The Ranger's Initiative

by Lawliet Veneziano

After many years of being protectors now the Rangers are being hunted, and the only ones who can save them are a mismatched and unlikely group. But with the public against them, the military after them, and even their own wanting them taken in, can a group of mismatched ex-Rangers really save the world and their friends? Or will they fail even to save themselves?

13. New Stars Are Born

Three months later...

Billy cleared his throat, shuffling his feet. He didn't really want to do this, it wasn't something he was really comfortable doing. Once upon a time he'd been able to handle crowds, talk about science, inventions, all sorts of things, but that was a long time ago. And this wasn't about the things he loved and enjoyed, or even liked in the bit. This was different, this was difficult.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment and felt a hand on his shoulder; he nearly jumped, looking over with wide eyes at the face of RJ who smiled gently at him and patted him gently. "It's fine, Billy, I got your back."

"Then perhaps you'd like to do the honors?" he asked meekly, trying to force a smile.

The other man chuckled lightly and turned to the collected forces. "Everyone here? Good; then we better get this started. Let's begin with the usual."

"Do we really need to?" said a voice and Billy looked over to see Hunter, looking exhausted; he wasn't the only one, even Billy felt it too, in every bone, every fiber of his body. It felt like he was going to collapse at any moment, held up by sheer willpower and determination. And he was certain that more than a few of them felt the same, propped up against the tables in the cafeteria area. Tyler was standing against a wall, one of the few who weren't sitting down, and Billy glanced at him before looking over at Hunter.

"It is for our own benefit that we make sure we are aware of any potential changes in the status-quo," he said softly.

Hunter didn't respond and RJ started up again, "First off the current state of things: There are currently twenty-five active free Power Rangers that we are aware of; good news, fifteen of them are us, the Renegades."

"Hunter and Laura Bradley, Billy Cranston, Tommy Oliver, Abby Navarro-Phillips, Lauren Shiba, Merrick and Lana Baliton, RJ Finn, Annie Creed, Tori Hanson, Kira Ford, Andros of KO-35, Trent Fernandez," Kira chirped off, reciting it like it was burned into her memory; she paused, hesitating before continuing, glancing over to where a certain person was sitting, head in his hands as she continued, "And Zack Taylor."

The room was silent for the moment. The revelation, though months old at this point, still hung heavy over most of them; it had been a week following the Courthouse Battle, when he had come to Andros and the others, revealing that what Tsuki had done hadn't just effected the ones who had been empowered by the Morphing Grid here. It had also restored his memory and reminded him of who he had been once, before the government had grabbed him and locked him away, before the Renegades had found him. None of them had expected for him to say he was the Black Ranger of a different team, of a different world, that his teammates were named Jason and Kim and Trini and Billy and that his mentor had been an alien in a wall named Zordon. That there had been a robot named Alpha-5, that their enemy was named Rita; Billy, Abby and Tommy, they had been speechless, left without a clue how to handle it. Billy tried science, tried to reason it out with what he did know and what he could understand; alternative worlds, an alternative Zack. He was different than theirs, that wild dancer who always seemed to know how to make them laugh, that good natured boy that Billy hadn't seen in so long; he didn't even know if he was still alive at this point but he knew this Zack was. And different as he was, the blue couldn't deny the similarities in the ways they laughed, the way they smiled. There was no denying either when he morphed in front of him, taking on strange looking black armor but somehow still very much the form of a Power Ranger. Zack had had no answer for how he got there; all he knew was that one day he'd been with his team in their Angel Grove, hanging out after detention in the normal place in the quarry, and next thing he knew he was aching all over and there were people all around him, yelling and hitting him and he had no idea what was going on or even who he was. Until Tsuki beseeched the Morphing Grid and things came back; why he was there, why he lost his memory, why anything had happened, he didn't know and it was clear that even now not everyone trusted that, but as far as Billy or Tommy or RJ were concerned, he was one of them and as trusted as any of them.

"Guilty as charged," the boy piped up, his tone less energetic than it had been known to be; Billy couldn't blame him considering what he'd been up to.

