A/N 1: This is a complete AU for Dino Thunder. Conner, Kira, Ethan, and Trent are not going to be in this story. Instead, veteran Rangers will replace them as the newest team of Power Rangers.
A/N 2: Don't look for the Letter to be an issue. The story is T/K but, as many of you have seen in my more recent works, I've given the characters more of an adult twist. With that in mind, I highly doubt Tommy and Kim really would have gone that long without speaking to each other. I'd like to think they worked stuff out sometime after Murianthis and agreed to be friends.
A/N 3: Beta-read by kdmarks.
"I know
Just where
I stand
A boy
Trapped in the body of a man and
I'll take what you're willing to give
And I'll teach myself to live
With a walk-on part of a background shot
From a movie I'm not in" - Mark Hoppus
That being said, on with the story…
Self-Destruct
Chapter 7 - "Adam's Song"
Original Posting Date: 4/18/2008
The common areas in the double master bedroom apartment looked more like it belonged to a couple of college kids instead of the two business owners that were currently renting it. In the living room, milk crates held together the almost ten-thousand dollar entertainment system Adam and Rocky shared in their apartment back home. Week-old dirty dishes were stacked high in both sides of the sink and there were quite a few various items of clothing strewn about the place.
Down the hall, Rocky's bedroom was in much the same condition as the living room. A three-deep stack of empty cereal bowls with dry, crusted milk around the rim sat next to the cluttered nightstand next to his unmade bed. He hadn't done laundry in over a week so the four-foot area at the end of his bed that should have been visible carpet was nothing more than a giant mound of dirty clothes. Basically, Rocky's room looked like how it should have had he been a college freshman
In the room across from his, Adam was laying on his perfectly made bed, reading a book while listening to his iPod. Unlike his roommate, Adam couldn't stand living in a bedroom that was even remotely dirty. He and Rocky had lived together off and on since college and at his point, Adam knew that trying to change his friend's ways was a futile effort at best, so he sucked it up and dealt with the messy living room.
For the last few days Adam had been quite moody. After Tommy and Jason had taken everyone out to dinner that night, the only time anyone saw Adam was if there was a fight. Not even Rocky knew what was troubling his best friend and leader. Rocky had tried to talk to him a few times but had been told under no uncertain terms by Adam that he didn't want to talk about it. If Adam had actually talked to Rocky about what was bothering him, he would have discovered that both of them were dealing with the same issue.
Both men missed their significant others terribly. Aisha was on Rocky's mind every waking moment of every single day and often in his dreams, as well. Like Tommy and Kimberly, they were also on their second go-around, only they hadn't ever parted on unpleasant terms. Their lives had simply been going in different directions so, rather than put a strain on their relationship, they both agreed to put it on hold. A few different boy and girlfriends later and their lives in a place where they could try again, they were doing just that. But what they had agreed not to do after college was happening now. With hundreds of miles between them, their relationship was becoming strained.
Rocky longed for the nights where Aisha stayed with him at his apartment or vice-versa. The way she felt curled up against his body while they slept was a feeling he missed more and more every day. While Rocky was laidback and nonchalant about most things, Aisha was fierce and determined. She was the dominant force in their relationship and Rocky found himself actually enjoying that he didn't have to be that person, anymore. Aisha took the reigns and Rocky went with the flow because he knew Aisha would never steer him wrong.
He also knew what Adam was going through and really did want to be there for him. Rocky understood fully what it meant to miss the one person you love more than anything else on the planet because the Blue Ranger felt the same way about his girlfriend that Adam felt about Tanya.
Like Rocky, Adam found comfort in the way Tanya took charge of things. On nights like this one, he missed the simplicity of being able to lay his head in her lap while she occasionally ran her fingers lovingly through his hair, reading a book in bed as Tanya did the same. It was a ritual of theirs on the nights they spent together. Their usual half-an-hour or so of rather intimate but still non-sexual contact often times left the both of them craving something that was a little more adult in nature.
The Red Ranger's heart ached every day that he wasn't with Tanya. She completed him in so many ways; the strong, aggressive, and boisterous personality to complement his quiet, shy, and reserved one. Only in the most personal of situations did Adam have the willingness to take control because he knew the things he could do to her and he was more than proud of his abilities.
But sex was not the driving force of their relationship. If a relationship with Tanya meant never being able to have sex again he would, without hesitation, forego the most cardinal of human pleasures. Having both thought that they had lost their chance with each other years before, their relationship was built on very strong, deep seated emotions. What they had was still new but both had pretty much already decided that there wasn't anyone else they could see themselves being with. Plain and simple, they knew they were each other's endgame. No other person would ever be able to take the place they held in one another's life.
It was a fact that neither one of them had ever shared with each other.
Distance, however, was not a person and distance had the distinct capability of being able to disrupt even the strongest and most loving of relationships. Tommy and Kimberly could both attest to that fact. The hundreds of miles apart was what Adam and Rocky both feared more than anything. They had both seen what happened to Tommy and Kimberly, and knew it was something that could possibly happen to them as well, if distance decided to intervene. Living without their other halves nearby was the hardest thing either one of them had ever had to do. Harder than even the toughest of Ranger battles.
Unable to concentrate on his book, Adam sighed. Normally, he would have gotten up and put it away but he was just too emotionally exhausted to care. It ended up somewhere on the floor near the closet. After pulling himself up so that his knees were tucked into his chest, Adam folder his arms across his knees and laid his forehead down on his arms.
"We'll get through this, baby. I promise."
Tanya's words to him just before she boarded her plane. He held onto her for so long that day, deathly terrified of what letting her go meant for them. They shared a tender kiss followed by Tanya telling Adam to go and save the world. Becoming a Ranger again had meant so much to Adam but it seemed like the more time he spent away from Tanya, the harder and harder enjoying it became.
He needed to talk to her, to hear her sweet, reassuring voice telling him once again that everything was going to be okay. His heart broke a few moments later when he heard Tanya's voicemail message start to play. He debated leaving a message but decided against it and hung up. Tanya would see that he had called. If talking to him meant as much to her, as talking to her meant to him, she would call back.
She never called back. Three days had gone by and Tanya still hadn't returned Adam's call. At first he had been frustrated and a bit angry that she hadn't called him back but now he was worried that something had happened to her and even more terrified at the possibility that she simply didn't want to speak to him. What if she had found someone else and didn't have the heart to tell him about it? The mere thought made Adam sick to his stomach even as he dealt with trying to fight Mesogog's newest monster.
The Rangers had dealt with Dr. Fear once before and had barely escaped with their lives just before being subjected to his lethal toxin. Mesogog's creation was one that had the Rangers particularly perplexed. The monster looked completely humanoid in every way and Tommy hadn't yet been able to determine if it was truly a monster or a human that Mesogog had tampered with. If it was a human, they knew they couldn't just destroy it so until Tommy figured it out, they were keeping the heavy artillery on the shelves.
It didn't help matters that Adam's head wasn't in the game and hadn't been the last time they dealt with Dr. Fear, either. The Red Ranger's attacks varied between lethargic and nonchalant, to wild and out of control. If it hadn't been for the newest addition to the team, Dr. Fear certainly would have had his way with them a long time ago.
