CHAPTER 2

"There it is!" Nick cried, spying the city as they approached on their racers.

"We should stash our brooms and ferret him out as regular tourists." Vida yelled over the wind.

"Right." Nick replied steering toward the edge of the city closest to the high school.

"Ow!" Vida grumbled as they flipped off the racers and demorphed in a small alcove next to the school, catching the brooms as they fell.

"You okay?" Nick said, glancing around them. Vida nodded, pulling out her wand.

"Ed ihs moorb!" she chanted, pointing her wand at the brooms, they vanished instantly. "Let's go."

"School got out about an hour ago." Nick said glancing at his watch as they made their way toward the front doors.

"He'll still be there." Vida gritted her teeth.

"Office." Nick pointed, veering off to inquire as to the Doctor's location. Vida crossed her arms, impatiently waiting for him, glaring at the walls.

"This way." Nick said, exiting the office and heading determinedly down the hallway, Vida close behind him, trying not to limp.

"That's it." He murmured, pointing to the open door.

"Let's do this." Vida muttered, marching through the open door. There, sitting behind the teacher's desk was the greatest ranger of all time, staring at a picture, and wiping tears off of his face.

"Doctor?" Nick asked, as Vida stared.

"What can I do for you?" Tommy asked, standing up and rubbing his eyes, he tried to smile, "Sorry, I'm kind of a mess right now."

"Oh?" Vida replied, than her voice softened, "Kimberly's missing." The Doctor stiffened, his eyes suddenly guarded as Vida let out a short bark of laughter, "Oh Chip, how could I forget?"

"Who are you?"

"Chip knew all the names of the original rangers by heart," Vida told Nick with a small smile on her face, ignoring Tommy's question, "He always teased me about the green ranger and the pink ranger, Kimberly." Nick smiled sadly.

"We'll get him back." He told her.

"We'll get both of them back." Vida said firmly, glaring at Tommy Oliver, "We were told that you would want to talk to us. Now we know why. Your Pink Ranger's missing."

"Mystic Force…" Tommy guessed, trying to regain his leadership status. Nick nodded.

"What's left of it." Vida muttered.

"This morning we were attacked by a red ranger, she took two of our team-mates and put another into a deep healing sleep." Nick took a deep breath, "She told us that you, and the rangers of both past and future, would want to talk to us, and that we should bring you to the middle of Briarwood to meet her with instructions on where we were to fight for our loved ones." Tommy seemed to absorb this, than looked startled.

"She?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, now call your ranger friends, doc." Vida snapped, hands on her hips.

"We should bring him back to Rootcore." Nick argued, "Let him call them from there."

"I think-" Tommy broke off as his cell-phone rang, "Hello?" he answered, "Jason? Wait- slow down! Kat? How do you- no- I haven't checked. Yeah I just found out- She said what? Who?" his eyebrows shot together with an audible snap, "I'm here with them right now-no wait, I have a better idea, meet me in Briarwood at… uh…." He looked at Nick and Vida.

"The Rockporium." Vida supplied.

"The Rockporium. See you then." Tommy hung up and dialed another number. "Anton. Yeah, could you sub for me here at the school for a couple of days? Great! Yeah, you know another emergency. Thanks, bye." He slid his phone into his pocket.

"What happened?" Nick asked, concerned.

"That was Jason, the original red ranger." Tommy looked saddened, "He and Kat, the second pink ranger, just had a visit from your Red Ranger. She took Kat and ordered Jason to call me, saying that if he involved anyone else than she would kill her." He looked at Vida and Nick with suspicion, "She also told him to contact Mystic Force."

"We had nothing to do with this!" Vida snapped, but Nick tried to remain calm.

"Look, we couldn't very well beat ourselves up than hide our teammates, pull your name out of thin air even though we don't even know you, and than tell our red ranger friend to attack two other random ex-rangers."

"I know." Tommy sighed, "But that means we have no real leads as to who this ranger is."

