War

by White-Knight-1988

In the present day, a new evil has arrived, threatening to destroy the very fabric of humanity. The present-day Rangers are ill-equipped to deal with the threat alone, though, forcing a team of future Rangers to travel back through time to save the world.

2. First Encounters

Title: War

Chapter Two — "First Encounters"

Original Posting Date: June 14, 2010

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Tommy Oliver was a restless man; this was nothing new. He had always been the take-charge type, never one to sit around waiting for something to happen, yet tonight there was something that felt different.

After months upon months of fighting with no tangible accomplishments, suffering heavier and heavier losses as time wore on, Tommy wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep for a very, very long time. His body, his mind, his heart…he did not think that they could take much more of this abuse.

Bruised across his arms, chest, and torso, Tommy laid in his bed at home in Reefside, California, tossing and turning endlessly as he sought the deep rest that seemingly did not want to come. It was well past three in the morning, but how could he honestly be expected to sleep when his mind was so preoccupied?

He and the other Rangers had spent the last four hours engaged in battle with the ARC, draining nearly all the power of both the Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord in the process. It would be at least eight more hours of recharging before the Zords were at full power again, leaving Tommy's stomach in knots as he thought of what would happen if the ARC attacked before then.

It was a battle they could never win, that much was certain.

Letting out an angry grunt at his inability to fall asleep, Tommy tossed the sheets aside and climbed out of bed, pulling on a pair of gym shorts before heading to the kitchen. Much to his surprise, as he approached from the hallway he saw that he was not the only one awake, evident only from the faint refrigerator light appearing, disappearing, reappearing, and then disappearing again for good.

Knowing that it could only be one of two people, Tommy crossed the darkened threshold into the kitchen and flipped the switch on the wall, causing an audible gasp as a startled Kimberly Hart was revealed. She was holding a carton of orange juice near her lips in an almost comical fashion, some of the contents of the carton having spilled down her chest and white tank top in the process.

Tommy had to fight himself not to laugh as he walked towards her, but his grin was simply uncontainable. "That's a good look on you," he said, pointing at her shirt as he removed the carton from her hand and took a long drink.

Looking down at herself for the first time, Kimberly let out a groan as she rolled her eyes in disgust. "Damn it, Tommy, look what you made me do," she replied, moving towards the sink.

"Are you saying I made you wet and sticky?" Tommy countered, the words flying from his lips before he could stop himself. The last thing he wanted to do was push the boundaries considering the way they had left things in their last conversation.

Turning on the faucet with her back to him, Kimberly briefly ran a towel under the cold water and then began washing the orange juice from her skin as she murmured, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time, now would it?"

Caught off guard by her reply, Tommy found himself in a dumbfounded silence. When Kimberly did not say anything else, he closed his eyes for a brief moment, allowing himself to remember what had happened just hours ago.

He could vividly picture Kimberly defying his orders, detaching her Firebird Zord from the Thunder Megazord, and then proving him wrong in a matter of minutes by singlehandedly eliminating seven of the ARC's Goliath Rovers, colossal humanoid robots piloted by the mere thoughts of the lone warrior inside each one. However, he could also see the several near misses from the Goliath's arsenal of short-range shoulder missiles, intense heat waves distributed via the eyes, and energy beams with varying degrees of strength, which burst from the Goliath's palms. One of those energy beams had successfully hit its target, destroying one of the Firebird's twin-engines, and nearly killing Kimberly in the process.

Then there was the argument that had erupted between them once they had docked the Zords and returned back to the house, an argument that saw Kimberly sleeping in one of the guest bedrooms for the first time in months. She had defied his leadership in one of the worst possible ways, and for that she had needed to know that he was angry.

At the same time, Tommy could not pretend like he didn't understand Kimberly's point of view. They had never dealt with that many Goliaths before, and the sheer numbers were simply too much for the Megazord and Tigerzord to handle in a straight-up fight. The Zords were quickly running out of power, and if something drastic didn't happen in a hurry to change the tide…well, let's just say the results would have been bleak.

Deep down, he knew that the move she had made was a good one, especially when considering that he, the leader, had not been able to come up with any better ideas. Plus, in retrospect, it was a move he could have easily seen himself making had they been able to reactivate the Ninja Zords instead of the Thunder fleet and he had been piloting his Falcon Zord.

Watching Kimberly with narrowed eyes, Tommy let out a quiet sigh and said, "I'm sorry."

Kimberly's shoulders seemed to deflate a bit as she set the towel down and slowly turned around. Leaning against the counter, she folded her arms across her chest and said, "Do you even know why I was—I mean, why I am mad?"

"I think I do, yeah," he replied, nodding, "But you have to understand, Kim…it's not that I don't think you're a capable Ranger. I know you are. I wouldn't have made you my second-in-command if I thought otherwise; especially not over Jason, of all people. At the same time, though, there's no denying that what you did out there today was reckless; impressive, yes, but still reckless. You disobeyed my orders and left the rest of us high and dry. Without your Zord, Jason, Adam, Billy, and Aisha had to resort to their individual configurations. Jason can handle that with the Red Dragon Zord's Warrior Mode, but the other three aren't equipped to deal with a Goliath Rover on their own. If not for Jason and I keeping the Goliaths somewhat occupied while you did your thing, those three might not have even made it out of today's fight alive. Losing one Ranger is unacceptable, let alone three, no matter how many Goliath Rovers you destroy in the process."

