MMPR- Things Change (unpolished draft)

by Dr. Caine

What Tommy did was for the best. There were no other options. He had to go back and save him. But unfortunately, actions have consequences, ones that affect not only him and the team but the entire universe.

1. Chain Reaction

Only in Angel Grove could a trip to the local coffee shop end with someone almost being eaten alive, but mister and misses Douglas didn't think much about that. They were just enjoying their mocha lattes at the Lean Bean.

"So Ben, about the truck," Mrs. Douglas said, and Ben's heart skipped a beat. Oh god, he was hoping that she wouldn't bring it up. She'd be trying to convince him to sell his baby for the past month now. But why? It's fine, just needs some work done is all. Ben Douglas stammered for words.

"Well, uh, you see. . . I was kinda hoping for—"

Glass rained on him as a gargantuan blue claw smashed through the window, grabbing her in its clutch. Her nails scrapped across the table as she shrieked. The claw snatched her out of the building.

"Rachel!" He rushed over to the shattered frame. The beast's blue tail slithered around the street corner. It got her! My god, it got her! Ben faced the coffee shop's crowd. "Somebody do something!"

Everybody in the Lean Bean, from the elderly couple in the back to the teenage girl in the front, from the local baseball team on the left to the owner behind the counter looked up from their phones, shrugged their shoulders, then looked back at their phones again.

---

The beast turned Rachel's brain into jelly as it ran with her in its claw, shaking her around. Blurred images swiped past her as she was tossed around: claws digging, people running, police chasing.

Sounds of screams were washed out by the wind rushing through her ears. The beast stopped. She was held in front of it, facing all of it, screaming at the giant slimy slug with eight spindly legs.

Opening its gaping mouth, she saw the rows of teeth that lined all the way down its throat. It pulled her into its mouth. She closed her eyes.

"Say aah," a voice called out.

Her eyes shot open. Orange light blasted into its mouth, and it gagged and convulsed. Its slimy body bubbled like an egg in a frying pan, and he beast expanded and expanded until it exploded, tossing her.

Something caught her. She was being held. Turning over, she saw a shiny, white, golden encrusted helmet looking down at her. The White Ranger had caught her, had saved her.

---

Tommy

Carefully, Tommy put the old lady back down on her feet, and she smiled at him. Got to love some good, old-fashioned, gratitude, he thought. An old guy came up, hugged the lady, then gave Tommy a furious handshake with both hands.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" the old guy said.

Tommy smirked through his helmet. "It was nothing, really," he said, "It's all just in a day's work for a hero who heroically puts his life on the line to help. . ."

The old people stared behind him. Turning around, he cringed. The top and bottom half of the creature smushed themselves back together like Plato. It's limbs extended out of its form. A new mouth of fangs stretched open, releasing a hiss.

"Crap."

The creature hobbled away at high speed. With a sigh, Tommy looked down at the blaster rifle hanging off his shoulder. This sucked. All that time spent planning was down the toilet. Now he had to figure out how to keep track of this thing.

He scanned through the street to see if he could find anybody who would be willing to help. The police and emergency services were scattered throughout the street trying to help people out. They would soon close this part of town down and that would make it hard to find a lift.

But, at the very edge of his vision, a brightly colored car came down the road. "Taxi!" Tommy yelled as he ran in front of the car, stopping it with his hands. Now that he was up close to the car, he saw that it wasn't a taxi at all. A little sign on the hood read: Kali's Pizza.

The driver stuck his head out of the window, pulling down his aviators from his face "Woah man, are you, like, a Power Dude?" he said.

"Yeah, uh dude, can you give me a lift?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, awesome man! Come right in!"

He hopped into the car and gazed down at his wrist. Time to make the call.

---

Billy

The ability to create change or do work, Billy's flashcard read. Energy, the answer had to be energy. Flipping the card over, he found out that he'd guess correctly, just like he'd done with the first one hundred cards.

His wrist communicator vibrated. Something must have gone wrong. His eyes shifted from one fellow sleeping classmate to another. Carefully, he sneaked out of his desk and headed for the door.

"Where do you think you're going," Mr. Anderson called from his desk.

"Restroom," Billy said.

Anderson stood up from his desk and glared down at him. Their weekly showdown was beginning again. "Billy, I don't suppose those cards you were looking at were for my class, were they?"

"No, sir."

"Well," Anderson said, "since you were so busy, I suppose you wouldn't know how to find the standard deviation of the data table on the board."

Billy's eyes shifted over to the board for a nanosecond. The table was: 10,2,38,23,38,23,21. His eyes shifted back to Anderson. "The standard deviation is 13.285."

"What? How?"

"The first step is to calculate the mean," Billy said, "then subtract the mean from each numeral, then each result needs to be squared. Determine the average of the squared numerals and square root it to find the final answer. May I use the restroom?"

Anderson slumped back in his chair. "Fine."

Walking down the hallway, Billy pinched the silver button on the communicator. "What is the conundrum?"

Tommy's voice came through. "Your thingie didn't work," he said.

"That is statistically improbable," Billy whispered, "The beam was specially designed to stop neutron flow and hinder emomosis. The Vlork's molecular structure should have disassembled."

"Sorry Einstein, It didn't. He put himself back together like last time."

Possibilities swirled in his head. Did the beam not work because of the flux capacitance? Or the electron disturbance? Was energy distribution a factor? All of these questions and more went through his mind, one new thought ever half a second.

Jason entered the call. "We're gonna have to go with Plan B."

"Plan B?!" Tommy chimed back in, "Dude, you know Plan B isn't gonna work."

Billy ground his teeth together. And they're at it again, he thought. Why is every little insignificant thing such a colossal catastrophe for these two? Do they not have anything better to do?

Tommy continued on with his rant, lowering the tone of his voice. "You can't just expect to corner something so—"

"We're running out of time," Jason said, "It's Plan B. Billy, I need you to beam out here in five, alright?"

"Yes sir," Billy said as Jason left the call.

"You don't actually expect this to work, do you, Billy?" Tommy asked.

Rubbing his neck, Billy tried to formulate a proper response. "Well, perhaps I made an oversight while constructing the N-Ray, and perhaps there might be a way to fix it."

"So you'll help me show off to Jason?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, sir. . ." Sometimes, however not very often, Billy really wished he was Zack. At least he doesn't have to do deal with this nonsense.

---

Zack

Time for my crowning moment of awesomeness, Zack thought. He really relished his part in Jason's plan because he knew Tommy would be so jealous of what he was about to do. He was gonna be as cool as ice, and all he had to do was wait for the beasty to come to him and the fun could begin.

The vibrations rumbled through the concrete beneath his feet. He tightened his grip on the handlebars of his bike. He kept his eyes peeled and his foot on the pedal. And there it was, that weird blue worm-spider-thingie was crawling at high speed down the road. My time is now!

Slowly, he made the black bike do a wheelie and backed it out of the alleyway. He laughed. "Moonwalking! I'm making the bike moonwalk!" He slid the bike right in front of the creature. It stared him, even though it didn't have eyes.

"Hola señor!" Zack yelled. "Do you think you can touch this?!"

It hissed at him.

Spanking himself, he said: "Come and get it!" He popped another wheelie before speeding away.

It was working, the creature followed him and even turned the corner to do so. In his mirror, the creature was excitedly chasing after him like a puppy chasing a fly.

Let's have fun with him. Zack swerved from the left to the right, each time the creature jumped a little to catch him, but he was too fast for it. He steered the creature into a right turn, Unfortunately, the fun would be over soon. At the end of the road was where the real deal was.

---

Kimberly

Come on! she thought, pacing on the roof, placing her arrow neatly into the bow. Can this slimester get over here already so that I can get back to more important things?! Kim was on her way to meet her friends at the mall when Jason called her in. This sucker was gonna pay for wanting to tear up the town on a Saturday.

Peering into the scope, she lined up her shot onto the street below. Any minute now, it's gonna come crawling to me faster than Jeremy did during homecoming. Patience is key. From the edge of her sight, Zack's bike materialized with the freak not far behind.

Gross! Its tongue flopped in the wind as it made its way toward her, drooling blue slime. Focusing it into her sight, she knew exactly what she wanted to hit, its bulbous forehead. She zoomed in on it, pulling the arrow back.

"You ready, Trini?" she asked.

---

Trini

"Yeah, I'm ready," Trini lied. What a terrible day, she thought, another terrible day in a horrible week, within an awful month, in an appalling year, in a dreadful life. What's the point? We'll try, but it will only get away again.

She spun her daggers in her hands and looked up at Kim. Maybe not, maybe today will finally end differently. The creature barreled down the street toward them. Without missing a beat, Kim released the pink arrow.