"The bad news is the ten known Power Rangers actively assisting the government," Billy spoke, clearing his throat; he pressed up his glasses and glanced over his notes in his hands, "Alongside Jason Scott, red of my ex-team the Mighty Morphin, and Taylor Earhardt, the yellow of Merrick's team, we have confirmed the identities of all six Lightspeed Rangers including both Mitchell siblings, as well as that Wesley Collins of the Time Force team is collaborating with them and in addition Rocky DeSantos is assisting them."

"The other Mighty Morphin red," Kira said softly, "Jason's successor."

Billy didn't respond and RJ nodded. "Yes, unfortunately it looks like the Mighty Morphin Red Rangers are both on the side of the government. As it is we're not sure where Adam is, the successor to this universe's Zack, but the rest of the Mighty Morphin Rangers in this timeline are unhappily accounted for. Save for of course the three with us."

The blue gave a weak smile and looked towards where the others were; Abby was practically dead on her feet though she stood by Tyler, silent but watching. Tommy said nothing, though it wasn't like Billy expected him too. For the last three months the man had been much quieter than he'd ever known him to be, focused on their current missions almost like a man possessed; he didn't need to ask to know what that was about, and he certainly didn't want to talk about it either.

Yet RJ continued onto it. "In addition there is the case of the unconscious ones; Billy?"

"Dustin Brooks appears to be recovering well," he picked up, adjusting his glasses, "His vitals are showing promise but I cannot yet make an educated guess to when he will regain consciousness; still we can hopefully remove him from the cryostasis within a fortnight. A-as for Tsukkuyomi Kokuryuu," he hesitated, finding it hard to speak for a moment before shaking his head, "her vital signs are showing minimal evidence of any level of deterioration, and her brainwaves register high levels of beta waves despite being in a deep state of stage 3 NREM slumber. Examination of the matter that regularly materializes to encircle her immediate space has brought me to hypothesize that they are indeed morphological apparatuses, deeming it reasonable to insinuate that she is indeed currently the physical manifestation of the Morphing Grid as of yet."

"And Karone and Anton?" said a new voice and Andros seemed to be looking at them, eyes stuck to Billy.

The blue shuffled again and took a deep breath. "Anton Mercer and Karone have shown no evidence of either waking or having done lasting damage to their bodies. They too show abnormal levels of beta activity despite their own deep NREM state. Upon discovering that, I did tests and found some rather...unsettling results."

"What kind of results?"

Billy bit his lip and turned to RJ; despite the man's slacker look and laidback demeanor, he had proven to be an impressive scientist in his own right. The violet nodded, a sad sort of smile on his face. "Based on what Billy found, and I helped him check, it would seem that the Incident not only awoke the Rangers powers within us, and within Karone, but woke up the villains inside them."

"There is no villain in my father!" Trent snapped, clenching his fists tight; the boy had not been looking good the past few weeks and the exertion of exclaiming that caused his already sickly face to blanch more. Kira moved to try to touch his back, soothe him but he waved her away and tried to continue, "My father is not a bad guy...not anymore..."

"Mesagog and Anton were separated," Tommy finally spoke, speaking in a flat tone that seemed cold coming from him.

"I am aware," Billy responded, "It is hard to quantify the data we collected properly; both Astronema and Mesogog were eliminated years ago, but upon close examination of both Anton and Karone, it was clear that both are existent again."

RJ nodded. "It was harder to tell with Karone but we realized something was weird when Billy was looking at Anton's DNA. There were strange ongoing mutations and when he compared it to the data you had from your Dino Thunder days, the stuff about what Anton had originally done to himself that created Mesogog, it was eerily similar. Far as we can tell there might have been a latent mutation somewhere in the RNA; it wasn't dangerous until something happened to activate it and then..."

"Then we got a dino monster waiting to happen," Andros said, to which RJ nodded; the space red bit his lip, "And my sister?"

"We hypothesized that Anton was not the only one to have a villainous side be resurrected and after we did some tests on your sister, we found our hypothesis confirmed," replied the blue, "She emits dangerous levels of dark energy, leading us to assume that Astronema's magic was restoring itself inside her."

