"Talk about déjà vu," Dr. Oliver muttered, looking around.
Scorpina and the putties had taken him straight to the dark dimension. He wasn't sure how long he had been there, but it was starting to seem like forever.
"Well, at least the dark dimension doesn't affect my Dino gem," he sighed. "It would be nice if something would actually happen, though."
He sighed again. Leaning against one of the walls, he tried to relax.
"I've spent way too much time here," he grumbled. "And so did Jason. We used to laugh about it…"
"You know, after all the times we've escaped, you'd think Rita would give up trying to trap us in the dark dimension," Jason said. "It never works the way she wants it to."
They were walking through the park, heading toward the youth center. Tommy had just rescued Jason from the dark dimension, again, a few hours before. They were planning on working out for a while before meeting back up with the others.
"I think she's just hoping we'll give up and stay put," Tommy said, laughing. "Maybe next time I'll leave you there. Let's see how long it takes her to get sick and tired of you."
Jason laughed, shoving Tommy to one side.
"Yeah right, bro," he laughed. "You'd be worse than me. Pacing around in circles. You'd make Rita too dizzy."
Tommy pushed him back. Still laughing, they goofed around for a few moments, mock fighting as they kept heading toward the youth center.
"Don't worry," Tommy said with a grin. "No matter how many times you get stuck there, I'll always come rescue you."
"And what about you?" Jason exclaimed. "You end up there just as much as I do."
"Then I guess you'd better be ready to come and get me," Tommy said. "Although you'd better move quickly before I start letting myself out. There's got to be a backdoor to that place somewhere."
Rolling his eyes, Jason pushed Tommy again, knocking him off his feet. Laughing, Jason took off running for the youth center. Tommy leapt to his feet, racing after him.
"A lot has changed since then," Dr. Oliver said to himself.
Sighing, he started pacing around the room again. After a little while, no one had shown up to taunt or attack him. Tired of pacing, Dr. Oliver started working out, trying anything to keep himself busy and his mind out of the past.
"You know," Ethan said, staring at the device, "we can't go home until Dr. O comes back. Hayley would kill us."
All of the rangers were still at the command center. Billy was working with Alpha to try and pinpoint Dr. Oliver's location. The rest of them were waiting. Jason had taken to pacing around the outside of the console, unable to sit still. Trini, Zach, and Kim were talking quietly, shooting worried glances over at Billy. The four Dino Teens were on the other side of the room near the device.
"Yeah," Conner muttered. "Guess it's a good thing the machine isn't done yet. If we went back without him, she'd probably kick us all the way back here."
"You guys keep talking about Hayley," Kim said. "Is she your pink ranger?"
The Dino Thunder teens all burst out laughing. Conner had to lean on the console to stay upright.
"What's so funny?" Kim asked, glaring at them.
"You guys do only have five with you," Zach said. "And you do talk about her like she's part of the team."
"She's our tech," Ethan said. "Kind of like Billy."
"Billy's a ranger too, though," Trini said.
"Hayley's not," Kira said.
"The thought of Hayley as a power ranger is actually quiet scary," Ethan said. "She dangerous now. Could you imagine if she had our powers?"
The four Dino teens were quiet for a moment, staring at each other as they thought through that possibility.
"I'd rather not think about it," Conner said. "I'd never get away with anything."
"Conner," Kira said. "You don't get away with anything."
"So do you guys have a sixth ranger?" Jason asked.
"Nope," said Conner.
"We didn't start with six either," Kim said, glancing over at Tommy. "But I'm glad we have six now."
"We started with three," Kira said.
"What?" Zach exclaimed. "Three?"
"Yeah," Conner said. "Me, Ethan, and Kira. Dr. O found his Dino gem a little later on. Or it found him…Trent eventually joined us after his gem stopped being evil."
"I don't want to add anyone else," Trent said. "I like the team the way it is."
Kira smiled, bumping her shoulder against Trent's.
"But if someone else does show up," Kira said. "We would welcome them anyways."
"Maybe you'll get a pink ranger next," Kim said.
"Umm… I don't think that would go over very well with Hayley," Kira said, shaking her head.
"But what if she was the pink ranger?" said Kim, still pushing the idea.
Conner and Ethan snorted, laughing again.
"Just don't let Hayley hear you saying that," Ethan said. "She'll hit you."
"Hayley doesn't need another reason to hit her," Kira said. "She'd do it anyways."
"Why would she hit me?" Kim asked in surprise.
"Well—" Conner started to say.
"Don't worry about it," Kira interrupted, glaring at Conner. "The point is, if Hayley was going to be a ranger, she'd probably pick green."
Everyone turned to look at Tommy. His face started turning red again.
"What?" he exclaimed.
"And then there's white, or red, or black," Conner said.
"Nah," Ethan said. "She wouldn't be red, too much responsibility. Besides, she wouldn't want to steal your powers, Conner. And she wouldn't want to steal Trent or Dr. O's powers either. She'd definitely pick green."
