Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Power Rangers used here; all are the property of Saban/Jetix/Disney (Who does own the rights anyway)
Feedback: Please do; I'd like to know I'm not wasting my time here
AN: In the combat scene, if the Green Ranger seems a little weaker than he was in 'Green With Evil', I'm assuming that Rita gave Tommy a significant amount of information about the Rangers that he was able to use in combat, but since he knows next to nothing about the Dino Thunder Rangers, he's not quite as effective against them as he could be. Besides, the Dino Thunder team has probably had a few fighting lessons from Tommy, and that guy has learned a few things since he was the Green Ranger, so it shouldn't be surprising that the Dino Thunder team know a few tricks that the Green Ranger is ignorant of
Dino Thunder: Generations
When the attack took place, Kira was barely able to believe what had happened to Doctor O. as he talked with her and Conner in his study. One minute they were idly talking about Doctor O.'s past as a Ranger (They'd moved on from the Green Ranger and were now discussing his time with the Ninja powers) when suddenly Doctor O. threw his head back, screaming in agony as black and green energy rippled around his body, and then he collapsed to the floor, still twitching slightly from the energy that was running through his body.
"Doctor O.!" Conner yelled, as he and Kira leapt over to their teacher's side, looking at him as his body jerked and flexed slightly with the green-and-black lightning that suddenly seemed to cover his body. Reaching out, Kira checked their mentor's pulse at his neck (The lightning didn't appear to affect them), and looked up at Conner in relief.
"Pulse seems OK; at least whatever happened to him didn't have too major an effect on his health," she said to her friend, as the two of them hauled their teacher onto their shoulders. "We'd better call Hayley; maybe she'll have some idea of what's going on."
"Yeah, that sounds good," Conner said, as he pulled out his cell phone and dialled the number of their resident technical expert. "Hello, Hayley? Sorry to bother you, but we've got a problem… no, we're fine, it's just that Doctor O.'s had some kind of attack… He's breathing, but I think you should take a look at him…"
Nodding gratefully, he terminated the call and looked over at Kira. "Get him down to the Dino Lab; Hayley said she'd meet us there."
Nodding gratefully, Kira turned her steps towards the stairs that led down to the basement of Doctor O.'s house, grateful that their 'command centre' was so easily accessible. It may not have been as elaborate as that possessed by some of the past Ranger teams- hell, one team had possessed their own spaceship- but at least it didn't take you ages to get to it from wherever you were originally.
A few minutes later, Conner and Kira were standing behind Hayley as she tapped away at the computer before her, studying the image on the screen. It showed a CGI picture of Tommy's body, taken from the scans Hayley had made of him as soon as she had arrived, and he currently lay unconscious on the medical table behind them; he still twitched from the green and black 'lighting' that crackled around him occasionally, but otherwise he seemed to simply be asleep.
"So… what's wrong with him?" Conner said to the Cyberspace owner after a few moments' silence. "Some kind of after-effect of that coma he was in earlier?"
"No, this is unconnected," Hayley said, as she studied the monitor nervously. "I could be wrong, but it almost looks like…"
"What?" Kira asked, as Hayley trailed off mid-sentence. "What does it look like?"
"Well… like there's another power source trying to overwrite the power of the Dino Gem," Hayley said, shaking her head sceptically as she studied the readouts. "There's a small amount of extra power in his body; not enough for him to use it to morph, but there's definitely something there."
Sighing, she leaned forward, staring at the screen in annoyance and confusion, her chin in her hand. "If it wasn't for the fact that Tommy gave it to Jason, and he's well aware of the risks of using it, I'd swear the green power coin is behind this…"
"What?" Conner said, looking at Hayley in confusion. "The green power coin? As in, Doctor O.'s first power coin? But it was totally drained in its last fight; isn't that why Doctor O. became the White Ranger? How could there be any energy left to cause this?"
Hayley shook her head. "For one thing, the coin energy wasn't totally lost in his last battle," she explained, looking back at the Red and Yellow Dino Rangers. "The coin was almost drained after the destruction of the Green Crystal and Turbanshell, but Tommy demorphed before the power was totally lost; there wasn't enough energy left in the coin to full a complete morph, but it might still have been theoretically possible for another Ranger to use the powers on top of their own if they needed a boost. He gave it to Jason- the original Red Ranger- as a memento of him, but that was the last time Tommy saw the coin."
