was never this cold or controlling. Something happened to him when our lab was destroyed on the island, and I wish I knew what it was. It can't be easy for Trent, living with him. Do you know if he's convinced Anton to let him go to art school yet?"
Kira shrugged. "He doesn't exactly talk much. We study English together, we fight mutant monsters together, and that's about it."
They left the outskirts of Reefside and the jeep turned onto the rougher road that twisted up the mountain towards Dr O's house. They were almost at the top when their dino gems lit up simultaneously. Kira hit the communications button on her morpher wristband.
"What's up?" she responded, and Hayley's voice crackled back at her.
"The monitors have just picked up Elsa in the woods. I'm sending the coordinates."
Kira acknowledged, and thought she heard Dr O swear under his breath.
"I guess training is going live today," he said wryly, giving her a quick, tired grin.
The road up the mountain was deserted, and Dr O pulled the jeep into a turn that flattened the tall grass growing up to the gravelled edge. The tyres spun and bit into the dirt, and then they were heading down again into the wooded land at the base of the mountain.
Kira followed closely as Dr O moved through the woods towards the coordinates. The trees were oddly silent, empty of the usual birdcalls and noises of small animals, and the only sound in the dark undergrowth was their own footsteps. The ground underfoot was damp and squelchy from the morning rainfall, and the smell of wet leaves rose around them as they moved cautiously through the woods and came to a wide clearing. On the other side, in a narrow, pale shaft of sunlight, Elsa turned, a stark black latex outline against the faded light.
"I knew you couldn't resist me, Tommy," she drawled his name provocatively. "And, oh look, you brought little Kira with you," she sneered. Kira shifted, her eyes narrowing, but she said nothing.
"What do you want, Elsa?" Dr O said flatly, ignoring the disturbing reminder that Elsa knew their civilian identities while they had no idea who, or what, she was.
"Maybe I just wanted the pleasure of your company."
At that moment, Conner and Ethan skidded up beside them, breathing hard, and Elsa raised one sharp, dark eyebrow.
"What? No White Ranger? Now, where could Trent be?"
Without waiting for a response, Elsa thrust her hand up, and the air tore open with a green crackle of lightning, tumbling tyrannodrones onto the muddy ground. Elsa stepped back behind them, and the scaly creatures moved towards the Rangers.
"I guess it's time to fight," Dr O sighed.
Kira closed her eyes, filtering out the sound of Ethan and Conner beside her. Breathe in. She could almost hear Dr O's voice in her head, reminding her to let everything flow away from her with her breath, to open her awareness, and she breathed out, trying to push aside the lingering aggravation of the scene with the cheerleader. And where's Trent?
And then the tyrannodrones were on them. As the first tyrannodrone charged at her, Kira flowed aside and countered, sending the creature staggering. Breathe out. The strikes were coming faster now, and Kira shifted aside to let a tyrannodrone claw move past her. Let go and open your awareness. For one, brief second, Kira could almost see time move on around her, what was coming next and what she needed to do.
She somersaulted gracefully over the head of another tyrannodrone and dropped into a sweeping kick in one fluid motion that took it down. As she came to her feet, she came face to face with Dr O, who gave her a swift nod of approval.
"Nice move," he said, and for a moment his dark eyes met hers.
Kira felt her rhythm falter.
Two more tyrannodrones closed in on her with a rapid flurry of blows, but Kira was too off-balance now to pick up the pattern again, and she backed up out of reach, trying to get her breathing under control.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the flash of red that was Conner, flitting between the trees too fast for the tyrannodrones to follow him, and striking at them with lightning speed. Another one went down.
There was a sharp crack of wood, and a shower of damp leaves, as Ethan slammed another tyrannodrone into a tree with brutal force. And still there was no sign of Trent. On the other side of the clearing, Elsa flexed her hand in its fingerless black glove, and gave them a vicious little smirk as she shoved her arm into the air, spilling more tyrannodrones out of a portal. The creatures closed around them again, and Kira frowned. What on earth was going on here?
She didn't have much time to think about Elsa as a tyrannodrone crept up and swung at her, clipping her across the jaw. She let the force spin her around to slam into the creature's limb, bringing another strike up under its defences and forcing it back. Before it could recover, Kira brought the creature down with a solid kick to its centre.
It looked like the tyrannodrones were all defeated. As the last one collapsed to the ground with Dr O standing over it, rubbing his wrist, Kira caught a flash of green out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see Elsa lowering her hand as a third wave of tyrannodrones landed out of the portal, and Kira swore under her breath.
"Come on Trent," Dr O was muttering beside her. "Where are you?"