"And then she could be slightly evil if she felt like it," Trent said with a smile.
Tommy paled, again, looking at Trent.
"What?" Kim exclaimed, looking at Tommy.
"Don't worry," Ethan said. "It's a good thing."
The other rangers looked at him in confusion.
"She'd only do evil things to protect us," Trent clarified. "And you, Tommy. Well, the future you."
Tommy nodded, still not sure what to think about everything. The rest of the original rangers were shaking their heads.
"Although she'd probably protect the current you too," Kira said. "If she had been sent back in time."
Ethan started shaking his head.
"Hayley being sent back in time would be a bad thing," he said. "She might be too tempted to hurt certain people. Even though certain events haven't even occurred yet."
He was glaring at the other three, jerking his head toward Kim. She frowned at him. Smiling back, Ethan shrugged. Kira, Trent, and Conner shook their heads, laughing at Ethan.
Dr. Oliver was in the middle of doing some one-handed push-ups when Goldar finally came to taunt him.
"Well, black ranger," he said. "Are you—"
Goldar froze in shock. Dr. Oliver finished a push-up and pushed himself to his feet. He stood there, looking at Goldar with his arms crossed in front of him.
"About time you got here," Dr. Oliver said. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten me. There's really not a whole lot to do here."
"Then maybe I should finish you off," Goldar growled.
"Come on then," Dr. Oliver taunted, motioning with his hand for Goldar to try.
Goldar snarled and drew his sword. As he took a step forward, Dr. Oliver leapt into motion. Diving toward Goldar, he grabbed the sword. He used the momentum to flip over Goldar, landing behind him. Goldar spun around in shock. Dr. Oliver was holding the sword.
"And that's what I was waiting for," he said, giving Goldar a half-salute. "See you later!"
Swinging the sword, Dr. Oliver stabbed it into the ground and disappeared. Teleporting out of the dark dimension, he suddenly reappeared in the park. It was dark now. He'd been in the dark dimension for at least a few hours. Shaking himself off, Dr. Oliver looked around and teleported again. This time to the command center.
Conner sighed, leaning back against the console and listening to his stomach growl. They had all been waiting in the command center for the past two hours. It was starting to get dark out and they hadn't had a chance to eat. Jason had finally stopped pacing, but he still couldn't stay in one place for long. Tommy and Zach were trying to distract him. It wasn't working. Kira, Ethan, and Trent were sitting and talking with Billy, Kim, and Trini.
"Does anyone have anything to eat?" Conner asked.
The other rangers turned to look at him in surprise. Shaking their heads, the other Dino teens just groaned.
"What?" he said. "It's past dinner time and I haven't eaten anything since lunch."
"You're gonna have to wait until Dr. O gets back," Kira said. "We can't teleport, remember?"
Conner walked over to where they were sitting.
"But one of them could teleport me out," he argued. "Just for a few minutes. We'd be right back."
Jason, who had turned around to listen when Conner started talking, was staring at the red Dino ranger in complete shock. Almost growling in frustration, he stormed over to Conner.
"That's it!" he snapped. "I've had enough of this. We can't let Rita have Dr. Oliver any longer. If you aren't going to do something about it, then I will."
All of the rangers hopped to their feet, ready to stop a fight if necessary.
"But Jason," Kim said, "we don't have a way to get to Dr. Oliver."
"Because we haven't even tried," he said.
The Dino teens sighed.
"Fine," Conner said. "Then what are you going to do about it?"
"Do about what?" Dr. Oliver said behind them.
He had just teleported into the command center to hear Conner talking to Jason. All of the rangers spun around in surprise. Dr. Oliver de-morphed, looking around the room.
"Dr. O!" the Dino teens exclaimed.
Jason, seeing Dr. Oliver, reached over and hit a button on the console before the black Dino ranger could move. A force field sprung up around him. Dr. Oliver groaned.
"Really?" he said. "Fine. Go ahead. Scan me. I'm not under a spell. Eyes are still brown, not green."
Billy and Alpha hurried forward to scan Dr. Oliver. He grumbled the whole time while the rest of the Dino Thunder team laughed. The original rangers all eyed him suspiciously.
"You're clear," Billy said. "Jason, you can release him."
Jason didn't move, keeping his arms crossed in front of him.
"Jason," Trini said. "Let him out."
"Why?" Jason asked. "All of this could be a trick. How do we know he didn't go with them on purpose? I don't see how he could have gotten out without their help."
Dr. Oliver sighed, shaking his head.
"Goldar's sword," he said, looking at Jason. "It acts as a doorway to the dark dimension. That's how I got out."
"Matches up with what he told us before," Conner said, glaring at Jason. "Now let him out."
Jason still didn't move. Shoving him out of the way, Conner hit the button himself and released Dr. Oliver. Jason moved to grab Conner, but Tommy stopped him.
"Calm down, bro," he said. "If Billy and Alpha say he's clear, then we have no reason not to believe him. Dr. Oliver has had plenty of chances to sabotage us if that's what he's after. I trust him."