"That's why we need to get back to Rootcore, see what my Mom has uncovered." Nick nodded toward the door.

"We can take my car." Tommy started, heading toward the door.

"No." Nick replied, stopping him, "Too slow. V, you go by tree, Tommy and I will take the racers."

"What?" Vida snapped, "He can't handle my racer by himself!"

"Vida you're hurt-"

"You can't use the pink racer without the pink ranger!" Vida snapped, storming out of the classroom.

"Pink rangers huh?" Tommy said grinning.

"I like blue rangers better." Nick admitted following the feisty sprite.

--

It went a long way to ease Vida's temper when she saw Tommy Oliver so opened-mouthed at the sight of the dragon's head that made up the entrance to Rootcore.

"What'd you have, a basement?" She taunted him as they walked through.

"At one point, yes." Tommy admitted, watching in amazement as the dragon mouth closed behind them.

"Mom? Dad!" Nick yelled as they entered the room, he walked over to where Chip lay, still sleeping. "Hang in there, Chip." He said quietly.

"Bowen!" Udonna said entering the room. "Your father and Daggeron are out training. Is this…?"

"I'm Dr. Tommy Oliver ma'am." Tommy said, extending a hand, they shook, "It's an amazing base you have here." Udonna inclined her head, every bit a powerful sorceress.

"I've heard great things about you." She said regally, "It will be good to have your help in finding our lost rangers."

"How many are missing?" Vida asked.

"Several names have appeared in the Xenotome." Udonna replied, walking up the stairs to the great book.

"Xenotome?"

"Book of magic, source of our powers, etc. etc." Vida waved him off, hobbling up to stand beside her, Nick close behind her. Tommy walked up slowly, feeling like his feet were made of lead.

"Sky Tate, the Red Ranger of SPD, power ranger of the future." Undonna read from the yellowed page, "Eric Meyers the Quantum Ranger of Time Force, Tori Hanson the Blue Wind Ranger of Ninja Storm, Dana Mitchell the Pink Ranger of Lightspeed Rescue, and Andros of KO-35 the Red Ranger of Space. Katherine Hillard the second Pink Ranger, and Kimberly Hart the original Pink Ranger were also taken." Tommy looked saddened as Udonna read the last two names.

"Udonna!" Clare ran in, just as she had in her apprenticing days, "Rangers!! The Red Ranger is outside fighting Leanbow and Daggeron!!" Nick paled and sprinted out, following his blonde cousin. Vida, Udonna, and Tommy were right behind them.

"Dad!" Nick yelled as the Wolf Knight was thrown back away from him.

"Leanbow!" Udonna said, running over to her husband. Daggeron landed beside them. The Red Ranger turned toward them. Nick didn't move, Tommy took up a defensive posture, and Vida looked as if she would charge the Red Ranger any second.

"I have a message." The Red Ranger said coldly, "Only the few I have selected may go on this mission, I have already contacted them, they will be at the Rockporium by dawn tomorrow." She cocked her helmeted head, "If anyone else beside those who I have already… 'talked' to help you, well!" she held up a small rectangular card. A fully morphed green mystic ranger threw himself against the walls of the card.

"V?" Xander's quiet Aussie accent carried easily through the silent woods, "Vida! Run! She's got-"

"I'll destroy them one by one." Red Ranger continued, tucking the card back into her pouch.

"You!" Vida screamed, limping toward the Red Ranger, but Clare grabbed her, stopping her. The Red Ranger burst out laughing, her hands on her hips.

"Even injured you'll try to fight me!" She wiped a pretend tear off her helmet, "The people chosen for this job!" She burst out laughing again, "Geez Tommy, I'd thought you would be the one charging at me, or maybe Nick!" she bent over, laughing far too hard to be natural.

"Where are Kimberly, and the others?" Tommy yelled, holding his temper down. The Red Ranger stopped laughing immediately.

