Well...I gotta say when i first began this story i did not expect it to get the reaction it had. I want to thank each and every one of my readers. Shout out to Griffin-I have already planned the team up out in fact that was what I first wrote and then worked backwards so be waiting.

Disclaimer: *sigh* I wish i owned Power Rangers but i don't-if i did Hunter would have kissed Dustin upon first meeting him.

Chapter 4

Not that he was complaining about getting new friends and being a power ranger-because come on: he's a friggin Power ranger! But still why Conner had pulled him out of bed so early on a Saturday was beyond the red ranger's comprehension. But being the red ranger meant he was the leader so Conner pulled himself out of his big warm comfy bed at seven in the morning and made his way to the cafe he had always noticed but never gone into, when he arrived he couldn't stop the smile that found its way onto his face when he saw Kira making her way over to him from the opposite side on the alley.

He liked Kira she was nice, she was like the big sister he had always wanted, she scolded him when he didn't pay attention in class-because they sat together like all the time now it was really strange although Dr O said it was something about their team bond or something really cool like that-and always had a kind word for him after a battle when he had taken a hard hit or something like that for the team. He was still recuperating from a hit he had taken the previous afternoon when he had protected a young woman from a bunch of Tyrannodrones that had attacked the downtown.

"Hey Conner" the yellow ranger said giving him a wide smile as she wandered up to her leader and gave him a hug.

As he returned the hug he couldn't help but remember when Kira had hugged him at school the morning after they had become power rangers. He had felt so scared because now he understood why he was so obsessed with the colour red and why he had thought something big was going to happen and Kira had picked up on it that morning and without even saying hi she had just pulled him into a comforting hug that he had returned, it had made him laugh when he saw the shocked looks of all the others at the school.

"Hiya Kira how are you?" he asked and if it had come from anyone else he was sure that would have been a very vague question but considering they had been Power rangers for a good two weeks it meant something totally different.

He could easily say in the last fourteen days he had used muscles he didn't even know he had and he hurt like hell and he played a physically demanding sport so he could only imagine how Kira and Ethan who spent most of their time inside felt. He was proven right when the yellow ranger grimaced and rubbed her sore shoulder and shook her head.

"Let's say hurting is too nice a description to describe how sore I am" she said and looked up at her leader with a pout, she sometimes wished she had continued with her dancing that she had taken when she had been a kid or something that made her use her body, because even though she knew the red ranger hurt she could also imagine that he was at least a little better off than what she and Ethan were feeling.

The red ranger shrugged and then looked up at the cafe in front of them and looked over at his teammate giving her a mocking bow "After you my lady" he said making her laugh because out of anything she could have guess that Conner was a gentleman wasn't it.

Walking into the cafe Conner and Kira were shocked at how vibrant and cool the place they stood in looked, there were computers all around the place and music was playing lightly from some speakers. Couches were pushed up against walls and there was a place for people to chill and watch some t.v at the back end of the room, it was amazing and standing in the middle of the room in front of some sort or juice bar beaming like a kid on Christmas morning was the blue ranger and the third member of their ranger team: Ethan.

'You made it!" he said bouncing over to them making the other two rangers to smile at their new friend's excitement, one thing they did learn about their techie friend was that most of the time he was in control and could run rings around you with how much he knew but when he got excited about something he reverted back to a little kid: in Kira's words it was sort of cute.

Kira nodded and Conner answered for the both of them "Yeah we said we would didn't we?" he said with a kind smile, and when he said something he meant it. He was even blowing off soccer practise not that anyone really trained with him he normally just stood around calling out plays the others had to work on while his coach watch him with that big proud grin he sported like he had done something great by making Conner do his job.

The blue ranger nodded and flushed when he looked down as he became shy and withdrawn "Yeah but I just sorta figured you had other things to do" he mumbled as he scuffed his shoe "I mean I get that we are teammates and sort of friends but..."