Kimberly opened her mouth, seemingly poised to offer a rebuttal, but then closed her mouth just as quickly, apparently thinking better of it. For a few silent moments she eyed Tommy carefully while trying to craft a legitimate argument in her head. Unfortunately, she was hard pressed to find one.

Tommy was right. Her actions, while undoubtedly successful, were also terribly ill conceived and, as he had pointed out, reckless to no avail. Never one to give in easily, Kimberly found herself face to face with the realization that there was really no other option in this scenario.

Letting out a sigh, she nodded her head and said, "You're right. Even though I wasn't intentionally trying to endanger the rest of the team, that's what I ended up doing. It's just…I'm so sick of going out there every single day and barely scraping by. It's like every day is just another can of whoop ass waiting to be opened on us. We aren't making any progress defeating the ARC, their weapons are getting stronger, and ours, plain and simple, aren't. At this rate, it won't be long before we're wishing for days like today. When I saw that opportunity to do some serious damage for once, I just had to take it."

Tommy smirked. "I know you did. I probably would have done the same exact thing if I had had the chance."

Kimberly's expression remained quite serious as she murmured in reply, "I'm scared, Tommy. It — it's never been like this before. I mean, sure, sometimes Rita and Zedd came up with an unusually strong monster, or a plan that took us a little bit longer than usual to stop, but I never doubted our ability to eventually beat them. Now, though, I — I'm not so sure that we can win this one."

While Tommy had always been the type to encourage his teammates to think on the positive side, there was no denying that Kimberly had a point. Giving her a small smile, Tommy motioned for her to come to him, wrapping her in his arms and kissing the top of her head when she had.

"I know you're scared," he whispered, holding her close. "I'm scared too, but that's why we need to stick together, now more than ever. Our backs are really up against the wall on this one. We have to be sure of what we're doing at all times, or the slightest mistake could lead to something terrible."

Squeezing Tommy tightly around his midsection, Kimberly gave a quiet sniffle and asked, "Do you honestly think we can win, Tommy?"

With his chin resting atop Kimberly's head, Tommy let out a sigh and closed his eyes as he answered, "I honestly don't know, Beautiful. My heart wants to believe that we can, but my head is telling me that we're fighting a losing battle. Regardless of which one is right, though, I'm sure of at least one thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm never going to stop fighting. Never," Tommy replied in a near whisper. "They'll have to kill me before that happens."

Kimberly, who had flinched in his arms at the word kill, slowly looked up and said, "I wish it hadn't taken this long to find our way back to each other. There's so much we could have done…two years feels more like two days."

In an instant, Tommy could remember locking eyes with Kimberly for the first time since Aisha and Rocky's wedding two years prior, where they had spent hours on the dance floor only to end the night with a simple kiss on the cheek from Kimberly. There had clearly been a spark that night, but neither had been willing to break the barriers of the friendship they had spent so long rebuilding, especially not when they lived on opposite sides of the country.

But then the attacks started, and the need to resurrect the Mighty Morphin' team meant the need to choose the team itself. With no Zordon around to do it for him, the responsibility of selecting the newest team became Tommy's. Some of the spots had been filled fairly automatically, like Billy, who was the only one to ever hold the Triceratops Power Coin, and Jason, who resumed his role as Red Ranger due to the back injury that had never quite stopped ailing Rocky.

Others, however, had not been so easy. How was he supposed to choose between Aisha and Trini, both of whom were extremely capable Rangers? Of course, he ran into the same problem when it came to Adam and Zack, and needless to say, choosing the Pink Ranger had been the hardest decision of them all.

In the end, his decision was based on the experience of the Rangers and their willingness to take the mantle up one more time. Adam, who had returned to help the Space and Overdrive teams, on top of three years he had spent as an active Ranger, was a natural choice to become the new Black Ranger.

His first choice for Yellow Ranger, however, had not been Aisha. Though he loved Aisha, Trini brought a quiet serenity to the team, as well as a level of skill in hand-to-hand combat that Aisha didn't have. Unfortunately, Trini's father had been stricken with terminal liver cancer several months prior, and her mother was not nearly able-bodied enough to care for her husband alone. Even with all that was taking place around them, Tommy still understood Trini's need to take care of her family. Truthfully, he was just happy to have such a reliable second choice in Aisha.

But then there came the decision of Pink Ranger, which he had intentionally saved for last. There was no logical route he could take here, no easy way out. Katherine and Kimberly were both extremely qualified as Rangers, and both were at a place in their lives where they could reclaim their old positions. With no easy answer in front of him, Tommy went with the only thing he could; gut instinct.

There had always been a profound sense of comfort that he felt when he had been on the field of battle with Kimberly, knowing that she had his back, and it was that feeling that had inevitably led to him asking her to return to the team. The decision to have her and Jason move in with him had been more out of necessity than anything else, since they were the only ones who were no longer living in the area.

