Chapter 1 – Five Months Later...
Hunston Valley, California. A thriving city in the north of the West Coast state. The city is famous for its long coast line, marine industry and more recently, as the home of the Dino Charge Power Rangers. Just over five months ago the city witnessed the final battle between the dinosaur powered heroes and the Legion of Deboss. The city suffered significant losses but ultimately the Rangers emerged victorious again the prehistoric villains.
The ten Rangers that made up the team were heroes in the city, amongst most of the population anyway. There were a few dissident voices but they were dwindling with each passing day. Whilst the identity of the Rangers had been suppressed by the state Governor, the local residents knew exactly who to thank for keeping them safe. In keeping with their desire to continue living normal lives, no fuss was made when one of the team ventured into the city. Some business owners might have tried to give them special discounts but humbly, the team refused.
Of course some of the team had left the city after the final battle. Rumour had it that the Gold Ranger had gone travelling with his new girlfriend, the Silver Ranger had set off on a new archaeological quest and the Blue Ranger was working on a new project somewhere else in the state. The city was at peace, the team could afford to take things a little easier, "Chase Randall, God damnit if you don't get your backside out of that bathroom in the next 30 seconds I'm going to kill you". Well, in theory anyway.
One secret the Rangers had been able to keep was the location of their base. Christened the Dino Mansion, the home belonging to the original Red Ranger, Jason Lee Scott, had seen plenty of action during their tour of duty. At one point all the active Rangers had lived their but now just five were still there. "Chase, hurry up you ignorant asshole", a loud banging on the bathroom door reverberated down the hallway of the Dino Mansion. Shelby Watkins pounded her fist against the door in a vain attempt to hurry up the daily grooming process of her former team mate, "Seriously this isn't cool", she banged one last time and added, "dick".
"Shel, what the hell", the sleepy voice of Kiera Cranston called out from her bedroom door. Her brown hair was a tangled mess and she hugged her arms against her shoulders, keenly aware that she was standing in the hallway dressed in her pyjamas, "Some of us are trying to sleep".
"Yeah well some of us", Shelby shouted towards the bathroom door, "have places to be today".
Kiera groaned and grabbed Shelby by the arm, tugging her firmly into the bedroom she shared with Chase, "Sit", she commanded, "and tell me what's gotten you so worked up this morning".
Shelby couldn't help but smile. She remembered the first time she met Kiera face to face. The Purple Ranger had been painfully shy, almost to the point of anti-social. The team quickly noticed that she didn't have a problem barking orders out through the comms during a battle though. The more time she spent with the team, the more she grew in confidence. "Sorry Kiera", she sighed, "I'm meeting my Dad today, I've been late on the last few occasions. I just want everything to go well".
The former Purple Ranger sighed and nodded sagely. Shelby was the daughter of Tyrelle Watkins, a Super Bowl winning football player turned commentator. She could've lived off her father's money for the rest of her life but Shelby wanted to something other than a rich heiress. Father and daughter had fallen out in dramatic fashion, leading to the Pink Ranger moving out of the family home. Their relationship had been patched up but it hadn't gone back to what it had been. Father's Day was fast approaching and Shelby really wanted to make an effort, "Trust me Shel everything will be fine", Kiera tried to reassure her friend, "your Dad will still love you, even if you're a few minutes late".
"Thanks Kiera", Shelby smiled, "hey what about your Dad, got anything planned for Father's Day?" Kiera father, Billy, lived on the planet Aquitar with her mother Cestria. The Purple Ranger was a Human/Aquitian hybrid although with far more Human traits, forcing her parents to send her to Earth under Jason's care. Following the final battle Kiera used the Plesio Zord to travel home for the first time in thirteen years. Against the advice of many she had taken Chase with her. Fortunately the Black Ranger hadn't caused an intergalactic incident. If anything the Cranston family and the Aquitians had been thoroughly charmed by the former soldier.
"Only this", Kiera held up a large metallic box complete with valves and numerous wires. There was even a circuit board attached to the outside that hummed when the former Purple ranger activated the device. Shelby turned it over in her hands, she wasn't stupid but she had absolutely no idea what this was, "It's a communication device", Kiera stated, answering the Pink Ranger's unasked question. "Communication between Earth and Aquitar is patchy at best but with this, I should be able to call my parents whenever I want".
Suddenly Shelby's lateness problem seemed insignificant to Kiera. At least Shelby could call home whenever she wanted and didn't need to invent some hideously complicated contraption just to speak to her parents. The former Pink Ranger suddenly lunged across the bed and threw her arms around her best friend. Kiera was so shocked that she almost dropped her invention, "Hey what's this for?" Kiera asked.
"Just because", Shelby replied, still with a tight grip on Kiera, "do I need a reason to hug my best friend".
"Ooh what's this I spy", they heard a voice call out from the doorway. Leaning against the frame with an amused look on his face was Tyler Navarro, the former Red Ranger and Shelby's boyfriend, "Just how long has this been going on for?" he chuckled. In response Shelby grabbed one of Kiera's pillows and threw it at her boyfriend, "Hey what's a guy to think, finding his girl in bed with another woman".