Since returning to the team, Jason had become revitalized. His leg was completely healed and his determined spirit had returned in full force. With the other two Rangers having to pick up Adam's slack, Jason dealt with a small army of Tyrannodrones all by himself and didn't seem to be having that hard of a time doing it. Having already discovered many of its' functions and abilities, Jason's Brachio Staff was quickly becoming his greatest ally, and he used the weapon with expert precision.
Alas, the Black Ranger was strong but he was just one man, as well. Adam's lack of focus was becoming a hindrance that the other Rangers didn't need. When Adam had first started being moody, his teammates had given him his space because it hadn't affected him on the battlefield but now his inability to concentrate was putting their lives at risk and both Rocky and Kimberly were growing more frustrated with every unplanned attack from their leader that backfired in their faces.
"We've got to do something about him," Kimberly grumbled, pushing herself onto her feet after being thrown across the empty parking lot. Having just been tossed into a brick wall, her frustration was now determination to get Adam out of the way before they all got killed.
"I agree," Rocky added, making Kimberly spin around. Less than six feet off the ground, Rocky had been thrown into the same wall but a lot harder than Kimberly had. She looked up and saw that he was stuck in an imprint of himself that he had made in the wall. His enhanced strength had backfired on him. "You, uh, think you can help me down from here, Kim?"
Rolling her eyes, Kimberly elevated herself so that she was face-to-face with Rocky. "I just want you to know, I hate you," she grumbled, grabbing his left arm and yanking it free. It took a few minutes but she eventually got him all the way out and onto the ground. "You never cease to amaze me, you know that?"
"Thanks," Rocky replied, brushing the excess debris off of his uniform.
Once he was sufficiently clean, he looked to where Kimberly already had been. It became clear all at one that Adam, who was on his knees and about to receive a finishing blow, had been beaten so badly that he couldn't even defend himself. Jason was trying to get to him but the Tyrannodrones were preventing him from doing anything to help. At this point, there was no time to worry about whether Dr. Fear was a human or not. If they didn't do something quickly, their friend was going to die.
"Throw me," Kimberly said simply.
"What?" Rocky asked, looking down at her in disbelief.
"Don't ask questions, just hurry up and throw me."
Kimberly's words left no words for argument and Rocky was forced to do as she commanded. Like a torpedo, he threw her right at Dr. Fear who was rearing back with a syringe. As his arm plunged towards Adam's neck, Kimberly let out a fierce scream. The sonic waves hit Dr. Fear but she was too far back to do any significant damage. Still, it was enough to knock Adam's assailant back a few feet and prevent the attack.
Quick to Kimberly's aid, Rocky immediately started helping Adam onto his feet. As they tried to lift him, Adam didn't even have the strength to stay up. His legs gave out and he crumpled to the floor in a heap. It gave Dr. Fear the perfect opening, noticed by Jason just a moment too late.
The Black Ranger was forced to watch as three syringes went flying right at the Rangers, sticking directly into their necks. More determined than ever, Jason used a sweep of his staff to drop a few drones to the ground and then stepped back, dropping into a fighting stance. "Brachio Staff! Wind Strike!"
The attack was sufficient in eliminating most of the Tyrannodrones but it was too late. By the time he reached the other Rangers, they were on the ground, unconscious, and Dr. Fear was gone. Deciding to teleport them back to the Command Center, Jason leaned down towards Kimberly's wrist when the unthinkable happened. She disappeared. To her left, Adam and Rocky were gone as well.
"What the hell just happened?" Jason muttered in disbelief, touching the concrete Kimberly's body had been laying on just moments before. "Tommy's going to blow a gasket when he finds out."
And he did. Tommy was up in arms, asking questions, and demanding answers the moment that Jason's black teleportation beam touched down in the basement. Jason didn't even have time to get his helmet off before a dozen questions had been thrown his way. Luckily, he knew Tommy would be this way so he was more than prepared to deal with it.
"What the hell happened out there, huh!?" Tommy bellowed, pacing back and forth while rubbing the back of his neck like he always did whenever he was nervous. When his eyes met Jason's, they narrowed in frustration. "Why didn't you help them!? If you had been there, none of this would have ever even happened!"
Jason could deal with Tommy being mad, and he could deal with Tommy being emotional but he couldn't deal with having his integrity and fortitude as a Ranger challenged. In less than a second, Jason was standing toe-to-toe with Tommy, both of them breathing angrily albeit for very different reasons.
"You got a lot of nerve talking to me like that, bro," Jason muttered, refusing to give even an inch of footing. "I tried my best to get to them but I had something like fifty fucking Tyrannodrones to deal with! Where were you when all that was happening!? Why weren't you there to save Kimberly 'cause we both know that's what this is all about! She's gone, you weren't there to save her, and now you're pissed at me 'cause I was there!"
"Fuck you," Tommy growled, clenching his fists at his side.
"No, fuck you!" Jason shot back, his face just millimeters from Tommy's. "You're yelling at me when you should be working on a way to find your friends! You need to grow the fuck up! Until then, I'm outta here!"
With that, Jason spun on his heels and headed for the stairs, angrily throwing his arms to his side to de-morph as he walked. Watching Jason leave, Tommy knew that he was wrong to accuse his friend of letting his teammates down. He knew it was wrong before the words had even left his lips but he hadn't been able to stop himself from saying them. A scapegoat was what he had been looking for and Jason had just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Apologies would come soon, as they always did when the pair had an argument, but for now Tommy had more important things to worry about. Jason was right. The other Rangers were in trouble and Tommy needed to be looking for them instead of wallowing in his anger. That in mind, he sat down at his computer and went to work on finding his friends, activating his energy scanners for every square inch of land and water on the planet.
What he found was surprising. The scans were completed in just a few seconds which usually meant that the Ranger's energy was somewhere nearby. This time was no different. According to the energy readings, all three Rangers were still in the parking lot, in the same exact place they had been just before disappearing.
Something weird was going on...
Everything around Rocky was completely black except for the spotlight that he was bathing in. A sea of shadowed faces that he couldn't quite make out--thousands upon thousands--looked directly at him as if they were waiting for him to do something, make some kind of move but the only thing that he could do was look right back at the people, unaware of what he should do or say to them.
Looking down at himself, he saw that he was back in his civilian clothes; a Dodgers t-shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and black tennis shoes, just how he had been before going after Dr. Fear. He could still remember everything that had happened but he didn't have a clue as to where he was or how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was trying to help Kimberly with Adam. Everything after that was fuzzy.
The faces were impossible to ignore. No one moved even a fraction of an inch. Their focus on Rocky remained strong and unwavering, making him feel rather unsure of himself. This was definitely new territory for Rocky who had never had a problem being the center of attention. For as long as he could remember he had always been that guy, the social extrovert that everyone gravitated to. Now, however, he had a huge audience and couldn't figure out what to do with it.
It simply didn't make sense. He tried to open his mouth, to say anything he could think of but no words came out. Swallowing some saliva to wet his throat, Rocky tried again and was met with the same result. Rocky's most famous attribute--his voice--was gone. He couldn't tell jokes or crack wise. There were no sarcastic remarks or snappy comebacks. Rocky had lost the one thing that he thought defined him the most as a person.
This was the situation he should have flourished in not shied away from. He couldn't remember a single time in his life where he had crawled into a shell like this and that alone scared the living crap out of him. It also helped to drive the point home even further that, without his voice, he was nothing.