For days and weeks on end the pair had tested the waters when they weren't combating the ARC, dancing around each other just like they had in high school. Only this time, their trepidation was not the byproduct of adolescent fears and uncertainty. Rather, it was the direct result of having spent several years carefully rebuilding a friendship that neither had truly believed could survive their high school breakup.

That had all come crashing down one February afternoon though, on Kimberly's birthday, oddly enough. Just over two years later, Tommy could not help but feel like everything that happened that day was meant to occur that way.

Not only had it been an unusually warm and sunny day for the middle of February, but the myriad of energy scanners in his basement had not picked up a single trace of ARC activity since he had awoken that morning. It almost seemed too good to be true.

The plan for that evening had been dinner at Kimberly's favorite Mexican restaurant in Stone Canyon, followed by a trip to a karaoke bar in downtown Los Angeles. Jason, who had had a bit of last minute birthday shopping to do before dinner, had gone out earlier, leaving Tommy to wait for Kimberly while she got ready; alone, almost as if it was supposed to happen that way.

He was sitting in the living room, watching the newest James Bond movie, Casino Royale, when a piercing scream reached his ears from down the hall. Without even a moment's hesitation he was on his feet, rushing to the bathroom, and tearing the door straight from its hinges with a powerful shoulder-charge. The sight on the other side, however, was not what he had been expecting to find.

There was no danger whatsoever. The shower curtain had been pulled away, leaving Kimberly staring back at Tommy in shock with her arm frozen in midair, reaching for a towel from the nearby rack. As he would learn later, the shower water had merely gone cold unexpectedly, but at that moment his mind could process nothing more than the fact that he was seeing her naked for the first time in his entire life, dripping wet no less.

As realization set in that Kimberly was not in any immediate trouble, he started expecting her to become angry with him for bursting in on her like that, but again, he was left surprised. Instead of being mad, a wide smirk slowly started spreading out across Kimberly's face as she forgot about the towel, stood straight, and boldly proclaimed, "Well, now that you've seen mine, I'd say it's only fair that I get to see yours."

Needless to say, they were more than a little late for dinner that evening. And while to this day neither could explain why they had taken the next step, or why that day had been so much different than all the others, neither was complaining about it either. Sure, they had their fair share of arguments, just like any other couple, but over the course of the last two years, both had also admitted a number of times to each other that they had never been happier with anyone else.

Now, standing in his kitchen with his arms around Kimberly and her head tucked under his chin, Tommy could do little more than sigh. "I know what you mean," he replied softly. "It doesn't seem like it's been two years at all. But the fact of the matter is that, if we want to have a future together — and I mean a real future — then we can't stop fighting. For me, the chance of a future with you is worth fighting for. It's worth dying for."

Kimberly gave a quiet sniffle and increased the pressure with which she held onto Tommy, but otherwise remained silent and still for quite some time. Tommy's declaration that his love for her was worth dying for had left a whirlwind of thoughts spinning across her mind: things she was proud of and things she regretted; people she loved and people she had lost; what she wanted to do and what she needed to do.

Finally, she pulled back slightly and raised her eyes to meet Tommy's. Slowly, her arms moved from around his waist into a loose, loopy hold around his neck. Keeping her eyes locked firmly on Tommy's, her face was free of any and all emotion as she said in a near whisper, "I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to die fighting for every single human life left on this planet, and I'm not afraid to die fighting for you and for us. What I feel for you, I — I can't explain it. I've been in love with other men before, but this is so much more than that. I just — I know in my heart that you're it. You're my endgame, Tommy."

Truthfully, Tommy was not sure how to react. On one hand, it warmed a very large part of him to know that he meant as much to Kimberly as she meant to him. On the other hand, however, it seemed like her words were leading to something more, something bigger, and what that was, he had no idea.

Instead of trying to push the issue, though, Tommy simply did his best to react as naturally as possible. With a small smile, he took Kimberly's face in his hands and placed a long, soft kiss to her lips. When he finally pulled back a short while later, he pressed his forehead to Kimberly's and quietly said, "You know how much you mean to me, Beautiful. I love you more than anything and anyone on Earth. I spent more than a decade trying to find someone who could make me feel the way you do, but these last two years have taught me that there isn't another person like that out there for me. It's you, and it's always been you, even when I didn't necessarily want it to be."

Kimberly could not help but to smile at that. With her thoughts and mind clearer than they had been in quite awhile, she returned her eyes to Tommy's and said, very simply, "I want to marry you, Tommy."

Again, Tommy found himself in a place where he did not know how to react. They had only talked about marriage once before, a few months back, but the conversation had been interrupted by an ARC attack before it could really get started and neither had broached the topic since.

Narrowing his eyes, Tommy studied her face carefully as he replied, "You're serious?"

Biting her lip ever so slightly, Kimberly nodded and said, "I've never been more serious about anything in my entire life. I know how I feel about you, and while I don't exactly want to die any time soon, if I'm going to die in this battle, I want it to be as your wife."

"I thought you always wanted a big wedding with tons of people and everything?" Tommy murmured. "You know we would never be able to pull something like that off with everything that's going on right now."

"I know," said Kimberly softly. "It doesn't have to be a big to-do. I just want to marry you. Then, if we make it out of this thing alive —"

"When we make it out alive, you mean," Tommy quickly interjected, his eyes and words carrying a firmness that left Kimberly startled for a moment.