And at that moment, the White Ranger swerved into view on his Dragocycle, sending a shower of mud and brown leaves into the air.
"Finally!" Elsa crowed. "So glad you could join us, White Ranger. It's just not a party without you."
As the White Ranger circled on the Dragocycle, drawing the tyrannodrones' attention, Kira and the boys closed in together. The air flashed with brilliant light as they all morphed, and the Power Rangers charged back into the fight, weapons drawn.
Elsa's attention seemed to be focused on Trent. He leaped off the Dragocycle and closed with the black-clad warrior, but she kept circling and disengaging with a series of swift jabs that was unlike her usual direct ferocity.
"Come on, Trent," she taunted. "I heard you've been looking for me. What can I do for you?"
"How about go away forever?" the White Ranger snarled, and Elsa laughed.
"Now, where's the fun in that? Then I wouldn't get to see your friends' faces," and the spin she put on that word was savage, "when they find out your little secret."
A tyrannodrone had taken advantage of Kira's momentary inattention to attack, and she barely dodged the descending blow, spinning underneath it to stab the creature with her pteragrip blade.
"When are you going to tell them, Trent?" Elsa was taunting the White Ranger, but Kira was too focused now on the lingering battles to pay much attention. Dr O was cutting a swathe through the remaining tyrannodrones, and Ethan and Conner seemed to have things under control, but even as Elsa stepped back from Trent and vanished in an explosion of green portal lightning, there was a flicker of movement behind Kira.
She heard Dr O shout as she turned and skidded on the sloppy ground. Her pteragrip blades came up to catch the last tyrannodrone, even as she went down, flinging the creature over her head to tumble in a broken heap. Kira landed on her back with a huge splat that threw a soggy shower of mud over her just as she demorphed.
For one long moment, she sat there, staring through a tangle of filthy dark blonde hair, feeling the mud seep between her fingers and the damp settling into her jeans, then Dr O offered her a hand up. There was a muffled snort that might have been a laugh from one of the boys, and she scowled, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet.
"You're supposed to be focused," Dr O reminded her, and there was a hint of sharpness in his voice that she decided she must have imagined as she looked up into his calm, dark eyes. "You can't afford to get distracted like that."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, and tried to wipe the mud off her jeans, but the dirt on her hands just made the mess worse.
Kira felt decidedly cranky as she squelched her way over to the rest of the Rangers. Conner was grinning as she scraped another blob of mud off her cheek, and she glared at him. Ethan made the mistake of actually laughing.
"Yeah, hilarious," she snarled.
"Well, it was for us," Ethan said innocently, and ducked aside as she swung a punch at his shoulder. Dr O was ignoring them, his attention on Trent.
"Trent, what was Elsa talking about? You were looking for her?" he asked. Trent was silent, his face expressionless, but Kira could see him fidgeting with the edge of his dino gem cuff.
"If there's something you need to tell us," Dr O pushed, a little harsher than usual, "now would be the time to do it."
"We're your friends," Kira added. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."
Trent was still silent, staring down at the ground, and Kira frowned.
Dr O tried again. "Trent, we're a team. We work together doing something that takes the ultimate trust in each other."
"Yeah, and if you're holding back on us, how're we supposed to trust you out there in battle?" Conner chimed in.
Trent dropped his hand from his cuff and drew a breath, looking up to meet their eyes.
"You're right," he said. "Okay, look, this is how it is. I went to Mesogog's lair to try and get info."
Kira sucked in a breath, echoing the faint hiss of disbelief from her team mates. "You what? By yourself?"
"I found an invisiportal and it took me right there. I was just trying to help. We need all the intel we can get, so I took a shot."
Kira found herself watching Trent's expression, open and guileless now, and he met her eyes with a rueful half-smile.
"That wasn't a real smart thing to do," Dr O said in a voice that sounded carefully empty of emotion.
Trent shrugged, his eyes going a little wider. "Yeah, it was stupid. I got knocked out and I barely made it back to help you guys. It won't happen again, I promise."
Kira was still staring at Trent.
"So, that's your big secret?" she asked slowly, and he gave her that smile that she'd thought was so cute when they first met. It left her cold now.
"Yeah. Look, I've got to go. My head's still feeling foggy."
"Okay, get some rest," Dr O responded, and as Trent disappeared between the trees there was cautious silence amongst the rest of the Rangers. Kira didn't realise that she'd drifted off into her own thoughts until Dr O said her name, startling her.
"Something on your mind, Kira?" he asked softly, and she frowned.
"I don't know," she said slowly. "There's just something not quite right with him."