THE NEXT YEAR
Chapter 12
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Tommy and Kim had just finished picking up the house from the aftermath of Billy's earthquake when Conner and Kira came down the stairs with Trent and Ethan Following them. From the way they were dressed Tommy knew that they were planning on going out. He smiled as he thought to himself how nice it was to see the group back together again, and he was proud to be part of that group even if he was their teacher and mentor as well as friend and fellow ranger. Just before they got to the door it flew open revealing a panicked Anton Mercer. He rushed in and grabbed Tommy by the shoulder.
"We have a problem", he said with a distressed tone in his voice, "A monster has escaped containment on the island, and it is on its way into town.
"I thought that all of the monsters were destroyed", Conner said slightly perplexed.
"So did I", Ethan added in.
"All but one", Anton confirmed.
"How is this possible?" Tommy asked.
"It was one of Messogog's early experiments with the monster maker. When he couldn't control it, he tried to destroy it but the monster was too resilient so he stored it somewhere out of the way to keep it from making trouble."
"And just how did it break loose?" Kim asked suspiciously.
"The island sensors recorded an earthquake; it's the only thing I can think of that could have set it free."
Everybody turned and stared at Billy and Hayley as they came up the stairs from the basement.
"What did I do?" Billy asked just as alarms started going off.
Everyone ran down the stairs and Hayley took her customary place in front of the computer.
"Um guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's entered the city", she said as her hands flew across the keyboard, "And it's heading for downtown."
"Can you get a visual?" Tommy asked as he hunched over the chair behind her.
Hayley tried a few different commands, but kept getting errors, "No, the power signature is the best that I can give you."
"Then that will have to do", Jason said as he stepped up beside Tommy.
"Alright guys, ready to have one more adventure as rangers?" Tommy asked as he grabbed one of his morphers. "Hayley, call Andros and have him, Aisha, and Rocky meet us here."
A couple minutes later four new arrivals came into the lab. Ashley took the seat next to Hayley as Andros, Aisha, and Rocky joined the others.
"What am I going to do?" Aisha asked, "I mean a ninja suit isn't exactly going to be of much use in a situation like this."
"Hold that thought", Jason said as he ran upstairs. After a minute he came back down and tossed something to Aisha. She looked at the object in her hands, and gasped to see that it was a morpher that had a saber tooth tiger coin in it.
"I can't take this", she said to Jason trying to hand the morpher back.
"Sure you can", he replied, "Besides I think you need it more right now than my dresser drawer does.
"But it's Trini's morpher"
"And I'm sure that if she could speak for herself she would want you to have it", Jason responded.
"Thanks", Aisha said.
"Alright guys", Tommy said, "It's Morphin Time!"
TIGERZORD!
PTERADACTYL!
TRICEROTOPS!
SABER-TOOTH TIGER!
TYRANOSAURUS!
ZEO RANGER ONE, PINK!
ZEO RANGER THREE, BLUE!
LET'S ROCKET!
DINO THUNDER, POWER UP!
WHITE RANGER, DINO POWER!
In a flash of light twelve rangers stood in the center of the lab. Several of them looked down at their gloved hands and wiggled their fingers, getting used to being in morph again.
"This feels great" Kat said.
"It really has been too long" Kim replied.
Aisha gave Jason a hug, "Thanks, this means so much."
"It's yours to keep", Jason said smiling beneath his helmet.
"Alright guys", Tommy said, "Time to go to work."
Hayley entered the teleportation sequence into the computer, but instead of teleporting the rangers it showered them with smoke and sparks as the teleportation sequencer practically exploded.
"What was that", Trent asked with shock in his voice.
"That was the teleportation system shorting out, probably from the quake."
"Can you fix it?" Conner asked.
Hayley grimaced as she inspected the smoking remains if the unit. "I'll have to rebuild it", she said slightly perturbed, "It will take a few days."
"Looks like we go the old fashioned way", Tommy said as he walked over to a large door and opened the storage bay, "Conner, Kira, and Ethan will take the raptor riders, Trent will take his ATV, Kim and I will take my ATV, Jason, Aisha, and Billy will take the raptor cycles, Rock, Andros, and Kat."
"We'll take the galaxy gliders", Andros said.
"Alright, now that we have that settled, let's go", Tommy said as he sat on his black ATV and Kim climbed on behind him.