Then she smiled. "Right," she said, nodding again, "When we make it out of this thing alive, we can have a real celebration with all of our friends and family there. Right now, though, I'm willing to take whatever we can get."

Tommy gave a small smirk. "You really want to get married, huh? You're sure about that?"

"Tommy," Kimberly began, "I will get in the car right now and drive to Vegas if that's what it's going to take."

Chuckling briefly, Tommy shook his head and said, "We don't have to go to Vegas. The honest truth is that I've been thinking about this — about getting married — for awhile now. I was going to wait until everything else was over before I proposed, but if you really want to do it now, then we can start looking into it first thing tomorrow morning; outside interference notwithstanding obviously."

Grinning broadly, Kimberly pulled Tommy down to her level and kissed him with everything she could muster. "I love you so much," she murmured when the kiss finally broke nearly a full minute later.

"I love you too, Beautiful," said Tommy, smiling brightly. Letting his left arm drop, he gently took hold of Kimberly's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Why don't you get out of that guest room and come back to bed? It's lonely in there without you."

Kimberly merely nodded and allowed Tommy to lead the way. Though it was at least a few hours later, Tommy felt like it had only been a few minutes when a wailing alarm reached his ears, waking him from the sleep that had finally come after he and Kimberly had spent quite some time "celebrating" their new engagement.

Untangling himself from Kimberly, Tommy groggily flipped over and started slapping at his alarm clock, silently wondering why it was going off when he could not recall having set it the night before. Then there came a pounding on the door several seconds later, making him realize that it was not his alarm clock at all.

"Tommy, wake your ass up…now!" yelled Jason, beating on the door a few more times. A moment later, Tommy could hear him doing the same to the other bedroom door while yelling for Kimberly, unsurprisingly oblivious to the fact that the pair had reconciled during the middle of the night.

In a matter of seconds, both Tommy and Kimberly were up and out of bed, having realized that the alarm was the result of the energy scanners in the basement. The ARC was attacking.

As the pair scrambled to put on clothes — basketball shorts and a tee shirt for Tommy, sweats and a tank top for Kimberly — Tommy began to remember part of what it was that had been keeping him awake the night before. Checking the clock to see that it was just after seven-thirty, he came face-to-face with the knowledge that the Zords, which were an absolute necessity in the fight against the ARC, would not be fully charged for at least four more hours.

They could make do with partial power in a small engagement, but if it was anything like last night, Tommy knew in his heart that they would be lucky to escape with their lives intact, much less the Zords. Of course, this was not a sentiment that he was about to share with his teammates, especially not with Kimberly, whom hours prior he had been so bold in telling that they would eventually win this fight.

Rushing out of the bedroom, the alarm ceased just as they found that the trapdoor under the rug in the hallway had already been opened, at which point they hastened to descend the staircase into the basement, Tommy only stopping long enough to pull the trapdoor closed.

Once in the basement, they found Jason standing behind a black leather chair, watching the movements on several nearby computer screens. Approaching the chair from behind, Tommy eventually saw a head of red hair and immediately called out, "When did you get here, Hayley?"

This was Hayley Ziktor, Tommy's longtime friend from college and the former technical advisor to the Dino Thunder Rangers. It was she who had built nearly every piece of equipment in the basement, which had also served as a Command Center for the Dino Thunder team. Fortunately, Tommy had introduced Hayley to the rest of the Rangers several years prior, so there was no awkward period of adjustment when, at Tommy's request, she had returned to her previous role in support of the new team.

"Just a few minutes ago," she answered, not bothering to look back as her hands flew across the keyboard in front of her.

Tommy nodded as he and Kimberly came to a stop behind the chair, Jason standing to Tommy's left. "So what's going on?" Tommy asked.

"It looks like a fleet of Alpha Cruisers approaching Tokyo," Hayley replied.

Tommy groaned. Alpha Cruisers were small, fixed wing aircrafts, each one armed with enough explosives to level several square miles of whichever city they were attacking. They were also incredibly fast which, along with their diminutive size, made them incredibly difficult to destroy in the slow, rather bulky Megazord. To make matters worse, Tokyo was one of the last major national capitals that had not yet been destroyed. Along with the seaside city, only Berlin, Beijing, Cairo, London, and Washington D.C. still remained whole.

Capital cities were almost always the most important, whole nations usually dependent on the government and infrastructure held within their borders to survive. Tommy could only imagine the chaos that would ensue throughout America if its citizens woke up tomorrow morning to find that Washington D.C. had been completely obliterated.

"We should probably get going then," he muttered, shaking his head. "Have you contacted the others yet?"

"Yep," said Hayley, nodding. "They're standing by for invisiportals now. As soon as you three leave, they'll be there to join you."

"No," said Tommy firmly, shaking his head again.

"What?" replied Hayley blankly, turning around to face him for the first time.

"I said 'no,'" repeated Tommy. "The Zords aren't fully charged yet, and all that we'll be able to do against Alpha Cruisers in the Megazord is waste power. They're way too fast for it."

"So what do you suggest then?" questioned Hayley, her eyes narrowed at Tommy.