Now, the people in the crowd were jeering the Blue Ranger, throwing a multitude of insults his way, and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop them. Never had he wished for a good joke more than he was wishing for one right now. But it was as if the harder he tried, the harder it all became.
Thoughts of Aisha crept into his head and made him wonder what she'd say if she could see him now. She'd probably be laughing right along with the crowd at him. No, Rocky told himself, Aisha would never do that to him. They loved each other and had had serious talks about settling down some time soon. The truth was that Aisha would tell him to suck it up and deal, that he was a Power Ranger and he needed to act like one.
Swallowing his fear, Rocky opened his mouth to speak when he heard the sound of glass shattering above his head. He looked up to see shards of glass dropping to the floor like little snowflakes followed by an army of Tyrannodrones. After diving out of the way to avoid being sliced by the falling glass, Rocky rolled onto his feet and brought his wrist across his chest. He gave his wrist a quick flick, attempting to summon his Morpher but nothing happened.
Still, he knew that he had to fight. Even though he couldn't morph, he was fully aware that he couldn't just let innocent people get hurt when he was perfectly capable of defending them, no matter how much they had insulted him.
With all the power he could muster, Rocky charged at the Tyrannodrones. Cocking his fist back, Rocky made to punch one of the drones but at the moment his fist should have connected, the Tyrannodrone evaporated into thin air. Immediately, Rocky's guard went up as he looked around to see each and every Tyrannodrone disappear one-by-one. It was then, for the first time, that he could fully see the people in the crowd, and what he saw made him do a second take and then a third one just to be sure that he wasn't seeing things.
"Thank you," one of them said, standing up from his seat.
"You saved us," another added, again rising to his feet.
"You saved us," they all chorused, getting up all at once in one fluent motion.
Once again, Rocky didn't know what to say. Though this time it was for a different reason, he could still only stare in disbelief at the thousands and thousands of people in the crowd that looked exactly like him. Judging by their varied appearances, they all came from different stages in Rocky's life. There was a much younger version of him when he still had a rattail, probably about the same age he had been turned into when he went on his quest for the Zeo Crystal. To the other extreme, there was a man who had to be at least eighty years old. What little hair he had was practically snow white, his skin was wrinkled, and he held a cane but the one thing that Rocky couldn't help but to focus his full attention on was the simple gold wedding band the man wore.
"Aisha?" Rocky asked the older man softly, suddenly finding his voice. This whole situation was so weird that Rocky didn't even bother to question how he had gotten his voice back. With the way things typically worked for the Rangers in situations like these, he'd most likely get some long-winded answer about determination, spirit, and inner-strength; and he simply wasn't in the mood for that.
Slowly, the older version of Rocky made his way towards his counterpart from the current timeline. When he finally got there, he forced himself to stand straight, looked Rocky right in the eye, and laid his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "That, my young friend, is entirely up to you and depends solely on the choices that you make in the coming months."
"What's going on?" Rocky blurted, ignoring his future self. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in what the older man had to say. Rocky had asked a simple question, gotten an answer, and was ready to move on to the next subject. He wasn't one for long, drawn out conversations and liked to keep his short and to the point.
"From the looks of things, I'd say you're struggling to find yourself," a seventeen year-old Rocky interjected, moving to stand at the forefront.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Rocky questioned firmly as he gave the younger version of himself a once over. One thing Rocky had never lacked in was self-confidence. "I know exactly who I am."
"Do you, now?" This time, the interruption came from an era of Rocky's life that appeared to be the mid-to-late forties. He, too, stood up, and was standing face-to-face with Rocky in just a few long steps. "Why are you confident now when you were so unsure of yourself just a few minutes ago? Is it because you have the ability to speak again? Because that's where you think your true strength lies?"
It was a question that Rocky had been so sure of the answer to just moments before but now his confidence in that answer had diminished significantly. When he lost his voice he thought he had lost his greatest strength but then the Tyrannodrones attacked and he had been so quick to act. For the first time, he was forced to put real weight on the possibility that his greatest strength lie somewhere other than in his ability to make people smile and laugh. It was still a great talent but maybe, just maybe, it wasn't his most important one.
"You're starting to question yourself, now." The statement made by the eighty year-old Rocky was strong, firm, and left no room for discussion. Rocky was questioning himself and, if he was honest with himself, had been for some time. His relationship with Aisha had forced him to mature but it was just so damn easy to fall back into old habits when he was constantly surrounded by so many people who reminded him of the past.
"Yes, sir, I believe I am," Rocky replied, giving the older man a polite head nod. "I think that I'll always have the ability to make people laugh and that it's a big part of who I am but it doesn't define me as a person. What defines me as a person is my willingness to help those that are in need."
"And so he discovers," the old man muttered, training his old, wise eyes on Rocky.
"And so he discovers!"
The thousands of different Rocky's that surrounded him all echoed the sentiments of their older self. All at once, they turned to look at Rocky as the past, the present, and the future of Rocky's life came together. Then he felt a sudden, unexplainable surge of energy flowing throughout him and looked down just in time to see his entire body become enveloped in bright, blue light.
--
The last thing that Kimberly could remember before being knocked unconscious was struggling with Rocky to try and get Adam onto his feet, and out of the heat of battle before Dr. Fear did any more significant damage to him. She couldn't recall anything that would explain why she was standing in the middle of a cemetery, Jason holding onto one of her hands and Trini tightly grasping the other as the rain beat down on the umbrellas that Jason and Trini were holding with their free hands.
Taking in the change in scenery, Kimberly saw at least a hundred people standing all around her, very few of whom had dry eyes. She could tell by the colors some of them wore that a good sized portion of the large group were Rangers, or had been at one point. Then she noticed Tommy's parents and her heart broke in half. They were holding onto each other with tears falling down their faces. Almost instantly, Kimberly began to realize why she was standing in a cemetery. She was at a funeral.
Tommy's funeral.
It took only the mere thought of Tommy being dead to bring tears to her eyes.
But how? She had kissed him goodbye right before going into battle with the other Rangers against Dr. Fear and he had been perfectly fine then. Her legs became weak and standing up was now a chore. She had to wrap both her arms around Jason to prevent herself from falling down into the muddy, wet grass.
"Tommy?" she murmured through tears as she looked at the all-white casket, unable to believe that he was really gone. Squeezing Jason even tighter, she looked up at her surrogate big brother with eyes that sought both answers and comfort. Unfortunately, she knew that Jason could not give her the kind of comfort that she was truly seeking. "How-how did this happen to him, Jase?"
The man who had lead Earth's first team of Power Rangers furrowed his brow at Kimberly. "What do you mean?" Jason asked in a low whisper, not wanting to interrupt the service for his best friend. "You were there, Kim."
"I-I was?"
"You don't remember?"
"I-I don't know. Everything seems so fuzzy," Kimberly sighed, trying desperately to understand what had happened to her beloved Tommy and to herself, as well. "None of this makes any sense. I saw him just a few minutes before we left to fight-" she continued, subconsciously looking down at her wrist to see that her gauntlet was no longer there. If she wasn't a Ranger anymore, what did that mean for her and Tommy? "Never mind," she added, quick to cover her tracks. "What happened to him, Jase? Please, I can't remember anything."