When the rangers arrived on the scene they were taken back by the sight that had presented itself to them. The monster that was attacking the city looked like a large rubber duck.
"If Anton hadn't told us how dangerous this thing was it would almost be comical", Kim said as she climbed off the ATV.
"Anton", Tommy said into his communicator, "Does this thing have any weak spots at all?"
"None that were ever found", his voice replied.
"Well look at what the cat dragged in", the monster said as it turned its attention to the rangers.
"Enjoy, your time out while it lasts because when we're done, you'll wish you never left your little jar", Conner spat.
The monster raised its wings and lightning bolts shot out from the tips send all of the rangers flying backwards.
"Conner", Kira said as she sat up, "I love you, but next time, keep your damn mouth shut."
"So noted", Conner groaned as he got back up himself," Tyrannostaff!" he called and the weapon appeared in his hands.
"Ptera grips!"
"Tricera-shield!"
"Drago Sword!"
"Alright guys", Conner yelled, "Let's bring 'em together."
They combined their weapons and formed the Z-Rex blaster. Once they were in their positions, they fired a shot right at the monster. The duck monster stood still as the blast hit it and bounced back to the rangers before exploding. The blast not only knocked them backwards, but demorphed them from the impact. The rangers rushed over to the four as they began to get up.
"Are you guys ok?" Kim asked.
"Yeah", Conner said, "But I think we'll feel that in the morning."
"Maybe something sharp would do the trick", Aisha said as she helped Kira up.
"Maybe", Kim replied, "Power Bow!"
She loaded an arrow and let it fly, but like the earlier blast it simply bounced off and hit her square in the chest, sending her flying backwards and landing with a yelp.
"Kim!" Tommy yelled as he rushed to her side.
"I'm alright", she said with a groan, "Now I know why all those monsters hated my bow."
All twelve rangers rushed the monster at once, trying to do whatever damage they could, but they all went flying back one by one until it was down to just Tommy.
"I don't think we're doing much damage", Saba said as Tommy tried fruitlessly to stab the monster.
"As much as I hate to, I think I'm forced to agree with you here", Tommy replied to his sabre.
The monster swung an open wing at him knocking him to the ground.
"Guys, I think we need to retreat for the moment and formulate a new course of action", Billy said.
"No", Conner yelled, "We can take him."
"No, we can't", Tommy said, "None of us like to run from a fight, but sometimes it's what must be done."
The monster shrieked in victory as the rangers made a hasty retreat to regroup.
The rangers arrived back in the lab and demorphed. Conner had taking a slight brooding attitude from being bested by a monster while the others began talking out a new plan.
"We need reinforcements", Kat said.
"Already on the way", Hayley said, "I contacted the Silver Guardians and Zack. They should all be here by morning."
"That won't be enough", Tommy said as an idea entered his head, "Billy, would it be possible to give one of my powers to another person?"
"Well your dino powers are linked to your DNA, and the white ranger powers were created specifically for you. The Zeo Powers choose the person so the only one that we could do that with are the Green Ranger powers, but we don't have the sword of light."
"So we don't have any options", Tommy said.
"If you can find someone whose personality is similar to yours, we may be able to create a temporary link in the Morphing Grid to let them use the Green Ranger powers."
"And I know just who, I just hope we can trust him", Tommy said as he ran upstairs to use the phone.
Forty-five minutes later Tommy answered a knock at his door and Jeremy Hanson stepped into his house.
"What's the emergency Dr. O, and Why would you call me?" he asked to Tommy.
"I'm sure you are aware that a monster is attacking the city", Tommy said sternly.
"Yeah, but you don't have to worry, I can take care of myself", Jeremy replied.
"That's not why I asked you here," Tommy said, "We need your help to destroy it."
"No offense because I know you're smart, but isn't that a job for the Power Rangers?"
"Yes it is", Tommy replied, "Look, whether you help or not can I trust you to never speak of what I'm about to show you to anyone?"
Jeremy looked suspiciously at Tommy, "I can keep a secret, but what are you getting at?"
Tommy led him into the den and pulled down the jaw of a dinosaur model causing his trap door to open.
"Ok, now I'm a little freaked, the science teacher has a secret basement" Jeremy said with surprise in his voice.
"That's just the tip of the iceberg", Tommy said as he led him down.
