A\N: You ever have that fic where you set out thinking there's a plot, and it turns out the entire story is, well, your first three chapters? That's this fic. I very cleverly didn't realize that since I set up this story purely to give a reason why no one ever talked to Tommy, once they'd talked to Tommy, that was it. So I'm going to try and base a plot off that, but it may or may not work. Let me know how you like it.

Tommy yanked Trent down with him, covering the boy's body with his own. The explosion shattered Tommy's windows, fire roaring over them. Then he jumped up as it stopped, moving into the warrior persona he had been all but born for.

"Sweep the house! Go, go, go!"

Warrior or not, there were two people here who should not be near weapons. Tommy yanked the Jeep keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Trent. "Get in the Jeep, I'll get Jason."

"But-"

"Now!"

Trent fled.

Tommy darted up the staircase. The guest room wasn't on fire, thankfully, and Jason was snoring peacefully. Tommy hefted him for the second time that night as the door crashed open. Tommy turned.

It was funny. They looked a hell of a lot like monsters, but now that he knew..."You're Daemon, right?" Tommy asked. "Shapeshifters?"

"Yeah!" ...Oh. Oh, god. He was a kid. A sick feeling curled around Tommy's stomach. "We fight for our Queen!" The kid brandished a knife.

"Great. Well, give Kim a message for me." Tommy grinned charmingly as he judged various distances and amounts of pain. "Tommy's back."

With one hand, he picked up the heavy-looking desk, swung it wildly at the Daemon teens, and then threw it with all his strength at the window, which shattered. Tommy adjusted his grip on Jason and dived through, landing on both feet and biting back a scream of pain before starting to run, trusting the Power to actually heal him and not fuse any small and probably-broken bones. He chucked Jason none too gently into the backseat of the Jeep, jumped in, and took off like a bat out of hell.

*PRDT*PRDT*PRDT*

Tommy scanned the area around him warily before turning and pulling into Haley's driveway.

She ran out to meet him. Uh-oh. That was never a good sign, in Tommy's-Haley flung herself into his arms as he got out, muttering, "Oh my god you're alive!"

"Uh, yeah. What happened?" Not a good sign.

Haley stood back, breathing slowly. "The kids. They came charging in here saying some psycho woman kidnapped them and-"

Tommy didn't wait to hear the rest. He was fairly sure he didn't bother checking that the door was unlocked before barreling into it, either (although some part of his brain registered that it was probably a good thing it was, since he didn't want Haley killing him). He stopped short as he saw all three teenagers sitting in Haley's dining room and bandaging various wounds.

"Dr. O!"

He caught them as they ran up to him. Oh, god. They were safe. He hadn't even realized how terrified he'd been until it had stopped..."Guys, what happened? Are you all right?"

"Dude, the psycho lady tried to kill us!" Conner said, though it was muffled because he had seemingly decided that he was point-blank not letting go of Tommy ever.

"Okay. Anyone hurt?" Various negatives, and Ethan muttering something about an arm that wasn't regrowing. Tommy took the arm in question, trying to both examine it and not accidentally whack someone in the head. Damnit. The arm had been cut at with a knife. Kim must have been trying to get at his scales...It was bandaged and expertly stitched together, though, so there wasn't much Tommy could do. "That should heal fine. Try not to get the stitches wet. You guys know Trent, right?"

"Please don't jump on me." Trent muttered from where he was sitting curled up on Haley's couch.

Tommy tried not to snicker. "He's got the White Dino Gem." He kept his arm around Conner despite the teen's attempt to get away and probably kill the other boy. "Conner. Conner. The Gem's doing something strange and I don't know what. He wasn't actually trying to hurt you."

"He wrecked my soccer ball!" Conner protested.

"Come on, it was pink!" Trent retorted.

...Whaa? Tommy's grip slipped, and Conner jumped out of his arms, launching himself at Trent. "I liked that it was pink!"

Suddenly, Ethan burst out laughing. The sound seemed to be the cue for a no-holds-barred entirely pathetic attempt for both boys to either kill each other or wrestle, and Tommy watched in pure bemusement. "Ethan?"

"Hehehe...ye...hehe...yeah?"

"Why are my Red and White Rangers trying to murder each other?"

"They...haha...they were on a soccer team together when...hehehe...they were ten and...hahaha...Conner's soccer ball got bleached, so..." Ethan snorted, "Trent said it was girly and they...haha...fought and wrecked it..." Ethan devolved into laughter again.

"Wait a minute." Kira protested, her eyes narrowing. "You mean the entire reason Conner doesn't trust Trent is because of a soccer ball?"

"I..." Ethan gasped, controlling his laughter. "I think it's more that they've been bitch-fighting on and off since about it. Constantly." He paused. "Until Trent moved, anyway...hey! So that's where he went!"

Kira looked pleadingly at Tommy.

"Yes. You can smack them."

Kira lit up, waded into the fight, smacked both boys upside the head, and proceeded to yell at them. Tommy snorted.

Then the lights went out.