"But Karone was Astronema; it's not like they were different people," Andros said furrowing his brow, "Save for when she was brainwashed near the end, my sister was my sister. Why..."

"We thought she was probably dealing with something like Anton because of how we found them," RJ interjected and Andros froze up; he rubbed his head, "They administered some strong sedatives to each other, and it didn't look accidental or because of some sort of struggle. Anton probably knew what was happening to him, could feel it, and we think...we're sure that Karone was aware too. They put themselves to sleep because they were worried for us, because they knew what was happening and didn't want us to be hurt while we were all still recovering from shock ourselves-"

"Because Tommy's girlfriend refused to keep her nose out of our business." The cold sharp words stopped them and Billy turned his attention over to where Lauren was, arms crossed over her chest. Her expression was hard and for the first few weeks it had scared some of them truth be told; with everything going it was the coldness of someone who was supposed to be on their side that hit the hardest and the secret Shiba sibling more often than not stayed to herself, barely talking to anyone even when they were out on missions. And like Tommy she was always one of the first to volunteer for a mission.

The blue turned his gaze over to Tommy and saw him bristle slightly before straightening his body up and spoke in a dangerously calm tone, "My girlfriend stepped in because we needed help."

"We were fine," Lauren responded and the two glared at each other.

"I'm not sure in what crazy dimension does the definition of 'fine' somehow translate to being locked up and about to be sentenced to death but my mom was bleeding out with an arm that looked like swiss cheese through a shredder," Tyler piped up frowning, "And Tommy, I'll remind you, was shot. In the chest. In front of her. What was she supposed to do, just watch her friends and the man she loved die?"

"She watched my team die."

"Tsuki tried to save Mike and you know it," Kira spoke in a harsher tone than any of them expected from her, clenching her fists tight, and she felt Hayley place a hand on her shoulder; she didn't even realize she had been shaking.

"If she really wanted to save him, any of them, why didn't she bring them back?"

"We've gone over this, Lauren; based on the fact that Jason and the others regained their powers too, it's highly probable that Tsuki had and likely still has very little control over the Morphing Grid's power," Billy said taking a deep breath to steady his voice, "She did not bring back Ethan or Blake either, and I'm sure she would have if she could," Off to the side Hunter shifted his feet and Tori simply watched the conversation, Hayley still holding onto Kira with a concerned look; none of them spoke, "Bringing back your brother and the rest of your team...it might have been beyond what she could do in that moment."

Lauren didn't respond but no one was surprised; it was far from the first, second or even twentieth time they had had this argument. Billy couldn't even really blame her for it, none of them could when they thought about it; of those who had joined the Renegades, no other had had themselves be the sole survivor, see everyone else they cared for be killed. Cam and Blake and Shane were gone, and Dustin was dying, but Tori, Hunter and Laura still lived; Taylor was working for the government and the rest of their team was captured, yet Merrick and Lana still stood. Billy had Tommy and Abby, and Andros had his sister even if she was unconscious right now, Kira still had teammates in Trent and Tommy and a mentor in Hayley, and even RJ and Annie had each other. But Lauren didn't have anyone; not the younger brother who had taken her place, not his protective childhood friend, not the others who had never known her and only knew Jayden as their leader, not even their mentor. She was alone and he knew that had be hard on her, though he also knew her anger over what happened, born of the grief she felt, didn't do anything to make it easier on her or any of them.

Moments of awkward silence passed and RJ cleared his throat, pulling attention back to him. "Maybe we should move onto a different subject."

No one argued against him and the violet smiled gently. "In better news we seem to have quelled the onslaught of attacks by the Nighloks for the time being; despite the fact that only one of us is properly equipped to deal with them, we have managed to use our own unique powers to help keep them under control. It honestly might not even be beyond possibility that we could defeat them or at least weaken them enough to make them a non-threat."

"Good luck with that," Lauren spoke flatly.

Billy had barely taken a step when Merrick and Lana both shuffled to grab hold of Tommy, the young man's eyes blazing and his youthful body shaking with barely contained rage. It didn't escape the blue's notice how tightly the two ancient warrior's fingers pressed into his teammate's arms.