Conner held up a hand silencing the nervous boy's ramblings and shook his head "Ethan you are my friend" he said crossing his arms and nodding when Ethan eyes widened in shock "Yes we are Teammates but like Dr O said: we share a bond that only a few people get to feel"

Nodding at their leaders statement Kira walked forward and threw her arm around Ethan's shoulders wincing only slightly when the movement pulled at her sore muscles-seriously when was she gonna stop feeling so damn sore!-and gave him a warm smile "Yeah what Conner said. We are friends not sort of friends"

Ethan beamed at the two of them and then nodded, when he had first become a ranger with the other two he had been overjoyed, but then it had sunk in that his leader was Conner McKnight the coolest boy at the school and his other teammate was Kira Ford one of the most driven females in the school which made him feel just a little obsolete. When Dr O had told them that they would be friends for life he hadn't really taken it seriously but as he stood smiling at the red and yellow ranger he couldn't help but feel that yes Dr O was right.

"Awesome now because we are such close buds now I wanted to show you my hangout" he said spinning out of Kira's hold and spread his arms wide in a welcome gesture "I mean the dino lab is nice and is like a dream for me but right here is my home" he said happily.

"Where is here?" Kira asked looking around happily as she took in the place once again

"Welcome to the Cyber space" an airy voice said from behind Conner making the new ranger leapt almost a foot in the air and almost use his super speed as he sped to stand next to Ethan. It took a lot not to use his new instincts and fall into a fighting stance almost immediately and taking a quick glance at Kira he noticed that it looked as if the yellow ranger had fought the same instincts as he had.

But looking at the speaker he was shocked to see that it was a pretty auburn haired woman who had a hippyish look about her but a warm-if slightly airy dreamlike-smile on her face. Looking at her closely Conner reckoned she was about Dr O's age maybe a little younger and she had the nicest demeanour he had ever met and without even noticing it he was smiling back and relaxing in her presence. "Hi" he said brightly back-seriously could he be mean to someone who looked so nice?

"Guys this is Haley" Ethan said and smiled at the woman who saw him more than his own mother did and made sure he got his homework done and didn't spend all his time playing his video games that he swore he wasn't addicted to "she's the owner of the Cyberspace" he explained to his slightly confused teammates who just nodded in understanding.

Haley smiled at the three in front of her and then bought out a notebook that Kira swore was from thin air before putting a bright smile and her eyes became sparkling and the yellow ranger could only imagine it was the look the older woman put on for her customers and this made her giggle "So what can I get you all?"

Conner looked around and then shrugged, he was thirsty he hadn't really eaten or drank anything before he had gone to meet Kira so he could go for something "Do you have a Raspberry and citrus twist?" he asked secretly hoping the woman stocked his favourite fruit drink-he didn't even care if it sounded girly it tasted like heaven and when Haley nodded he beamed at her and nodded "I'll get one"

After writing down the soccer players order Haley turned to face Kira who smiled at her leader and shook her head at the childish smile on his face "I'll just get an apple juice" she said and watched as Haley bounced off to make their orders.

Ethan moved them over to his table where his laptop was set up waiting for him to resume his game and was about to say something when the loud sound of a Motorcross bike echoed around the cafe and the rangers were shocked when Haley grin turned into a full blown smile and she moved on the other side of the bar and waited with her hands on her hips for someone to walk through the door. They didn't have to wait long because moments later a figure rushed in wearing bright green and black motorcross gear without the body armour clutching his helmet in one hand and running his hands through his messy hair with the other.

"Dustin so nice to see you!" Haley said in an amused voice making the boy look up and give her a wink and pointed to the clock on the wall to which the owner rolled her eyes and nodded "Yes you still have a few minutes before your shift starts your safe"

The boy threw his hands up and Haley pushed him into the back room chuckling telling him to changed him shoes at least and not to trudge mud all through his cafe. Conner stared after the boy staring in totally awe, he was confident with his sexuality and the others knew that and he could easily say that the boy that had just walked in was Hot! His eyes sparkled and his skin was a glowing tanned that gave him a Brazilian look.

