Disclaimer: No Ownership of Rangers Here
A/N: For the record, this whole things was to have Dr O meet Dr K. I think Dr O can call it a win.
Ethan found Flynn the next morning making breakfast, "Hi," he said cautiously. He tugged at his borrowed shirt, "I guess I should thank you for the clothes."
Flynn smiled at him, "Good morning, Ethan, and you're welcome. It's the least I could do after yesterday."
Ethan smiled, "It wasn't anything the other Rangers couldn't have done you know."
"But you did it," Flynn said. He regarded the bowel he had been adding things to and picked up a spoon.
Ethan shrugged, "That's how it works. With so many rangers we can't pay back, but we can pay it forward and help the next group." He crossed his arms, and then uncrossed them, "Can I help in any way?"
"I've got it," Flynn said, "but thank you. I'm used to making breakfast while Scott and Summer are doing their cardio. It's nice to have a moment of peace."
"And I'm disrupting that, I'm sorry," Ethan said. He pulled out one of the stools and sat down, crossing his arms and resting them on the counter.
"It's quite all right," Flynn said. "I don't mind being interrupted. At least with you, I don't have to slap a lid on breakfast and head off to fight grinders and probably an attack 'bot."
"Right," Ethan said, he watched Flynn finish stirring his mixture and then pull out a frying pan. "What do you do all day, do you work or something?"
"Being a Ranger is my job," Flynn replied, "all three of us are just Rangers. We train a lot, between the Zord Attack Vehicles and the weapons and our specific abilities, there's a lot to master. Today, for instance, we have our weekly synchronization session and Scott's car needs a tune up and an oil change, not to mention daily cardio and weight training."
"Wow," Ethan replied, "we trained, but not like that. The Power gave us all the knowledge, we just had to adjust. Not to mention Kira, Conner, Trent and I were high school students and Dr O was our science teacher."
"I couldn't imagine being a Ranger and going to high school," Flynn replied as he pulled bread out of a bread box and opened it. "I have a hard enough time keeping our cars in shape and learning some about the work Dr K does."
Ethan shrugged, "Well, the Elders all were students, so Dr O's old teammates taught us some tricks. Lightspeed, Time Force and Wild Force were all adults and being Rangers was their primary job. Cam and the others were ninja students and Dustin, Hunter and Blake had jobs as well. Mystic Force, the group after us, Chip's group, they all had full time jobs and some of them went to the local community college; Operation Overdrive was another group of twenty-some things, and Jungle Fury's group, well, they weren't in traditional high schools. I know Theo had a G.E.D. and I think Lily did too, but Casey had his diploma. I'm not sure about RJ, but Dom would probably know."
"You know a lot about the Rangers," Flynn commented as he began to toast the bread.
Ethan shrugged, "We're a family, Flynn, one of the downsides is that we hear all the stories. I swear, TJ's pizza story is one of the worst. The only thing I can think of that is worse is having Marah and Kapri in a closed environment with Dustin and Chip."
"Who are Marah and Kapri?" Flynn asked.
"Cam's cousins," Ethan said, and then shrugged, "sort of. They were Lothor's nieces by marriage who switched sides after Lothor left them for dead. I don't have much to do with them because Kapri is off world a lot, working with Rocky on Javor and I'm not sure what Marah's doing."
"She works for Kelly," Dustin said, looking for all the world like he wasn't even amused at Ethan's rather impressive acrobatics as the blue struggled not to fall off his stool in shock. "Ever since Storm Charger's got a second store, Kelly has needed the help and Marah's not as dumb as people think."
"Dustin," Ethan said, finally straight on his stool, "Don't sneak up on people, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I'm not a ninja you know."
Dustin shrugged slightly, "Technically, I'm not either," he said with a shrug.
"What does that mean?" Ethan asked.
"I graduated from the Academy not long after we dealt with Lothor," Dustin said, "I followed tradition and taught for a year, moved to Georgia and set to work completing my degree at Georgia Tech after a rather impressive blow up between me, Shane and Tori about my education choices. Although I am, and will always be, an Earth Master, I'm not really a ninja because I'm not affiliated with the Academies anymore."