"Would it kill you to just get along with the rest of us?!" Tommy exclaimed loudly, Billy's eye caught on the soft green glow of his power coin in his pocket.

"Tommy..." Billy started only for Abby to interrupt.

"Thomas, calm down, now; if Lauren wants to be angry, let her, it only has to affect you if you let it, you idiot."

"The only anger that matters is the anger you let in," RJ said smiling in his zen way.

Annie sighed, rolling her eyes with a light smile. "That sort of made sense, RJ; you're losing your touch."

"Can we focus on the Nighlok problem and not have another fight in the cafeteria?" Andros said rubbing the bridge of his nose, "We have enough problems without fights breaking out and damaging things more."

"It's not my fault if it pisses me off that she seems intent on constantly acting like she's the only one here who has suffered," Tommy said still straining against the ancient warriors effortlessly holding him back, "We've all lost people, we've all had our families ripped apart, chased out of our homes and seen our friends be hurt or worse because of this stupid fighting, but she's acting like we're the problem. Well, it seems to me like she's the actual problem here."

Lauren glared at him and Merrick lifted his free hand to press firmly down on his shoulder, speaking in an even calm voice, "We understand your frustration, Tommy; the negativity is certainly not making things easy. But you must be willing to admit that she has the right to be frustrated too, and you both are allowing your emotions to get the better of you."

Lana nodded. "What good would you two fighting each other bring, huh? I swear, you guys are almost worse than the other warriors were; Animus above, I still remember the time Aristani and Kavos got into a brawl, the rest of the temple had to be rebuilt and Princess Shayla gave us all such an earful about teamwork and infighting. Fighting your allies does no one any good so how about sitting back down, chill out, and think for a moment?"

"Admittedly at least the Red Lion and Iron Bison had a good reason for fighting," Merrick told his sister, Tommy grumbling but pulling back and sitting down with his arms crossed over his chest; the wolf warrior smiled lightly, "But your point is as often is the case quite reasonable, dear sister."

She smiled in return and both returned to their seats, leaving only Lauren still silently fuming. Tommy turned his gaze away from her and she stood there, still as a statue for a moment longer before turning and leaving the room without a word. The door opened and closed behind her with a stutter and there was silence, a stiff sort of discomfort. Billy looked to RJ who simply sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Perhaps we should leave the rest of the debrief for later, huh?" There was a mild sense of defeat to his voice and Billy could understand it to a degree. People shifted and moved around them, finding strength to lift themselves from their seats or push themselves up from leaning against the walls and started to leave, trickling out until all that remained was the two of them, brooding Tommy, silent Zack...

And Tyler; even as his mother left Tyler hadn't and Billy didn't think much of it until the teenage boy made his way over and spoke, "Billy, I was just wondering about something..."

"You are inquiring about your request?" The blue spoke, raising an eyebrow and watching as an unknown emotion flashed across Tyler's face before causing him to nod; Billy resisted the urge to sigh, "We have spoken about this before."

"I got that, and I understand the problems but I really think it would help," Tyler said and there was a fire in his eyes that reminded Billy almost too much of Abby, "I know I'm not a Ranger myself, and I'm fully committed to taking responsibility for this if you'll just let me."

"We're simply worried, that's all Tyler," RJ piped up, causing the boy to turn his attention to the Pai Zhua Master; RJ gave another of his gentle smiles, "We've managed to get the Nighloks under control, yes, and right now we don't have any major issues or missions going on; we haven't heard anything from the radio lately and no sightings of the remaining unaccounted for Rangers have been reported, but that doesn't mean we can let down our guards. It's during the calmest of breezes that a terrible storm is the most sure to ensue."

"We don't have anyone we could send with you to help you, Tyler," Billy said frowning, "Things are reaching a point of calm but that is dependent upon our forces being concentrated on defeating the Nighloks and keeping the government at bay."