"Okay Ethan who was that!" he asked the computer geek who looked up at his leader and then at Kira who was nodding eagerly, hey she was a girl and a hot guy who obviously rode a motorbike had just walked into the cafe she was gonna get affected she had hormones like every other teenage girl.

When the boy walked out and took a tray from Haley and pecked her on the cheek making her laugh and push him in the direction of a table where he began to take orders Ethan smiled as he recognised the boy "Ah that's Dustin he got here a few months ago, he's really cool"

Conner nodded and then smiled at Haley who had delivered his drink before launching into a discussion with Kira about their science project that Dr O had set them and how he was actually looking forward to completing to which the yellow wearing girl just nodded and launched into her own thoughts about the same project and what direction she was taking and not for the first time since becoming a ranger Conner found himself happily sighing that his teammates were the people he had been waiting for since he began high school-they were true friends.

Dustin took a calming breath and glared at the monitor and then looked over at Haley who was biting her lip in fear, funny how things always seemed to go bad when everything had been going so damn well! Tommy had gone to watch Kira perform the night before and of course he had gone and gotten himself captured because he was Tommy Friggin Oliver and he wasn't Tommy if he wasn't kidnapped by the bad guys. "I swear that man has a sign on him that says 'Kidnap me'" he muttered as he began to assess the communicator function of the morphers.

Haley nodded and looked over to her young friend, she liked Dustin he was so happy and cheerful and he cared a hell of a lot about her and Tommy and now had taken on the new rangers like he was one of them. Of course they didn't know it was him who sent them their zords and they didn't know it was him who cared for the raptors and took care of all their equipment when they weren't using it: they thought Tommy did all of that themselves.

"Dustin shall I get Tommy's legacy video ready?" she asked from her own seat at the controls and heard the younger operator sigh but saw him nod out of the corner of her eye. She knew it would be hard for Dustin to play that video considering Tommy had made him swear to use it for his rangers if anything had happened to him and the younger boy was probably not expecting him to have to use it so soon.

"Comm. command alert activate" Dustin ordered smoothing back his green and black shirt that he had gotten a few days earlier-seriously he hated the fact he'd had to get a new wardrobe all because Kira was the yellow ranger but what could he do and if he was being honest he had found himself liking green he could suddenly see why Cam had been so drawn to it so much.

'Select the Ranger you wish to alert' the command centre asked and Dustin looked over to Haley who was searching the locations for the rangers and once he found out that Conner was separate from the other rangers he knew he was going to have to alert more than one person.

"Alert ranger Conner and Ethan please" he commanded and then spun in his chair lacing his fingers together as he thought about what he and Haley were about to do. When Tommy had told him to reveal himself with the video he didn't think he thought it would be so early on in the ranger's stint. He didn't know what he was going to do, he couldn't handle three emotional rangers and he knew that was what was going to happen because he and his team had acted like that when Hunter and Blake had taken Sensei when they were working for Lothor.

Haley seemed to sense her younger friend's inner turmoil because once she had finished collecting the video she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. Sometimes she forgot that not only had Dustin been a ranger the previous year but he was also a master ninja and had recently been taking Maui Tai because he seemed so childish and innocent but it was at times like this when she saw how dark and serious the young ninja could become as soon as he got bad news that she saw it, she saw the ex-yellow wind ninja storm ranger and Earth style Ninja master and secretly she found it a little sad.

When the sound of Conner and Kira arguing came down the corridor Dustin gave Haley a final grin before he pushed himself to his feet and crossed his arms against his chest and made his gaze calm like he had when he was teaching at the academy: he was going to have to act calmly with these rangers otherwise everything could come undone. Haley bit her lip and move slightly behind her younger friend when the three Dino Thunder rangers walked into now laughing-obviously Conner and Kira had worked out their problems-only to freeze when they spotted the two intruders to their secret lair.

"Dustin" Conner choked out too shocked to react in any other way "Haley?"