Jeremy's eyes went wide as he saw the Dino Lab and all of the people in it, including Coach Hart.
"Jeremy, we are the Power Rangers and right now we're kind of in a bind. The monster that's attacking is very strong, and we could use a hand."
"I knew I brought them with me", Billy said as he fished a couple bracelets out of a box.
"So what do you say?" Jason asked as he walked up to the newcomer, "Will you help us?"
Jeremy simply nodded and Billy slapped one of the bracelets on his arm and the other on Tommy's. "These will link your energy's and allow you to use one of Tommy's old powers.
"Welcome to the team", Tommy said as he handed him the green power morpher.
"I think we found a weakness", Hayley said as she punched up a data chart. "When the blast from the Z-Rex blaster hit it, the monsters energy levels dropped. They rose again very quickly, but if we can hit it with enough energy, one blast right after another we may be able to take it down."
Tommy realized where she was going with this and turned to Billy, "Can you reconfigure the system so I can call my Brachiostaff while I'm the white Ranger?"
"I believe so", Billy responded.
Early the next morning Eric, Wes, and Zach showed up at Tommy's house. Tommy stepped out to greet them and took them down to the basement.
"For this to work", Hayley said, 'All sixteen of you will have to fire blasts constantly at slightly alternating times. If we're lucky the monster won't have the energy to deflect all of them, and we'll get him."
"She really a chip off the Ole Billy", Kim said with a smile.
"Alright guys, let's do this", Tommy said as he reached for his morpher, "IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"
"TIGERZORD"
"DRAGONZORD"
"MASTADON"
"PTERADACTYL"
"TRICERATOPS"
"SABRETOOTH TIGER"
"TYRANOSAURUS"
"ZEO RANGER ONE, PINK"
"ZEO RANGER THREE, BLUE"
"LET'S ROCKET"
"TIME FOR, TIME FORCE"
"QUANTUM POWER"
"DINO-THUNDER, POWER UP"
"WHITE RANGER DINO POWER"
The sixteen rangers looked around and Jeremy jumped up excitedly, "I can't believe I'm a Power Ranger."
"Ok guys, let's do this", Tommy said.
The rangers once again made their way to the location of the monster. Once they had him spotted the readied all of their weapons as the original and dino's made their respective blasters, while Andros built his Spiral blaster. Tommy heard a faint beep from his arm indicating the Jeremy was in position.
"You do realize that this will most likely create a lot of splash damage", Eric said as he leveled his Quantum Defender at the monster.
"It's better than the alternative", Jason and Rocky replied at the same time.
They all started firing in alternating patterns making sure that the monster didn't have time to recover from one shot by the time another hit it. Eric was right about the splash damage, but in a matter of seconds the monster was critically low on energy. In a move of desperation the duck raised it's wing to fire lightning, but fell to the ground with a squawk of pain as Tommy and Jeremy jumped out from either side impaling it with their bladed weapons. Once that was done the monster was hit with nine simultaneous energy blasts causing it to explode.
Later on the Rangers were relaxing in Tommy's living room, when Jeremy pulled Tommy off to the side. They got into the Kitchen just as Jason began telling the group about Tommy and Kim in the zord hangar. Kim got up and went to join them in the kitchen trying to get away from the embarrassing story.
"Dr. O", Jeremy started, "I thought you said the monster was tough."
"It was", Tommy replied, "We got our butts handed to us the first time we fought it."
"But in the end you took it down easily, I doubt you really needed me."
Kim having heard this, and figuring where it was going turned around and went upstairs to their bedroom.
"That's probably true, but luckily we didn't need to find out", Tommy said. "Part of being a ranger is being as prepared as possible, and I wanted to see where your heart really laid."
"I don't follow", Jeremy said.
"When the chips were down, you did the right thing. Not just because there was something in it for you, but because you knew it was the right thing to do. I expect you to bring what you have learned here into your normal life, and I think you will go far."
"Not to mention earn a permanent place on this team", Kim said standing in the doorway holding the Sword of Light.
A/N: I hope you liked the latest chapter. The idea for the monster was put in my head by a co-worker, so I must give credit where it was due. Just so you know I have another story I will be posting soon that takes place several years in the future. The ships and characters (Including Jeremy will be in it), but there will be almost no other linkage to this story so me posting it will give very few spoilers except for a few names of people that will show up later. Please look for it, and as always please read and review.