For a few moments, Tommy remained silent, obviously trying to formulate a plan. Finally, he let out a sigh that sounded almost defeated, like he could think of no other option. "There's one thing that might work," he muttered, slowly looking to Kimberly, "But it's risky."

Seemingly knowing exactly what Tommy was thinking, Kimberly nodded and said, "You want me to take them out in the Firebird."

Tommy nodded as well. "Jason and I can use our Zords in Warrior Mode to distract them for you. Aside from the Red Dragon Zord, yours is the only one that can fly, but it's also the only one small enough and fast enough to take the Cruisers out efficiently. I know I can't make you do it, but —"

"I'll do it," said Kimberly confidently, giving Tommy a smile to reinforce this confidence. Remembering what had caused their argument last night, Kimberly gave his hand a gentle squeeze and murmured, "Thank you for trusting me with this."

Wearing his own smile, Tommy returned the hand squeeze and quietly said, "I've always trusted you, Kim."

"Okay, okay, enough of the sappy stuff," Jason interjected, rolling his eyes. "Let's go out there and blow the shit out of those things."

Chuckling, Tommy nodded and said, "Hayley, keep the others on standby just in case, alright?"

Looking more than a bit uncertain with Tommy's decision, Hayley shook her head and muttered, "Whatever you say, Tommy. I just hope this works."

"It will," said Tommy with conviction. "Have faith, Hayley. I do."

He added that last part while looking at Kimberly, who smiled appreciatively back at him. "Let's do it," she said.

Grinning, Tommy looked over his shoulder at Jason and said, "You ready, bro?"

With a smirk, Jason nodded and said, "Always."

Turning around, with Kimberly on his right and Jason on his left, Tommy said, "Then it's morphin' time!"

In unison, the trio thrust their hands behind their backs just as a crackling whirlpool of black and green energy appeared over their heads, literally sucking them in like a vacuum. From her seat, Hayley could see simultaneous bursts of pink, red, and white light just as the invisiportal snapped shut overhead.

More than five-thousand miles away, another portal had appeared above the northernmost of the two Tokyo Towers, three fully morphed Rangers dropping onto the rooftop just moments later as the portal again snapped shut. From here, they could turn in a small circle and see the entire city, no one below knowing that they were perhaps just minutes away from being attacked.

"Hayley," said Tommy, speaking into a communication device she had installed in his helmet, "How far out are the Alpha Cruisers from our location?"

"Two hundred kilometers and approaching fast; when these things can actually reach top speed they're faster than the Mig 31, though, and that jet can reach three thousand kilometers per hour. At that rate, they'll be there in less than five minutes."

"So what you're saying is that we need to get our asses in gear then, right?" replied Tommy rather dryly.

"That would be the idea, yeah."

Rolling his eyes beneath his helmet, Tommy looked between his two teammates and said, "You know what to do."

With that, Jason and Kimberly raised their arms to the sky and called out, "We need Thunder Zord power, now!"

"Pterodactyl-Firebird Thunder Zord power!" yelled Kimberly.

"Tyrannosaurus-Red Dragon Thunder Zord power!" bellowed Jason.

Off in the distance, their Zords could be heard almost at once, letting out their individual cries as they approached at rapid speeds. While this was going on, Tommy had drawn his talking saber, Saba, from its sheath. "You ready, old friend?" he asked of his sword.

"Of course, Tommy," Saba replied, leaving Tommy to briefly contemplate, for what had to be the millionth time, why his sword spoke with an English accent.

Shaking his head, Tommy thrust Saba towards the sun and shouted, "Tigerzord power, now!"

The Rangers only had to wait a few moments before their Zords appeared, Kimberly's and Jason's racing across the sky while Tommy's thundered down the streets of downtown Tokyo, leaping effortlessly over cars and people alike en route to its destination.

As soon as the Zords were within reach, the Rangers leapt from the building without speaking another word to each other. Kimberly and Jason turned into blurs of pink and red that were pulled towards their Zords, almost magnetically, while Tommy dropped straight down, landing safely atop the head of the running Tigerzord.

Simultaneously, Tommy and Saba spoke, "White Tigerzord, Tiger Mode, battle ready, now!"

With that, Tommy dropped into the cockpit of the Tigerzord just as it reared its head back and started running faster. The moment he was in his seat, Hayley was in his ear once more. "Tommy, they're coming in from the east side over Tokyo Bay. You only have a couple more minutes to get there before them."

"We're on our way, Hayley," Tommy replied, trying not to sound irritated. "I can't make this thing run any faster, you know." With that, he switched over to Kimberly's frequency and said, "Kim, you can get there before both of us. If you're willing to go in temporarily without support, you have my permission."

It was a desperate move — the idea of sending Kimberly in by herself left him with a twisted feeling in his stomach — but it was also a necessary move if they were to have any chance of heading off at least some of the Alpha Cruisers before they could reach the mainland and start inflicting real damage.

"On it," said Kimberly simply, without even the slightest bit of hesitation.

Overhead, Tommy could see her bank hard to her right, tearing off at speeds that were vastly superior to those of the other five Zords. Secretly, it made him miss the days when they had been able to fly side-by-side in their Crane and Falcon Ninja Zords.