Nodding his head in understanding, Jason attempted to swallow back the emotions that he knew were likely to creep up on him when he told the story again. "Tommy, Katherine, you, and Mike were at that liquor store on Washington and 4th. You and Kat had gone to use the bathroom while Tommy and Mike picked up some drinks when a couple kids tried to rob the clerk," Jason started, biting back tears. He hadn't been there but knowing Tommy the way he did, he could see exactly what happened in his head in vivid detail. "Tommy started to intervene but one of the kids pulled a gun on him. He tried to talk him out of it but the kid shot him twice from point blank ranger. He died instantly."
"Oh, God," Kimberly whispered hoarsely. Images of Tommy bleeding from the chest, his body contorted awkwardly on a cold, linoleum floor crept into her head. But almost as quickly as those images came, they were replaced by something that Jason had just said to her. "Who's Mike?"
"Kim, are you okay?" Jason asked, looking down at her with concern in his eyes. "How do you not remember your fiancée?"
Even as she nodded her head to confirm that she was okay, the petite brunette could not prevent her mouth from falling wide open. A fiancée? A freaking fiancée? How was that even possible? She was with Tommy, not some guy named Mike, and they had been back together for a little over a month. And though they were serious about the way that they felt for each other, marriage was not even in the question at this point. It just wasn't a feasible possibility for the pair when things between them were still fairly new and there was a world that needed to be saved at the same time.
"You mean, Tommy and I, we aren't…together?"
"Kim, are you sure you're feeling alright?" Jason asked the question as he eyed her carefully. For the life of him, he could not understand what was going on with Kimberly. She was acting quite strange. "If you can't remember that you have a fiancé, and that Tommy and Kat were engaged, something's seriously wrong. I think we should take you to a doctor."
"What!?" Kimberly blurted loudly. It was unintentional but enough to earn herself the attention of every single person standing around her. Her cheeks started to feel hot when she realized that everyone was staring at her, in shock that she had interrupted the minister.
Smiling apologetically for his female friend, Jason grabbed Kimberly around the arm and pulled her away from the service. As they walked past Tommy's parents, Kimberly could hear his mom mutter something about how she had always preferred Katherine. When they were finally far enough away to not be heard, Jason folded his arms across his chest and stared at Kimberly with anger in his eyes. His best friend was gone and he wanted to be there to say goodbye, not stuck playing babysitter. "What in the world has gotten into you, Kimberly? You're acting like you've gone completely insane!"
"Me!? I'm insane!? No, Jason, you're insane!" Kimberly fired back with an awkward laugh as she paced back and forth in front of Jason who didn't seem the least bit amused. "As a matter of fact, this whole situation is insane! This isn't my life, Jase! This isn't who I am! Tommy and I are supposed to be together!"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Kim but you gave up any claim you may have had to Tommy when you sent him that letter," Jason replied firmly, growing more and more tired of Kimberly's childish antics with each passing moment.
"He forgave me!" Kimberly snarled at Jason, standing on her toes so that they were as close to being face-to-face as they could be.
"Yeah, he did but him forgiving you didn't mean that he was still in love with you! Tommy was in love with Katherine, plain and simple. I'm sorry, Kim but that's the way things go," Jason told her, not giving her an inch. "If you felt so strongly about Tommy then you should have never broken up with him in the first place. Hard as it is, you're just going to have to learn to let go the same way the rest of us have to."
Tears filled Kimberly's eyes once more as she turned and started to walk away from Jason. A wave of emotions hit her and, with no one there to hold onto, she fell to her knees, sinking into the muddy grass. She buried her hands in her face, ignoring the wetness from the ground even as it started to seep through her long, black skirt. Crying out loud, she felt a hand fall on her shoulder and sniffled. "I can't live without him, Jase."
"I'm not Jason and yes, you can."
Hearing the voice that she never thought she'd get the chance to hear again caused a small smile to form on her lips. She didn't even question that Tommy had been in a casket and Jason with her just moments before. Mustering all the strength that she could possibly hope to, Kimberly hauled herself up onto her feet, spun in a one-eighty, and threw her arms tightly around Tommy's neck, holding on like her life depended on it. Sobbing against his neck, she whispered, "I knew you weren't gone. I just knew it. How could you possibly be gone when we still have a whole life left to live together?"
Almost as soon as the words had escaped her, Tommy relinquished his embrace and took a few steps backwards to put a little bit of safe distance between them. With his hands up defensively, Tommy gave Kimberly his best apologetic smile. "Kim, we aren't going to be doing anything together, anymore. I'm dead."
"No. No, you're not," Kimberly insisted, shaking her head in a display of vehement disbelief. She reached out to touch him, to confirm that he was real but this time her hand slid right through him. He really was gone. "Why, Tommy? Why did you have to try and be a hero?" she sobbed, clutching herself around the center. "I need you in my life. I-I've tried to live without you and I can't do it."
With a simple wave of Tommy's hand, the scenery behind them began to slowly fade away only to be replaced by a new location that Kimberly recognized almost immediately. They were in the place they had dubbed 'their' spot, a tiny piece of the beach near the lake back home in Angel Grove. The last time they had been there was right before Kimberly left for Florida and gymnastics fame. Being in this place again, the place where they had so many wonderful, amazing memories, made her heart skip a few beats.
"Do you know why I brought you here?" Tommy asked softly. Kimberly looked down to find that he had taken a seat in the sand. After shaking her head, she sat down next to him and looked out at the way the lake was being illuminated by the setting sun. "Back when we were kids, I had so much faith in you. I always thought you were one of the strongest women I knew. That day we came here before you left for Florida was the day I knew without a doubt that you were the strongest woman I knew. You were leaving behind everything that you knew and cared about to follow your dream and that takes an incredible amount of courage and strength, both physically and emotionally. I brought you here because you're still that woman, you just need to find her again."
"But, Tommy-" Kimberly started, only to be silenced by a raised hand from the man that was sitting next to her.
"No buts, Kim. I know who you are and I know what's inside of you," Tommy interjected as he pointed to her heart, never taking his eyes away from her. "You think you need me but you don't. You lived your life without me for a long time and you can do it again. All it takes is a little self-confidence."
Kimberly sighed, closing her eyes for a few moments. When she finally opened them, Tommy was still looking at her, only now he was wearing a smile. "I may be able to live without you but I don't want to live without you. I don't think you understand just how much you really mean to me, Tommy."
"Probably about as much as you mean to me but that's life. Sometimes you can't always have what you want. Sometimes things happen that are simply out of our control," Tommy replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Turning so that his body faced her, he slowly reached out and took Kimberly's much smaller hands in his own. At this point, it wasn't even worth it to her to question why he could touch her now when she couldn't touch him just a few minutes before.
"You'll move on, though. It'll take time but you will. So will Jason and my parents and everyone else. You might have to lean on our friends a little more than you want to and while the pain will never completely go away, it'll get smaller and you'll learn to live with it because that's the type of person you are."
"Do you really think I can do it?" Kimberly asked hesitantly. She didn't think she could but if Tommy really had that much confidence in her then he must have had a good reason for feeling that way.
"No," Tommy answered, shaking his head while laughing at the surprised and confused expression Kimberly now had on her face. Then his demeanor suddenly grew serious. "I know you can."
And then, for reasons she could never hope to explain, Kimberly found that she was starting to believe in herself again, as well as her ability to live without Tommy. With a newfound self-confidence, Kimberly smiled at him and nodded her head firmly. "I can do it, Tommy. I may not want to, but I can."
"And so she discovers," Tommy murmured.