It flung into the creature's head, exploding into a cloud of pink smoke. The creature wriggled and writhed as it coughed.

Now! She flipped the dagger's switch. Electricity sparked between the two blades and she threw them at the writhing creature. One stabbed into its shoulder.

Yes!

The other dagger stabbed into the asphalt behind the creature.

No!

The dazed creature ran out of the smoke cloud and into the street. Great, she thought, just another miserable day in the horrid cycle of the universe that we all exist in. Why do I even try? What does it ever get me? Kim doesn't need to try, neither does Tommy.

---

Tommy

"So like, you just want me to follow this thing?", the driver asked.

"Yeah just keep up," Tommy said. He was fiddling with the knob on the blaster trying to figure out what was wrong with it.

Tommy called Billy up again. "What do you think is wrong with this thing?"

"I suppose it's possible that the energy isn't being properly distributed to garner a lasting effect," Billy said.

Energy distribution? An idea popped into Tommy's head, a crazy idea, a wonderfully crazy idea. He turned the knob to maximum power and smashed the gun against the dash of the car.

The driver looked over at Tommy, "Uh dude, do you know what you're doing."

"Relax citizen, I am a trained professional," Tommy said as he kept banging the gun against the car. This oughta show Jason.

---

Jason

Perfect, Jason thought, moving through the pink cloud, everything is on it's way to being perfect, even if it isn't right now. We might not have been able to stop it before, but we got it now. The Vlork is dazed and it's stumbling. If I get it in just the right spot. . .

With his sword, Jason sliced off three of the creature's limbs, sending it to the ground. All the rangers gathered around him, except for Tommy. Where is—

The Vlork's legs began to reform.

Nevermind. "Okay, we don't have much time. Zack, you fire heavy at the head. Kim, you go for its legs. Trin—" The slam of a car door brought Jason's speech to a halt. What the. . .

"Don't worry Jase, I got this," Tommy said as he climbed out of the car.

What exactly does he think he's doing? Tommy walked right past the team, patted Jason on the shoulder, and kept on walking towards the beast with the sparking blaster in his hand.

The beast stood up as its legs reformed.

"Pretty hungry, right? Eat me!" Tommy yelled.

"Tommy!" Jason said, "What are you doing?"

"Relax man," Tommy said before turning his attention to the monster. "Eat me!"

"Tommy wait!"

The creature snatched Tommy with his claw and swallowed him whole. The creature bubbled and bubbled until it exploded. The goo splashed all over Jason and the rangers. Jason looked around at the smoky, blue goo covered landscape. Why—

Something tapped on his shoulder, and he turned.

Tommy wiped the goo off of Jason's helmet. "I bet you didn't see that coming!" he exclaimed.

"But how?!" Jason asked.

"Teleporter," Tommy said.

"Oh."

Angel Grove's citizens gathered around the rangers. They took pictures and shoved papers into their faces. "Now, now people, there is enough for everybody," Tommy said as he signed autographs.

Jason just glared at him.

---

Teleportation is a weird experience. Your entire body gets broken down into atoms and is shot through space. Everything feels tingly and all you can see is a blinding light. But it only lasts a split second.

Tommy beamed into the command center to hang out. He opened his eyes to see the great blue interior of the command center. He stepped off of the teleporter pad and onto the blue crystal floor. He saw the open area and all the rangers. He looked over to see the collection of metal shelves at Billy's workstation and walked over there.

Billy had his lenses locked onto his computer screen.

"Hey Billy, how are you doing?" Tommy asked.

"I'm diagnosing the teleporter to ensure it's running at full capacity." Billy didn't even look up from his screen.

"I said 'how' are you doing?"

"Oh uh, okay," Billy said.

"Hey guys, check this out!", Zack said running toward them from the back of the room. What is on his face? Zack had all these little patches covering his cheeks and his chin. All the patches had wires that connected to a device in his hand.

"Look at this!", Zack said as he pressed the button on the device. His eyes squinted and his face contorted and stretched into a wide uncomfortable smile. Tommy could see all of Zack's teeth as if a dentist was pulling his cheeks away from them with a tool.

"Hey man, does something look funny to you?!"Zack said with slurred and gurgly speech. Tommy couldn't help but crack up at how ridiculous it was.

Zack turned the device off. "Funny right?"

"Yeah, yeah that's great Zack," Billy said without even looking up from the computer.

Zack looked disappointed at Billy's reaction but quickly bounced back. "Hey Billy, is it okay if I drink the bleach on your shelf?"

"Yeah, yeah that's great Zack," Billy repeated. Zack laughed and hopped back behind the shelves.

Tommy laughed as he walked away. Those two always find a way to amaze me. He stopped. Trini laid on a bench scribbling something on her notebook. This was a scene he had many times before and he knew it wasn't any good.

He approached her. Her face was buried into what she was doing and was hidden behind her black hair. "What you drawing there?" he asked.

"A barista who tries her hardest at work, but keeps getting the orders wrong," she said as she kept violently stabbing the book with her pen.

"Oh, for a second I thought it was something serious."

"That's not funny," Trini said, "I screwed up again."

"Again? What do you mean?", Tommy asked

"Like, two months ago when I couldn't hit the Golrium," Trini said.

"Hey, that was a hard shot to make."

"Or how about that time I couldn't rescue those people from the Snare Beast?"

"We didn't know where it was at the time."

"Okay, how about the time I was held hostage by a putty?" Trini asked.

"You did get out of—"

"It didn't even have a head anymore Tommy! How did it even see me?"

"Listen, You're just going through a rough patch. We all have bad luck on the job every once in awhile," he said.

"I guess," Trini said.

Kim came running in. "Hey girl, you wanna go and look at weird people at the mall?" she asked.

"Yes!" she said before they ran off.

Friends are good to have, he thought.

"Hey Tommy," Jason called from the platform.

Somedays I wish I had different ones. Jason walked down from the Command Center platform with that face. It was that face that Jason put on every time he tried to look like someone who you should take seriously. It didn't work on anybody, but nobody really wanted to tell him.

"What you did today was dangerous and irresponsible," Jason said.

"Maybe," Tommy said, "but it worked."

"You could've gotten hurt and then we would've had to taken out the Vlork ourselves."

"Hey at least i did something, Okay? Your plan was just to take it down and just hope you could destroy it before it could regenerate," Tommy said.

"What if you didn't teleport away in time?"

"What if? What if your plan didn't work and the Vlork went on to eat six more people?" Tommy said.

"I understand that, but you can't just ignore. . ."

Tommy began to zone Jason out as went on and on,on his usual spiel. It wasn't like Tommy didn't want to pay attention when Jason spoke. It's just that Jason often did this annoying thing where he would stop talking to you and then begin to talk at you. He would almost preach and not even look at you. He'd just pace back and forth with his finger pointed out, as if that made him look smart.

Jason's voice faded back into Tommy's ears: "What makes you think can keep doing this Tommy?", Jason asked.

Tommy thought for a second and came up with something he knew Jason wasn't gonna like: "Because I can't lose."

" Tommy, I—" Jason was interrupted by the blaring sound of the Command Center alarm. Everyone ran to the center platform as the interior of the Command Center flashed red.

Tommy was always impressed by Zordon's ability to make an entrance with style. Two large bolts of lightning hit a pair of tesla coils at the to opposite side of the room. The electricity flowed through the coils down under floor. The blue crystal floor became translucent and the rangers could see the electricity run through wires under the Command Center before rising to top of two more tesla coils by the command platform. The coils then shot the electricity into Zordon's projection tube. Small particles inside the tube fused together to form Zordon's digital face.

"Rangers," Zordon said in his echoing voice, "There has been a disturbance at Angel Grove's Galactic History Institute. Observe the viewing globe." The giant crystal ball floated down from the ceiling. A news broadcast projected into it.

The news showed an image of the outside of the building with a headline at the bottom reading: Robbery at new Galactic History Museum. A lady's voice read aloud: "The institute, dedicated to studying and preserving artifacts from cultures on other planets, opened its doors this morning to find that one of its most recent additions to its collection is missing. Though Authorities are not willing to say what specifically was taken."

"I guess it was a matter of time," Tommy said. Ever since the Power Rangers showed up in Angel Grove, more and more people have become interested in alien technology. Tommy knew it was a matter of time before somebody found something they could profit from.

"Is this really our problem?" Zack said, "I mean, stuff gets stolen all the time."

"True Zachary, but the Vlork seemed to be heading straight toward the institute right when your rangers stopped. I believe there might be something at the institute that Lord Zedd wants his hands on, if he doesn't have it already," Zordon said.

"If there is even a possibility that Lord Zedd could've taken something that he could as weapon, we must go after it," Jason said, "Tommy, Kim and I will investigate what happened, and I'll call the rest of you if we need the backup, is everyone ready?"