These thoughts would have kept him occupied for the length of the Tigerzord's journey to Tokyo Bay, but after just two minutes, Hayley was speaking to him again. "Tommy, I've just located three unidentifiable aircrafts approaching Kimberly's position from the north. They're moving even faster than the Alpha Cruisers."

"What?" Tommy barked. Had he really just sent Kimberly, by herself, into an ambush? "Are they ARC?"

"I don't know. That's why I said they're unidentifiable."

Muttering beneath his breath, Tommy switched back over to Kimberly's frequency and said, "Kim, Hayley's detected three aircrafts approaching you from the north. She doesn't know what they are, so they're probably not ARC, but there's no way to be sure whose side they're on. Jason and I will be there within two or three minutes, but if they get there before us and you feel threatened, don't hesitate to open fire."

It took several silent moments of waiting before Tommy finally got an answer. Even then, though, it was only a very basic, "Copy that."

Groaning to himself, Tommy could do nothing more than pray that he had not sent Kimberly to her death as he waited for the Tigerzord to reach its destination. From there, it was only a matter of time before those thoughts were parlayed into others, like how he knew with certainty that he would never be able to live with himself if Kimberly ended up dying because of a stupid decision on his part.

Fortunately, that was not to be the case on this particular day. They were no more than ninety seconds away from Tokyo Bay when Kimberly's voice entered his helmet. "They're gone, Tommy; all of them."

"What?" he replied, "Who?"

"All of them," Kimberly repeated. "Those three planes Hayley saw and all of the Alpha Cruisers, the latter of which are now floating through Tokyo Bay in thousands of tiny little pieces. Only, I don't think they were planes, Tommy…"

"What were they?"

"I —" began Kimberly, hesitating for a moment, "I think they were Zords. I've never seen anything like them before."

Caught off guard, Tommy stammered, "D-did you just say Zords?"

"I'm not positive, but yeah, I think that's what they were," said Kimberly. "Like I said, I've never seen anything like them. I'll tell you all about it when we get back."

Tommy, who along with Jason had just arrived near an area of Tokyo Bay that appeared quite like the section of Angel Grove Lake that the Dragonzord had emerged from, looked up just in time to see Kimberly's Firebird Zord flying over them, heading back towards the Tokyo Towers. Rolling his eyes, Tommy turned the Tigerzord around and followed after her, Jason doing the same overhead as he questioned, "What the hell just happened? Why are we going back?"

"I have no idea, bro," answered Tommy, shaking his head as he proceeded to tell Jason the important parts of what Hayley and Kimberly had already told himself. He left out the part about the Zords, though, not wanting to be questioned on things that he did not have answers to.

Some five minutes later they were back atop the same building they had arrived on, their Zords en route to the docking station as Jason and Tommy walked across the roof to where Kimberly stood with her backs to them. An invisiportal retrieved them shortly thereafter, and soon they were back in Tommy's basement.

"Power down!" they yelled in unison, bright flashes of pink, red, and white appearing and then dissipating just as quickly, leaving them in the clothes they had been wearing prior to morphing.

"Hayley, I need you to hack into any security cameras that might have seen these aircrafts," said Tommy at once. Slowly turning around to face Kimberly, he went on, "I need to know exactly what you saw out there, Kim."

Sighing, Kimberly nodded her head. "I — like I said, I'm not really sure what they were exactly. One looked like a big red bird of some kind, maybe an eagle or a hawk. Then there was a gold bird that had helicopter propellers. I — I know it sounds crazy, but I think it was a chicken."

"A chicken?" questioned Jason obliviously.

Kimberly shrugged. "I honestly don't know what else it could have been, so yeah. The last one was more of a plane, with this big long nose. It was gray, maybe silver, and it kind of looked like a cat of some kind. I honestly don't see how they could have been anything but Zords. They had these lasers and missiles, and it took them all of about twenty seconds to wipe out every single Alpha Cruiser in the fleet, at which point they took off without saying anything."

"I think she's right, Tommy," Hayley interjected before anyone else could say anything. "Come and take a look at this."

Furrowing his brow, Tommy walked over to a spot directly behind Hayley's chair. She was pointing at one of the dozen or so screens surrounding her, Tommy peering over the chair to see the image in question. It was black and white, definitely from a building's security camera, and while the aircrafts were small, there was simply no denying that these were neither commercial nor military.

"Two birds and a flying cat. Two birds and a flying cat," muttered Tommy to himself repeatedly, trying to think if there had been any other teams with those particular Zords. None, however, came to mind.

"You know what this means, don't you?" said Hayley, craning her neck back to look up at him.

"Yeah," supplied Jason from behind, shaking his head, "It means there are at least three more active Rangers on Earth that we don't know about."

"Bingo," said Hayley. Returning her attention to Tommy, she added, "It might take me awhile, but eventually I'll be able to pinpoint their energy signatures and open an invisiportal that takes you to them."

"No," said Tommy with a shake of his head. "There's a reason they didn't reveal themselves to Kimberly earlier. Some teams have secret identities, others are known to the public; as Rangers, we have to respect the differences amongst the various teams. If they want us to know who they are, they'll tell us. Otherwise, leave them be."

