Chapter 21

Old Friends, New Dino Zord

Kimberly Ann Hart had been in the middle of her gymnastics class when she got the call. "Alright girls, let's try out the tumbling routine! And then we can take a break!" She blew a sharp, short blast into her whistle and watched as her gymnastics team did a series of cartwheels, flips, and back tucks along the springy floor.

Then there was a tap on her shoulder and she turned to find her assistant coach, Carla, standing next to her. "Hey, Kim, you've got a call in the office, it sounds really important."

Though curiosity piqued Kim's interest she glanced back towards her team. "Can it wait? I just need to finish this—"

"Kim, I promise I wouldn't bug you like this if it wasn't something serious," Carla insisted. She pushed her long, curly hair behind her shoulders. "I didn't get everything he said, but he said his name was Tommy and—"

That made Kimberly's blood freeze.

Tommy was the one who was calling her. She hadn't spoken to him since his parents' death when she tried to get in contact with him to give her condolences. When he didn't call her back she figured it was probably due to his grief and she wasn't so worried. But to call out of the blue like this and the fact that it wasn't her cell phone he was contacting her through but her office phone meant it was very serious.

It wasn't like she and Tommy never spoke. They called each other every now and then, even conversing through email and text when they had the time. But for something out of the blue like this…a chill ran down Kim's spine. Kimberly lifted her whistle once more and gave another short blast that echoed throughout the gymnasium.

"Okay girls, take a break! I've got a phone call I need to take but once I come back we'll get started on our routine for the competition," Kimberly said. She then turned to Carla, mind rapidly rolling through numerous scenarios that could be wrong. "Carla, could you get them started if I don't come back in time?"

"Sure thing, Kim," Carla said with a nod.

Kimberly nodded back then hurried into the office, where her phone sat on the desk top. Kimberly lowered herself down into her seat and let out a low breath before putting it up to her ear. "Hello? Tommy?"

"Kim? Yeah, it's me," Tommy replied. "How are things in Florida?"

"Things are great; my gymnastics team is working hard for their next competition." Kimberly leaned back and crossed her legs. "But I know that's not why you called. What's going on? Is everything okay over there?"

She could hear him take a deep breath before saying, "No, things are…things are actually getting pretty screwy over here. I know we haven't talked in a while but there's been a lot going on over here." And he explained everything that had been going on in Reefside since he first arrived to become a teacher. At that point Kimberly stopped him and demanded to know when he had become a teacher and when he had moved to Reefside. Then she listened quietly, her grip tightening on her phone as he moved towards the end of his story. She wondered if she was having a heart attack.

Rita and Zedd were back? It was impossible. They had been destroyed. She hadn't been there when the rangers had defeated Astronema and her fleet of monsters and others had been purified after Zordon's Power Tube had been destroyed by Andros. But she had seen the after effects; Angel Grove had reached and all time high with new residents pouring in and the rangers had received as much praise as ever.

"Are you sure about this?" Kimberly finally managed to breathe.

"I saw them with my own two eyes, Kim," Tommy said firmly. He sounded like he was in as much shock as Kimberly was. It must not have worn off yet. "I'm not kidding. This isn't the sort of thing I would joke about."

"Okay…" Kimberly licked her lips. She sat up straight and grabbed her date book before turning to her computer and started to rapidly type. She cradled her phone against her ear and her shoulder. "I'm looking up flights now; I think I can be there by Friday." Another thought then struck her. "Did you get in contact with any of the others?"

"Trini and Zack were already out here—"

"Zack's there?" Kimberly couldn't keep the shock out of her voice. "I haven't heard from him in forever. And Trini's there, too? What about Jason and Billy?"

"I've called them too; I've got into contact with a lot of other teams as well. The only one I haven't been able to speak to is Andros but who knows where he is in the galaxy right now." Despite the seriousness of the conversation topic she could hear Tommy sounded a little amused at the space voyaging that one of the newer red rangers managed to do on a daily basis.

"When do you think everyone will be there?" Kimberly was already planning how much time she'd need off work, how many people she'd need to cover her shifts, if she needed her communicator….

