Disclaimer - How long have I been doing this? You think I'd STILL being doing it if I owned these people?

Author's Notes - Damn almost 26 years old, for hell's sake I think I started writing fan fiction back when I was 16, not sure if that's impressive or depressing. I know it's been ages upon ages since I wrote or posted anything, I've been fairly busy, working, going for a second degree, sleeping on occasion, but this idea just won't really leave me alone so…

Now many of you who are Buffy fans (and not just the first 3 season fans before the show went to hell and Buffy became a damned whiney bimbo) know this idea is based on a later down the line episode where she has a shift in her reality uncertain if her life and world is all a delusion made up in her mentally ill head, or if it's real. Well liked this notion and wondered what might happen if Tommy was in such a situation considering how outlandish 90% of the things that happen in Power Rangers is.

Author's Notes 2 - If Tommy sounds slightly 'mean' in comparison to how he was in previous fictions I've done, I don't want to hear it. He's an adult, and despite how he was sometimes less then mature on the show, well look at it like this the man is most likely 30 years old, has spent half his life fighting for his life as well as the lives of people around him, and now he is stuck doing it again only now he is in charge of the entire blasted thing on and OFF the battle field. Don't think he'd be totally goofy and playful.

Season - DinoThunder

Summary - Where is happiness bred in the heart or in the head? Tommy can't help but wonder just where his happiness lies as his world is abruptly turned upside down.

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A Harsh Reality

Tommy

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"Look all I'm saying is that you need to get out once in a while. You know interact with someone who isn't just a female character on a video game." Conner.

"Hey I'll have you know that some of the best gamers on World of War Craft are of the female Varity. Not to mention how smoken they look in their nightelf costumes." Ethan.

"You two are disgusting." Kira.

"Can one of you hand me the-" Cringing as a loud crash is heard followed by Hayley's follow up of 'never mind', I think I've had enough for one day.

Turning away from the main computer that I had been working on in an effort to track the power source of the invisaportals that have been popping up far too frequently for my liking, I survey my pupils all of which seem to be doing little in way of training or helping Hayley with mechanical repairs as they are supposed to.

"Dude you're a nerd."

Both Hayley and Ethan looking offended by this, it is however the holder of the blue powers that finds his voice first. "Hey! I'll have you know that 'nerd' isn't exactly a bad thing now a days, at any rate it's better than egotistical jock."

"Yeah until the 'egotistical jock' shoves your face in the mud again." Starting to see why perhaps Zordon selected five children who were originally friends BEFORE they were given the power.

"Bring it on Red boy!" By the powers, not again.

"Do you both recall what I did the last time you got into a fight with each other?" My voice calm but serious, I fix both boys with a stern look, thankfully causing each to step back from the other and quickly mutter out an apology to each other and myself.

"Aw but now the raptors will be disappointed you guys won't be running with them until they're worn out." Kira responds with a smile before going back to strumming her guitar , her words making me realize that there is yet another thing that has been neglected today. The raptors are getting restless, even if they are hybrids they are still animals, and wild ones at that. They have to have some time to be out of their pen and this lair that isn't involved in carrying the children around when a monster is on the loose.

Removing my glasses and rubbing my eyes which are now hurting more then a little from the bad lighting in the lair as well as the fact I've been staring at a computer screen for more than two hours straight, I think it's clearly time for a break, and from more than just my research. "Go home." Dismissing the children and turning back to the monitor as it beeps to signal another dead end to a portal I was trying to track, I cancel that search and start a different one, hoping that Mesagog was careless enough to leave at least one portal open long enough to allow me to follow it and pinpoint exactly where his base is located.

"Aw, but Dr. O-"

"Go Conner, unless you really would like to take the raptor riders out for their evening exercise."

Sighing in defeat, the Red Ranger shakes his head. "No, not really, it's just, you know it's boring at home."

"Not to mention you have one of the best computer systems in town." Ethan adds with a smile that clearly states he is in want of playing on said system despite the fifty times I have previously told him that I do not want him doing so.

"Home. Now." Tone not one to be argued with I watch as all three sigh but do as told and give their goodbyes before heading up the stairs to leave through the house.

Waiting until she sees Conner's car drive away on the security monitor, Hayley leaves her own work area to stand beside me, hands poised telling on her hips.

"What?"

"You shouldn't be so hard on them, they're just kids." And it begins.

"So was I." Setting the search to run on three different former portal locations, knowing that will take at least an hour or so to complete, I stand from my chair, stretching calmly, and pointedly ignoring his disapproving look.

"That's different."

Moving across the room to the raptor pen, I unlock the heavy steel gate currently keeping them in and out of trouble, before starting to pet them each in turn. "How?"

"I, I don't know all right. It just is. You, you weren't like them at that age. And besides your mentor wasn't your friend."

Pausing at this and allowing Red to sniff my hand, I turn back to give Hayley a slight look of disapproval. "I'm their mentor and their teacher, that doesn't make me their friend Hayley. If I was their friend chances are they'd all have been dead by now."

"That's such a load of crap," Eyes heating up as she moves to me, all but ignoring the four raptors that I am currently leading out onto the main floor of the lair, their harnesses and reins in hand, she never does get tired of this argument does she. "You are so damn determined to keep those kids at arm's length just like everyone else in your life, well let me tell you something Thomas Oliver, you cannot go through life like that. EVERYONE even YOU needs friends and-"

"Hold these." Putting the reins in her hand, I call on my morpher ignoring her fury.

"If you think I'm going to stand by and watch you pull into yourself like you did when-"

"DinoThunder power up!" Morphing quickly and hoping there are not too many people out right now, I wonder and not for the first time if it wouldn't have been better had the raptors been more mechanical like the zords, rather than majority wise flesh and blood.

"Tommy," Voice becoming dangerously quiet, she fixes me with a hard look at screams volumes. "If you do not stop shoving everyone away with excuses of research, work, or dangers of your 'extra' activities, you are going to wake up one day and realize you are completely alone, miserable, and have nothing to show for it."

"Aside the Earth still being here and its' inhabitants still being alive." Glad for the need to morph now as I find myself unable to meet her eyes, I shake my helmet clad head before taking the reins from her hand. "I have to take the raptors out, lock up before you go home all right."

Uncertain if she is now seething in anger or disappointment, I try to ignore it either way as I take the animals out from the cavern entrance, hopping onto Black before nodding to the other three. "Run, but stay in sight."

To be continued…..