No sooner had those words escaped his lips, however, than the alarms began to wail once more. Rolling his eyes exaggeratedly, Tommy threw his hands above his head in disgust and said, "What is it now?"

As Hayley typed away to locate the source of the disturbance, Jason and Kimberly approached the chair from behind, taking up spots on either side of Tommy. "Oh no," said Hayley hoarsely. "It's the Zanarians. There are at least ten of them in downtown San Francisco. They're taking out people left and right, Tommy."

"Ten of them?" said Tommy in disbelief. Had these soldiers been Putties or Tengas or Tyrannodrones, ten would have been no problem. Hell, he could have taken on ten by himself. But these were Zanarians, man and woman alike raised from infancy to be cold, heartless warriors.

The creatures themselves did not look menacing, tall and thin with gangly arms and legs, but appearances were certainly deceiving in this case. When armed, the Zanarians typically carried what looked like a double-edged, dual-sided scythe, which they swung with expert precision and which could also be charged with the same electrical current that coursed throughout their bodies. To make things more complicated, they were impossibly fast, able to move in ways that no human could ever hope to mimic. It was like watching the Matrix, only with seven-foot tall creatures with black eyes, elongated noses, jagged teeth, and whose skin was a horrible shade of pale yellow.

"Tommy, we need to move," said Jason firmly.

"I know," said Tommy, nodding. "Hayley, get the others over there as soon as possible. We're heading out."

Moments later, they were morphing as they traveled through another invisiportal, this one dropping them off just fifty or so yards away from where the Zanarians were, quickly moving up Market Street while systematically slicing away anyone and everyone who got in their way. Tommy was just about to lead Jason and Kimberly in charging the creatures when another invisiportal opened above them, this one dropping Adam, Billy, and Aisha, fully morphed, beside their teammates.

"Nice of you guys to drop in," said Tommy, taking up a defensive stance as he slowly drew Saba from its sheath.

"Any time," replied Adam, thrusting his hand to his side as his Power Axe suddenly appeared.

At this point, the four remaining Rangers summoned their own weapons. Leaving Kimberly back to take up a sniping position with her Power Bow, Tommy led the remaining four Rangers towards the Zanarians as panicking humans scattered all around them, desperately trying to escape from their assailants.

Aiming her bow, Kimberly watched as Tommy, Adam, and Jason each engaged two of the Zanarians, deflecting and returning blow after blow only to have theirs deflected as well. With Billy and Aisha only able to handle one Zanarian at a time, though, two were left walking the streets, now destroying automobiles since most of the people in the area who were not already dead had taken to a much safer distance in order to watch the action.

Racing to the other side of the street, Kimberly hastily climbed onto the luggage rack of a nearby SUV, giving her a much better look at the two remaining Zanarians as she re-aimed her bow. Still unaware of her presence, the Zanarians continued marching up the street in ignorance until the one in front was suddenly dropped to the ground, an arrow glowing with pink energy lodged into its forehead. Unfortunately, this also immediately alerted the other Zanarian to Kimberly and the SUV she was standing on.

With one step forward, the Zanarian thrust its scythe towards the ground, using it as something of a vaulting pole to lift it over a nearby car and into the street. Holding onto the weapon as it flipped through the air, the Zanarian landed with grace and began sprinting towards Kimberly, effortlessly dodging one, two, three, four more arrows flying at it in rapid succession.

Trying not to panic as the Zanarian grew closer and closer, Kimberly drew another arrow and then took a few steps back. Her foot slipped on the final step, however, causing her to fall backwards towards the sidewalk with her arrow flying off wildly just as the Zanarian had sprung forward to attack.

This turned out to be a good thing, though, because as the Zanarian flew over the car with its scythe drawn back high above its head, Kimberly had just enough time to draw her Blade Blaster from its holster at her hip and fire four quick shots into the Zanarian's face and chest. While the Blade Blaster wasn't powerful enough to destroy a Zanarian — at least not with just four shots — it was more than enough to seriously injure the creature and give Kimberly the brief window that she needed to regain her footing.

With the Zanarian lying face down on the concrete, Kimberly turned around to see that the other Rangers were still dealing with all eight of the remaining creatures; not very good progress at all. Then again, she had had the benefit of taking a clear shot at an oblivious Zanarian, something that the others had not been so fortunate to have. Not to mention the fact that killing a Zanarian in close combat was damn near impossible.

From behind, she could hear the injured Zanarian start to move, causing her to whip around and watch intently as it struggled back to its feet, smoke pouring from the four large burn wounds on its face and chest. Deciding to end this particular fight before the Zanarian could recover fully, Kimberly hastily retrieved her bow and — standing no more than ten feet away — drew an arrow that ripped through the creature's body completely, the tip and several inches of the shaft sticking out of its back.

Clutching the shaft of the arrow in disbelief, the Zanarian looked down at it momentarily and then back up at Kimberly with a twisted expression, only to find itself the victim of another glowing arrow, this one ripping through its right eye and out the back of its head. Kimberly did not even bother to watch the creature collapse and die; instead, she quickly whirled around and rushed off to aid her teammates.

