Right here it is finally the chapter a lot of you have been waiting for, i gotta say this was harder to write then I thought it was going to be but hey i did it right. Now once again thank you my little reviewers all your comments are taken into consideration and really thought hard about so thank you for all your input.
Chapter 7
Amber sucked: normally it was hard and horrible to examine but Dustin had decided that fossilized amber was ten times if not twenty times worse that it's more modern counterparts. He and Haley had spent the last two days trying everything they could to get Tommy out of his amber prison and unfortunately had been unable to come up any results. One thing that had gone right though was after two weeks of stress and sleepless nights he had finally finished all his work on the green dino gem.
The night after Tommy had been found in the amber he had ra one last test of the gem in hopes of getting any results anything at all because any good news would have been better than nothing and when he got the results back it was almost as if his prays had been answered because he had gotten the information he needed to. As if turned out the green dino gem happened to be the Green Raptor gem and with that information he had left Haley with the task of freeing his mentor and had focused on building a morphor for the raptor ranger that they still had to find.
Despite being so focused on his work Dustin knew he still had a team to help so he made sure that his rangers were always in a good mindset and made sure to remind them that he and Haley wouldn't stop until their mentor was free. He liked to think he was doing a good job in leading the team but he also knew he was no Tommy, he knew he made mistakes and he didn't want to let his mentor down as he owed to much to him. But he still put on a brave smile and led the team to the best of his ability.
Everything seemed to be going okay, Conner was becoming a true red ranger, the team was getting closer and closer every day and they always came out of top at the end of the day, there was nothing really worrying except for one small detail: Trent. Since revealing himself to Conner that day it seemed that the white ranger had been out to stop the other rangers as harshly and quickly as possible. It didn't help that Trent's dino gem was of the same series as Tommy's which meant it was older and a hell of a lot stronger than the dino thunder gems.
Conner had approached him about the problem and had mentioned that they needed the green ranger up and running ASAP, and Dustin knew all of this. He knew that Trent was targeting Kira and Ethan because he wanted them out of the way so he could get to Conner with ease, because Trent knew morphed Conner didn't really stand much of a chance and no amount of training that he gave them was really going to help.
"Any luck?" Haley asked as he got off the phone from talking to Rocky.
Shaking his head he put the phone down and rubbed the back of his neck, he knew that finding a green ranger was going to be hard, but he had just hoped that Rocky and Adam would have had a student that had some inkling of being ranger material but when he asked the blue Zeo ranger he had been told that none of his martial arts students had any ranger attributes. "No Rocky can't find anyone worthy enough" he said sadly as he gazed at Haley sadly.
Haley bit her lip and looked from the green morphor and then at Dustin making the ex-ranger sigh he knew what she was not saying. She was trying to show him that maybe he should take the morphor for his own because he already was a ranger which he had already told her would never happen. It wasn't because he didn't want to be a ranger again because the idea of putting on the suit again was as thrilling as actually doing so. But he didn't want to be a dino ranger he didn't fit in there: it wasn't him.
"Haley no" he said moving away from his boss to stand at the control panel where he watch the computer run scan after scan on the surrounding area. "We've already talked about that"
But the other woman wasn't to be deterred she grabbed Dustin's hand and looked him in the eyes he gaze sadly resigned as she remembered when she first met the quirky boy who helped her build the dino lair: she had known back then that he wasn't meant for bigger things he was meant to be a ranger again "Dustin you and I both know that gem is meant for you" she said looking at the morphor he had spent a good two days creating "Stop fighting it"
The ex-ranger didn't say anything and just looked at the morphor lying on the table innocently, he knew that Haley was right, just like Tommy had said the first time he had morphed the dino gems aren't chosen that are the ones that chose their wielders and he had been drawn to the green stone since he found it lying in the mud all those weeks ago. He had felt like the gem was his and maybe that was why he wasn't giving the search his totally focus but he was also just a little scared to be a ranger again: even more so that it was Tommy's team.