"That's a dumb question, what did I just show you? I showed you earth-boy in a containment card. Put one and one together." She shook her head, "I don't think that's going to work girls." She turned to face the two pink rangers that had slowly approached her from behind. One had a heart shaped visor, the other had a strange looking police badge on her suit. The one with the badge stepped forward.

"Where's Sky?" she asked the Red Ranger, the ranger only laughed.

"Where's Sky? Where's Kimberly? Where's…" she mocked, than after a pause for drama, turned toward the second pink ranger, "Where's Wesley?" she continued.

"I swear, if you've hurt him…" the second pink ranger started forward, but the first one grabbed her by the arm.

"Oh he's safe right now." The Red Ranger walked away from the group, that way none of the rangers would be behind her back, she glanced at a small device that looked much like a watch on her arm, "In fact he's just rockin' out." She looked back at the enraged pink ranger, "I'd tell him 'hi' for you, only I don't think he'd be able to comprehend what I'm talking about."

"You witch!!" the pink ranger yelled, breaking the first one's grip on her and charging the Red Ranger.

"Guilty!" the Red Ranger cried as the others moved to back her up. The pink ranger lifted up her blaster to fire just as the Red Ranger held up another card, sucking her into it.

"Jen!!" the other pink ranger yelled, shocked.

"Hey!" Vida yelled as she and Nick morphed. Leanbow and Daggeron moved to stand beside them, ready to face the Red Ranger.

"Got to go! You know where to meet me!" The Red Ranger laughed turning toward the woods, "By the way, you have a couple of guests waiting at the Rockporium. Sorry to interrupt you again!" she walked away, disappearing with a blink of bright light.

"No!" Nick shouted, running forward, but meeting nothing, "Not again!"

"Sydney Drew??" Tommy asked, walking toward the remaining pink ranger.

"Do I know you?" Syd asked, demorphing to reveal a petite blonde.

"Not really." Tommy admitted, "You got sucked back in time to help the Dino Rangers, but I think Cruger mind-wiped you, along with my team. He just forgot about me."

"Cruger mentioned something like that when Jen picked me up." Syd admitted, holding out her hand and shaking Tommy's. The rangers demorphed.

"This is Nick and Vida, the red and pink rangers for Mystic Force." They shook hands and Nick picked up the introductions.

"This is Udonna the White Ranger, Leanbow the Wolf Warrior, and Daggeron the Solaris Knight." They shook hands as Syd nodded.

"And Clare, the Gatekeeper." Vida supplied, pulling the shy blonde from out from behind her. Syd nodded in greeting.

"I'm Sydney Drew from the future power ranger force of SPD." She rubbed her forehead as if tired, and Udonna quickly took over the situation..

"Bowen, why don't you and Tommy head to the Rockporium while we tend to Vida's ankle and settle Syd in." She said, as Nick nodded.

"Right, let's go-" he stopped in mid-walk, "We can't go by tree, you don't know what the tree in front of the Rockporium looks like. We'll have to walk to where we keep the bikes and ride into town that way." But Udonna shook her head.

"It's getting close to nightfall, we must get whoever is at the Rockporium back here before night descends on the forest, it might not be safe." She looked at Nick, "I know you're tired, but take the racer, than drive back in Vida's jeep."

"The keys are in my locker at work." Vida supplied, following Udonna into Rootcore.

"Let's go." Nick sighed, summoning his racer.

--

"Nick!" Tony cried as he and Tommy walked into the store, "You're back!!" He gave the ranger a quick hug and lowered his voice, "Thank goodness, there are some people here asking about the power rangers, we haven't told them anything, but I think you should handle it." He looked suddenly weary, "I heard about Xander and Maddie, tell Vida to take as much time off as she wants."

"Thanks Tony." Nick said, looking as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Tony pointed out where the two tourists where, and gave Nick a pat on the shoulder.

"I'm sure Maddie's fine." He said before walking off.

"You'll have to tell me the whole story of what happened when we get back to base." Tommy said as they walked toward the tourists. Nick nodded, as Tommy suddenly froze, shocked, as he gazed at one of the two people Tony had been talking about.

