Double Act
Chapter 25: Fighting Spirit
A/N: Last time, the boys put Ethan through dating boot camp while the girls babysat their cousin and their cousin's friend. Kennedi found out she was pregnant, but Tommy, Ethan, and Trent won't know about it. Tommy was turned completely invisible by some slime he and Hayley thought could turn him back to normal. As expected, it didn't work out too well. What's going to happen now when the black ranger winds up in a coma?
Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the show.
It was only a few days later when Hayley and Tommy called all the rangers to the lab. Trent couldn't make it as he was working at the café, but the other four were there. Tommy, Ethan, and Trent still had no idea about what happened to Kennedi when she was in Mesogog's lair. The girls told Hayley so the redhead could modify the orange ranger's suit so that it wouldn't show her condition and give her a bit more protection.
"I'm telling you, your time is running out," Kennedi argued as they entered. Kira was the only one confused as to what they were talking about. "And if you miss it, I will hurt you."
"Will you chill out about it?" Conner huffed. "I have everything figured out."
"And that's what worries me," Kennedi stated.
Ethan cut them off by speaking to the computer genius in the room. "What's up Hayley? Where's Dr. O?"
"Yeah," Kira agreed. "Not like we'd be able to see him if he was here."
"Hey guys," Tommy spoke from where he was using the gym equipment. They turned to see it moving up and down and watched as he stopped and picked up a towel and water bottle. "Hey, Dr. O," Conner started. "No offense, but what's the point of building your biceps if no one's going to see them?"
"Well, that's the reason why I called you here," Tommy replied. "Hayley found a way to bring me back to normal."
"Well that's great," Kennedi commented.
"What are we waiting for?" Ethan agreed. "Let's do it."
Hayley made her way to the front of the group. "Hold on, everybody. Tommy, I told you, I think the remolecularizer may make you visible again, but I haven't found a power source strong enough for it yet."
"I've been thinking about that," Tommy picked up a black box with the team logo on it. He handed it to Hayley. "Maybe we should use this." The red head took it and opened it, not believing what she saw inside.
"No way," she denied as the others spotted the black dino gem. "Forget it."
"We gotta try something," Tommy argued. "My dino gem is the most powerful source of energy we have."
"Powerful being the operative word," Hayley protested. "I have no idea how your body will react to it. It's way too risky."
"Hayley, we don't have a choice," Tommy pointed out.
Once everything was set up, Hayley found herself covering the science teacher with a blanket as the man lied on a table, ready to become visible again. Kira and Ethan held electrodes in their hands, ready to stick them onto the teacher and connect him to the machine. Kennedi and Conner stood a bit of ways away, watching from afar.
"For the record," Hayley brought it up once more. "I still think this is a bad idea."
"And for the record, I agree with Hayley," Kira added.
"Don't worry," Tommy assured. "I'll be fine." Ethan and Kira stuck the devices on him carefully.
"See you soon Dr. O," the blue ranger sighed. "Literally, I hope."
Hayley inserted the dino gem into the machine. "Okay…" with Tommy's confirmation, she set it fully in. "Initiating sequence." The five people stood back, watching.
"Is everything okay?" Kennedi wondered, looking to the red head.
"It's overloading," Hayley realized as the machine began making strange sounds. They could tell Tommy's body was rapidly twitching on the table as the blanket thrashed about. The machine continued sparking.
"What's happening?" Conner demanded, curious.
"The energy attenuator's shut down," Hayley responded. "He's receiving full current." The machine blew a fuse and everything stopped. Hayley flipped the power switch, making sure it wouldn't randomly start up again. She looked into the machine. "His dino gem's destroyed." They ran over to the table as Tommy became visible again. Seeing as he wasn't awake, they grew worried.
"Tommy?" Hayley called, shaking him a bit. "Tommy? Can you hear me?"
The man didn't move a muscle.