"Yes," everyone shouted.

"Alright! It's Morphin' Time!" he called.

As Tommy's armor wrapped around him, he wondered: if Jason doesn't agree with anything Tommy does, then why does Jason always bring him along?

---

The three of them walked into the large maple-colored lobby. Things were chaotic as men and women in red business jackets ran about with papers in their hands. A lot of them were running towards men in black suits wearing sunglasses. Tommy got a glance of the last Angel Grove policeman leaving the scene, there was nothing more they were allowed to do.

A plump man with huge round glasses came up and shook Jason's hand. The man spoke to Jason. It was hard for Tommy to hear what he was saying over ringing of five different phones, but it sounded like: "Oh, It's nice to finally have the Power Rangers here. I'm and I run the show here, and as you can see, we could really use your help."

"We're always ready to help. What happened?" Jason said.

"Of course, let me take you to the exhibit." Bennett showed them the shattered glass case. It was being swiped and scanned by five different men in black suits. Two of the men, baldy and blondie, glared at the rangers.

"Who invited you?" the baldy in black asked.

"Rude much?' Kim said.

Blondie flashed his badge, even though the rangers were very familiar with what the badge looked like by now. "Listen, this is an issue for the Extraterrestrial Security Bureau to solve. We don't need your help."

I already had enough of this, Tommy thought. ""Look man, we just want to know what was taken, alright? And we don't appreciate—"

Jason placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It didn't seem like anything important," Mr. Bennett said.

"If it was important, then it wouldn't have been stolen. It's classified," baldy said.

"If Lord Zedd could be involved, then it is our problem. We agreed to that," Jason said.

Even through the sunglasses, Tommy could see the look in baldy's eyes, the looking of giving in."I suppose so," he said.

"Right then," Bennett chimed in, "the object in question was a tablet recovered from a dig site out beyond the Angel Grove desert,believed to be ancient of alien origin."

"On Earth?" Kim asked.

"We believe the tablet may be evidence of some sort colonization effort from an civilization on earth before the time of man," blondie explained.

Bennett continued. "The tablet itself didn't seem that significant, so the E.S.B allowed it to be housed here. We were about to go public with the discovery this morning until. . ."

"Now," baldy said.

"So, you need are help then?" Tommy asked.

"No we don't. There is no concrete evidence that Zedd is involved. This is a purely domestic issue that the E.S.B can handle itself," baldy said.

"Wouldn't security be pretty tight around here?" Kim asked.

"The best," blondie said.

"So, what are the chances of this being a just normal robbery then?" Kim asked.

Baldy seemed miffed. "Listen here, I already have enough trouble on my plate here without you people—"

"Walker, Shaw," Jason referred to baldy and blondie, respectively. "May I have a word alone?"

Walker? Shaw? Jason actually took the time to remember these jokers names? How could he? To Tommy, every single one of them looked more or less the same. They acted and sounded the same too.

It was hard not to admire Jason's ability smooth things over with the government. Despite not being able to show his face, Jason was pretty good at being the face of the team. He was always able to calm these paranoid nuts down. Tommy couldn't do that job. He always got the sense that these people had no idea what they were dealing with half the told Tommy and Kim to wait while he and Adams talked it over. Tommy leaned against a door.

"I think you may have a problem with authority," Kim said.

"Nah, authority has a problem with me. And now that I that think about it, it has one with you too," Tommy said.

Kim giggled. "Well maybe, but at least I try."

"It's just that these guys haven't seen what we've seen," Tommy said, "And they think we're the problem."

"It's not easy for them either,," Kim said.

"I guess." Tommy was bored. He pulled a quarter out of his belt compartment, flipping it, catching it in the air.

"Tommy you have to—"

"Oops, hold on Kim." Tommy dropped the quarter and it was rolling across the hallway. Tommy crouched walked across the hall. He could feel the strange looks people were giving as a superhero ran after some runaway change.

The quarter managed to roll all the way to the end of a small hallway on the side of the building. The quarter bounced off a door and hit the floor. "Gotcha," Tommy said, "Now I can buy that pack of gum."

"Yes it was necessary, stop worrying," a voice said from behind the door.

Slowly, he looked through the small window on the door. Inscripted on the window, were the words: Dr. Forrester. In the room, there was a white haired man talking on the phone while trying to shove as many things into a bag as possible.

"Look, they're not going to suspect anything," the man said,"They probably think an alien did it."

The man grabbed a large book from the inside of his desk and tried to put it into the bag, but the bag wouldn't shut. He adjusted the contents of his bag and Tommy could see him pull out the corner of an object out so he make room in his bag. It looked like it was made out of stone.

The Tablet.

The man tried to quickly hop out of his office window. Tommy went for the doorknob, locked. He smashed through the door window and climbed through. He looked through the office window and saw the man climbing into his car.

He knew he had to go after him, so he quickly looked around to see if anybody was looking. The coast was clear, so he demorphed and climbed out the window. Tommy ran after the car.

"Tommy, where are you going?!" Kim's voice called out.

He yelled without looking back: "Keep an eye on my location!"

---

Tommy hid behind a trash can. He saw the man walk out of his car enter his house. Keeping low to the ground, he went onto the house's yard and hid below the window.

The man entered the living room. He was still on the phone, and he threw his bag onto a chair."Just be here in less than an hour,okay?" The man said as he left the living room, out of Tommy's sight.

I'm only gonna have one opportunity to get this guy, Tommy thought, If I wait for Jason to show up, we might get caught up in red tape. Tommy knew he had to move now.

Tommy grabbed some paper clips from his pocket and picked the lock. He slowly opened the door and sneaked into the house. He waited to hear Forrester's voice, but he heard nothing so he moved to left get to the living room and grabbed the bag.

He opened the bag and thumbed through its contents until he pulled out the tablet. It was square but with an oval top. Embelzeld on it were twenty stone squares, each one with a symbol on it. He rubbed his fingers over the squares, and images stabbed into his brain.

A pyramid with huge stone stairs.

Flash!

A gigantic round room with shadows bowing down to something in the center.

Flash!

Red fire burning into the shape of a eye.

Flash!

Screaming, he dropped the tablet. He fell to his knees as he rubbed his throbbing head. His vision slowly readjusted to room was spinning and he had trouble getting his eyes to focus.

What the hell just happened? Tommy thought, but he had no time to figure it out because heard footsteps approaching. He heard something else too, a murmuring, a humming.

". . .Shining, shimmering splendid. . ." Forrester murmered.

Is. . . is that the Aladdin love song? Tommy thought. No time to think about. Tommy morphed just as Forrester approached.

The man was stunned to see the White Ranger, his eyes were about to pop out of this round glasses."What are you doing in my home?! This is considered breaking and entering!"

"Yeah well, you're not exactly so clean yourself sir," Tommy grabbed the tablet off the floor waved it in his face.

Give that back to me you fascist!" Forrester ran toward him, but Tommy could easily hold him back but holding his hand out.

"Oh, so I'm fascist now, huh? Tell me, am I facist-fascist, or a 'I just don't like this guy so i need to insult him'-fascist?" Forrester struggled to grab the tablet, but Tommy was able to hold it above his head.

Forrester eventually stopped and pulled himself back. "It's because of people like you that humanity is being held back from achieving their greatest potential," he said, almost spitting.

"People like me?"

"Yes! For years, I've worked at the Institute trying to make new discoveries leading to new advances in technology. I try my best to advance people's understanding of the universe, but people like you take my life's work away from me and suppress it from the people!"

Why is this dude blaming me for his problems? Tommy thought. "I believe you should fill out a comment card to the E.S.B for that."

"Same difference! I know you have your own secrets that you're hiding from them!" Forrester was almost drooling at this point.

"Hey wasn't your institute about to announce major discovery today? Involving this?" Tommy wagged the tablet in front of his face.

"Oh sure, the people will be allowed to know that what we found exists, but that's just to pacify them. Everything we'll dig up will be probed and prodded to make sure we don't discover something that could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe!" Forrester's head twitched.

Maybe he's got a point, Tommy admitted to himself. He didn't exactly like the E.S.B himself, but he wouldn't trust this guy with making breakfast, let alone the secrets of the universe. Tommy saw the E.S.B pull up to the house through the window.

"Sorry sir, It was fun but our time's up."

---

Three armed guards pushed Forrester into the back of a truck. He struggled of course, but his frail body was not a match for them. All he could do was scream: "What are you gonna do when we don't need you anymore! What are you gonna do!"

Walker was quick to pull the tablet from out of Tommy's hands. He was kind enough to bother with fake gratitude. Through the grit of his teeth he managed to say: "Thank you for the help." As forced as it was, that did make Tommy feel good inside.