She had only made it about halfway to them, however, when her path was suddenly blocked by several people standing with their backs to her, having appeared seemingly from out of nowhere. Freezing on the spot, she looked amongst them and saw that they were wearing uniforms and helmets: red, blue, yellow, black, green, gold, and silver…these weren't just normal people, these were Rangers.

"Holy shit," she murmured to herself, watching as the red one drew a long sword and began racing towards the fight with his teammates following closely behind him. Well, all but one of them, that is.

"You know, guys, those things look pretty tough!" the Green Ranger shouted to his teammates. "I think I'll just hang back here and —"

"C'mon!" said Kimberly, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him along as she ran to join the other eleven Rangers.

"Whoa, a Pink Ranger," he said in surprise. "That's kind of hot."

But Kimberly wasn't listening. Her attention was focused solely on Tommy, who was currently trying to parry multiple Zanarian attacks with Saba. He must have thought that there was another Zanarian at his back, because as he deflected one attack, landing a kick to the stomach of the Zanarian he was facing that left it staggering, he quickly spun around in the midst of swinging Saba for a killing blow.

"Tommy, no!" yelled Kimberly as she ran, for the presence that he had sensed behind him was not another Zanarian, but that of this new Gold Ranger.

Somehow, Tommy heard her scream and was able to stop Saba's blade just inches from the back of the Ranger's neck. Beneath his helmet, his expression was one of complete shock, staring at the Gold Ranger as he used what looked like a small dagger to battle a Zanarian, oblivious to the fact that he had almost been severely injured, if not killed, by a fellow Ranger.

Slowly, as he lowered Saba, Tommy began to take in the scene. Aside from the gold one, four other Rangers that he had never seen before had popped up all around him and had taken to helping his teammates. Aisha and another Yellow Ranger were fighting side-by-side, same with Billy and another Blue Ranger, and Adam and another Black Ranger. On the other side of the melee, Jason and the new Red Ranger were back-to-back, each brandishing their respective swords as they dealt with a pair of Zanarians.

It seemed fairly clear whose side these new Rangers were on, and as such, his teammates had obviously decided on their own that now was not the time to be asking questions. Unfortunately for Tommy, the time he had spent looking around was more than enough for the Zanarian he had been fighting to recover.

The sound of the scythe cutting through the air caused Tommy to whip around just in time to see the Zanarian descending on him from above. Then, a blur of pink was flying in on the left, with one of silver on the right. Both of them collided with the Zanarian in midair, connecting with kicks to their respective side of the creature's head, resounding in a thunderous crunch as the Zanarian's skull fractured.

As Kimberly and the Silver Ranger landed on opposite sides of the Zanarian they locked eyes beneath their helmets, seemingly sizing each other up while remaining in defensive stances. Breathing a sigh of relief that his head was still attached to his neck, Tommy quickly looked to the Silver Ranger; colors like gold and silver were typically reserved for additional Rangers who joined the team after the core group had already been established. Those extra Rangers were, to the best of his knowledge, exclusively male, yet this Silver Ranger was wearing a skirt.

Now, Tommy was far from a sexist person, but he also knew that his fighting prowess was unrivaled by anyone he had ever led or served with not named Jason, and the notion that his life had just been saved by not one, but two women left him grinning as he watched Kimberly and the Silver Ranger relax their positions slightly.

"Nice kick," they said in unison.

"Yeah, thanks," they added together.

In the middle of a fight, both were suddenly laughing, apparently due to having twice said the same exact thing. While certainly amusing on some level, Tommy could not believe that they had chosen this, of all times, to express that amusement. Rolling his eyes, he said, "Hey, I appreciate you guys saving me, but can we save the pleasantries until after this is over?"

As both women turned to the side to face him, Kimberly said, "Look around. It is over."

She was right. Every single Zanarian was on the ground. Some were burned and smoldering, having obviously been hit by some kind of high-powered blaster, while others were pouring their yellowish-green blood from a myriad of stab wounds. One had even been beheaded, by the Green Ranger, from the looks of it, who was holding a large axe over his shoulder and yelling at his counterpart in black while pointing back and forth from himself to the headless Zanarian that he was standing over.

For a few moments, the Rangers of old and new allowed themselves to celebrate their victory, slapping or shaking hands while congratulating everyone on the fact that they were all still standing. But then realization set in, at least for Tommy and his teammates. None of them had any idea who these Rangers were or how they had gotten there.

Almost at once, the excitement died down as everyone began looking around at each other, apparently unsure what their next move should be. Letting out a quiet sigh, Tommy looked around until he had found the Red Ranger and then started towards him, sheathing Saba along the way.

"I assume you're the leader?" said Tommy, once he was closer. The Red Ranger gave no verbal reply, though, merely nodding his head in confirmation. "Right, well…," added Tommy, coming to a stop and extending his hand, "Thanks."

Nodding again, the Red Ranger took Tommy's hand and shook it, both of them squeezing a bit harder than they normally would have. It was, without a question, a reinforcement of their dominant positions on their respective teams, each leader trying to see what the other one was made of.

Moments later, however, the handshake broke, at which point the Red Ranger spoke for the first time. Briefly pausing to look around at his teammates, the Red Ranger turned back around to face Tommy and then uttered two very simple words.

"Follow me."