"That's not even taking into consideration that the ship's a mess and with Lauren constantly at odds with our fearless leader over there, who hasn't been nearly himself since Tsuki went under, we're basically all running on low in terms of morale anyway," Zack chimed in, his voice still strangely flat despite the smile playing at his lips; Tyler looked at him and he continued, "Face it, between your mother likely killing anyone who dares to give the go ahead for your little trip, and the fact most of us are barely standing as it is, nothing is going to happen."

Tyler frowned and was silent for a moment. In truth none of them spoke after that, and a portion of Billy hoped against hope that he would drop it, that he'd understand that it wasn't safe. Among the various people aboard the ship, Tyler had been the one who seemed to drift the most; he had grown up around the Rangers and he was accustomed to being around them, and before he would have been allowed to assist in the missions and expeditions off the ship. But that had been pre-Incident, before his mother Abby had joined them and could now veto any chance of her son being allowed to walk into harm's way, not that had there had been much argument for allowing a civilian join in the new fights. Seeing the Samurai Rangers be murdered in cold blood, almost dying themselves in a massive battle only to be saved by the sacrifice of one of their own, that proved to be a pretty good reason not to let someone without a suit to wander out among monsters, some of which wore spandex and colorful outfits too.

Still it didn't surprise Billy when Tyler didn't seem to back down, shaking his head as he spoke up, "I'm not a kid though; I'm a teenager, just like you Zack, and like you Billy were when you and my mom and the rest of your team first started doing all this. And it's not like I'm asking to go out and fight Nighloks; I just want to go down to one town and look around. I've been paying attention to the reports and I really do think there's a good choice that if we just go take a look-"

"Tyler, you are not going, that's final." Even in his teenage form Tommy's voice managed to ring with the authority of a teacher; he looked at the boy with a stern look and Tyler's fingers dug into his palm. The two stared at one another and Billy looked from them to RJ and then back, opening his mouth to speak only to realize he wasn't sure what to say. No one else spoke and another moment of silence passed like that before Tyler scoffed.

"This is ridiculous." Before anyone could respond he stalked out of the room, leaving yet another layer of tension hanging in the air. Billy sighed, not sure if he felt relieved or more worried now; Tommy shook his head before standing up, muttering something untelligible before leaving as well. Billy was sure he was off to see Tsuki, as he oft did whenever he wasn't drowning himself in some fight or another. RJ gave Billy an apologetic sort of smile and Zack shrugged, neither speaking a word. The tension still hung and Billy thought to himself how much he had very much hating talking in front of everyone.

No one had been watching the teleportation equipment. It was not something that they particularly thought was necessary; the technology of the Kerovian Megaship, along with the energies from the Morphin Grid which had powered their ability to teleport in the past and now did it again, made it hard for the government to hack or interfere with it. Only the Renegades, with their communicators connected to the network and their morphers linked to the Grid, were even able to lock into the specific specialized frequency that allowed them to come back to the ship after leaving. And with so many other more important areas of the ship to have to get fixed up, guarding one room wasn't very high on the priority list of the frazzled and busy Renegades. Thus it had been a mere cakewalk for Tyler Navarro to slip in and start fiddling with the equipment. He didn't even really want to sneak around behind their backs but as far as the young man was concerned he was being forced into this; if they had just listened to him, if they would stop treating him like a child instead of a capable member of the team, then he would be doing this with them. But instead there he was, backpack full of what supplies he could savage together strapped to his back, keeping one ear open for the sound of anyone approaching as he started putting in coordinates to the computer, preparing himself for going down to the surface. He knew how it mostly worked from watching the others work on it, and a part of him couldn't help but remember the gentle sort of smile that had graced Tsuki's face when she had told him what did what and how they had been fixing it up. If she was still awake she would have backed me up, Tyler told himself, putting in the commands then into his communicator. He knew that was a lie but he wanted to believe someone would trust him, he needed to think at least one person wouldn't treat him as a kid just because he didn't have morphing power. And the unconscious woman felt like the easiest choice at the moment. He felt the communicator come to life on his wrist and throwing one last glance towards the door to make sure no one was watching and ready to stop him, he pressed the button.