"Oh," Ethan said.
The three of them turned as the Garage doors began to open; Summer and Scott, followed by Conner and Hunter, walked in. "Morning," Scott said as they headed across the room.
"Good morning," Ethan and Dustin replied in unison.
"Morning," Flynn added a beat behind them; "breakfast should be ready by the time everyone is done showering."
"Thanks," Summer said as they all headed up stairs.
"You don't run with them?" Dustin asked.
"No," Flynn replied and began to pull plates from a dish drying rack. "Scott and Summer depend more on speed and agility in fighting so they use running as a way to keep trim. I'm not a runner, but I do use gymnastics to keep me agile and as my cardio. I also do more strength training than they do." He put food on two of the plates and slid them in front of Dustin and Ethan, "I hope we have enough eating space," he said. "That was the one thing we left out of the redesign."
"We'll manage," Dustin replied and took a bit. "This is excellent."
"Thank you," Flynn said, blushing slightly as he brought his own breakfast over.
As they ate quietly, they began to hear voices above them, until one emerged a clearer than the others, "Hey, Summer," Kira asked, "Why are there socks…"
"You don't want to know," Summer interrupted her smoothly.
Dustin and Ethan exchanged glances and looked at Flynn, who was now nearly as red as the plate he stared at as if it would tell him all the secrets of the universe if he waited long enough.
A rumbling groan heralded the opening of the garage doors and two minivans rolled into the garage and parked. "Who is that?" Ethan asked.
From one van emerged Charlie and from the other was an older man with salt and pepper gray hair. "Good morning Charlie," Flynn called, "is everything all right?"
"Fine," Charlie replied, "morning Ethan, Dustin."
"Chip," they said in unison.
Ethan studied the older man, wondering where he'd seen him before. He was dressed in black pants, a dark green sweater vest and a white button down and with his black, square framed glasses; Ethan knew he'd seen the man before. "It's been a while, Ethan," the man said with a smile as he walked into the kitchen.
"Dr O?" Ethan asked.
"Yes," Dr O replied. "Just out of curiosity, didn't anyone tell you that the list wasn't a bucket list?"
Ethan grinned, "That's Trent's goal, not mine sir."
"What list?" Dustin asked.
"The list of things that can only happen to Tommy Oliver," Dr O said with a sigh.
Ethan turned, "Flynn, this is one of the greatest Rangers to ever serve, Dr Tommy Oliver. He served as the first green ranger, the first white ranger, the third red ranger and then as our mentor as the black ranger. Billy may have served the longest in a single color and Adam served on almost as long, but nobody has ever served in as many colors and as long as Dr O ever did."
Flynn had paled with every word Ethan said, "Look," Dr O said, "I'm just a regular guy, point in fact, I'm a paleontologist and a high school science teacher. You don't have to act like I'm the second coming or anything." He turned slightly to look at Ethan, "I just came by because, like Charlie, I have a van and we volunteered to take the Dinos and the Ninjas shopping so you can train."
"Ok," Flynn said faintly.
"Flynn," Scott said, "are you ok?" He shouldered past Dr O to stand beside his teammate, hand reaching out but not quite making contact with the blue ranger's elbow.
"Fine," Flynn said.
"Morning Scott," Dr O said.
Scott jerked, "Dr Oliver, what are you doing here?"
"Since I mentored Ethan and his teammates and I drive a van I sort of volunteered to take them clothes shopping," Dr O said. "Since I was busy last night and couldn't stop by the party."
"Trent did say you knew them," Scott said, mostly to himself. "Did you know they were Power Rangers?"
Ethan snorted, Dustin bit his lip and both very carefully did not look at each other. "Well," Dr O said, "I won't say it was something they kept as a secret from me."
Ethan caught Dustin's eye and they burst into laughter, even Flynn managed a weak chuckle. "What's so funny?" Conner asked as he and Hunter wandered into the kitchen, "Is there anything to eat?"