"What; you mean Jason never used it?" Kira asked in surprise, as she looked curiously at Hayley. "I would have thought something like that would have been a great backup in a fight."
Hayley shook her head. "Not really; the coin would have been useful, but it only had enough power for a couple of fights left in it, so it would have had to be used sparingly. Jason wouldn't have used it unless all other options were exhausted, and he never got that desperate during the remainder of his career as the Red Ranger."
She sighed slightly as she leaned back from the monitor to talk to the others. "It was generally recommended that he didn't use it, anyway; apparently, Zordon was worried that the use of the coin by someone else, when it had never actually left Tommy, may have an averse reaction with Tommy's current powers. He sometimes speculated that weakening his White Ranger powers may have been part of Rita's scheme when she created a clone of the Green Ranger, but it didn't work; she wasn't actually using the power coin Tommy had given up, so the only physical effect on Tommy was being slightly weakened due to his clone taking some of his energy, rather than an actual drain of his Ranger powers."
"Ah…" Kira and Conner said, nodding in mock understanding as they looked at each other; they'd followed some of that, but decided that it wasn't worth pursuing the matter further. Besides, Ethan would probably be able to explain the parts they weren't sure about when he and Trent arrived.
"So, what? Someone's used the green power coin for some reason and it did… that to Doctor O.?" Conner asked, deciding he might as well see if he actually had understood what Hayley had just told them.
Hayley shook her head. "No, I took readings of Jason's two power coins when Tommy and I were reconstructing the Tyrannosaurus morpher for the Red Ranger mission to destroy Serpenterra," she explained, turning back to look at Tommy. "It had a fair amount of energy left in it, but the green coin didn't have enough power available to it to have this kind of effect. At best, if it was being used at the moment, it should just leave Tommy feeling disorientated while the power was in use; for it to achieve this kind of effect on him, it would have to be at full strength, and there's no way for that to happen."
"Then-" Kira began, when suddenly the monitor gave a sharp beep.
"Incoming message from Ethan," Hayley said, as she tapped the relevant keys and the Blue Ranger's face came up on the screen, Trent standing beside him.
"Guys, turn on the TV; you have got to see this!" Ethan said, sounding nearly hysterical. "We have a serious problem!"
"Uh… OK," Conner said, as Hayley tapped a few buttons to split the monitor screen between Ethan and Trent's communication and the current news broadcast….
Their jaws dropped in horror at the sight.
Standing in the middle of Reefside's main street, shooting up cars with energy beams that were being fired from a dagger he held in one hand, and slashing at any police officers who tried to get close to him with the sword he held in the other hand, was…
"The Green Ranger?" Conner and Kira said in horror, as they turned around to look back at the medical table just in case Doctor O. had somehow vanished while they were distracted and had somehow gone evil for some reason…
But no.
He was still there, his head twitching now and again as the energy sparked around him, although it seemed to be getting briefer now; apparently his body was adapting to whatever was happening to it.
Hayley clicked her fingers as inspiration apparently struck.
"Of course…" she said, as she turned to look back at Ethan and Trent. "See if you can get there before he does too much damage; Conner and Kira will join you in a moment."
"Uh… right," Ethan said, looking at her in confusion. "Well… see you there, guys," he added, waving weakly at Conner and Kira as he terminated the connection at his end, leaving his team mates looking at their technical expert in confusion before Hayley beat them to it.
"Look, before you ask, I don't know how this is happening," she said, in response to their confused expression. "However, until we know anything else, we should proceed on the assumption that this is not just a 'clone' of Tommy back in the day when fighting him; in other words, until we know more, just try and just disarm that 'Green Ranger' without actually killing him, OK?"
Conner and Kira nodded in agreement.
"Right then," Hayley said, as she turned back to her monitor, "you two had better take the Raptor Cycles to join Ethan and Trent; I'll see if I can figure out a way to wake Tommy up so he can help you guys out."
"Right," Conner nodded, as he and Kira stepped back into the centre of the room, flicking their wrists slightly to activate their morphers.