Kimberly didn't have time to reply. Before she knew what was happening, she felt a rush of power unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It made her feel even more alive than she had on the day when the Yellow Dino Gem had first chosen her to bond with. And as this new and unfamiliar power continued to run its' course all throughout her entire body a bright, yellow light began to slowly creep up her legs. She didn't notice the light that was enveloping her completely until it was too late. As soon as her head had been covered by the yellow light, she was gone.
The energy readings coming from the Command Center didn't make any sense. Signals for the three Rangers were fluctuating back and forth between extremely weak and incredibly powerful, and Tommy, for the life of him, could not figure out why. He could only think of one thing that could cause such a discrepancy in the energy readings but it was a possibility that Tommy believed to be highly unlikely considering the frame of mind Adam had been in before the Rangers disappeared.
As Tommy sighed, leaning back in his chair and running his hand through his hair, he heard the trap door to the basement open. The sound of the approaching footsteps he knew belonged to Jason came a few seconds later. Turning in his chair, Tommy looked Jason's way and gave him a small head nod. They still had some differences to work out but they both understood that their issues needed to go on the backburner until they figured out what had happened to Adam, Rocky, and Kimberly.
"Having any luck?" Jason asked, walking over to where Tommy was sitting. He came to a stop behind Tommy's chair, folding his arms over his chest as he looked over Tommy's shoulder at the computer screen even though he didn't understand any of the scrolling code that Tommy had been reading.
Looking back at the screen, Tommy shook his head. "I don't get it, bro. It's like they're there but at the same time, they aren't. Their energy signatures have them in the exact same spot they were before they disappeared but their bodies aren't there," Tommy explained, ideas of how that was possible running through his head.
"What about a dark dimension like Rita and Zedd had?"
"I thought about that but it's highly unlikely. Rita and Zedd both relied heavily on their ability to use magic," Tommy answered, constantly switching his attention between Jason and the computer in case something changed. "Mesogog is powerful and damn smart but his real strength lies in how he manipulates technology. Only someone with extremely strong magical capabilities could open a dark dimension with enough energy to house the power of three Rangers without snapping shut on itself."
As if on cue, Jason and Tommy shared a look. When he had first considered that the Rangers could be in a dark dimension, the possibility of the dimension closing with the Rangers inside hadn't really registered with him. Now, however, he was forced to wonder if they really had been transported to a dark dimension that simply didn't have the capability of sustaining all that power. It was a terrible thought, indeed.
"Sounds like we're looking for a miracle," Jason commented grimly through gritted teeth.
Being stuck in the basement Command Center, unable to do anything for his friends and teammates that were in serious need of some help, did not sit well with the man who had been the original leader of the Power Team. The moment the words came out of Jason's mouth, the miracle that they were so desperately in need of occurred when Tommy's wrist communicator started to beep. It was one of those moments that seemed like it could only happen in a piece of fiction.
"It's Hayley," Tommy murmured to Jason, silencing his friend as he raised his wrist up to his lips. Pressing the button on the side of the device, he opened up the communication line with his technical genius. "I read you, Hayley. Go ahead."
"Have you seen the energy signatures from Adam, Rocky, and Kimberly recently, and how off the charts they are? Just what in the blue hell do you have going on over there that would make them that schizophrenic?"
"They were in a fight with one of Mesogog's monsters. Or at least, I think it was a monster. I still haven't figured that one out yet," Tommy replied, shaking his head at the realization of how far behind in the game the good guys really were at this point. "Anyways, everyone but Jason got hit in the neck with what looked like some kind of syringe then they just completely disappeared but their energy readings are still in the exact same place that they had been in when they were fighting."
"Suspended animation," Hayley answered immediately.
"What?" Jason and Tommy both asked loudly.
"They're stuck in suspended animation," Hayley reiterated, knowing that Tommy would be able to hear the eye roll she had given them just from the tone of her voice. "Normally, being stuck like that would stop all human life signs from being read but because of their gem-enhanced power, you can still see their energy signatures even though you can't physically see them."
"So they aren't dead?" Tommy questioned, looking to Jason with a hopeful expression.
"I'm almost a hundred percent sure that it's suspended animation and if it is, they're not anywhere near being dead. They're just going to be stuck like that until you figure out a way to get them out or they manage to do it on their own. You always talked about having to go on quests when you were a Ranger. Maybe that's what they're doing and can't get out until they've succeeded."
"Maybe," Tommy murmured. With the way things worked for Rangers, he wasn't willing to count anything out. Plus, Hayley's idea wasn't a bad one. In fact, it was actually pretty good especially when Tommy considered the constantly growing pile of shitty ideas he had accumulated. "I'm going to keep looking out for any possible changes in their energy readings. I'll keep you up to date if anything happens with them."
After saying their goodbyes, Tommy ended the transmission with Hayley and was just about to go back to searching his computers for an answer when the alarm started to wail. Turning to look at each other, neither Jason or Tommy could help rolling their eyes. Quickly, Tommy swiveled in his chair and brought up a live video feed of downtown Reefside where Dr. Fear was currently in the middle of picking off defenseless citizens one-by-one with the syringes that he used as projectile weapons.
"I gotta do something, man," Jason commented, bringing his arm across his chest to summon his Morpher.
"No way, Jase. It's too risky sending you out their by yourself," Tommy replied, shaking his head in disagreement with his friend. "The same thing that happened to the others could happen to you and then there'd be no Rangers left at all."
Jason didn't need to hear that from Tommy. He knew what the repercussions would be if he failed to stop Dr. Fear but his mind had already been made. "That's a risk I have to take, bro. I'm a Ranger and Rangers don't just sit back and watch from the sidelines while innocent civilians are being attacked."
A simple head nod was the only reply Tommy gave. For as much as he didn't want to risk losing the last active Ranger on Earth to nothing more than a simple monster of the day, he also knew that there was no other way around it. There was no way Tommy could seriously expect Jason to not do anything when there were so many defenseless people that were in need of saving.
"Just be safe out there, bro," Tommy murmured.
"I will."
Once more, Jason began to raise his arm across his chest but again, Tommy called out for him to stop. If for some reason Jason didn't make it back, Tommy would never be able to live with himself if he didn't get the chance to apologize for what had happened between the pair a few hours earlier.
"I'm sorry for being a jackass to you."
"I know, man. No sweat," Jason replied. It was all that needed to be said. As Rangers, the possibility of dying in battle was always hovering over their heads. Forgiveness came easy for them because no one wanted to enter a life-or-death situation while harboring a grudge towards a fellow Ranger. When Jason brought his arm up for the third time, Tommy didn't try to stop him and with a simple flick of his wrist, he summoned his Brachio Morpher and key. "Dino Thunder, Power Up!"
It was apparent from what happened next that Jason had, by far, the strongest gem out of all his teammates. The sheer amount of raw power that was encased inside of Jason's Black Dino Gem caused the room to become completely dark for a few long, silent moments. When the lights in the basement finally started to flicker back to life a couple of seconds later, Jason was already gone.
With the traditional entrance theme for a bride being played in the background, Adam found himself sitting in the very last pew of a very large cathedral. Stain glass windows adorned the walls, casting an eerily iridescent, yet equally beautiful, light over the church interior. With his hands folded across his lap, Adam looked down at his person to see that he was wearing a black suit with matching tie, and then did a quick survey of his surroundings, finding himself to be the only occupant in the final row of the church.