Jason approached Tommy, arms crossed. "A simple call would've been fine."

He grabbed Jason by the shoulders. "We need to get the tablet back."

"What?"

"There's something not right about it. We need to look over it," Tommy said.

Jason tilted his head. "We're in hot water as it is. If it turned out Forrester didn't steal the tablet, then the E.S.B would—"

"I know, I know, but you have to trust me on this one. I touched it and it made me see things."

"What kind of things?"

"Flashes, pictures of things from a long time ago. I have weird feeling that there might be something buried in that desert that could be dangerous." As he spoke, Tommy realized his ramblings were eerily similar to Forrester's. But I'm not crazy.

Jason sighed. "Tommy. . ."

"Just work your magic like you usually do," Tommy said

"Walker isn't as easy to convince," Jason said.

"We have to try.'

"What are we gonna find that the E.S.B can't?" Jason asked.

"Ah,you forget." Tommy smirked. "We have one thing the U.S government doesn't have."

"What?"

---

Seeing Billy work is like magic, Tommy thought as he observed him. Billy's eyes were glued to the tablet. He grabbed what looked like silver pen attached to a cord and scanned it over the surface of the tablet, and he looked over at a computer monitor, where the symbols on the tablet were being compared to other symbols that were quickly flashing on the right side of the screen.

The others were always in awe when they saw Billy in his element. They couldn't take their eyes off of him. Everytime he moved from one side of the table to the other, the rangers would in unison tilt their head in that direction. Everytime he said "yes" or "no" to himself, they would repeat back to him. Does he find this annoying?

His eyes squinted at the screen. "No, that can't be," he whispered.

Billy got up ran into the back of the room and returned with a huge dusty book. He had access to Zordon's excessive library of books from millions planets between a couple of galaxies, and he tried to study it as best of he could. Tommy knew if anybody was gonna find anything from the tablet, it would be him.

Billy opened the book and smaller paperback book on his desk. He ran his two index fingers through the texts, while turning his head from book to another. He looked back the monitor. There was a familiar spark in his eyes. He got something.

"What is it Billy?" Tommy asked.

"These symbols belong to a language that exists but does not exist at the same time," Billy said.

"What does that mean?" Jason asked.

"These symbols share structural similarities to over forty different alien languages, around twenty-five are known to be from some of the oldest living civilizations," Billy said.

"So, you're saying these different species may be connected?" Jason said.

"Indeed and in fact a couple of years ago, a Mirinoi archaeologist, Dr. Xanei, theorized that all of the most ancient of these civilizations were influenced by a common ancestor. He even theorized that this common ancestor would have it's own language very similar to the one inscribed on this tablet."

"So, what does that make the people who made the tablet?' Tommy asked.

"I think what we are looking at here is evidence of the first advanced civilization to exist in the known universe, right here in Angel Grove," Billy said.

"But, why would they be here?" Zack asked.

"Well, if they had such an influence on other planets, then it is reasonable to suspect they may have came here too. Perhaps, they tried to colonize here billions of years ago."

"Is that everything you can gather from the tablet?" Jason asked.

"Without being able to directly translate it, yes," Billy said.

"Well then, I guess all we can do is return the tablet," Jason said, reaching for it.

"Wait, wait, stop," Tommy said as he put his hand on Jason's shoulder, "I think we should check out the dig site where they found this."

"I could barely get us to look at the tablet," Jason said.

"I know, but i'm telling you this thing messed with my head, This tablet made me feel something I hadn't felt since . . . the incident." Tommy didn't like to talk about what happened between him and Lord Zedd, but it was true, just touching that thing for second reminded him of what Zedd did to him.

"I see," Jason said.

"If that tablet did that to me, I could only imagine what other things may be buried down there," Tommy said.

"I suppose. . ."

"You said it yourself, if there is even a possibility that Lord Zedd could find anything to use as a weapon, then we gotta go for it," Tommy said. He grinded is teeth together as Jason looked at the tablet, then back to him.

"You're right," he admitted.

---

Jason, Tommy, and Zack arrived. The dig site was a vast desert, covered with several red tents. Many people were spread out into small groups of three to six people digging in small spots. There was a mix of people wearing proper outdoor clothes and the E.S.B agents in their black suits. Tommy wondered if they regretted trying to look cool in the California heat. Walker saw that they arrived.

"No, no, no, you were given permission to observe the tablet for 24 hours. We didn't say that you could show up here," Walker said.

"What did you think we would do if found something?" Tommy asked.

Walker rubbed his temple. "Did you find any evidence that the tablet is in anyway connected to any threat."

Jason carefully explained the situation to Walker

"And what is it any business is if it of yours if we found something advanced?" Walker asked.

"If you don't know what is, it may be used against you. You might be putting the lives of the people here at risk. Even we don't completely know what's down there," Jason explained.

Tommy felt the steam coming off of Walker. The agent quickly excused himself to make a phone didn't hear much. The most he heard was Walker repeating: "But, sir," and, "Yes, sir."

"Fifteen minutes, you have fifteen minutes," Walker said to them. He walked them to the other side of the dig site and showed them the opening of cave resting on the ground.

"Alright, you two explore the cave, while Walker and I look at the other dig sites," Jason said.

Tommy and Zack walked down in E.S.B had explored deep into the cavern. As they walked the natural light from the sun faded and they had to rely on the light coming from the lanterns that the excavation crew put up.

Zack broke the silence with his scotsman. "Is thaur somethin' botherin' ye? Ye ur affa quite ower thaur, laddy."

"I don't know man," Tommy said. "Something is just weird." They reached the end of the tunnel where excavators were beating at the rock wall with pick axes. One of them greeted the rangers.

"Any problems?" Tommy asked.

"Eh, this batch of rock is stronger than we're use to. The most we could manage was this." the man pointed to a small hole that one could crawl through.

"Oh! I'll go first!" Zack said as he climbed into the hole.

"Are you sure?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, it will be fun!" Zack crawled deep into the small tunnel.

Tommy crouched down to see Zack. After a few feet, Zack faded into darkness, but he could still hear the sound of Zack fumbling over loose rocks.

"Do you see anything weird?" Tommy called out.

"No," Zack called back, " just a bunch of rocks. This tunnel goes on forever."

Jason called on the communicator: "Any progress?"

"Not yet, how about you?" Tommy said.

"The E.S.B found small shards that be from pottery, but that's about it."

"Well maybe—"

A huge crashed echoed through the cave, followed by a thud.

"What happened?!" Jason asked.

"Oh god, Zack's stuck. I gotta get him out," Tommy said.

"Wait for me," Jason said.

Tommy wasn't gonna wait, he grabbed one of the ropes from the excavators and crawled after Zack. Tommy's ranger helmet had automatic night vision, so could see ahead of him well enough. He tried to crawl through the cave as slowly as possible so he wouldn't accidently fall. Inch by inch, Tommy would crawl while keeping his head so he could see if there was a break in the ground.

Then he felt it, the rock beneath him was starting to feel a lot thinner now. Every movement was making the ground crack a little.

He saw it. He saw the gaping chasm before him. He grabbed the edge of it and tried to look down. The night vision allowed him to see about twenty feet down.

"Zack!" he called out. "Zack, can you hear me!"

"Yeah," Zack yelled. What a relief that was.

"Did you find him?" Jason's voice echoed.

"Yeah," Tommy called back.

"Let me, get in there and help," Jason said.

"No, all three of us might be stuck then. I'm gonna climb down and get him."

"Alright," Jason said.

Tommy was a little glad to know Jason trusted him enough to let him do this, but he didn't have time think about that. Tommy had to awkwardly hold onto the walls of the cave he tried to re-orientate his body so that the front of his body faced where the cave entrance was. It was hard, but Tommy's training gave a decent amount of flexibility to do it.

"Alright lower me down."

Tommy slowly hopped down the wall of the cave as Jason and the others fed him more rope. Eventually, he ran out of wall to walk down and he had to be slowly lowered down in mid-air.

He felt his feet hit the ground. He called Jason to stop moving the rope.

"Zack, where are you?'

"Here," Zack called from behind him.

Tommy put a hand on Zack's shoulder. "You okay?"

"A little shaken up, but that was kinda fun. It's weird how there is another huge cave under the other one," Zack said.

"Yeah that is weird." A little too weird, Tommy thought. It was too weird to be a simple coincidence. There had to be more to it.

"Did you find him?" Jason asked on the communicator.

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Hey Jason," Zack said.

"We're in huge opening," Tommy said, "Zack and I are gonna look around for a couple minutes, okay?"

Jason was silent for a moment.

"Okay, Jason?" Tommy asked.

"Okay," he finally said, "but you guys are running out of time."