Tyler's first thoughts upon teleporting back onto the earth was that the forest around him reminded him a lot of the woods that surrounded Tommy's house back in Reefside, and his second was that all wooded areas really seemed to be pretty much the same; he thought of the Ninja Academy too in it's grove of trees, and he remembered hearing Annie and RJ talk about the hidden school of Pai Zhua. He wondered if it was a preoccupation of the Power or if there was just a general tendency for things to happen where there were a lot of trees. Of course he wasn't too terribly sure of whether what he was even there for was connected to the Morphin Grid in any way or even was real; it could just as easily be a fluke, a hoax. There had been a sighting of something strange near some caves in the area but as it was far from the typical points of interest to the Nighloks, and no one had actually been reported as hurt, only Tyler seemed interested in it and he was willing to admit to not entirely believing it had much merit either

Part of him was looking for something to do, and he knew this; the young man adjusted his backpack carefully before starting to walk, letting his mind wander as he tried to look for what he had come for. The Rangers had taken all the monster busting missions, and while his mother had been having him help with fixing up the ship with Hayley and Billy and Andros, or checking up on the people in the infirmary, Tyler couldn't help but feel useless. Hayley was at least a genius engineer and with his ability to go help out with the monsters or trying to find the remaining missing Rangers being suppressed by Abby, he wasn't sure what he really was doing around there. He wanted to help, he wanted to leave the ship and do something other than be an assistant, than sit around and twiddle his thumbs while his mother and the others put their lives on the line, while the government hunted them and the monsters hurt people. Tyler wanted to believe there was something out here, and that that something was something he could possibly handle; he knew neither the government Rangers nor the military were in this area, there was no evidence they had found a reason to put any effort into searching this area, the most interesting thing there being a dinosaur museum, one he knew mainly through his mother's involvement there though he hadn't ever really spent much time there. He wouldn't need to worry about being ambushed there as far as he knew, and he certainly didn't plan on doing anything that might attract them. Survillence, that was all, he thought to himself, taking note of the sound of tires over gravel and rushing behind a tree narrowly avoiding being seen by a truck that went by; I just need to look around, found out more about what caused that sighting and if it's anything big I'll just call the ship. Simple, easy, clean.

Tyler found the cave after what felt like a few more minutes of walking and a strange feeling came over him; he stopped for a moment, furrowing his brow before pulling his bag before him and opening it up. Something stuck in his head, something familiar and he dragged out a tattered and worn book from within; it didn't look like anything from the ship, and in fact wasn't, instead something Tyler had been carrying with him from long before his attempt to go find his mother and subsequent rescue at the Ninja Academy. He flipped it open, passing page after page of carefully scribbled notes, a picture of a man with dark hair and a kind smile standing with a young boy paper clipped to one page, diagrams that Tyler knew as well as he knew the back of his hand; his fingers stopped at one in particular and he looked from it to the cave before him, once, twice, three times.

It was the same and his heart stopped for a moment. It had been nine years since the disappearance of his father, an event that had left his mother upset and Tyler to always wonder what had happened exactly; in all honestly he couldn't say that he wouldn't have still ended up going on a journey even if the stuff with the Initiative hadn't happened, if only in search a different parent than he had been. Yet there before him was the real life form of a drawing from his father's journal, one of the last places he knew his father had gone to before he'd vanished, and he got a creeping feeling there was no coincidence there; he flipped the page, eyes falling to the drawing of a creature, a monster that looked almost like a cat of some sort, humanoid and vicious. There was no description of what was seen in that area, simply that something had been; looking at the picture for a moment longer, he tried to collect his thoughts. But he couldn't help a sudden feeling of both excitement and dread; an clue to a mystery almost a decade in the making, and maybe a meeting with a monster, mixed together and leaving him feeling jittery. Tyler didn't hesitate one minute longer, knowing he couldn't turn back now.