The dino rangers chose that moments to rush in talking all at once about how Trent had turned up at Conner's house and said that by the end of the week they'd be all dead and a bunch of other things that he hadn't been able to catch and suddenly Dustin got the feeling that this was how Cam felt when he started to babble on and on without waiting for any answers. Sucking in a deep breath he held up a hand making all of them stop talking and pointed at Conner "Talk"
The red ranger took a deep breath and looked at his teammates before he started talking "Okay. I was hanging out with Kira and Ethan when we all decided to go to my house because well...it's really big" he said weakly and Dustin understood without and parents his house would feel pretty big "But when we got there Trent was already there waiting"
Dustin watched as Conner tensed as he said this and sighed, he knew it would happen Hunter had done the same thing to him when he had been evil, had turned up at his house and threatened him and followed him to the motorcross track most days; it really did scare him so he could understand how Conner was feeling. "Okay keep going" he ordered
"Right well I confronted him because well...he doesn't hurt me that badly when he fight so I wanted to protect Ethan and Kira" Conner explained and when Dustin looked back at the other two dino rangers he saw their slightly annoyed faces and knew this slightly annoyed them. "And he said to me that in a week's time he'll have gotten rid of the others so he and I could...play"
Kira took her leaders hand and gave it a squeeze hoping to convey her support in physical form, she had known that being the one Trent revealed himself to would have affected the red ranger somewhat but looking at the normally confident leader she saw something that made her scared: she saw just how frightened Conner really was by the situation. Dustin saw this too and then put his hand on Conner's shoulder.
"Conner listen to me very carefully" he said softly making not only the red ranger but the blue and yellow ranger look at him "Nothing is going to happen to you or the others" he said very seriously, and couldn't help but wonder when he became the serious one.
The red ranger bit his lip and looked at him with such a lost expression that the ex-ranger felt his heart go out to the lost and scared ranger "How can you be so sure about that. We can't beat him in battle and he's getting stronger!" he said almost crying.
Dustin tightened his grip and shook his head making all three of their protests fall silent, he was their mentor now, he had to be the strong one, and for the first time since Tommy had been fossilised the ex-yellow knew just why his teacher became their mentor: he wanted to keep them safe. "Nothing is going to happened to you because I'm not going to let it"
The three rangers stared at Dustin in awe and took the strength he was giving them, they didn't know when Dustin's approval and support had become so important to them but they did know that now without Dr O telling them everything would work out they had relied on Dustin just as they used to on their black ranger and that the young college student was becoming just as much a mentor as the great Tommy Oliver was.
Suddenly the alarms rang out through the lair and Dustin turned his attention to Haley who was bringing up the video feed revealing that Trent was the reason the alarms were going off. Turning back to his red ranger he saw the determination and fire shinning through in the young red ranger's eyes and gave them a proud smile. "Go save the world" he ordered.
Sitting down next to Haley he shared a grin with her before picking up the headset as his rangers-because until Tommy was de-fossilised they were his rangers-raced out to fight their rival and couldn't help but feel that everything would be okay. Haley smiled at Dustin and saw the pride shinning from him and turned back to her screens and couldn't help but think that if Tommy was there to watch his prodigy he would have burst from pride.
Everything had been going well, the rangers had managed to divert Trent's attention onto them and had been fighting well as a team until Trent had trapped Conner and took on the blue and yellow rangers. Dustin watched in horror as the white ranger slash through them like they were nothing, he watched as Conner screamed for Trent to stop as he slammed Ethan into a tree, how much pain was Conner going through having to watch his teammates being beaten. Glancing over at Haley he saw the silent tears running down her face and then stood up making a decision.
He knew what he had, he was scared but watching his rangers struggle against a foe they couldn't beat he knew he couldn't sit around and just do nothing not when he knew he had the power to fix it. That was why he picked up the Green raptor ranger and strapped it on his wrist before activating the commands "Activate Dino Gem ranger fusion" he ordered and gasped when suddenly his vision went green and he saw a bright glowing Green raptor flash through his mind.
'Green Rapto Ranger: Dustin Brooks Activated'
Haley spun around in the chair and saw Dustin standing behind her with the morphor on his wrist and saw the fury lit up in his gaze, she gave him a nod and turned back to the screens bringing up his bio stats so he could complete the bonding process 'Begin Morphor bio fusion!" he commanded and grit his teeth as he felt the gem in his morphor bond to him completely sealing his fate.
Looking up on the screen just in time to watch Trent kick Kira into a tree and then step on her back when she was lying face down in the dirt Dustin knew it was time to morph and took a breath before glancing at Tommy just hoping he wouldn't have a heart attack when he woke up and found his student as the last Dino ranger. "Raptor Dino power: unleash!" he commanded as the words came to him naturally why a tiny voice in the back of his head told him his command was different "Ha!"