Tommy and Zack walked through the cavern. Somehow, now that they were deeper underground, they were in a much more open area. The cave's ceiling was probably fifty feet above their head, and it seemed like they could walk it for miles.

"Did you hear that?" Zack asked.

"Hear what?'

"Listen," Zack said.

There was a weird grinding noise coming from behind them. Like somebody was dragging rocks behind them as they walked. The noise was getting closer and closer to them.

"Hide."

Tommy looked around until he found a huge boulder that the two could hide behind. They ran behind the boulder and waited.

As the noise got closer, Tommy could make out more ofthe sound. He heard a light hissing sound under the grinding. As it got closer and closer, he realized that there was something very familiar about the hissing. The source of the noise was now only a couple of feet away from them. It kept grinding and hissing until Tommy realised, oh no.

Peeking out from the bolder, he saw it, a golem of Lord Zedd, a putty. It dragged its stone feet across the rocky ground. It limped along with its ghoulish frown and its dead, soulless, eyes.

This isn't good. He dialed Jason on the communicator. "We' re at code red. We've got a putty down here," Tommy whispered.

"Get out now," Jason said.

The creature stumbled its way past them. They hopped over the boulder, and Zack ran back toward the entrance.

"Come on, Tommy we gotta go."

"Wait, if the the putties are down here, then that means Zedd already knows what's down here," Tommy said.

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"Zedd might have already found something."

"Well, maybe, but . . . "

"You go back to the rope, I'll go check this out," Tommy said.

"You crazy? I'm not gonna leave you down here."

Tommy didn't want to put Zack's life back in danger, but he couldn't disagree. He knew that a dark enclosed cave would be the worst place to run into a pack of putties. They quietly followed it. They tried to make sure that the putty didn't hear them. Step-by-step, they tried to keep up.

Eventually they were able see the putty at the very edge of what their night vision could capture. Tommy and Zack tried to stay least ten feet away. They also tried to step lightly on the ground. Fortunately, the grinding of the it's feet drowned out any noise they could spotted it making a left and noticed that there was this huge boulder nearby.

"Let's get an aerial view," Tommy said.

They climbed up the boulder quietly until they reached the top. The boulder was wide enough were they could continue to follow the putty from their vantage point. They kept up with the putty as grinded against the ground, picking up more and more speed as it moved, and they tried to follow it quickly without bringing attention to themselves.

They stopped as they saw the putty approach a group of others just like it, a pack of them. They hissed at one another in circle. First the one they were following hissed, then another one, then another one, then another one. But then, all the putties just hissed in unison in an organized matter.

"What are they doing?" Zack asked.

"I think, they're talking about what found," Tommy whispered.

The pack then moved forward. Tommy and Zack crawled above them. Tommy's communicator vibrated. Jason was getting antsy. What should the next move be? He knew the putties were leading him somewhere, but Jason might show up any minute. He might mess everything up, he thought.

The pack met at the corner of two rock walls. They scratched at and dusted off the corner.

Tommy crawled to the very edge of the boulder, leaning. He squinted his eyes, activating his helmet's zoom lenses. The lenses zoomed in closer on the rock wall, but it was hard to see with all of them in the way.

He arched his back forward, and one of them moved so he could see something. He didn't know what it was. He saw it only for a second as another putty jumped in front of his view.

"What is it?" Zack asked.

"Maybe a—"

Tommy slipped.

He quickly grabbed on the boulder before he fell, but it was too late. The putties all snapped their heads to face Tommy. They all released a sinister growl that pierced Tommy's ear drums. They all lunged toward the boulder.

Tommy instinctively reached for the back of his belt, where he pulled on the handle for Saba, his trusty sword. Saba's blade materialized as he pulled the handle out. Tommy slashed at two putties in front of him.

The putties leapt at Tommy, one after another. Tommy tried his best to cut them down, but they were ganging up on him. Saba got stuck in a putty head, and as he tried to pull Saba out, two more of them jumped on top of Tommy.

He tried to shake them off, but two more jumped on him. The weight forced Tommy to get on his knees, and his fingers were slipping off of Saba's handle. One of the putties flung off of Tommy's back.

"Turn around!" Zack said.

Tommy turned his back toward Zack. He could feel the putties being pushed off of him him by Zack's axe-blaster. The blaster made the remaining ones hesitate long enough for Tommy to grab Saba and begin slicing them up.

They leapt at them again, almost three at a time. Zack would try to blast at least one down before Tommy could cut them in half. They started coming at them in fours now, and now they were inches from Tommy's face.

They grabbed Saba's blade and wrestled Tommy until he and Zack toppled over the side of the boulder. As they fell, Tommy tried to to time it so he could roll back on his back and keep fighting.

Tommy did manage to back on his feet, but he lost Saba and he had to resort to using his hands. Tommy tried to kick one in the head, while punching another. Tommy saw that Zack was having an easier time with his axe, but they became cornered against the boulder. More and more putties grabbed them and held them onto the ground. One turned its arm into a spiked club and raised it above Tommy's head.

The putty was shot away by a blast of red light. All of the putties turned and they saw the other four Power Rangers firing heavy laser blasts at them. They all retreated from the fire.

Jason walked up to Tommy and gave him Saba: "Let's get out of here, now."

"Wait," Tommy said.

"Now!" Jason said as he dragged Tommy out of the cave.

---

Almost from the second they beamed back into the Command Center, Tommy could feel the tension in the air. It was so strong that that not even Saba could slice through. Jason rapidly turned to face him.

"What did you think you were doing?' Jason asked.

Tommy stumbled to try to find an answer, he was usually good with on the spot questions in even the highest stake scenarios, but he couldn't think of anything.

"I gave you a direct order to leave, and yet you stayed and endangered your life," Jason said.

"We suspected that there might be something dangerous down there, and what do you know? Lord Zedd was after something in the cave. We need to go back down there, and I think we need to take another look at that tablet." Tommy said.

"I have had the E.S.B breathing down my neck for weeks," Jason said, "If we go back in there, or if we don't give the tablet back tomorrow, we might cause an interplanetary incident."

"That's their problem that they can't deal with us," Tommy said,"What about Zedd? Shouldn't that be the pryority?"

"Zedd might have been looking for something, but that doesn't mean that there is anything there. The other dig sites turned nothing. You should have left." Jason said.

"Is really that a risk worth taking?" Tommy said.

"Zack, did you see anything?" Jason asked.

Zack was caught by surprised, he was in the middle of drinking some water and almost spat some of it back out. Well, I didn't see anything besides some rocks. Tommy said he saw something."

"Really?" Jason turned back to Tommy, "What did you find?"

"I'm not sure actually, I just saw them gather up around something," Tommy said.

"Well, that's not very conclusive, is it?" Jason said.

"I'm telling you, Zedd is up to something," Tommy said.

"And I'm telling you that your behavior is not what being a ranger is about."

Enough of this. Tommy stormed off.

---

I'm getting really sick of these rangers, Walker thought as he poured his coffee. I don't know why the President insists that we need them. We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. If anything, they practically ruined the dig site. All they do is snoop around, and yet, if we were to ask them for some information that may be important to the Earth's safety, they become silent. Disgusting. Walker took a sip just as Shaw barged into the lounge.

"What is it now?" Walker said.

Shaw gasped and wheezed. "There's something wrong with the old man."

They ran down the hall, smoke billowing in the air. Forrester's cell door was torn off its hinges. Green fiery footprints tracked out of the cell.

"How the hell did this happen?" Walker said as he entered.

Forrester writhed and convulsed, slobbering all over the floor, kicking his legs into the air. His eye flashed from bright green, to purple, to red. "A whole new world!" he screamed. "A whole new world!"

"What's up with him?" Shaw asked.

Walker rubbed his lips. He only seen this a few times before by some exceptionally high powered U.E.O's. "He's been mindswiped."

Grabbing Forrester's head, Walker whispered to him. "Dr. Forrester, Dr. Forrester, can you understand me?"

"Jasmine!" Forrester screamed. "Jasmine!"

---

Tommy was sitting in the cave. He moved around the frozen putties,trying to make his way back to the corner where they were standing.

"Computer, increase brightness," Tommy said. The cave's dark interior slowly illuminated until it was as bright as day. The Holoroom was nice way to recreate situations in which one missed something.

He stood behind three putties by the corner. "Computer, erase," Tommy said. The three vanished, leaving only a black square in the wall.

The Computer could only recreate what the helmet saw, which left him with only a slightly pixelated black square on a rock, but Tommy did notice that the square was not just a square. It had a round top. He tried to think of something to make the picture clearer.

"Computer, adjust to scale."

The square than increased in size from the size of a phone, to the size of a smal floor tile. Looking at it closely, Tommy saw what it was, it was the perfect shape and size for the tablet from the museum. Luckily, they still had it until tomorrow morning.