The cave was dark, steep and in all honesty; from the moment his foot touched the rocky floor, surrounded by the smell of wet stone and ancient dirt, he felt a creeping unease pass through him. Under which felt like an electric sort of excitement and he gathered himself quickly; it took more than sensations and darkness to scare off the son of archaeologists and a Power Ranger. He took a flashlight out of his backpack, quickly turning it on before continuing forward; he took careful inventory of the surroundings, the walls carved by water and wind, and here and there where an obvious indent was left he was certain also marred by the actions of humans. Tyler wondered if any of them were by his father's hand and he wondered what exactly had happened to his dad; James Navarro was a geologist, and the teenager could remember many times both of his parents had gone off on expeditions together, usually to leave him in the capable hands of either his grandparents or Tommy and Tsuki. He could also remember his father's promise to come back before his ninth birthday, a promise he never ended up being able to keep; his mind went to the monster in the book again, the one that perhaps had been seen around that area too, and he tried to shake the worry from his mind and focus on his mission there. Surveillance and recon, that was all, even if he did see the monster he had to remember not to engage but to report it back to the ship so the Rangers could deal with it. Even if it did mean not getting his answers...

His thoughts were quickly interrupted by what seemed to be growling and Tyler stopped in his tracks, heart lurching as he tried to listen; footsteps and loud growling seemed to be coming from behind him and before he could stop himself he rushed forward, away from the noises and away from the entrance to the cave as well. He was certain that wasn't a very good idea, a better likely being trying to actually get out of there but a more primal portion told him not to turn around and not to go back. And another part, the electricity that tingled just under the skin, urged him forward still.

The noises continued, seeming now to be chasing him and he turned a corner, trying to hide in a slight opening; if he could just get a better look, see what exactly was after him, maybe then he could better deal with the situation. It could just be a wild animal, or it could be the feline monster who had been chasing his father apparently, or it could just be his imagination and he grabbed a long stone-like club nearby, preparing for something. He just wasn't too sure what; he even made sure to dim his light and waited, heart pounding as he tried to take easy breaths. Would his mother or Tommy do? Probably fight it, but then they'd scold him if he tried the same thing. But he wasn't a kid and really if it was just one monster he could handle it right? After all they had been able to fight without their powers before and he was capable, he knew what he was doing; sense told him to call for backup but teenage stubbornness reminded him over and over he wasn't a child and he needed to prove it. Prove he deserved to have them cease their constant disregarding of his abilities, his mother's overprotective coddling, the other's dismissal of his usefulness in the field. Tyler could do this, he had to do this, Powers or not.

Seconds of waiting became minutes then what felt like an eternity and he didn't realize he was holding his breath, or how tightly he was clenching the club until his head started to spin from lack of oxygen and his hands felt raw letting go of his makeshift weapon. The growls had disappeared down a different path it seemed and he it seemed was safe for the moment; no fight needed, perfect. Tyler sighed and ran a numb hand through his hair, turning the light back up before looking around behind him. Something caught the light of his flashlight and he stopped for a moment; in this deeper part of the cave, embedded into the wall, seemed to be a rather well preserved dinosaur fossil. Better examination, and years of being around people who knew maybe a little too much about dinosaurs for their own good, told him it seemed to be a tyrannosaurus skeleton, or at the very least a portion of one. He could make out the skull the best and he smiled some, running his hand over the coarse stone-like bone until his fingers fell upon what had caught the light; a small red crystal, seemingly stuck in the area where it's throat and chest would have met, glowed and shimmered, catching his eye and invoking memories. Memories of a different but strangely similar red stone sitting in a pedestal with two others, of a pink gem clenched in the hand of the woman he trusted the most in the world, a black one held tight by a man he had always known as one of his mother's best friends, a white one that once corrupted the mind of a boy who had been not much older than he was now. His mind wandered to the Dino Gems, and the blue one that now floated in a lazy orbit around the slumbering Tsuki, causing a tinge of pain to go through him remembering why. He was sure this couldn't be one, there was already a red one after all and it looked different anyway, more refined than the wild crystals from that disastrous asteroid, but Tyler was certain there was something dangerous about it too. And better judgement told him not to take it.