"Wes?" he glanced at Nick, "Wesley Collins?"

"Tommy." Wes acknowledged as he and the women beside him stood up to greet him, "I should've known you'd be here." He gestured at the tough looking blonde; "This is Taylor Earhardt of-" he broke off with a glace at Nick.

"I'm from Mystic Force." Nick said, after Tommy gave a slight nod, "Red Ranger Nick."

"Wesley Collins, Red Ranger of Time Force," Wes shook Nick's hand, "Taylor's the Yellow Ranger of Wild Force."

"Wesley as in that Pink Ranger's Wesley?" Nick asked Tommy, quickly putting the two together.

"Jen? You've seen Jen?" Wes's face brightened with hope, "There was this Red Ranger who told me she'd captured her… is she here?" he looked around, searching.

"We should get back to base." Tommy said, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"What happened to Jen?" Taylor interrupted, looking deadly.

"She and Syd, another pink ranger from a different time, just arrived at Rootcore, our home base, when they found us being attacked by the Red Ranger. She gave us the impression, and it sounded like she had told Jen, that you were captured." Nick nodded toward Wes, "Jen got angry and moved to attack her, but she was captured before we even had a chance to react."

"She really is gone…" Wes looked incredibly sad.

"Did she say anything about Eric?" Taylor asked anxiously. Tommy shook his head.

"We need to get you two to Rootcore right away," he said, looking at Nick.

"I'll get the keys. We'll have to use the brooms once we get to the forest."

"Let's go then."

--

"I remember studying Tommy and the rest of you." Syd said, leaning back in the chair and crossing her legs, "But all the research that SPD has conducted so far has come up with nothing on this new Red Ranger."

"Yeah? What's the future hold for us?" Vida asked, leaning forward, "Ow!"

"You must hold still if you want this to heal properly." Udonna chastised as she sprinkled her healing potion on the Pink Ranger's foot. Vida glared back, crossing her arms impatiently.

"I like the future." Syd said carefully avoiding the question, "My friends and family are, obviously, all there. Except for… except for Sky." She put on a brave face.

"Yeah, but what about what happens to us?" Vida gestured at the group gathered around the room. Daggeron and Leanbow were flipping through the Xenotome, while Clare continued stirring the potion that she and Udonna had made for Vida's ankle, and any other injuries that might come along.

"I can't tell you that." Syd looked a little sheepish, "Jen gave me specific orders that if I was going to accompany her into the future to meet all of you, than I couldn't say anything about what happens to you in the future." She looked a little uncomfortable, "Last time I met people from the past we had to do brain wipes."

"Brain wipes??" Vida yelped, "Let's not go there."

"So who is this Sky?" Udonna asked, finished with Vida's foot.

"Red Ranger Schuyler Tate." Syd declared proudly, than her face fell, "The current Red Ranger of B-squad, which is us. Or will be, in the future."

"The future?" Clare wrinkled her nose, "She captured a Red Ranger from the future?"

"Right in the middle of the command center too." Syd played with her hair, "We still don't know how she got in, or anything."

"Is he cute?" Vida asked with a knowing smile.

"Sky? Cute?" Syd giggled, "I've known him since before B-squad!"

"But you have feelings for him?" Udonna said, all-knowingly.

"I… I-uh- I mean… Of course not!" she looked around uncomfortably, "he's hard-headed and only cares about work!"

"I see." Udonna replied kindly.

"What's taking the others so long?" Syd cried, standing up impatiently, "We need to formulate a plan!"

"They're just about here." Leanbow said, walking over to join them.

"Udonna, the Xenotome…" Daggeron looked at her meaningfully.

"Yes, I know." The White Sorceress looked suddenly tired, "I read it."

"What's going on?" Vida said, standing.

"We can have no part in you mission, it is one the Xenotome has foretold must be done alone, with only those chosen present." Daggeron looked pained.

