Chapter 3:

A/N I own nothing except for characters I invent. Thanks to all who reviewed and put this on alert. You guys rock!

The rangers were all in the Youth Centre, just after coming from Zordon's meeting. They were all curious. They wanted to know why Zelphina and Tommy knew each other. But since Tommy was not with them, they couldn't ask.

Adam was also curious. He was with Tommy. They were sitting on a bench in the park, watching Maddy play on the swings and the slide and play around with the other children. Adam decided to ask about it. He knew that Tommy may not like it, but he couldn't stand not knowing anything about his best friend.

"So," he said. "Are you going to tell me how you know that princess person?" Tommy looked at him. "I'm not supposed to talk about it too much," he answered. Adam just stared at him. "Ok fine," Tommy gave in. "But just you, ok?" Adam grinned.

"You know my parents are dead, right?" Adam nodded. "Well that's a big part of it. You know that whole story right?" "Not really. You're very secretive." Tommy sighed. He didn't like talking about it.

"Ok," he said. "When I was eight I was outside playing with one of the dogs. I realised I didn't get called in for dinner so I went in to see why, but no one was there." Adam looked confused. "You said that your parents died in your house." Tommy sighed again. "We had a big house. I'm actually quite rich." Adam looked at Tommy in disbelief. There was no way that Tommy was rich. Tommy realised that Adam didn't believe him.

"Ever hear of the Oliver Corporation?" he asked. Adam nodded. Everyone knew the Oliver Corp. It was in charge of a lot of stuff and owned nearly one of every kind of business and store that Adam could think of. "Well," said Tommy. "My dad owned that. Now it's technically mine. But anyway." Adam nodded and Tommy continued.

"I went in and couldn't find anyone so I just got a bag of chips from the cupboard and went to watch TV. I figured my sister must have been left to look after me and my parents had gone out. She usually left me on my own when that happened. After a while I got lonely so I decided to go upstairs. I was halfway up when I tripped and fell. I hit my head and woke up in hospital. I wouldn't accept that my entire family were dead. I refused to stay in a care home and ran away. I lived on the streets for a while with a few other kids, trying not to get caught." Adam kept nodding. It was a lot to take in.

"I almost did get caught by some cops, so we ran from Angel Grove and went to Stone Canyon. Anyway, the people who killed my family wanted something from one of the vaults, and realised that I was the only one who knew how to open it. So they found me in Stone Canyon and well, ran after me. I went to the top of some building and they followed. I fell off the roof and hurt myself really badly."

Adam remembered the news from that particular time. There was something alright about someone falling off a roof and the FBI showed up and everything. All the kids thought it was pretty cool at the time.

"So then I met Zelphina. She explained that the thing these guys were after had something to do with her. She asked my dad to hide something in one of his vaults and he did. She then called Jack in and said I had to stay with him, because he was a secret service agent and he would protect me."

Adam was yet again surprised. Jack was Tommy's adoptive father and seemed very ordinary to Adam. No one would ever believe that Jack Calvin was some secret agent.

"So is that the only time you saw Zelphina?" he asked. "No," said Tommy. "There were lots of other times too. She made me go see a shrink." Adam was confused again. "Why?" Tommy looked at him. "Because I wasn't coping with everything that was going on. All those times I went for "hot chocolate" were actually when I had to go see Dr Black."

"But that was almost every day!" Adam said. "At the beginning, yeah," Tommy agreed. "I suppose my dad didn't help matters?" "I suppose so." Principal Park and Tommy got off to a bad start and now they never got on.

"But when did Jack adopt you?" asked Adam. "And why?" Tommy sat back and grinned. "Because I was adopted by the Olivers and my birth mother wanted me back. The only way to stop that happening was to convince the courts that Jack was a better carer than she was." "But why'd you have to do that?" "Too dangerous. Besides, I didn't want to leave my friends." He looked at Adam and smiled. Adam smiled back.

"I'm sorry man," said Adam after a while. "No," said Tommy. "I'm sorry for not telling my best friend all about myself."

Maddy came running over. "Can we go get Ranger and take him walkies?" she asked Tommy. Ranger was their dog. He helped the rangers sniff out things some times and that was how he earned his name. Tommy stopped smiling. He'd forgotten to feed the poor dog. "I gotta go Adam," he said. "Forgot to feed the dog."

He and Maddy left Adam sitting on the bench. Adam sighed and then went to join the others in the Youth Centre.

A/N So what do you think about Tommy's past? How will the others react if Adam tells them? Reviews please!