"Dino Thunder, Power Up! Hah!" the two teenagers both called out, their right hands flying to their left wrists to tap the controller that had just appeared there. Instantly a blazing white light surrounded them, and then they were clad in the red and yellow costumes of the Dino Thunder Rangers.
As they ran for the Raptor Cycles, Hayley turning back to the screen to study the information about Tommy's condition, she could only hope that they made it in time. If her immediate theory about the nature of the Green Ranger tearing up downtown was correct…
She shuddered nervously at the thought.
We are in serious trouble…
Running through the streets of Reefside, unwilling to wait for the Raptor Riders or ATVs to reach them instead, Ethan and Trent glanced nervously over at each other as they heard a loud explosion from very close to their current location; evidently, the Green Ranger wasn't very far away now.
"Time to morph?" Trent asked, glancing over at Ethan nervously.
Ethan swallowed at his friend's query, his face betraying his anxiety. After all, whatever their opponent was- clone, look-alike, robot- the prospect of facing the evil Green Ranger was not a pleasant one. After all, the Green Ranger had nearly destroyed the original Rangers, and they'd had the benefit of training from a being several thousand years old; how would they manage against this one, no matter how he'd come about?
Ethan shook his head, already ashamed at himself for thinking negatively. After all, they hadn't even seen this guy in battle yet; he was getting worked up for no good reason…
"Oh… sorry 'bout that, Trent," he said, glancing over at his friend apologetically. "Yeah; let's do this."
Flicking their wrists to activate their morphers, Ethan smiled as he issued the familiar command "Dino Thunder, Power Up! Hah!" and felt the strength of the Blue Ranger flow through him.
"White Ranger Dino Power!" Trent added, as his own costume covered him.
Glancing over at each other, the two friends nodded briefly before drawing their weapons and charging around the corner…
Coming face-to-face with the Green Ranger, as he spun around to glare at them, arrogance evident in his stance.
"So, you are the Rangers who protect this location?" he asked, looking at Trent and Ethan critically. "I'm not impressed."
"Trust me; you're not much to look at either, Greenie," Trent retorted, drawing the Drago Sword and pointing it at the Green Ranger. "I mean, if nothing else, the armour looks ridiculous; how is that meant to provide any protection?"
The Green Ranger chuckled. "Mighty words from such a pathetic foe," he said, as he raised his weapons, glaring at Trent and Ethan. "Perhaps you'd care to eat them!"
Instantly he charged towards Trent and Ethan, lashing out with the Sword of Darkness in a powerful slash that sent Ethan flying backwards, and may have done the same for Trent if the White Ranger hadn't intercepted it with his own blade.
Glaring at the Green Ranger under his helmet, Trent swung the Drago Sword around in a 360 degree turn, causing his foe to briefly relax his hold on the Sword of Darkness as it lost its position against the White Ranger's weapon. The distraction was only brief, but it gave Trent the chance to kick out at the Green Ranger and send him staggering back. Outraged, the Green Ranger began to move forward for another attack, but the sound of a blade hurtling towards him from behind prompted him to turn around, intercepting Ethan's Thundermax Saber with the Sword of Darkness as he lashed out with the Dragon Dagger, which Ethan only just managed to catch on the Tricera Shield before it hit him.
"Smart move," the Green Ranger hissed angrily at Ethan.
"I had a good teacher," Ethan replied, trying to sound casual despite the strain he was feeling; given that his weapon's main combat use was defensive, unlike the others, he generally only fought his opponents hand-to-hand, or at least with the blasters. He knew basically what to do in a sword fight, but the Green Ranger was evidently more experienced at this sort of thing, and he had greater physical strength than Ethan anyway…
Spotting Trent attempting to sneak up on the Green Ranger, Ethan smiled slightly in relief; all he had to do was keep the Green Ranger occupied until Trent could get in close enough, and then…
The Green Ranger, apparently sensing that something was behind him, lashed out with the Dragon Dagger in Trent's direction, sending the White Ranger flying back as the weapon struck his armour. Ethan tried to take advantage of his opponent's distraction to lash out with the Tricera Shield- maybe he could use the point on the end as a basic weapon or something- but as soon as he diverted his focus to the shield, his already fragile grip on his saber relaxed and the Sword of Darkness sent him flying backwards once again as it struck him in the shoulder. Rolling with the blow, Ethan managed to land on his feet, a quick glance revealing that Trent was still standing as well, but both of them were weakened by the recent blows, while the Green Ranger still appeared as fresh as the proverbial daisy.