"We are forced to sit on the sidelines." Leanbow growled, his wife put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, when they heard voices from outside.

"I could've driven one by myself!" A female voice snapped out.

"I know, but Nick said it was faster to just take two, and Tommy knew how to handle it! Sorry!" a male voice replied.

"Jeez." Nick groaned as the small group walked in, "It's been like this the whole way!"

"Taylor!" Tommy whirled around to face the blonde women with the fierce eagle eyes, "Stop arguing! Just think of Eric!"

"I…" she broke off, putting her head on the other man's shoulder, "I'm sorry Wes, I just can't help it."

"I know." Wes said soothingly.

"Syd." Tommy acknowledged, "Why don't we start off with what happened to you first." Syd nodded.

"We were in the middle of a debriefing. Sky was describing the situation of this chain burglary that was taking place. He had his serious face on, so we knew it the robberies were bad. He told us to get in touch with Jack and Piggy, they might have information, when he suddenly stopped, and looked behind us. This Red Ranger was just leaning against the door, looking like she owned the place." Syd paused, closing her eyes, "Sky asked her what did she think she was doing etc. when she just attacked." She opened her eyes again, "She took all of us out pretty easily, we weren't expecting it…"

...

"Syd!" Sky yelled as she took a kick to the stomach and buckled.

"Sk-" Syd gasped for breath as the Red Ranger knocked Z and Bridge out of the room and sealed the door.

"I don't think so!" Sky growled, facing off with the rouge ranger.

"Sky watch out!" Syd yelled as the ranger pulled out a blaster. Sky created a shield as she shot.

"Sky!" Syd yelled, struggling to stand, the door behind them was slowly being forced open, but the ranger was faster than the SPD Red Ranger, using one of the control panels to kick herself off to land behind Sky.

"No!" Syd yelled, running over, but the aisle between the control table and the computers was too narrow, and Sky's shield was still active. She bounced off the blue barrier just as the Red Ranger grabbed the shocked Sky by the shoulders.

"You!" the Red Ranger yelled, head butting him and knocking him out cold.

"Sky!" Syd yelled, rushing forward.

"You are guilty!" the Red Ranger continued, sucking Sky into a containment card. Syd briefly wondered where she had gotten one of those, before she charged at the ranger who had Sky.

...

"Needless to say, it was a battle I didn't win, even with my ability." Syd looked close to tears, "She went right out, just as Bridge and Z got the doors opened. It was like she knew exactly when to get the job done, because she knew when they'd get those doors unjammed. Bridge read her aura and found-"

"Wait, he read her aura?" Taylor interrupted.

"Yeah." Syd said giving her an 'duh' look. "What else would he read?"

"Syd you have to remember that none of us actually know very much about your teams special abilities." Tommy mediated before Taylor could say anything.

"Does this have to do with that shield thing she was talking about Sky putting up?" Vida asked.

"Five of us, actually six of us including Sam, were born with these special powers, it's a long story about how they came to be. Anyway, Sky waves his arm like this," She demonstrated, "and can create a little shield. Z can duplicate herself and Bridge can read minds, well kind of, and read auras." She pulled a chunk of metal from her pocket uniform, "I can make my hand into whatever substance I'm touching." Her fist turned into the grey metal, than back to normal. "Anyway, Bridge read her aura and was confused."

"Because he couldn't?" Tommy hypothesized.

"No," Nick reasoned, "Because it was good."

"I was totally going to say that." Syd mumbled as the tension rose.

"What?" Vida yelled, pointing at Chip, "The person who did that to our friend is a good guy?"

"V, she put him in a healing spell, I don't think she wanted to hurt him as much as she did." Nick argued, standing in front of her.

"Maybe you should explain what happened to you next." Wes said calmly, "I mean, healing spell? As in magic?"

"Time-ship? As in time-travel?" Taylor mocked, grinning at him, "the world's full of surprises."

"So says the yellow eagle." Wes retorted good-naturedly.

"Mystic Force?" Tommy said pointedly.