After realizing there was nothing more they could do at the dino lab, Hayley made arrangements for him to be set up in a hospital room, where he was declared comatose. Hayley stood on one side of the bed as the other four teens stood on the other. Tommy had been hooked up to a couple machines to help him along, and they couldn't exactly tell why he wasn't snapping out of it.
"What's wrong with him doctor?" Hayley asked Dr. Walsh, the man who had been assigned to Tommy's case.
"I have no idea Hayley," he looked at his clipboard of notes. "Well, his vitals are stable, but his brain patterns are wildly erratic."
"Can you get him out of it?" Kira wondered.
"We're trying," he explained. "But he's not responding to anything."
Ethan frowned. "But he's gonna be okay, right?"
"I'm not gonna lie to you," he held his clipboard by his side and looked at them. "The longer he stays like this, the more at risk he is."
"Thanks Dr. Walsh," Kennedi thanked, seeing as no one else was going to.
"Your friend's gonna get the best care possible," Dr. Walsh assured. He walked out of the room, leaving to check on other patients.
"Breaking News,"the TV interrupted before anyone else could speak. All their attention turned to the screen. "The city is under attack by a terrifying creature! Citizens are advised to stay indoors until further notice."
"I'll stay with him," Hayley looked at the younger four.
"We'll be back as soon as we can," Conner nodded before he, Ethan, Kira, and Kennedi left the room to go fight the monster.
The fight against the new version of the Terrorsaurus was far from pleasant. Just as before, he was brutal and ruthless. Trent had managed to come help him, but it didn't really do much. With enough hits, the Terrorsaurus had managed to cause them to lose their morph. He vanished not long after. Once the rangers recovered enough to stand, they grouped together, having a brief conversation with Cassidy and Devin before returning to the hospital to check on their teammate. When they got there, they noticed Kim was standing and talking with Hayley. The woman seemed to be upset a bit, but understanding of the situation.
"There's no change," Hayley reported, the doctor having been in to tell her the same thing moments before.
"I wish there was something we could do," Kira bit her lip. "I feel completely helpless."
"Dr. Oliver's pretty tough, Kira," Conner stated. "I mean, he gave me a C minus on my term paper."
"He was being generous," Kennedi smirked. Conner shot a quick glare in her direction.
Once again, the TV interrupted the conversations. "Breaking News. The creature is back!"
"I had a feeling he'd be back," Ethan grumbled.
"There's nothing we can do about it," Trent pointed out.
"Where are the power rangers?"
Kira looked at her sister, already knowing what she was starting to think. Seeing an all too familiar look that Kennedi had developed ever since she became a ninja, Kira groaned. "Ken, don't you dare…"
"Too late," Kennedi replied, rushing out of the room before they could stop her. Kira moved to follow her.
"I swear she's going to get herself killed one of these days," she grumbled. She paused at the door and turned to the guys. "Come on, guys! We can't let her fight that thing alone."
Without hesitation, the guys followed her out.
Hayley didn't stop them.
Kennedi found herself standing in the middle of the quarry, facing the Terrorsaurus alone. She knew her friends were following her, but she wasn't going to wait for them to catch up. None of them could morph, but Kennedi could at least help distract him with her other powers. That and they all still had the powers of their dino gems. The others caught up with her rather quickly, arriving only moments after she did and a bit more out of breath. Then again, she had practically ninja streaked toward the quarry.
"All right freak," Conner breathed, glaring at the thing. "We're gonna stop you right here and now!"
"Tough talk from a bunch of powerless rangers," Terrorsaurus smirked.
Without wasting another minute, the five rushed the monster. It was no surprise that most of them didn't last long without their powers, but they kept getting back up and giving it their best shot. For Kennedi, this reminded her of the final battle against Lothor. Someone was thrown back and someone else jumped in. One hit sent them all to the ground at one point. However, they quickly got up and charged again.
"This is pathetic," Terrorsaurus snorted.
"Then what do you say we kick it up a notch?" Kennedi stood after they had all been knocked down again. She was glad she had years of ninja training under her belt.