As soon as the thought moved through her head she became a little sad. It had been so long since her communicator beeped letting her know there was something who needed the rangers' help or if there was someone trying to get in touch with her. Sure, having email and everything had to be more convenient but she missed the thrill of her heart thudding with excitement when the familiar beeping reached her ears.

"I don't know, I still have to get in touch with Jason and Billy. Though you know how difficult it's been to get in touch with either of them lately."

"Yeah… I know that feeling very well. Please remind me to yell at them the next time I see them."

Tommy laughed a little.

The two bid goodbye to each other then hung up the phone. Kimberly immediately flipped through her date book to block off a few days at least for the trip to Reefside. Then she grabbed it, her phone, her wallet, and her keys before hurrying out of office and over to Clara.

"Is everything okay?" Clara asked, seeing her coming.

"Yeah, but…I have to get going," Kimberly said apologetically. She ran a hand over her hair, twisting the end of her ponytail around her fingers. "There's a bit of an emergency and I need to get out to California as soon as possible so I need to take the next couple of days off. Do you think you can handle the girls for me?"

"Of course, Kim," Carla said, her eyebrows lowering in concern. "I just hope everything's okay."

"Everything's fine, but something came up that I can't miss. I'm getting the next flight out and I really need to go out and get some packing done." Kimberly made sure not to add out loud, Plus, I need to know how many of the others are coming too.

Jason noticed his phone ringing as soon as he stepped through the front door of his apartment. Dropping his motorcycle helmet to the ground he strode to the kitchen and watched for a moment as the phone stopped ringing. Picking it up he glanced at the screen, eyes widening when he saw how many calls he missed. Jason then jumped when it started ringing once more.

What the hell? Bracing himself, Jason picked up and held the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Jase? Man, it's Tommy! Finally I've got a hold of you, I've been calling all day," Tommy said almost in one breath.

Jason's shoulders slumped with relief. Not just with relief but also with guilt, weighing him down a little bit. It really had been a long time since he had spoken to his old friends. It wasn't like he had tried to avoid everyone, but he had become so busy. Not only did he have his own martial arts dojo to run but he was consistently traveling around doing expos for charity as well as for others who were looking to get into martial arts. Just this past week he had been in New York and with the time differences and how many hours he worked he forgot to get back to some of them.

As a matter of fact he couldn't remember the last time he had a day to himself let alone to catch up with his friends. Probably not since the red ranger space mission the year before. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, I've just been really busy with the dojo and everything." He then noticed a sound in the background, recognizing it as Tommy's pacing.

Tommy only paced when he was dealing with a big problem.

"What's going on, man?"

"You're not going to believe me," Tommy warned him. Then he took a deep breath. "I'll give you the short version; there's a new team of rangers out here who are going against this guy named Mesogog."

"Mesogog, huh?" Jason lamented. "That's an interesting name."

"He's an interesting guy. Anyway, he has two henchmen by his side named Elsa and Zeltrax and I guess he thought there wasn't enough people to work with him because he brought back some old monsters."

The sudden shift in Tommy's tone, to one that sounded much like resignation made Jason take pause. He was afraid of what that meant. Brought back some old monsters…? There were plenty to think of due to so many ranger teams that had come and gone over the years. But this had to be important. "What sort of monsters?"

"Imagine your worst nightmare."

His worst nightmare…?

Jason swallowed hard, pressing his lips together. There were only a few monsters he would legitimately be horrified to know could come back. When Zordon's powerful wave shot over the Earth he thought all of it had been over. But now… "Rita?"

"And Zedd, and Goldar, and Rito…"

Jason's heart dropped to his feet. "All of them?"

"And even more. Jase, we need you out here."

"Is this another Forever Red mission?"

"Something bigger than that. When can you get here? I'll fill everyone in then."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Jason started to smile a little as he turned towards the calendar that sat on the refrigerator, a date on the calendar already circled. "Actually, I was already planning on going out to Reefside to meet up with someone. I'll see you there, man."

"See you. And Jase?"

"Yeah?"

"Hurry."

"So it's Rita, Zedd, Goldar, Scorpina…"

"Everyone we've ever gone against, yeah," Tommy said with a slow nod. He turned away from the computer the rangers were crowded around and shook his head before resting his hand over his mouth. Honestly, he was at a loss of words.