Watching as her friend was enveloped in a bright green light Haley smiled when she saw him once the light faded. He looked like a cross between Trent and Tommy but looked sleek like Conner, on his chest was the same Dino Thunder symbol the others had only his had longer more curved claws on them. Dustin gave her a nod waved to her in salute before rushing into the raptor room and leaping on Conner's red beast. It growled happily as it knew it was about to run and when Dustin urged it forward it shot forward with all the speed of the wind.
Trent laughed as he threw Ethan down and waited for them to get back up, when neither the yellow or blue ranger was able to stand back up he walked over to Conner and stroked his helmet making Conner jerk his head back making him laugh at the firey spirit of the red ranger. "Come now Conner where is the one who held me two days ago" he asked
"He's fading away everytime you hurt my friends" Conner hissed and tried to access his super dino powers so he could break free of the chains Trent had trapped him in earlier. Watching the white ranger beat around his friends had probably been one of the single hardest things he had been forced to sit through knowing that he could help if he was just free but unable to get free had made it so hard, he didn't know how Dustin was reacting back at the lair but he was sure it was badly.
The white ranger looked over at the two still forms of the Tricera and Ptera ranger and shrugged and made a bored snort "They were boring" he said simply "You on the other hand...you have such spirit" he said happily "You always did even when I met you as Conner and before I knew you were him"
"Get away from me!" Conner yelled when the white ranger squeezed his shoulder, he knew he sounded desperate but he didn't want the creep anywhere near him, what he wanted was to crawl over to his fellow rangers and cry for them.
'Conner help is on its way' the red ranger froze when he heard Haley's voice come over the comm. Channel what did she mean help was coming?
Before he could dwell on it anymore he heard what sounded like a screeching roar that reminded him of their raptors that made him glance around. Trent froze and looked around for the source of the sound, he knew that the dino thunder black ranger was already taken care of and he knew their wasn't a final member yet-something that made them really easy so he was just a little confused as to what was going on.
"Rapto blades!" Trent looked up just in time to have a flash of green past him and for pain to explode from his chest making him scream in pain and stumble away from Conner and clutch his wound.
The red ranger gasped when the green blur stopped moving and he was looking at the final member of his team: he was staring at his green ranger-and he looked awesome. This new ranger had two long curved Scimitar like blades in his hands, he had the same sort of shoulder guards that Dr O and Trent were adorned with but his very smaller more subtle and he looked sleek and fast. His helmet had two crests on the top and he had the same gold detailing Dr O had.
"No way" he whispered in awe.
The white ranger straightened and glared at the newcomer, he couldn't move that fast and his dino animal was the damn dragon who the hell did this guy think he was? "And who the hell are you?" he asked savagely as he stepped past Conner.
"Green Rapto Dino Thunder Ranger" the new ranger said spinning his blades threateningly "And I suggest you leave before I get really mad" he warned.
Conner didn't actually think that it would work, he and the others had threatened Trent enough to know this, but this guy hadn't been fighting his comrades all afternoon and this guy looked like had some moves, and not just any moves it looked like he some real moves. Trent seemed to have the same ideas because his hands clenched into fists and he resheathed his Drago blade before pointing at his new rival.
"We will meet again Green ranger!" he said as he faded from view.
The new ranger didn't move for a few moments he just stood there watching for any signs that Trent would return, but when he was sure he wouldn't be coming back he leapt to Conner's side and used one of his blades to break the chains binding his body. "You did well" the new ranger muttered and put a hand on his shoulder when he sat up "You have a strong will: most people would have broken by now"
The red ranger just watched in total shock as his green teammate wandered over to Kira and roused her before going over to Ethan and rousing him. The two now conscious rangers seemed to be too shocked to speak because they were just staring at the green ranger not saying a word so Conner decided to speak for them-he was supposed to be the team leader after all or well that's what Dustin and Dr O kept telling him.
"Dustin found our Green ranger" he said excitedly and missed how tense the new ranger had become for a moment before he became relaxed again. "He said he would but...wow you look awesome"
With a grace that the other rangers only wished they had the green ranger put his blades away and stood proudly for them to inspect, "Thank you it feels good to know you trust me" he said lowering his head "I just wish I could demorph"
Kira stepped forward and looked at their new teammate and rested a hand on his shoulder "Hey don't worry I sure Haley will be able to fix you" she said brightly as she powered down "have you met her yet?"