Tommy grabbed his Power Coin from the round slot by the door and ran down the hallway to get to the main platform. As the door opened, He saw Jason talking to Zordon and ducked back into the hallway.

"I just don't know what to do," Jason said, "I always try to give him the benefit of the doubt. I even let him go into the cave because I thought he was onto something, but he always so reckless," Jason said.

"Do you believe this behavior will be detrimental to the team?" Zordon asked.

"I don't know. If he doesn't listen to me, then who will he listen to?"

"You know the Power Rangers can only truly function as one, as one unit, one organism," Zordon said.

"That's what I mean. What do I do with Tommy then? He's too important of an asset to the team," Jason said.

"You must do what you feel is right. You're the leader Jason, part of the responsibility is making these decisions. I have taught you everything you need to know," Zordon said.

Tommy closed the door, and back through the hallway. He wouldn't believe me. He wouldn't want to if I told him, he thought. The only way Jason would understand was if he showed him, proved to him that he was right. I'll show Jason that I'm even more than just a valuable asset to the team.

He walked into the vault room, where the Power Rangers kept technology and mystical items too powerful for mankind. Tommy went through one drawer after another trying to find it, but then he did. He took the tablet.

---

Jason stood outside of the Holoroom. He was nervous, but he knew what he was going to do was important. It might be waste of time, but it's always worth a shot. Jason figured if he tried to have an honest talk with Tommy, then maybe things could go back on track.

He opened the door, it was empty, so Jason wandered down the hallway.

"Tommy, Tommy, where are you?" he said as went from room to room. He kept on going until he got to the vault. The opened box laid on the floor.

"Tommy!"

---

Tommy wandered through the cave. It was surprising how the lax the security was. There were only a few E.S.B agent watching the perimeter that he sneaked by. After that, there was only one sleeping guard outside the entrance of the cave.

He had made it back to where the putties were, and found the corner between the rock walls. Rubbing his hand along the wall, his fingers felt a slight hollow in the wall.

It was just the right size for the tablet. Carefully, he slipped the tablet into the the hollow of the rock. Once it was in place, he pushed hard against the tablet. It's gotta do something.

Nothing. No matter how hard he pressed against the tablet, it seemed ineffective. There was no secret trap door, no teleportation beam, nothing at all.

He observed the tablet. Dome of the little stone squares on it were more raised than the others. Pressing in on of the raised ones,It sunk into the tablet like button and the symbol on it glowed. He pressed all the raised symbols one by one, and they all illuminated. He reached to press the last symbol.

"What do you think you're doing?" a voice called from behind Tommy. Oh, man. He looked behind him and saw Jason, Trini, and Zack, morphed and with their arms crossed.

"Tommy I've had it with—"

Before Jason could finish, Tommy knew he couldn't waste this opportunity and he quickly slammed his fist on to the final symbol. The cave was consumed by a bright flash. Tommy closed his eyes. When he opened them, rockwall and the tablet were unchanged. The buttons were still pressed but there didn't seem to be anything different at all.

"Tommy. . ." Trini said.

Turning to them, he saw the rangers gazing at a gigantic pyramid that loomed over them. The cave was gone, all that remained was a black void that covered the sky. The wall the held tablet was floating in mid air.

Walking ahead of them, he was in awe of what he was looking at. His eyes scanned over all the worn out stone buildings that have rotten away and gave into vegetation growth. The pyramid stood solid and strong. It was beautiful and it was time to rub it Jason's face.

"See? See? I told you! I told you there was something here, and what do you know? We found the motherload," Tommy said as he pointed at the various could tell through Jason's helmet that he was still in awe of the place.

"You still disobeyed orders," Jason said, his visor was still looking up at the gigantic pyramid.

"What are we gonna do now Jason? Leave?" Tommy said.

Jason finally tilted his head back down, and after a minute, he finally said: "Alright, we'll explore for a couple of minutes, but we still have to talk when we get back."

"Fine by me," Tommy said.

The rangers surveyed the ghost city. All of the buildings were dilapidated and partially missing, and they were filled with vines and the occasional small tree. The ranger poked their heads until to the windows to see if they could find anything. Though, it was obvious nothing would be there.

"So where do you think we are?" Jason asked Billy via the communicator.

"Well, since your helmet reads that there's oxygen in your area, it's unlikely that you're on another planet. I can only theorize that you guys were transported into a pocket dimension created by the civilization," Billy said.

"Pocket dimension? That would require some pretty advanced tech, and it's still running," Jason said.

Tommy smiled in his helmet. This was exactly the proof he needed. Finally, he would be able to get Jason off of his back for good, now that they found something this big.

The rangers arrived at the edge of the city and ascended up the stone stairs to the top of the pyramid. While the pyramid had a staircase similar to the ones on the Mayan Pyramids that Tommy saw in his text books, it had a pointed top similar to the egyptian pyramids. The climb to the top of felt like i ten minutes as the rangers carefully watched their step to make sure they wouldn't fall. The steps were tall and steep.

They arrived at the top, where they could see that the tip of the pyramid was actually a separate piece supported by columns above their heads. They walked in and saw that the floor and walls were covered in tiles with symbols engraved onto them. Tommy saw four doorways on each wall around him.

"We have a lot of options here, split up?" Tommy asked.

"No," Jason said,"We don't know where we are going. We'll pick one path today, and we might explore it more another time."

"I guess that's—"

The pyramid shaked, and the columns began to sink inside the floor. They all tried to run for the stairs but a wall raised over them as the ceiling sunk down, sealing them in.

Trini banged her fists against the wall. "What do we—" The floor beneath her pulled away and she fell through into a dark pit.

"Trini!" Jason ran for the pit, but another wall come down from the ceiling. Tommy grabbed and pulled Jason's head out of it's path.

"Quick where's Zack?" Tommy asked. They looked over and saw Zack was standing on a piece of floor that was rising.

"Run!" Tommy yelled.

Zack slid off of his little platform before it slammed into the ceiling. Tommy saw Zack run toward them, jumping over the rising floor tiles. A huge length of wall slid between them and Zack like a shower curtain. It slammed shut before Zack could make it.

No! No! They pressed themselves against the wall, pushing against it. Jason activated the communicator. "Billy, we ne—"

The floor gave in under Tommy.

---

Above him, the trap door slid back into place. Tommy tired not to freak out as he pulled himself off the floor. Sure, it was totally his fault that three of his friends may be six feet under, both literally and metaphorically, but that was an average day. He had to keep calm, and take note of his surroundings.

At the edge of the stone room, stood a pair of double doors with ring handles. The eye, the same eye that the tablet showed him, hung above the doors. There was no choice. He had to check it out.

By pulling on the ring, the door screeched open. He stepped inside the round room. Déjà vu. It was the exact same room from his vision, huge, round, and with and object in the center. He could almost see the shadowy people again.

Walking to the center, he could make out the object. It was a pedestal with a handle sticking out of the top. Curious, very curious. He wrapped his fingers around the handle and pulled. It slid out.

It was a sword, and a scepter, and an axe all at the same time. A jewel laid on top of a long shaft. A serrated blade protected from the shaft and curved around the jewel. It was made of stone, but it was surprisingly light. He rolled it around in his hand. Something clicked. Turning it over, he found his thumb pressed against a small stone button.

The jewel pulsated, and the blade rotated around it. Tingles ran down Tommy's hand, through his arm, and into his head. The blade rotated faster, and faster around the jewel. The room blurred.

Flash!

He dropped the object and fell onto his hands and knees. He kept his eyes shut tight for a second, but then opened them. His vision was slightly blurry, but he was able to stand.

He grabbed the nearby wall to help himself up. Whatever that thing did must have pushed him back to the edge of the room. His vision was still blurry, but he could see something was different. There was something else in the room by the pedestal.

He walked slowly back to the center of the room, closer to the thing. As he got closer and closer his vision became clearer. When he was six inches away from the thing, Tommy could see clearly what was in the room with him, himself.

Shocked, he stepped back. What is going on? He walked around the other Tommy. This other Tommy was frozen in the moment he pulled out the object from the pedestal.

But I dropped it, he thought. Tommy looked behind him to find the object laying on the floor. So, there were two of him, and two of the object.

He object off of the floor. Maybe it has a reset button. As he rolled it around his hands, the blade began to rotate again. And with one bright pulse from the jewel, the room's dark walls illuminated into bright white light.

"Are you having any difficulties, Mr. Oliver?"

He turned toward the voice. Out of the white light, came a blue shadow. It shaped itself, herself. It was a lady, a lady with golden hair and porcelain skin. Sparkles shined of her blue dress. Fluffy, feathery wings stretched out of each of her sides.

"How may I be of assistance?" she whispered.

