Chapter Five

Tommy

The sun shone brightly overhead as Tommy fought through the metallic enemies at the park. It felt like he had been there for ages, but it was hard to tell.

"Growing more weary?" the old man called out to him.

Tommy jumped and spun in the air, completing a tornado kick that shot one minion back many feet and into a tree.

He was down to three enemies. Soon, he would get his answers.

"No way." Tommy snarled as he surged forward to bash the heads of two enemies together. This seemed to daze the two and he watched as they fell to the ground and disappeared.

One more to go.

"Have you ever considered that perhaps Kimberly doesn't want to be found?"

Tommy chuckled. "I think I know Kimberly a little bit better than you."

Finally, with a severe hammerfist that brought the last minion down to his knees, Tommy then threw his knee forward to smash into its face. The metal enemy disappeared in silence.

Tommy turned slowly to face the old man once again. "I met your terms, now give me what I asked for."

Fury lined the man's face, but then he shook his head. "I am nothing if not a man of honor. I will give you what you need to hear."

Raising his wooden staff, the man pointed at a spot between the two of them on the grass. Light careened forward and created what looked like a massive, floating white orb. Once it formed, it was as though the darkest clouds converged across the sun. When Tommy looked up, the sky grew darker and darker back into night.

The white orb continued to glow with an inner light and it swallowed Tommy's vision completely.

"All you have to do is ask." the man explained, bringing is staff back to his side.

Somehow, Tommy understood what the old man meant.

"Show me Kimberly." he murmured, clenching his gloved fists.

There was a brighter flash from within the orb and many colors began to appear and wash over each other. Most of the colors then filtered away leaving only enough to create an image.

There, standing tall in what looked like a purple gown, stood Kimberly. There was dirt on her face and on some of her dress.

Tommy peeled his eyes away to glance quickly at the old man. "What's happened to her? Where is she?"

"Your Kimberly is the captive of my King's worst enemy. She is so far unharmed, but it is only getting more dangerous for her to remain with them." The old man said, staring hard at the orb.

"Ok, well...how do I get there?" Tommy demanded, watching the image of Kimberly shimmer before him. It was the first time he had seen her in months and it felt like he was a man in a desert finding an oasis.

"I cannot bring you to their doorstep. If that were possible, this war between our two nations would be over by now." the man said, sounding somewhat sad.

Tommy couldn't care less about the man's feelings or his country. He needed to get to where Kimberly was being held and he needed to bring her home.

"Where can you bring me?" Tommy finally asked when the old man didn't go on.

"I can bring you to my home in my country. From there you can sneak to the Felled Kingdom and find your lost love."

For the first time, Tommy was beginning to regret not packing a bit more for this trip to the park.

Noticing the look on Tommy's face, the old man snickered. "We leave now or not at all."

There was no time to run home for belongings or to tell his parents some excuse as to why he was leaving. It would be like many of the other journeys away from home that he had taken as a Ranger.

But this time the journey would be his alone. He hoped that his friends would understand.

Tommy let a low breath loose through his mouth. "I'm ready."

"Alright then, Tommy." The man waved his staff before him and the orb disappeared. The darkness seemed to collapse around them both as it left.

Before Tommy could say anything further, the old man reached his staff forward and tapped the center of Tommy's chest.

Instantaneously, a deep thump barreled through him. His heart began to slow along with his breathing and Tommy tried hard not to panic. For a moment, he thought maybe he had fallen into a trap with this man.

Again seeming to read his mind, the old man gave a long, raspy laugh. "If I had wanted you dead, Ranger, it would have already been done. Now, hold on…"

A chaotic roaring was building in Tommy's ears and he felt the darkness close in on all of his senses.

He felt the ground beneath him disappear and he had the awareness that he was now falling from a great height.

"I'll see you on the other side!" the old man called down after him.

Tommy was falling so quickly that he was terrified that he would hit the ground with too much speed. Even his Ranger suit wouldn't be enough to protect him from that.

After some time, the sensation of falling began to slow and Tommy could feel that his body was suspended in the air. Without ordering it to, his Ranger suit shutdown and disappeared. Where he seemed to float was still pitch black, but he felt warm and safe.

Well, safe from falling at the moment. Traveling to another world wasn't exactly the least stressful thing to go through.

Tommy nearly jumped when he felt solid ground beneath his sneakers. Feeling the weight of his own body once again, he felt very heavy. He couldn't be sure if it was the general gravity of wherever he had ended up or if he was just getting used to standing on his own two feet again.

Very, very slowly, the light began to lift from the ground up and over Tommy. Blinking wildly, he noticed that he was in a tiny room. Before him was what looked like a door and light was filtering in all around its edges.

"He's here!" a small voice yelled from the other side of the door.

Tommy frowned. That voice sounded like the opposite of an old man.

The door swung open and Tommy flinched at the instant sunlight that hit his face. Standing there was a young boy around five years old.