It had been about a week since Mesogog revealed what he had been working on to the rangers and he was still as shocked and worried then as he was now. The last week had been filled with fights between the rangers, Elsa, and Zeltrax along with the new monsters they continued to crank out. Tommy felt a little bit better knowing he had been able to get in contact with his friends to come out to Reefside to get a handle on everything.

Still, that wasn't going to be enough. The team was currently having trouble hanging on to what was being thrown their way so far. Every day Tommy could see how tired the rangers were becoming; they sat quietly in class, nearly falling over as they tried to stay awake. Even Bailey, who enjoyed school more than he thought was possible sat quietly in class, her chin in her hand as she kept quiet, only speaking when she was spoke to.

And as other teachers were mentioning they weren't as lively as usual throughout their classes. Not only that but even Trent was having trouble in his class when he showed up. He vaguely remembered Trent giving him a doctor's note that warned him it was going to happen from time to time but he wondered if it had more to do with the attack by Nightmere more than any pre-existing condition.

Hayley turned in her chair to face him. "And from the way you're speaking I'm assuming they're bad news."

"Even worse than Mesogog, if that's possible," Tommy said. He shook his head before closing his eyes. Was it possible? Rita and Zedd seemed to be mindless jokers as time went on, seeming to have lost their drive to destroy the rangers as time went on. Mesogog, on the other hand, sent out Elsa and Zeltrax as much as possible, and proved that he was more competent than anything else.

"Well, if our calculations are correct there won't be much longer until we have another Zord on our side," Hayley pointed out, hoping to calm him down a little bit. She nodded her head towards her computer as it continued to scan all of Reefside. "Not to mention it's bound to hatch soon."

"And we'll need to get to it before Mesogog gets his claws on it," Tommy agreed. He finally opened his eyes once more, resting his hands on his stomach. "Who knows how much he's been watching us, by now he already knows of the other Dino Zord eggs we've opened and has to be after more of them. Whomever is behind him knew about the Tyrannodrones' blue prints and created them. Who knows what other information they have."

Hayley bobbed her head back and forth. "Probably everything you'd be afraid to fall into the wrong hands," she pointed out. Tommy gave an exasperated sigh and she continued with, "Look, we thought all of that stuff went down with the island explosion but now we have to face the consequences. I mean, they didn't have the blueprints behind our design of the morpehrs."

"That's true," Tommy agreed.

"And I think you're losing faith in some of my ideas," Hayley continued. "Especially in terms of what it is the rangers can really do."

With that, Tommy closed his eyes once more. Then he sat up straight and turned so that he faced Hayley head on. "I'm sorry, Hayley, I don't meant to criticize. I'm just worried about what it is that Mesogog wants to do with these guys. I mean, this is Rita and Zedd we're talking about. If you knew them like I did, you'd understand why it's so weird."

Hayley's lips pulled back into a smirk. "I've seen your video diary and studied their attack patterns while we were both working on the morpher and the new Dino Powers. I think I get it."

The two turned back to her computer as it suddenly started to beep rapidly. Hayley glanced down at the keyboard for a second then started typing rapidly. "Looks like we've got some Tyrannodrones attacking down at the beach." There was another beeping sound and she shifted to a different screen. "It looks like I'm locking onto the Dino Zord Egg there as well."

Pushing back his chair, Tommy got to his feet. "Alright, I'm on my way there."

"Don't you think we should call the others?" Hayley reminded him.

"They deserve some rest. If it's anything I can't handle, then send in the others," Tommy explained. "Bailey and Av are already at the beach, they can give me backup." With that, he pulled up his arm. "Dino Thunder, Power up!"

A/N: I'm back after a long and well needed break. There's been so much going on these past couple of weeks good and bad and I just needed some time to myself, you know. Anyway, I hope this update after a while away was worth the wait for you guys despite it being so short.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about or anything to mention or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

Thanks to lizziestrong, Adela, Ashley, and brankel1 for reviewing.

Thanks to XoxMountainGirlxoX for help with the idea of what's going on with Trent.

~Avalon