His jaw tried to shape the words. "How? What? Who— Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

"I am the Guardian of the Gate," she said,"I know you because I know all."

"Huh, do you know what this is?" he asked, waving the object.

"It is the key," she said.

"The key to. . .?"

"To the Gate," she said.

"I figured that," he said, "but what is that?"

"The Gate is above, through, and between all."

"Okaayyy." Tommy really hated mystical cryptic nonsense, but that was always part of the job. He learned a long time ago to just cut to the chase, even if the mysterious entities didn't. "So, why am I over there," he said, pointing to the frozen Tommy.

"Because that is where you were," she said, "You are not there anymore. You are somewhere else now. You are with me."

"What?! No wayyy. . ." he said with a sigh.

"Yes, I cannot tell a lie," she said.

"Alright, what can you say?"

"Everything. Ask and I must answer," she said.

"So, you're like Siri or something?" he said, scratching his helmet.

"If that helps," she said.

Alright, I've had enough. "Okay, you're a genie-fairy-thing, whatever. Does this key have a reset button?"

She glided over to him. "No, you are the 'reset button'." Her hand reached for the key. Weirdly enough, it was like there was this flexible wall, this invisible film between the two of them, like saran wrap. Her hand became wrapped in this film as she touched the key. She guided his hand and lifted the key above his head. "You are not where you were. You are here, and here is everything you can envision."

The blade rotated again. And like he was standing on the tide at the beach, Tommy felt himself being dragged, pulled even to the frozen. His body tingled as he was sucked into his twin.

Flash!

And he was back where he started, standing by the pedestal, holding the key. Now this some crazy stuff, he thought, I can only imagine if Zedd got his hands on this. I need to find the others, and fast.

The building began to shake.

As he ran out of the room, Tommy darted his head around. An archway lifted out of the ground and he went for it. Rushing down the hallway, a huge mass bashed against his helmet, knocking him back. Shaking it off, he realized he just bumped into Zack.

"Tommy!" Zack said, "Hey boyo, waaat chucker yer got dare?" He pointed to the key.

"I'll explain later, where are the others?"

"I think I found Trini. Follow me!" Zack said as he bolted.

They ran a few more feet through the narrow hallway until it ended in another open area. Zack pointed to a grate in the ground. Tommy looked through the squares in the grate and saw Trini's yellow uniform. "Trini?!" he yelled.

"Present. . ." She sounded like she was far away.

"Zack's gonna blast this open, and you're gonna climb up here, okay?"

"That's a pretty nice plan, hurry," she said.

Zack materialized his axe blaster and destroyed the grate in a giant blue fire ball.

"Okay Zack, you be on the look out for Jason, I'll keep an eye on her."

"Got it." Zack ran to the doorway on the other side of the room.

The building started shaking again and Tommy heard a loud a crack. He looked over his shoulder to see Zack stuck under a metal wall. He ran to him and saw that only his legs were stuck under the wall. He tried to pull Zack out, but he was heavy. Zack was panting pretty hard, obviously trying not to scream.

"Tommy, help!" he heard Trini scream.

"Climb Trini! Climb!" Tommy yelled out.

Zack began crying out as the wall started pushed into his legs. Zack's armor sparked as it tried to resist being crushed. Tommy put his leg on the wall to try and get more leverage to pull Zack out.

---

Trini saw the wall behind her coming toward her slowly. I hate my life, she thought as the wall in front of her moved in and out in cube-shaped sections. Her time to act was now. She grabbed a cube, and then another, then another, trying to quickly move from one to another before it popped back into the wall. She made it to two feet under the grate. The cube she grabbed snapped back into the wall and she slammed back to the ground.

The oncoming wall was now three feet away from her. Get up! She quickly grabbed another cube and climbed even faster, jumping from one part of the wall to another.

The wall was now a foot away. She grabbed the edge of a sunk cube, but it quickly popped out and pressed her against the oncoming wall, squeezing her chest. The cube snapped back into place and she climbed through the grate.

---

Tommy tried as hard as he could to pull Zack out, but he wasn't gonna budge. Trini ran to them, grabbed Zack's shoulders and pulled. They tugged as hard as they could. There was another hard slam. Tommy looked over and saw Jason climbing out of a newly formed vent. Jason ran over and grabbed Zack. Together they pulled Zack from out of the wall.

---

Exhausted, they lumbered into another open room decorated with statues of some kind of warriors, surprisingly human shaped warriors. Tommy leaned against on of the statues, observing the key.

"So, what did you find?" Jason asked.

"I'm not sure exactly, but whatever it is, I think we should get it back to the Command Center before—"

Tommy sunk into the statue, almost falling to the floor. "What th—?" Hestood up and looked at his back. There was some bizarre substance on it. He looked over at the dent he made in the statue. It was like it was made of clay. Tommy stuck his fingers into it and scooped some out. He rolled the clay with his fingers. The clay crawled off of his hand.

"Crap. . ."

The statues exploded into a wave of clay that grabbed them. It started to wrap around Tommy, but he was able to draw out Saba and cut through it.

The wiggling mass of clay quickly wrapped itself around the others and began to reshape itself into a man shape. Tommy ran over and sliced off one of its forming arms, and then slashed at it's stomach, again and again.

Something wrapped around Tommy, forcing him to drop Saba. A snake? Yes, but it wasn't just any snake. It was his snake.

He tried pull his arms away from his sides, but the snake restricted tighter and tighter. It shocked him, sending electricity through his suit into his body. His muscles seized up and he fell over.

Though dizzy, he saw three figures approach him, two putties and someone else in a cloak. The one in the cloak stared at him for a moment, observing him as he squirmed. He crouched down to Tommy.

"My child, are you in pain?" It asked with a very familiar mechanical whisper.

His heart raced. This wasn't a dream. This was actually happening. Tommy was once again face-to-face with Lord Zedd.

Zedd unclicked the button holding his cloak together, he slipped off the left side, then the other. It dropped to the floor, revealing Zedd's bloody red muscles encased in his silver exoskeleton. As he breathed, the liquid in the tubes surrounding his body bubbled and gargled.

Tommy stared into Zedd's red visor, a red void didn't reflect any light. Zedd turned his head to the side, where he used his silver talons to slowly scratch and claw at the contours of his exposed brain.

"You don't know the meaning of the word," Zedd said.

Tommy shifted his eyes away from him. Jason, Trini, and Zack were caged the stomach of a tall putty. Reluctantly, his eyes shifted back to Zedd. "What do you want?" he asked with a cough.

"I just want what's coming to me, what was promised to me," Zedd said, "I have longed for this temple and it's secrets. It was my quest, my destiny. When I sent the Vlork to retrieve the tablet, I thought my quest had come to an end, but destiny has a way of challenging you, of placing things in your way." His visor illuminated. A wavy image of Forrester screaming flashed on it.

Oh no. . .

"The mortal posed a challenge that I turned into a greater victory," Zedd said, "I knew you must of taken the tablet from him, and I knew you couldn't resist the urge to follow the lead. I baited you, my child, and I let you help me fulfill my destiny."

A putty handed the key to him. He rolled it around in his hands. "My ancestors could only of imagine. . . I can only imagine. Do you know?"

Dazed, Tommy managed to spit something out. "How would I know if you don't know? Zeddy, you ain't very bright."

Slowly, Zedd tilted his head sideways, and snapped his fingers. Another shock ran through Tommy's body, stabbing into his burning muscles. Zedd grabbed his chin and pulled it closer to his face. "Child, I know you very well and I know you when you are lying to me."

"I have nothing for you," Tommy said.

"Well then . . . " Zedd snapped his fingers again.

Tommy closed his eyes, anticipating another shock, but nothing came. Instead, he heard the sounds grinding metal. Tommy opened his eyes to see that the cage stomach of the puttywas shrinking, crushing Jason, Zack, and Trini. He could hear the three of them struggle as they were tossed and turned in its belly.

"Don't tell him anything!" Jason said.

Tommy grinded his teeth together, this was the situation he was afraid of the most. He knew inside that Zedd had no reason to stop hurting after he got what he was looking for, but there had he could do?

"Now child," Zedd said, "are you going to tell me?"

He struggled for words: " I uh, I uh….."

"Tommy," Jason called out, "for once in your life listen to me. Don't tell him anything! Not a. . . " The cage crushed in on him.

"Silence!" Zedd said before turning back to Tommy. He waved the key. "What is this? You must tell me! You have no choice!"

Zack and Trini gagged for life as the cage shrunk. I guess I really don't, hethought. Tommy took a deep breath."Okay," he said, "I'll tell you." He took another breath. "It's a really old can opener."

Zedd tilted his head to the side and snapped his fingers. The cage began to grow back. "Oh well child, if you don't want to tell me, then I'll find out myself."