Luckily he wasn't the only one who was acting that way, at the sight of Dustin and Haley standing at the control centre so naturally Ethan had frozen and had yet to really process what was happening in front of him. Kira had stilled and was just starring open mouthed at Dustin who pointed at the three seats in front of him and in a deep commanding voice that reminded them so much of Dr o when he wanted them to listen he said clearly "Sit down" and without skipping a beat the moved to their seats and sat down silently.

Sighing at their reactions Dustin looked over at Haley who gave him an encouraging smile and he softened his gaze and sat in his own chair facing the Dino Thunder rangers "I know that this has come to a shock to all three of you seeing Haley and I here" he said slowly looking each of them in the eyes and saw them all nod before he continued "But what you have to understand is that Haley and I have been a part of project dino thunder before you were chosen to be the rangers"

"How...why?" Conner whispered unable to form a full question just looking at the other boy in total confusion, what he really wanted to ask was quite simple like how they hadn't figured it out and why hadn't they told him but he was still reeling from see the two of them sitting in the dino lab so calmly when he and his team had been sure that they and Dr O had been the only ones who knew of this place.

Haley put a hand on Dustin's arm and decided to speak up for the first time "Dustin and I run the lab" she explained "Dustin works with your Zords and your Raptors when he isn't busy and during battle he is the one who runs comms and send them to you" she said softly and maybe a little proudly-hell she trained him she could be proud if she wanted to be "I run tech support and make sure everything works I fix all your problems and help the general running of the dino lab"

The dino rangers nodded as one and Dustin sighed leaning forward to speak to them more feely "Look I know this is hard, I've been here where you are" he said looking each of them in the eyes seeing the understanding dawn in them "Haley and I decided to stay in the shadows because Tommy-Dr O-asked us to stay in the dark until you needed us" he said and rubbed his face tiredly "And unfortunately you really need us"

"What do you mean" Conner asked staring at Dustin in shock-he had been a ranger! Oh my god he was sitting with another ex-ranger and from his age the red ranger could only guess that he had been a modern ranger from the last few years which was totally awesome if he really thought about it. But when Dustin continued he felt all the joy in meeting another ex-ranger faded away as Dustin said "Tommy has been taken by Zeltrax"

Watching fights was the worst thing about his job, Dustin decided as he watched Conner lead the rangers off on their new Raptor cycles Haley had made for them. When he had made them watch the legacy video he had felt pride well up in him when he saw them sit just that little bit taller and hold themselves just that little bit straighter as they realised just what type of legacy they came from, when the video got to his team he had to stop the tears welling up in his eyes as he heard Tommy's voice praising his team on the team work they held and forgiving nature they had in accepting the Thunder brothers, it had felt good to hear his mentor say that.

"Ah...Dustin you there' The ex-ranger grinned when he heard Connor's uneasy voice come over the comms and shook his head at what Tommy was gonna have to deal with when it came to his red ranger. He could still remember how bad his team had suffered when Shane hadn't been in the right state of mind-it had been a little scary.

"Reading you guys loud and clear" he said and made his voice as happy as possible and if you could smile of a comm. Channel he was sure Conner would be giving him a big bright grin for all his trouble. "Now let's say we go and save your mentor huh?"

'Let's do it!'

When Haley walked up to Dustin a few hours later she was surprised to see him gasping for air as he laughed so hard he had to use the control panel as a support which confused her a little. As far she knew the others had only just saved Tommy and yet here his prodigy was almost rolling on the floor because he was laughing so hard. "Ah Dustin are you okay?" she asked walking over to the green wearing boy.

Dustin waved Haley's question aside and wiped his eyes as he got his laugh under control, his he's locked with Haley's concerned one and he gave her a full blown amused grin before accessing the comm. Channel reserved for the great Tommy Oliver. "You sure about this Tommy...I mean come on Adam will hurt you" he said and Haley looked over at the morphor box and sighed when she realised what her old friend wanted Dustin to do.