"Whoa, you're tall!" the boy said, eyes widening. "Granpop said you were taller than him but you're way taller than him!"

"Wren!"

The boy cringed and looked behind him. Stepping into the light was a woman dressed in a long, black wool dress. Over her front was a bright white apron that didn't have a speck of dirt or food on it.

"Granpop told me to look out for the Red Ranger." the boy said, looking at the floor.

"Yes, but don't scare the poor lad!" the woman chastised. She then looked up to meet Tommy's eyes. "I'm sorry about that, sir. Sometimes my son can get a bit ahead of himself."

The woman then smiled and held out a hand to Tommy. Considering his options, he decided to maintain civility and shook her hand.

"Sorry, I seem to have landed in a…" Tommy looked back. "A closet."

The woman giggled. "Yes, we felt it safest to transport you somewhere discreet. My father will be here soon. Come! Let's get you settled in."

Kimberly

Kimberly's new rooms were larger than the first. Unfortunately, the downside was that there were no windows.

"It is for the best that you stay in quarters that are far from the possibility of an attack." The Queen explained when she escorted Kim to her new chambers.

The shining, brilliant feeling that Kimberly had with her new powers was steadily disappearing. She had powered down from her new Ranger suit shortly after leaving the throne room. With her suit gone, Kimberly felt an emptiness that brought her back to earth. Well, back to her circumstances, at least.

She had been left to settle into the suite and Kimberly felt loneliness and fear creep in.

What were her parents thinking now that she had been gone for so long? They would have expected her to call in soon after she was taken. Kimberly bet that they were totally freaking out.

And what about Tommy? What must he be thinking? Was he worried about her?

Imagining what it would be like if their roles had been reversed, Kimberly knew that she would be losing her mind right now.

She walked from her new bed over to examine a beautiful colored tapestry that was slung across the majority of one stone wall. It depicted a large, black stone island that was covered in a variety of animals. The sea around the rocky land was filled with even more wildlife.

"Hmm." a male voice said from behind Kimberly.

She spun with a gasp. Seeing who it was, Kim snapped, "Rory! I swear to god...keep scaring me. I have some new powers I would love to test out!"

Rory slapped a hand to his chest and took two steps back, as though he had been physically wounded. "Please, Lady Hart. I couldn't bear it if you asked me to fight."

Kimberly blew out a loud sigh that rustled her bangs.

Rory grinned. "You were certainly impressive this morning. The Blue Amethyst suits you."

"Is there something that you want, Rory, or do you just like to bother people?" Kimberly demanded.

"Hmm...both? I'll say both."

Kimberly rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at her chest. "Fine. What do you want?"

Laughter was still buoyant in Rory's eyes. "Firstly, you do realize that your rooms are larger than mine? That's quite the praise for someone without noble birth."

"Maybe they just always wanted a daughter instead of their annoying son."

Rory snorted. "I have two sisters, thank you very much. You'll be meeting them in due course."

"Fine. Whatever." Kim growled, "What do you want?"

"I'm here to let you know that from now on you'll be dining with my family for lunch and dinner. Also, tomorrow we begin training."

Oh, right. Training the special forces.

"How many people am I expected to train? And where?" Kim asked.

"If my numbers are correct, three hundred."

"Three...three hundred?" Kim gasped, "That can't be right. That's...that's way too many. I don't even know if I can train a few people…"

"You sound unsure of yourself."

"And you sound insane!"

Rory frowned, stepping closer to her. "I'll tell you what: come to training tomorrow not looking like you're unprepared and we'll all see what we can do."

Kim made an involuntary step back. "What exactly is the expectation for me in training all these people? To what end? To fight back in this war that no one seems to talk about?"

That gave Rory pause. His green eyes didn't leave her face as he asked softly, "What do you want to know about the war?"

"Everything!" Kimberly lunged at the question. "I need to know what I'm up against before I can be sure about training soldiers."

"My father won't like this," Rory said, putting a hand through his dark hair. "But you're right. You do deserve to know everything,"

Kim caught herself before she pressed the boy more. It sounded like he was finally going to give the information that she needed.

There was a beat of silence.

"Well?" Kim asked.

"Can we sit? It's a long story."

"Ugh, fine." she replied, walking over to a large oak table with enough chairs for eight. Sitting down, Kim looked up to where Rory was still standing. Her eyebrows lifted when he didn't move.

"You have to invite me to sit at the table." Rory said with a half grin.

Kimberly wanted to bang her head on the table. "Oh, right. I have to invite you to the table, but come into my room whenever you want."

"Close enough." Rory said cheerily, pulling out a chair and sitting down beside Kim.

Kimberly rolled her eyes again.

"You do that a lot with your eyes." Rory noted.

"Yeah. It's the Earth symbol for 'I'm over it'."

"Huh. Interesting." he said.

"I swear if you don't start talking-"

"Alright, alright. Here we go..."