"Go ahead V," Nick looked upset, "You were there for all of it." Vida nodded, and began.

"We got a call from Udonna that there was trouble, so as usual we headed over. We figured it was a leftover goon of the Master, something routine that we could handle without Nick, who had just called us to tell us he was back. She was just standing there when we showed up, than she took out her gun and blasted us." Vida shook her head, "She was an amazing fighter. We were all beat pretty quickly. I think Chip got a little frustrated, so he called down a thunderbolt. It would've been a great move except she somehow switched places with Maddie, Xander, and I so we got hit instead. She took Chip one-on-one, and obviously beat him up pretty badly then sent him back to Rootcore." She nodded for Nick to take over.

"She had put a healing spell on him, so he could hardly stay awake to tell me that she wanted something, before he collapsed." Nick looked at Vida, "I went to go help but… there was an explosion."

"Maddie got knocked back into the woods or something, either way she got thrown away from us. She was literally floating in the air, than she sent a hurricane at me. Xander thought fast and spelled a vine-cage around me. I was pretty happy to have a minute to relax, but than she went after Xander." Vida swallowed, hard, "She captured him in a little card," She turned to Syd, " You called it a containment card? Explain later. I was trapped in Xander's protective cage, but while she was distracted Maddie came up and hit her in the back." Vida gazed at the ground, "It was the first real hit that any of us had gotten in that seemed to actually hurt her. I was still trying to get free while she and Maddie were fighting when Nick showed up…" she looked pained.

"Right when I got there, Maddie took a hit…" Nick's voice cracked a bit, "So she got Maddie too. I fought with her for a little while, but…"

"I got free and she told us she was bored, and caused another explosion." Vida gazed at Chip, "That's our sob story, who's next?" she clearly didn't want to talk about it any more. The other rangers exchanged glances.

"It's basically the same story for us." Wes swallowed, glancing at Taylor, she looked away, "She showed up, took out the Silver Guardians, than Eric and I. I took a pretty hard hit, and Eric went to fight her. Just like with you guys, there was an explosion…"

...

"Eric!!" Wes yelled from his place on the ground. The explosion was huge, and when the smoke cleared Wes saw his friend lying on the ground, unmoving. He struggled to stand, smoke still clouding his vision. "Eric!!" he called. Suddenly the Red ranger flew through the air kicking at him, he tried to block the kicks, but they came too quickly. He hit the ground again.

"Captain." The Red Ranger acknowledged before walking over to his unmoving friend. Wes, struggled to stand, but he was just too weak.

"Hmmm." He heard the Red Ranger say, than he watched in horror as she sucked him into a small card she was holding.

"Eric!! No!" Wes cried, pounding the ground in frustration, suddenly two hands were there to help him up.

"Wes, you okay?"

"Taylor?" Wes gazed at the yellow-clad blonde.

"Eric?" She looked frantically around.

"She has him." He clutched at his ribs.

"Taylor! I didn't think you'd make it." The Red Ranger, put a hand on her hip, holding up the card showing a small red figure in the middle, "You're kinda late though I won't lie to you."

"You!" Taylor fumed.

"Here, a gift from me to you." She tossed Taylor a small cell phone; "It'll help you get both Eric and Jen back."

"Jen? What about Jen?" Wes shouted as she walked away. She slowly turned around to stare at him.

...

"She told us to come here to find out what had happened to her. We left as soon as we could." Wes glanced over at Taylor.

"I got a call to find Eric, that he was in trouble." Taylor admitted, "I can morph again, she gave me my morpher fully powered."

"She wanted to give you a fighting chance." Tommy reasoned, he looked at Syd, who was yawning, "About these containment cards-"

"You can hear about them later." Udonna interrupted, "Today has been a rough day. Clare, help me show our guests their rooms." And with that the meeting was adjourned.

--

A/N if you have any suggestions or guesses, on who the Red Ranger should be, let me know, that's the only part of the story that's not finished. I'll keep updating if you keep reviewing!