Flynn slid off his stool and began to dish up breakfast. Ethan turned pointedly away from Dustin and calmed himself. "Scott just asked," Dustin said, "if Dr O knew we were Power Rangers."
"Of course he did," Conner said, "it was his fault in the first place."
The room feel silent except for the scrap of the spatula in the frying pan and the faint hum from the computer servers as the K screen in the briefing room came on. "Did we miss something?" Kira asked as she and Summer came off the stairs.
"Conner put his foot in his mouth," Dustin offered, standing up. "And no one told Scott who Dr O is." He moved through the standing Rangers to put his plate in the sink. "Flynn, breakfast was excellent, I complement you on your skills."
"Thank you," Flynn said.
Dustin then moved back through the group, throwing Kira a significant look before he walked over to join Charlie.
"I'm still confused," Scott said, "what was so funny?"
"Dr Oliver," Ethan said as he took his plate to the sink, "is one of the original rangers. He served as green, white and red before passing the Power to TJ Johnson. He later took on the black Dino Thunder Power. He's one of the rangers we see as legendary because no one has served as long or in as many colors on Earth." He leaned against the sink to watch as Summer and Scott reacted.
Summer flushed slightly and bit her lip, looking over at Scott, who nodded once. "All right," Scott said, "I understand." He brushed one hand over his jeans and offered it to Dr O, "Welcome to the Garage, Dr Oliver."
Dr O smiled and shook his hand, "Thank you," he said and glanced around, "I think I could be justified in saying this place beats the Lair hands down, but I also have to say that the Power Chamber and the Command Center were more advanced."
"I fail to see how the buildings utilized by the Rangers in the nineties could possibly be superior to what we can achieve today," Dr K said, making all of them jump. "The advances in technology alone would imply superiority to what you once worked with."
Dr O eyed the K screen for a moment, "You must be Dr K," he said. "Hailey's mentioned you. And yes, in terms of the Lair, this place does have superior technology seeing as the Lair was built using Earth based technology with exception to the communications unit I maintained to keep in contact with friends and allies on other planets. The Power Chamber, and to a lesser extent the Command Center are still superior because they had been constructed by and with Eltarean equipment and upgraded every five years with the latest advancements. This is because of a treaty that is a key component to the founding of the Galactic Defense Pact and Ranger Accords. Any world with a rating of Level Three technology or less that is either a strategic target or possesses supernatural or natural worth to the degree that it is at risk of being targeted by the Alliance may be given the technology to create a Ranger team, but no other technology can be given. Earth has several interesting factors, not the least being that it is one of the rare planets that have access alternate and pocket dimensions with next to no effort on a sorcerer's part. Examples of this are the Nemesis Triangle, where Maligore was once imprisoned and the Desert of Sorrows where Ninjor's Temple resides. Also, the Moon was the location for the sanctuary of the Zeo Crystal until we Rangers had need of its power and quested for it." He crossed his arms, "I've seen some amazing things being built by Earth since 1993 and I've done my part in creating technology needed by Earth. In fact, by now, I wouldn't be surprised to see that we're edging into Class Four level technology, given Cam's work on teleportation and your own work with bio-electric energy fields and combing the energy with the Power. In the end though, American ingenuity and Japanese technology still fall short of the technology Eltare and other planets consider standard."
Ethan glanced at Conner and Kira, who shared grins; it was always nice to see Dr O shut someone down. "I see," Dr K said. "Interesting that you know about my work, Dr Oliver; I would not have thought that a paleontologist would understand it."
Dr O laughed, "Maybe not, but I am a Power Ranger and once you started accessing the Grid we all sat up and took notice."
"Perhaps we should make time to meet and discuss this," Dr K said.
"Ask Hailey, that is, Dr Kendall," Dr O said, "In the meantime, I believe that we have errands to run and your team has training."
"Indeed." Dr K said.
"But I haven't had breakfast yet," Conner protested.
"Hurry," Dr O replied shortly.