Taking a deep breath, Jason grumbled but backed down. Kira, Trent, and Ethan, who had tensed up in preparation to defend Conner, relaxed. But the tension in the room remained as the two teams studied each other, Tommy standing in the middle.
"So how did you know to use Goldar's sword?" Tommy asked, trying to break the silence.
"Done it before," Dr. Oliver answered. "You're going to be spending some more time in different dimensions soon. But don't worry, you'll figure it out."
Tommy nodded, taking a deep breath. But before he could say anything else, Conner spoke up.
"Dr. O, can we go get dinner now?" Conner asked.
Dr. Oliver laughed, shaking his head.
"I see that nothing's changed in the past few hours," he said. "Yes, Conner. Let's get you guys back to the cabin for the night."
"What about you, Dr. O?" Trent asked, frowning. "You need to sleep too."
"Don't worry, Trent," Dr. Oliver said. "I just want to spend an hour or two working on the device. We lost time when I was stuck in the dark dimension."
A look of concern flashed across Trent's face, but he nodded.
"Billy," Dr. Oliver said. "If you wouldn't mind teleporting us back to the youth center?"
Nodding, Billy programmed the computer and the Dino Thunder team disappeared in a flash of light. Jason, still muttering to himself, glared at the spot where they had been standing.
"Come on, bro," Tommy said, clapping a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Let's get out of here. We have a test in the morning, remember?"
"That's right!" Zach exclaimed. "I'm so going to fail…"
He teleported out of the command center without another word. The other originals shook their heads, laughing. Kim and Trini followed Zach out, talking about meeting in the morning to go over notes.
"Coming, Jase?" Tommy asked.
Jason sighed, but nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "Let's go. You gonna be ok Billy?"
"Affirmative," Billy answered. "I'm going to recalibrate some of the mechanisms before I return home."
"Call if you need anything," Jason said.
He and Tommy teleported out of the command center, leaving Billy working on the device.
When Dr. Oliver parked the truck at the cabin, the teens all piled out and headed straight inside. He followed behind them, shaking his head as they bickered about dinner. Inside, Conner headed straight to the kitchen. Kira and Ethan trailed behind him. Trent waited for Dr. Oliver.
"What do you want to eat, Dr. O?" Trent asked.
"Do we still have any of the bread and lunch meat we bought a few days ago?" he asked.
"Yeah," Trent answered. "Unless Conner ate it while we weren't looking."
"I'll come make a sandwich then," Dr. Oliver said.
He headed toward the kitchen with Trent. Ethan was digging through one of the cupboards looking for a pot while Kira was pulling a few cans of pasta out of another one. Conner already had the sandwich stuff out. Dr. Oliver leaned against the doorframe, watching the teens making dinner. Trent pushed in next to Conner, snatching the bread and lunch meat away. Conner had just made one sandwich and started eating. Taking the stuff over to the table, Trent started making more sandwiches. He made a pile on a plate and left it in the middle of the table, putting away the fixings.
"Thanks, Trent," Dr. Oliver said, walking over and grabbing a sandwich.
"No problem," Trent grinned, taking a sandwich himself.
Conner sat down at the table, grabbing a second sandwich. Kira and Ethan were both at the stove staring at a pot of water while they waited for it to boil.
"It's never going to boil while you stare at it," Dr. Oliver said drily, shaking his head at them.
"It has to boil eventually," Ethan said.
Sighing, Dr. Oliver finished his sandwich.
"Alright," he said. "You guys finish dinner and head to bed. I'm going to try and catch up on some work with the machine. Don't wait up."
Before the teens could protest, he teleported himself out of the cabin.
"Has anyone else noticed Dr. O is acting weird?" Trent asked, sitting down at the table with Conner.
"Yeah," Kira said. "He seems a little out of it. Has he been sleeping?"
"I don't know," Trent answered, shaking his head. "He's been spending a lot of time at the command center."
"And he keeps going for late night runs," Ethan said. "Has anyone actually seen him go to bed?"
"Come to think of it, no," Conner said. "I just see him come out of his room in the morning."
The teens frowned, trying to remember the last time they had actually seen him go to bed at a decent hour.
"I've tried waiting up for him a few nights," said Trent, "but I keep falling asleep in the chair."
"I guess we'd better keep an eye on him then," Kira said. "I want to get home just as much as he does, but there's not much of a point if he kills himself to get us there."
The other three nodded in agreement.
"So what do we do now?" Ethan asked. "He's already gone and we don't have a way to get to the command center."
"Not much we can do," Conner said.
They were all silent for a few minutes. Kira sighed, pulling the pot of pasta off the stove.
"Let's finish eating dinner," Kira said, "and then head to bed like Dr. O wants us to. We'll talk to him first thing in the morning."
Nodding, the boys agreed with Kira. Scooping the pasta into bowls, she and Ethan sat down at the table with Conner and Trent to eat and talk.