"Ha!" Terrorsaurus scoffed, amused. "What could one tiny girl like you possibly do to me?" Kennedi's eyes narrowed and the field grew tense.
Conner turned to Kira, still unable to stand. "Full ninja mode?"
"Oh yeah," Kira confirmed.
They watched as Kennedi moved her arms faster than they had all seen before, bringing out a bright orange light. When the brightness faded, an orange lynx was charging the Terrorsaurus, who was too baffled to even do anything. Kennedi's movements directed the movements of the lynx as it attacked, the dirty blonde figuring keeping a distance would be best at the moment. When the monster finally broke free from the lynx, Kennedi called it back. Following that, she lit her fists on fire and prepared herself for when the monster charged.
As Kira and Conner expected, Kennedi knew what she was doing. While Trent and Ethan had seen the orange ranger fight before, knowing full well she was capable of handling herself in battle, they were not expecting this. They had never seen her ninja powers being used before, so this was a bit awesome to them. The more she fought, the more the flames on her hands grew. Unfortunately, the monster managed to get a hit that sent her flying back. Being the graceful ninja she was, she managed to land on her feet. When she faced him again, no one expected what came next.
Kennedi thrust forward, almost as if she was delivering a ptera scream. The rangers expected the scream, but they did not expect the flames that came shooting out of her mouth as well. When the flames and scream hit the monster, he was knocked back far and fell down. Kennedi stopped as she began to feel slightly lightheaded. Kira managed to stand in time to catch her as the girl fell.
"What the hell was that?" Ethan demanded as they all gathered around the girls.
"No idea," Kennedi smirked. "But it was cool as hell! Left me a bit lightheaded, though."
"You've done plenty," Conner assured as the Terrorsaurus got back to his feet.
Before they could do anything else, Tommy came out of nowhere and kicked him away, standing protectively in front of his students.
"Dr. O!" Conner cheered as they spotted their teacher alive and well and normal. They all stood up, Kennedi leaning on her sister a bit.
"You're alive!" Kira blinked.
"Not for long!" Terrorsaurus drew the attention back to him.
Tommy raised his wrist, calling his morpher. "Dino Thunder, Power Up!"
"Big deal," the monster rolled his eyes. He fired at Tommy, only for the black ranger to jump, avoid the hit, and start kicking him back. Tommy knocked the Terrorsaurus off the edge of the cliff they were on. He ran to the ledge and looked down.
"Super Dino Mode!" His suit transformed into the same the others did when they were in Super Dino Mode.
"When did he get Super Dino powers?" Conner looked to his other four teammates.
"I don't know," Ethan shrugged. "But he picked a good time to bust 'em out."
Tommy jumped over the ledge and landed in front of the Terrorsaurus, ready to fight.
The fight done for the day, the rangers found themselves in the dino lab. Tommy was alive and well, perfectly visible and normal again. Kim was in the lab with them. The rangers had managed to get their powers back to take down the monster for good. Upon arriving at the lab, the five younger rangers began firing questions at Tommy rapidly, trying to get the full story on what happened and how he managed to get out of the coma. After quieting them down, he explained.
"Okay, let me get this straight," Ethan summarized once the black ranger finished. "Three of your old ranger powers came to you in a dream?"
"And you had to fight them to get your life back?" Conner added quickly. Once more, the teens started rapidly talking. Kim giggled a bit.
"Guys," Tommy cut them off. They quieted down and let him talk. "I just want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart, for hanging in there with me through all this. It was tough, but you guys came through. It means a lot to me."
"He's right," Kim added, her arm around Tommy's shoulders. "You should be really proud of yourselves." Conner sniffled a bit, causing them to turn to him.
"Are you crying?" Ethan frowned.
"No," Conner denied.
Kennedi smirked. "Oh you so are!"
"We're just really glad to have you back Dr. O," Conner shot her a glare.
A/N: Here's the end of this chapter. What'll happen next?