Watching the bride's back as she made her way down the aisle, Adam tried desperately to remember what had happened to him before he wound up here. Bits and pieces of a fight started to come to him. He could see Dr. Fear about to strike down on him only to be stopped by a flying Kimberly and her Ptera Scream. The last thing he could remember was feeling two sets of hands grab him around the arms in an attempt to lift him onto his feet. Everything after that was a blur.
Adam's almond-shaped eyes immediately started to narrow when he first noticed the bride had skin that was chocolate in color. It didn't take much longer after that for him to realize who the woman wearing the wedding dress really was. He had known Tanya for so many years that he was quite surprised it had taken him such a long time to recognize her. The cursed pain of a broken heart followed a few seconds later when he was hit with a harsh reality, that Tanya was on the verge of getting married, and that her husband-to-be was not him. He didn't even want to see who the man in question was but he couldn't stop himself from looking. Seeing Tanya's ex--and deceased--fiancée made him sick to his stomach.
Try as he might--and the sight of Raymond damn hard--Adam could not come up with anything that would explain how he had ended up in this situation. All he knew was that Tanya was about to get married and that it was a fact that, in and of itself, just didn't make a lick of sense. Racking his brain, Adam continued to think of an explanation and when it hit him, it hit him like a ton of bricks.
None of this was real.
He was being tested.
The Red Ranger had to raise his hand to cover his mouth in an attempt to suppress the laugh that was fighting to escape from him. It made so much sense it left him utterly amused, as well as elated internally that nothing he was seeing was real. A huge rush of relief washed over him, Adam knowing that Zordon would have been extremely proud of his ability to rationalize a situation like this so quickly.
"It's abilities like those that make you a great leader, you know?"
With a whip-crack turn of his neck, Adam found Tanya sitting next to him only now she was no longer wearing the flowing, white, wedding dress. Her appearance--by way of a simply outfit consisting of a yellow tank top, denim shorts, and flip-flops--had changed significantly, as had their location. No longer was Adam forced to bathe in the varying shades of light caused by the stain glass windows. Instead, they were sitting in the patio area of the beachfront restaurant they had gone to for their very first date.
Tanya had insisted on going somewhere casual that night, not wanting to raise Adam's expectations by allowing him to take her somewhere fancy even though she knew that he wasn't that type of guy. And like how her outfit had changed, so had Adam's. The black polo, khaki shorts, and sandals took him back to that first time they had officially "gone out" and made him realize their ensembles were exactly what they had been wearing that night. Then he remembered what had landed him in this situation in the first place.
Leaders were supposed to remain calm, collected, and levelheaded in the face of adversity but he had done none of those things and because of that, he had failed not only himself but his teammates, as well. Staring down at the sand-speckled concrete floor, Adam slowly shook his head. "I'm not a great leader, I'm a terrible leader," he murmured, shaking away the comforting hand that Tanya tried to place on his shoulder. "Great leaders don't let their emotions stop them from doing their job. Now I'm here and God only knows what happened to Rocky and Kimberly!"
"They're both fine," Tanya answered, smiling at the way Adam immediately looked up at her with eyes that were quickly beginning to grow wide. "Or, rather, they will be; should be. It's all logistics but who needs those? They're on a quest just like you are, right now. And should you all succeed, the reward will be priceless."
"And if we don't all succeed?"
"Then you remain stuck in a world of memories and bad dreams for the rest eternity."
Adam chuckled sarcastically. "You make it sound like so much fun."
"Well, you're not exactly a stand-up comedian, my dear. Someone has to have a sense of humor in this relationship," Tanya replied with a big grin and a wink that made Adam fall in love with her all over again. There was just this undeniable level of comfort that existed between himself and Tanya that made even the most terrible of fates sound like it wasn't really all that big of a deal. "You know, failing once doesn't make you a bad leader. No one's perfect. Not even Tommy."
"I know. I know," Adam repeated, tightly squeezing the bridge of his nose in between his thumb and forefinger. "It's just-it was hard enough when the only person I had to live up to was Tommy but now Jason's back and it's like I've got two sets of expectations that I have to live up to now."
Tanya scoffed as she rolled her eyes with great physical exaggeration. "Come on, Adam. Be real, here. Is that really why you're doubting yourself? You may be able to pull the wool over everyone else's eyes but I've known you for far too long to believe even one word of what you just said."
It took less than a second of their eyes meeting for Adam to know that he was not going to be able to hide anything from Tanya. The way she looked at Adam, it was like her eyes were pleading with him to tell her everything and that she would never judge him regardless of what it was he had to say. He had gotten that same look from her before and had been as powerless to resist it then as he was now. The floodgates to his heart were about to open up. There was no stopping him once that happened.
"I'm afraid you're going to find someone better than me." The first feeling of wetness in his eyes made Adam turn his face from her. He couldn't bring himself to look at her like that. "I'm afraid that, slowly but surely, me being a Ranger again is going to tear us apart. I'm afraid that us being this far away from each other is going to eventually make you look elsewhere for the things that I can't give you. But more than anything, I'm afraid of how hard it is to be a Ranger when all I can think about is you and how much I love you with everything I have."
Reaching out slowly, Tanya started to gently stroke the top of his hands. Taking a deep breath, Adam mustered up the courage to look at her and found quite the sly grin on her face. "You know, you should probably be telling this to the real Tanya and not me, right?"
A quiet chuckle escaped Adam's lips as he nodded his head. "Yeah, well, I tried. I called her a couple nights ago and she still hasn't called me back. It's pretty obvious that she doesn't want to talk to me."
Tanya winced inwardly. "Oh, yeah, about that. You know that black lab she said she always wanted?" Adam nodded again, wondering how this Tanya knew such a personal fact about his Tanya. "Well, she got it. She was getting ready for work a couple days ago when she found her cell phone floating in the toilet. Turns out the little puppy didn't know electronics don't belong in water."
Adam couldn't help but laugh when he started to envision in his head the expression that he knew was on his Tanya's face when she discovered the floating phone. He also knew that Tanya would be mad at the puppy for all of about twenty seconds before those little brown puppy dog eyes melted all of her anger away. "I didn't even try to call her house phone," Adam murmured to no one in particular. After silently cursing himself for not thinking of that sooner, he vowed to call her as soon as he got out of whatever this dream world was. "Hey, how do you know all that stuff about Tanya?"
"Hey, just because I'm not thee Tanya, doesn't mean I don't check in on my girl from time to time." Shrugged shoulders. That was all Adam could give her. What was the point of trying to delve further into it when all it would give him was an answer that left him more confused than he had been in the first place? "So tell me, Adam. Do you still believe that you are not fit to lead the other Rangers?"
"I-I don't know. I mean, after what I did earlier, I doubt that they'd even want me to be their leader anymore," Adam answered grimly. He hoped that wasn't the case but understood that it was a very real possibility.
"You're teammates depend on you more than you realize," Tanya replied, giving Adam a confirming head nod when he looked at her apprehensively. "All you have to do is look within yourself and find that self-confidence that you and I both know is hiding in there somewhere. Believe in yourself and you, as well as the other Rangers, will be capable of some pretty incredible things."