"If that guy wants to have his girl in his bed again, he'll get his mind out of the gutter immediately", Shelby said darkly.
"Geez lighten up Shel", Tyler replied, throwing his hands up defensively, "I told you, Tyrelle won't mind if you're a few minutes late".
"Thank you", Kiera added as she caught the pillow that Tyler threw back.
Tyler smiled as Shelby nodded gently in agreement. He then turned his attention to the bathroom door, "Chase still in there?" the girls nodded in agreement, "maybe he has what Chloe's got, I heard her in there before she went to work. Not something you really need to hear your boss doing", he added with a look of disgust.
Chloe Yuzuki was the former Aqua Ranger, girlfriend to Jason as well as Tyler and Shelby's boss down at the local repair store, Valley Repairs. Her business was booming following the fall of the Deboss and she could barely keep up with order and repair jobs. Not only were Tyler, Shelby and Jason working nearly full time at the store, some days she even had to call on outside help. Her brother Koda worked out of Los Angeles these days on the new Rainbow Line railway network but he would still return home to help his older sister if she called. If that wasn't enough Chloe was a full time Mom to her eight year old daughter Kristy. No one she was feeling a little under the weather today.
"Now that you mention it, I feel a little dodgy today", Kiera rubbed her stomach.
"Me too", Shelby added, "could just be worked up because Chase", she shouted his name loudly, "is an inconsiderate asshole".
The bathroom door clicked open and Chase stepped out into the hallway with just a towel wrapped around his waist. He had a second towel in his hand which he was using to dry his hair, "Someone call my name", she said nonchalantly. Shelby groaned and forcefully pushed her way into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her, "Something I said?" he asked in confusion.
"Dude she's meeting her Dad in half an hour", Tyler groaned, "we spoke about this last night".
"Did we?" Chase thought for a moment before his face dropped, "holy shit I complete forgot about that", he slapped his hand against his forehead. He banged on the door and called out, "Shel I'm sorry, I'll make this up to you, I promise".
"You can do that by not cooking for us again", Tyler replied, "you've poisoned Chloe and possibly the other girls as well". Tyler walked down the hallway and then down the stairs, "I'll put some coffee on then I'm going to work", he called out, "I'll see you tonight".
Chase grumbled under his breath and made his way into his bedroom. Kiera was sitting at her desk fiddling with her communication device, "Your memory is shocking Chase", she stated without looking in his direction. She was wearing her red framed glasses whilst poking at the circuit board with a screwdriver, "How could you forgot that Shelby was meeting her Dad today?"
"We had a hectic day at work yesterday", Chase tried to defend himself, "you know, making the city safer in the name of the Silver Guardians". Both Chase and Kiera had jobs with the recently expanded Silver Guardians. Chase headed up the Hunston branch of officers whilst Kiera worked in the Cyber division of the organisation. "Speak of work, why are you still here?" Chase asked.
Kiera snorted, "Charming, since you're off today I've decided that I'm going to work from home".
"Isn't that corporate talk for sitting on the sofa watching daytime TV whilst pretending to work", Chase chuckled.
Kiera dropped her screwdriver, took off her glasses and glared at the former Black Ranger, "The nature of cyber crimes means that I don't need to be stuck in an office to work on a case. Plus you know that things have been slow since I busted those phishing scammers three weeks ago, I'm sure that Wes and Eric won't mind if I took things a little easy for a while".
"Wish I was on first name terms with the bosses", Chase grumbled under his breath.
"Well it's not what you know sometimes, it's who you know", Kiera slowly stood up and moved towards Chase, "since neither of us have many plans for today, perhaps we could do something together".
"Really", Chase raised an eyebrow, "what did you have in mind?" Kiera gave him a saucy smile, pulled him closer and gave him a firm kiss. With a quick flick of the wrist she removed his towel, leaving him as naked as the day he was born, "Miss Cranston, I do believe I've been a bad influence on you".
Kiera smirked and pushed him onto the bed, "Like you're complaining", she commented, straddling his waist and kissing him again. Life certainly was calm for the former Dino Charge Rangers, however, there is no such thing as a former Ranger. The call back to action could come at any time and what the team didn't know is that there was something lurking out there. The being in question was possibly more dangerous than Master Deboss and he was close to being uncovered. The pleasant calm surrounding Hunston Valley was about to be shattered.
A/N – The long awaited sequel to Heroes Of Their Time is finally here, I can't believe it's been over a year since I finished that story. I've had this idea bouncing around for a while but never really had the time to get on and write it. Anyone reading this chapter and thinking 'who the bloody hell is Kiera and Chloe and why is Jason involved', you probably should read "Heroes" first otherwise this isn't going to make sense. Essentially "Heroes" was my take on Dino Charge before the series was even broadcast as such it bares practically no resemblance to the TV series.
This isn't going to be a long story, can't see it being any more than 15 chapters if I'm honest. Next time we properly catch up with Chloe and Koda and Bastian Navarro, together with his new assistant, find something concerning...