The new ranger nodded and then clicked his fingers like an idea had only just hit him "That's right Haley told me to tell you to go home. She and Dustin want to test me privately" he explained "I'm sorta shy"
Conner grinned and powered down himself, it felt good to have the green ranger there, it felt right in fact his team felt complete-dismissing the fact that one of them was an evil obsessed freak, one couldn't power down and the other was fossilised he felt like his team was perfect. Clapping happy at being able to go home early Conner rallied his team together telling Ethan and Kira they were going to his house so that they could rest and relax.
Once the rangers were out of sight Dustin let out a relieved breath and accessed the comm. Channel that Haley was binging like crazy "Yes Haley?" he asked as he wandered over to Conner's red raptor that nuzzled him happily when he saw him. It wasn't that strange that the raptor accepted him so quickly, he had helped Tommy rear the thing and now that he had its species dino DNA coursing through him it actually made a lot of sense that the raptor let him ride him without any fuss.
'You've got a lot of explaining to do when you get back'
Dustin grinned and kicked the raptor to set it off, he understood what she meant, he had lied to the ranger he had hid his true identity from them. He knew he would be expected to have a good reason but the fact of the matter was he didn't. He had no clue as to why he didn't tell his new team who he was, he didn't know if it was because he was still holding a part of his Ninja Storm family with him or what, all he knew was that when he told Cam he took his colour...the samurai was gonna flip.
When he arrived back at the dino lair and made sure Conner's raptor was comfortable in its pen he strode into the main area where Haley was waiting for him with an expectant look on his face and her hands on her hips. He had known he was going to be in a bit of trouble but he hadn't thought he would be in this much trouble. The last time he had seen her look like that was when Tommy had blown up her freezer at the Cyber Cafe, he had been banned from ever helping their again and now she was looking at him like that.
"Ah hi Haley" he said in a hesitant voice as he power down.
The woman arched an eyebrow at him and he let out a tiny sigh "I don't have a reason" he said softly and looked down at his own morphor bracelet on his wrist that held the bright green dino gem, his gem the gem he found and worked with.
"You don't have any reason at all?" Haley asked softly and Dustin didn't look up making Haley sigh as she figured out what was wrong: the damn boys insecurities had flared back up: again! "Dustin I know this is quite an adjustment for you I mean you were a wind ninja for a long time, and you'll always be a wind ninja, no one can take that away from you" she began putting a hand on his shoulder.
"But you are now a part of another team" she whispered pulling the boy into a warm motherly hug because deep down Dustin really was still just another kid "You're a Ninja Storm ranger yes, but you are also a Dino Thunder ranger" she said pulling back to brush some bangs out of his eyes "Just like you were always supposed to be, remember what Tommy always says: the power never lets go of the ones who need it most. Dustin the power needs you just as you need it"
Dustin smiled and shook his head, he knew he was acting silly, he had been a ninja storm ranger, it wasn't like being a new ranger would erase his time as one, but he couldn't stop himself from hearing that tiny voice in the back of his mind that was telling him that he was abandoning his old life completely now. That voice wasn't wrong either, he had: he left blue bay, he quit being a ninja, he left Hunter and now he was replacing his Ninja storm team with another.
When they got Tommy out of the amber he was going to talk to him, he had to know how the older man dealt with this feeling because know Tommy who was a damn brooder when he wanted to be he would have gone through the same things he was. But for now he had a team to run, he had to be a ranger once again, he had college to attend and he had a job to keep...what was he thinking taking on another responsibility? Smiling to himself as he thought of just how busy he was going to be in the coming weeks, months and probably rest of the year Dustin just help Haley a little tighter and took comfort in her presence knowing that when he revealed himself to his team in the morning they were going to have different reaction and secretly he couldn't wait to find out what they all were.
But standing there holding Haley he just realised something that made him groan, when Haley gave him a confused and questioningly look afraid she had hurt her young friend, she knew that the others had been sore after their first time morphing but she would have thought Dustin would be okay considering his background. "Dustin?"
"Now that I've got another colour does that just make me more like Tommy?" he moaned and try as she might Haley could hold back her laughter.
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