Zedd turned to face the rangers in the cage. Tommy's hands began to shake. He hadn't seen this coming and he hoped Zedd wouldn't find the button, but he did. The blade rotated again. Zedd laughed as he pointed the key at the rangers.

"Well children," Zedd said, "it was fun, but as Zordon once said to me, nothing lasts forever." He laughed again as the jewel pulsated a red light.

A pink arrow flew into the ground and exploded into a puff of pink smoke. Tommy could hear the sound of metal clang on the floor, and the sound of Lord Zedd coughing. Flashes of blue light shot over Tommy's head, creating red fireball explosions ten feet away from him.

Zedd's snake unwrapped itself from Tommy and shot into the smoke. Billy appeared from behind Tommy and helped him unto his knees. We have to go," Billy said, firing two shots from his blaster.

"Wait." Tommy ran into the smoke, trying to lay low. He crawled on the floor, under the energy blasts and explosions. He couldn't see anything. The smoke was too thick. He felt around on the floor until his hand hit something. He got the key.

A metal boot cracked into Tommy eye visor, knocking him on his back. Zedd stood over him, his snake slithering from his shoulders to his hand. The snake morphed into his silver staff.

Zedd tapped Tommy's chest with his staff, and a purple energy field kept Tommy from getting up. "Who do you think you are to take my birthright away from me?" he asked.

Tommy pushed his back muscles as hard his could, but the field wouldn't give. "Zedd, did you ever consider the fact that you just suck?" Tommy said.

Zedd lifted the spiked bottom of his staff, but the energy field didn't disappear. He grabbed his staff with both and hands, and green energy flowed down to the spiked bottom. He pointed it towards Tommy's head.

An arrow flew into Zedd's arm. The energy field disappeared and Tommy rolled over and grabbed the key. Zedd pulled the arrow out with growl. He aimed the purple glowing staff at Tommy.

"Enough!" Zedd yelled. A flash red light exploded behind him and Zedd fell over.

Out from the smoke Billy arrived with Jason, Trini, and Zack. "Let's go, it's shifting again," Jason said.

The rangers ran out of the smoke cloud, meeting Kim on the outside. They ran to the doorway that was rapidly sinking into the ground. All six of them jumped through to the other side.

All the rangers climbed to their feet. Zack pointed off into the distance. "Hey look, light! I think that's the way out of here."

The temple began to shake again, only more violently than it had before. Even the ground beneath them was trembling. Pieces of the ceiling fell.

"It's gonna collapse, move out!" Jason said.

Tommy and the others ran as fast as they could, trying to jump around the falling debris. Tommy could see the light coming closer and closer. A big boulder dropped in front of Tommy and he leapt over it, barely being able to get back on his feet so he could run again.

They jumped through the exit. Tommy looked up to see they were at the base of the pyramid. The top of the pyramid collapsed into the the piece below it, crushing the staircase. And then that piece fell into the one beneath that one. And so on, until only the base remained.

"We did it!" Zack said.

All of the rangers gathered to talk about which of them did the best job, it was a tradition of theirs whenever they barely scrape by a horrible situation. Among the commotion, Tommy noticed something.

"Hey, where's Jason?" he asked.

They all looked around to see where he was. Why wouldn't he be there with them? Tommy's eyes flew wide open. He dropped the key.

"No. No."

Tommy looked back at the destruction before him. He didn't make it.

He ran to the opening where they escaped, now covered in rocks and rubble. He dug through the rocks, trying to find him. Each rock he turned away made another one fall into its place. No, this can't be happening. Tommy dug through the rock for minutes upon minutes before Billy and Zack dragged him away.

"Tommy, stop! That's not going to help," Zack said.

"Let me go, I can do this." He wriggled and writhed out of their hold.

"Tommy it is over, he is gone," Billy said.

"No." Tommy broke free from their grasp only to fall onto his knees. He tore his helmet off. His eyes felt someone had just stabbed both of them. "I killed him. . . I killed him. . ."

---

Tommy sat by himself a couple of feet away from the rangers. They were at a lost for words. He hear Zack and the girls silently sobbing together. Billy wasn't much of a crier, but Tommy could always hear it in his voice. Billy had that voice when tried to dial Zordon on the communicator.

"Zordon? I have some bitter news to share."

There was only static on the other side, with a background noise that might have been Zordon responding. Tommy couldn't help but wonder how Zordon would react. What happen to the rangers before them was always a touchy subject for him.

His hands were still shaking. It was unreal. The Jason Scott that he trained with, went to school with, and hung out with was gone. His stomach twisted and turned. I didn't always agree with the meathead, he thought, but I didn't want him to die. Jason is dead and I killed him.

He turned to his left. The key stood untouched on the ground. Everything you can envision. He stood up and slowly walked to it. The other rangers disappeared to him, he didn't know what they were saying or doing. Their voices faded off into the distance. The pushed him toward it, like a magnet.

He grabbed the key, activating it. The blade spun.

The muscles in his arm felt like they were being torn apart from an outside force. His head experienced the worst pain as every synapse in his brain fired at once. The entire world he was living in was dragged away until he was in a purely white void.

"Think about what you desire," Guardian whispered.

In a white flash, Tommy was back in the tunnel that he and the rangers just escaped from. Everybody around him walked in slow motion. He walked, no, he hovered to the back, past the other version of Tommy jumping over the boulder.

Tommy floated all the way to the back where he saw Jason. Tommy looked up and saw a huge cube of stone already fallen out of place and about to hit Jason right on the head.

"What do I do?" Tommy asked.

"See it, be it," she said.

Tommy put his hand on the stone. Instantly, the object glowed with a white light. His eyes began to burn slightly, but it was like he could he see all the particles moving in the stone.

It was intuitive now, Tommy didn't need to ask anymore. He knew how to use the key to reverse time and get everybody to walk back a couple of feet in fast motion, and then in slow motion again.

Now, Jason was a good ten feet away from the stone. Tommy focused on the stone and saw all the particles in it move down to the bottom, forcing the stone to fall to the ground. He sped up time to see Jason jump over the stone.

Flash!

And he was back outside the pyramid with the other rangers. Jason stood next to him. "Well, I like think we all played our own part, right Tommy?" Jason asked.

Tommy stumbled. "Well, I don't know if I did much."

"You kidding? Coming here was your idea, and because of you Lord Zedd didn't get his hands on whatever that thing is," Jason said, pointing to the key

"I guess I was kinda right, but also kinda not," Tommy said. Jason smiled. He seemed to have picked up on everything Tommy wanted say from that sentence.

"Let's go home," Jason said.

---

Daniel lined up his shot. Carefully, he tapped the orange ball with his putter. Somehow, the ball rolled of the green matt and went underneath the office chair. He sighed. I spent how many years in college, just to do this all day? he thought. Working at NASA wasn't nearly as exciting as he hoped it would be.

A red light flashed on one of the monitors with an irritating beep. As he went to retrieve the ball, he called to Carl. "Hey kid, would you take care of that?"

"Surrrreee," Carl managed to say with the pizza in his mouth.

Getting on his old knees, Daniel managed to get to the ball. "So, what is it this time?" he asked. "Better not be another fly!"

Carl pulled a paper out of the printer and gazed at it, wide eyed. He gulped down his bit of pizza. "Dr. Ottoman?!"

Weird, the kid never calls me doctor, Daniel thought as he walked to him. He pulled the paper away from him. It was today's starfield check.

Carl poked his greasy finger at the starfield. He pointed at the big white spot that occupied the center of the field. Is that a black hole? No. The shape is all wrong.

"Now, I'm not an expert or anything." Carl shoved another slice of pizza into his mouth. "But, I don't think that's suppose to be there."

---

As he waited for Zack to get back with the ice cream, Tommy stood at his favorite spot, The Power Rangers Dedication Fountain. It was glorious. Each of the rangers were represented in a tall stone statue, standing over a crystal clear fountain. The town made it for them after major battle victory over Lord Zedd. He was amazed by how much detail they had put into. They must have only had pictures to work with, but they still managed to recreate each of their ranger armor perfectly. It kinda felt weird, but good to know that Tommy would always be a world wide legend.

Then he saw it. On any other day, he probably wouldn't have noticed it, but today he couldn't help but see it on the statue.

"Hey Tommy, I got your favorite." Zack returned with two ice cream cones, three scoops of chocolate for himself and two scoops of mint chocolate chip for him.

"Thanks." He grabbed the cone and ran

"Is something wrong, man?" Zack asked.

"No." Of course there was, but he just wanted to forget about it. "Lets just go back to your place. We got studying to do."

Tommy followed Zack, hoping the taste of mint could help him forget what he saw. On Jason's statute, the head was consumed by cracks.