'Come on Dustin my team needs me' Tommy whined over the comm. Making both of its operators roll their eyes at the ex-ranger's tone like seriously this man had fought for Zordon and had saved the world so many times before and yet here he was whining to his nineteen year old student. 'And besides Adam took my first colour'

The two dino lab operators shared a grin, that tone Tommy just took the two of them could practically here the damn pout that the multi-ranger was probably showing on the other side of the comm. "Dude so doesn't count you were like evil" Dustin said but Haley noticed that he was accessing the right bio files so that the new morphor would appear on Tommy's wrist.

"Black ranger Brachio Ranger morphor fusion activate" Dustin commanded and began clicking through Tommy's bio field so he could connect the power back into his soul-something that felt very wrong for the younger man-it was like invasion of privacy or something!

'Brachio Ranger fusion completed; morphor teleport to Subject-Thomas Oliver' Haley watched as the black morphor that had just been created in the glass box to Dustin's right disappeared in a flash of black light.

Moments later Tommy's voice came over the comms thanking Dustin and telling him the best which made the ex-ranger grin like an idiot. He might hate the damn man sometimes but he was still Tommy Oliver and let's face it his legacy: yeah it was awesome! 'Dino Thunder: Power up Ha!" Despite seeing the other rangers morph a few times over his role a command centre Dustin couldn't help but notice that when Tommy morphed it was different than when the younger ranger's did-it was natural for him.

'Black Brachio Ranger: Thomas Oliver Activated'

Dustin grinned as the computers signalled that Tommy was now and forever the black ranger and once again a part of a team once again "Brachio ranger welcome to the team" he said and gave Haley a grin which she returned before pulling up the other ranger stats.

If someone had told him a two weeks ago that he would now be a power ranger with Dr O as his mentor and now Black ranger Conner probably would have just smirked at him and then walked off, but from the way Dustin had describe it as well as Dr O's legacy video the power had chosen him not the other way round and that made all the sore muscles and shocking revelations about Dustin and Haley just that little bit easier to deal with. Of course Dustin being an ex-ranger was awesome now he could go to someone other than his science teacher with his problems.

Chuckling to himself and shaking his head Conner entered Cyberspace and looked up just in time to see a boy in a white shirt holding a tray just seconds from walking into him. Too late to stop it happening Conner reacted instantly when the collision happened. When the boy was falling back his arm shot out to wrap around his waist and his other hadn shot forward and caught the tray of drinks making sure there were no spills-got to love those heightened reactions.

Looking down to the boy he had just saved Conner gave him a sweet grin when he saw the shock in his eyes and if he looked really close he saw gratitude. The boy had tan skin and inky black locks and had a boyish look to him that made Conner just want to hold him a little longer, but the applause of the customers in the store broke him out of that thought process and he straightened up releasing his hold the boy at the same time.

"Thank you, I'm here all week" he said placing the drinks on the correct table before turning around and handing the tray back to the young boy who was now blushing just that little bit which made him look cuter than before. "Hey how are you?"

The boy looked at him and smiled making him smile back before he answer in a soft voice "I'm good, thankful actually I really didn't need to clean that up" he said wincing as if he could just imagine the mess his spill would have made and when the red ranger envisioned the same thing he winced as well-yeah it wouldn't have been pretty.

Trying to get their minds off what could have been Conner held out his hand at gave the boy one of his charming grins "Hey I'm Conner McKnight" he said happily.

Glancing at the hand and then up at him the other boy reached out taking his hand sending sparks throughout his body and gave him a happy smile before speaking "Hi there Conner: I'm Trent Fernandez"

Pulling his hand back Conner knew that meeting this boy had been for a reason and if the way his body was reacting maybe meeting this boy could be the only normal thing in his life while he you know saved the world and all-but knowing his luck it might not work out that well but he was willing to give it a try anyway-although maybe he should just try for friends that might work out just a little better.

Reviews are welcomed with love.