"Is that the best you have to offer?" he asked, 'glaring' arrogantly at the fallen Rangers. "I was expecting a better challenge than this."
"How about now?" another voice yelled from off to one side. "Tyranno Staff!"
"Wha-" the Green Ranger began as he turned in the direction of the voice, only to be met by a rapid blow to the neck from the weapon that had just been summoned by the latest arrivals to the combat.
"Conner! Kira!" Ethan said, smiling as his teammates helped him and Trent back onto their feet. Then his face fell as a suddenly worrying thought occurred to him. "Uh… where's Doctor O.?"
"Back at the lab with Hayley," Conner said reassuringly; he evidently knew precisely what his friend was concerned about. "Something seems to be affecting his Dino Gem and knocked him out, but other than that he's fine."
Ethan sighed in relief; at least he knew he didn't actually have to fight his teacher right now, even if the guy seemed to have Doctor O.'s old powers…
As the Green Ranger began to get back onto his feet, Conner came to a decision as he glanced at this new foe.
Whoever- or whatever- this guy was, they had to put him down fast, before anyone else got hurt. What Conner was about to attempt was risky, but he was fairly sure their opponent wouldn't be too badly damaged. After all, if the original Green Ranger could go up against the first Power Rangers in their Megazord- while still normal-sized- and survive getting hit by a blast from them, than surely this guy could survive the Dino Thunder Rangers with their main weapons?
"Quick, guys; bring 'em together!" Conner said, glancing over at Kira and Ethan as he raised the Tyranno Staff. Quickly understanding what he meant, Ethan and Kira quickly passed him their weapons, the Rangers combining their tools into the Z-Rex Blaster. Trent, on the other hand, simply stood off to the side and pointed the Drago Dagger at the Green Ranger; without Doctor O. to contribute the Brachio Staff to the Blaster, nobody was sure if Trent's weapon would combine with the others, and they weren't willing to risk it.
"Fire!" Conner yelled, as the Z-Rex Blaster instantly fired energy at the Green Ranger, Trent hurling laser arrows at their foe as well…
But, to the Rangers' horror, the Green Ranger simply raised the Sword of Darkness and, somehow, managed to absorb the majority of the energy fired at him into the blade. A few of the laser arrows still struck him, as did some excess energy from the blaster, but otherwise the Green Ranger appeared unharmed.
Great, Conner thought to himself, as he quickly stopped firing the Z-Rex blaster and Kira and Ethan took their weapons back. What do we do now…?
"Hah!" the Green Ranger laughed at the Dino Thunder Rangers, all four of them instantly raising their weapons in preparation for another attack. "Did you honestly think that would be enough to stop a loyal servant of the Empress Rita?"
RITA? Conner thought in shock, glancing over at Kira in confusion. I thought Rita was dead
There was definitely something else going on here that they didn't know about…
"Now, prepare to feel the wrath that her power allows me to deliver!" the Green Ranger cried, as he raised the Dragon Dagger to his 'mouth'. "I call on the power of the mighty… Dragonzord!" he yelled, as he blew a few notes on the flute.
For a moment or two, nothing appeared to happen, and Conner smiled under his helmet. Evidently, whoever was behind this hadn't planned it very well; the Dragonzord was all the way down in Angel Grove! Even if this guy could control it, it would take-
A loud roar from the direction of the coast made Conner instantly reassess his original estimate down to seconds.
"Oh no…" the Red Ranger muttered to himself, as he and the other Rangers turned to look in the direction of the roar.
It was the last thing they wanted to see.
Standing there, towering above the buildings around it, its eyes blazing red as its black and silver shoulders, green neck, and silver and gold chest-plate gleamed in the sun, its long grey tail stretching out behind it, was the zord that Doctor O. had been proud to call his own after first becoming a Power Ranger.
The Dragonzord.
This isn't good…