There was no fighting what Adam knew needed to be done. A planet full of people was depending on himself and his teammates to keep them safe. Whether he thought he was good enough or not was a non-issue. If things didn't go the way he was hoping that they would, and it turned out that the others didn't think that he was capable of being a solid leader, then he was going to work twice as hard, busting his ass at every opportunity he was given to prove to all of them that he was a good leader.
"I think this is about the time you send me home."
"Do you?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, figuring out what's going on with Tanya is still going to be on my mind but I feel a lot better now, knowing that I was wrong when I thought that she didn't want to talk to me," Adam answered confidently, feeling better about himself with each passing moment. This Tanya may not have been his Tanya but they apparently shared the ability to make him feel better just by talking to him. "As far as my fate as the leader goes, I really can't speak on that until I talk to the others and see how they feel. But at least I'll be able to stay focused the next time that we're in a fight. So, home please?"
"Jeez, what's with you? Why are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?"
"You mean aside from the fact that Reefside is probably being attacked right now and that Jason is the only one there to do anything about it?" Adam asked rhetorically, giving Tanya a playful roll of his eyes accompanied by a smile.
"Fine. You can go," Tanya replied, sticking her tongue out at him.
Adam was poised to return the gesture when he felt a rush of power so strong that made him rear back, screaming out in a voice that made it sound like he was in pain. It was quite the contrary, however. As a wave of red light began to cover his body, he felt his spirit begin to soar. There was no other feeling he could compare this to. It was completely unique to him, invigorating him physically as well as mentally. Once he was gone, Tanya looked at the chair he had been sitting in and sneered.
"And so he discovers," she added, just for the hell of it.
It was difficult for Jason to mount any sort of offensive attack when he was constantly having to duck and dive to avoid Dr. Fear's attacks and those coming from the dozen Tyrannodrones that had just recently been added to the melee. He was doing his best to keep them at bay but even for him and all the power that he possessed, there were just too many of them to deal with by himself. At that moment, there wasn't a time Jason could think of where he needed the help of the other Rangers more than he did right now.
Still, even though he was at a huge disadvantage, he was nowhere near ready to throw in the proverbial towel. There was still a lot of fight left in the Black Ranger and he wasn't going to stop fighting until he took his final breath. Turning his staff horizontally and raising it over his head to block a strike, Jason managed to get in a leg sweep that took a couple of the Tyrannodrones down to the ground. It wasn't a great maneuver, nor was it a turning point in the fight but it was a start and a start was exactly what Jason was in need of.
Using every elemental attack that his Brachio Staff was capable of, the group of Tyrannodrones quickly began to decrease in numbers. After being on the defensive end of the fight for almost fifteen minutes, it looked like things were finally starting to go Jason's way. The remaining Tyrannodrones were about to be blasted by another one of Jason's energy orbs when the Black Ranger felt a sudden pain in between his shoulder blades. It was strong enough to force him to his knees with his head hanging down as he beat his fists in agony against the asphalt.
From his position a few yards behind Jason, Dr. Fear watched on and smiled proudly behind the surgeon's mask that was covering the lower half of his face. Jason's armor was practically impenetrable but while the syringe that had just been fired at him didn't stick, it did cause him a pretty significant amount of pain. As Jason writhed on the ground, he froze almost immediately when he saw that Dr. Fear was standing over him, a dripping syringe just barely peeking out of both his sleeves.
"Time to die, Ranger."
Taking a deep breath, Jason closed his eyes and tried to fight for his second wind. The will to fight back was there but his body was refusing to cooperate with him. The syringe had done too much damage. As Dr. Fear raised his arms to throw the syringes, Jason tried to prepare himself for the pain that was soon approaching; a pain that he instinctively knew was going to be a hundred times worse than what he was already experiencing.
But the three new additions to the fight that were presently standing behind Dr. Fear had a different idea. In unison, three legs raised themselves in the air and delivered kicks to Dr. Fear's back that sent him flying through the air. From beneath his helmet, Jason breathed a sigh of relief as Adam and Rocky offered him their hands. "Man, am I glad to see you guys," Jason muttered as the pulled him onto his feet. "What the hell happened to you?"
Not wanting a repeat of what happened last time, Adam quickly waved his hand dismissively. "We'll explain it all once we're done with this guy. Do you think you can still fight, man?"
After a crack of his neck and a couple shoulder rolls to stretch his back out, Jason let go of a loud, hearty laugh. "Bro, not only can I fight but I'm ready to kick this guys ass. The real question is, Do you think you can hang with me?"
It was probably--no--it was definitely a good thing that Jason couldn't see his teammates rolling their eyes at him. Wearing a smile, Adam turned to look at Rocky and Kimberly, then back at Jason. "You know, I think we've got a few things up our sleeves that might just surprise you, my friend."
"We'll see, bro. Keep up if you can."
That said, Jason withdrew his Brachio Staff from its' sheath and started a charge at Dr. Fear that the other Rangers soon followed with their weapons drawn, as well. "Welcome back, guys."
Hearing Tommy's voice again brought a smile to Kimberly's face that was only amplified when she imagined the smile that Tommy was wearing back in the Command Center. Knowing that he was sitting there just waiting for her to come back to him, that he wasn't really dead, made it all the more sweet. It made her want to get this battle over and done with so that she could escape into the comfort of her love's embrace.
The Rangers attacked fiercely, leaving no room for Dr. Fear to mount anything that even remotely resembled an offensive move. With all of them working together and on the same page, the fight wasn't even a fair one. The only thing that was preventing them from putting an end to Dr. Fear for good was that they still didn't know if he was a monster or just a human that Mesogog had enslaved.
From his chair in the basement, Tommy was typing away at a rapid pace, trying desperately to find that information for the Rangers. He had done a full bio-scan on Dr. Fear and found that he was indeed a slave to Mesogog but he needed Hayley to verify his findings just to be sure. Luckily, she was already en route. Even in the seclusion of the Command Center, Tommy could hear it when Hayley's neon green Volkswagen Beetle came to a screeching halt in his gravel driveway. Closing his eyes, he tried not to think of all the rocks that she had most likely peppered the whole front of his house with. For the sake of his pocketbook, he hoped that she hadn't managed to break any windows.
To be truthful, Tommy wasn't all that surprised when Hayley found that he had made an error reading Dr. Fear's bio-scan. Hayley was always trying to come up with these clever rhymes to help him remember things but all they ever did was confuse him more. "Tommy, for the thousandth time," Hayley started, leaning over Tommy's shoulder to access the keyboard. Looking up at the screen, she pointed to the red glow around Dr. Fear's head. "Red in the head means send it to bed."
"What? I thought that green in the head meant sent it to bed?" Rolling her eyes, Hayley shook her head but chose to remain silent. If Tommy only listened to her-it was pointless. Tommy was her best friend but damn his Swiss cheese memory. "You really need to come up with something for green, then."
"Yeah, well, when you come up with something clever that not only rhymes with 'green' but incorporates the human head as well, let me know, will ya?"
Tommy was all ready to deliver a snappy comeback when he remembered the Rangers and reached across his desk to open the communication line. "Hey guys, you're good to go to toast this clown."
Downtown, Adam was pressing his fingertips against the side of his helmet to block out all the noise that the fight was causing. As soon as Tommy gave him the okay to eliminate Dr. Fear, instincts as leader took over and Adam ordered his teammates to fall back. He was pleasantly surprised when they did so without hesitation. Maybe they still had some confidence in him, after all.
"I think it's time for us to bust out the heavy artillery, guys," Adam noted. With a sweep of his hand, Adam indicated that he was talking about himself, Rocky, and Kimberly, both of whom nodded their agreement. That settled, Adam shifted his attention to Jason. "I think you might want to stand seriously back for this one, bro."
Jason furrowed his brow but nodded his head and slowly started to backpedal, mostly because he wanted to see what Adam was talking about and arguing with him or asking why would just make it take longer. He watched in anticipation as the Rangers raised their arms, forming an X across their chests.
"Super Dino Mode!"
The advice to step back was given for good reason. The eruption of energy that came from the Rangers was enough to make the buildings around them shake violently. As thick, sharp spikes began to protrude from their suits, a feeling of incredible power began to wash over them, exponentially increasing their physical strength in the process. And from the looks of it, Kimberly was now sporting a set of wings on top of everything else.
From that point on, destroying Dr. Fear became nothing more than an exercise for the Rangers to test out their new abilities; abilities that left Jason floored. Having seen so much in his short time on this planet, very few things managed to surprise Jason anymore but this was definitely one of those rare things that left him rendered completely speechless.
Adam was fast before. Now he was faster. Rocky was strong but he was stronger now than he had ever been. Kimberly, who couldn't really have an enhanced Ptera Scream, was given her wings instead. It took a few minutes of her playing around in the air to get the feel for it but it didn't take her long until she had her new ability down to the point where her skills flying this way began to rival her talent in the cockpit of the various aerial Zords that she had piloted over the years.
The Z-Rex Blaster and the destruction of Dr. Fear followed a few minutes later but not until the Rangers, including Jason--who wanted to get in a few more shots of his own--had had their fill of toying with the humanoid monster. Triumphantly, the Rangers posed with their backs to the explosion that had been Dr. Fear just moments before. It was a message to Mesogog that did not go unnoticed.
In his laboratory, Mesogog had his hand resting on the lever that would activate the sequence to make Dr. Fear grow enormously but decided against it, allowing his scaly fingers to slip away from the lever. The Rangers had survived Dr. Fear's trap and came out of it more powerful than ever. Allowing Dr. Fear to grow, knowing that the Thundersaurus Megazord would make quick work of it, was a pointless endeavor and a huge waste of time considering everything else that he was planning.
And while the Rangers were all surprised when they were not met with a gigantic Dr. Fear, no one wanted to complain about it, either. The quartet was more than ready for a much deserved rest after all they had been through today. Not to mention that the prospect of being able to go home and fall right into Tommy's arms was an enticing one for Kimberly.
Hayley was long gone and Tommy was already waiting for her when their teleportation beams touched down in the basement, sweeping her into his arms even before she had had a chance to de-morph. Swinging her around, Tommy held her closely, burying his face in the small space between her neck and shoulder. "I missed you so much, Beautiful. I thought that we had lost you," Tommy murmured, raising his eyes to the other Rangers. "And you guys, too," he added, regretfully letting go of Kimberly to address the plain clothed Adam and Rocky. "It's good to have you two back." Handshakes and half-hugs came next, followed by Tommy turning his attention to Jason, who had also de-morphed, looking at his friend with a slight twinkle in his eyes. "Looks like you lucked out once again, man. Where would you be if you didn't have your teammates to pick up the slack for you?"
"Haha, very funny, bro," Jason replied dryly, rolling his eyes as he and Tommy shared a quick hug. With a jerk of his head, Jason brought the focus to the other Rangers. "These three did some incredible stuff today."
Tommy nodded proudly. "I know. I watched it all," he commented with a hint of remorse that he hadn't been there to see it live. "Like I already told you guys before, the things that you all are capable of doing if you just have a little bit of confidence in yourselves and your abilities will completely blow you away."
As the Rangers all nodded their heads in understanding, Adam felt something poking at him in the back of his mind. Wearing a solemn expression on his face, he nervously began running his hand through his hair. "Look, guys, about what happened earlier; I'm really sorry," Adam started, looking at his friends with a serious look, hoping that they would be forgiving of him. "I don't know what got into me. All I know is that I lost my focus there for awhile and put you guys in a terrible spot but I'm back now and I promise you that it's not going to happen ever again. And, if you guys still have some faith left in me, I'd really appreciate another shot at leading the team."
Humbling himself was what Adam was trying to do. He wanted them all to know how sorry he really was. Making a mistake as a Ranger was hard enough, especially when doing so involved whether people lived or died. However, Adam was quickly starting to learn that screwing up was a whole lot worse when, as the leader, you had to admit to your team that you had dropped the ball, that the one person that everyone on the team was supposed to be able to count on had messed up.
Kimberly, as Tommy expected, was the first to bridge the gap. With a reassuring smile, she walked over to Adam and pulled him into a hug that caught the Red Ranger off guard. When Kimberly broke the hug, Adam could do nothing but stare at her, unable to formulate a coherent thought.
"I forgive you, Adam. I know how hard it is missing the one person you care about more than anything," Kimberly whispered so only he could hear, chuckling at his surprised eyes. "It's written all over your face, kiddo," she added, giving Adam a teasing punch to the chin. "Give her a call. I'm sure she misses you as much as you miss her."
"You're amazing. You know that, right?"
"I tell her that every night when we go to sleep in our bed," Tommy interjected with a wink and a smile as he put one arm around Kimberly's shoulder and offered his other to Adam. "I know I'm not a Ranger and that my say doesn't really count but you still have my confidence. We all make mistakes, bro. It sucks when you do but screwing up from time to time is an unfortunate part of being a Ranger. And I know it sucks even worse 'cause you're the leader and everyone's looking to you but everything doesn't always work out in your favor no matter how much you wish it would."
"Thanks, Tommy," Adam replied, shaking the offered hand tightly. He had Kimberly and Tommy on his side now but that still left Jason and Rocky who he looked to next. "I guess it's up to you guys."
Rocky shrugged his shoulders. "Tommy pretty much said everything I would have said. But I never even thought about anyone else leading the team. Jason's too much of an asshole," Rocky answered, giving Jason a joking push that garnered a small chorus of laughs from everyone but the Black Ranger who was glaring daggers at Rocky.
"Jason?" Tommy asked, letting him know that he still needed to add his vote into the mix. Technically, it wasn't really necessary at this point because Kimberly and Rocky had already agreed to keep Adam as the team leader but everyone in the room knew that it wouldn't really matter unless Adam had the full confidence of all his teammates. If even one Ranger doubted Adam's ability to lead the team then it put the cohesiveness of the group at a significantly high risk.
"I don't even know why we're having this conversation in the first place to be honest with you," Jason offered, looking to Adam like he didn't understand what the big deal was. It was a simple gesture but one that the Red Ranger greatly appreciated. "You redeemed yourself earlier and that is what being a true leader is all about; owning up to your mistakes and correcting them when you're given the opportunity. You did that today, big time, and in my book, you're still the leader of this team."
"Thanks, man," Adam murmured, shaking Jason's hand. "That means a lot to me."
It couldn't have worked out better if Adam had planned the whole thing himself. Not only were all of his teammates still confident in him to lead them but with the newly discovered Super Dino Mode as part of their arsenal, they were stronger now than they had ever been. At the moment, it seemed like everything was perfect. It would not be long, however, before the Rangers were met with a rude awakening in the form of a blast from the past.