He pried it from the wall carefully with a knife from his bag, making sure to try not to damage it nor the fossil in which it lay; the archaeologists might actually kill him more for harming such a beautiful specimen of T-rex skeleton than for being so foolish as to come down to the surface on his own and think he could fight a monster on his own. Letting the stone fall into his hand he put the knife away and examined the stone more; it seemed did look strange to him yet he felt more excited by it than worried. This was certainly something worth bringing back, and if it really was anything like the Dino Gems, then that would have to mean-

"Grrrr RAWR!" The roar shook the cave and Tyler was almost thrown from his feet from it; eyes widening he turned to come face to face with what looked to be a cloaked figure. On with long sharp claws on the ends of it's sleeves.

The smart thing would have been to try the communicator, yet he was convinced in the moment that the time it would take to put the crystal in his pocket and input the commands would be time he didn't really have. And the monster's breath really was quite bad. So instead he did the next best thing he could think of; he rammed himself headfirst in the creature, taking it somewhat off guard in the process since it was both unexpected and utterly stupid, and then took his chance to run as fast as he could back towards the entrance, this time with the full knowledge that something was after him.

The cold air of the forest would have likely been a good thing to him if Tyler wasn't being chased. As it was he was more concerned with trying to get away and avoid being caught; by the time he left the cave he had indeed managed to slip the crystal into his pocket and he was frantically trying with the space between him and his follower to put into the sequence needed to get DECA to pull him back onto the ship, to no avail. His heart pounded harder and he swerved through some trees, hoping for the moment it would maybe let him escape notice at least a little. He jumped down a small incline of a hill and tried to make himself as small as possible as he heard more growling, a voice that seemed mostly deep and gravel grumbling about finding him and "the Energem". Tyler pulled out the stone again, glancing at it and trying to attach that name to it; it had no meaning to him though, no substance, and with a deep sigh again he put it away and tried the communicator again. He wasn't sure why it wasn't working, and thought perhaps something was wrong up on the ship. Or maybe something was wrong with his communicator.

"Damnit," he muttered to himself, ruffling up his hair with both hands; he needed to get back, he needed to send a message to the others but nothing seemed to be working right at the moment. Tyler it seemed was alone and he knew this was his own fault; he shouldn't have done this, shouldn't have come down by himself. He just wanted to help, he wanted to do something other than be stuck on the ship while his mom and the others all got to fight and do some real good.

"I'm going to die down here," he murmured and took a deep breath, "I'm going to get killed by some weird monster and it's all my fault."

He could hear footsteps and he wondered if maybe it was the monster coming after him now. No, of course it was, it had to be, and he tried to pull himself together, tried to push the bad thoughts away, not an easy task to say the least. But certainly made easier the moment he heard the same gravelly voice yell something and then explosions, and realized the footsteps were running from the voice, and a girl's voice shrieked then exclaimed something not far from him.

Tyler was many things; he could be a little reckless, and he was stubborn and maybe he did a few stupid things in the name of teenage independence. He pitied himself for what he had put himself into, and he was frustrated he couldn't get the communicator to work enough to get him back to the ship, but all of those things seemed so stupid and small at the moment, insignificant when he realized the monster was chasing someone else now. And they needed help.

He raced out of his hiding spot and as the monster approached he ran right for the girl and a strange wooden crate on the ground, grabbing the latter before the monster could and helping the girl up. She looked to be his age, wearing a pink flannel shirt over white overalls and a pink shirt. Her clothes honestly reminded her a bit of Billy's and he was half tempted to smile if not for the troubling situation. She looked at the monster in a familiar combination of confused and worried, the common look of the civilian dealing with something dangerous.

"Are you okay?" he asked and she glanced at him for a moment before returning her look to the monster.

"Yeah," she said softly and now he did smile, glad she didn't seem too hurt.

"Good; my name is Tyler, Tyler Navarro, and you are..." he noticed a nametag and tried to read it. " 'Shelby Triceratops' Aw cool name; you actually remind me of another triceratops I know."

"Where did you come from?" she asked quickly.

"Aw you know, just in the neighborhood." That caused her to look at him incredulous then around at the woods.

"Neighborhood? There is no neighborhood!"

"Give me those Energems!" the monster exclaimed, throwing off its cloak to reveal what looked to be a creature made of ice, different than any other monster he'd seen or dealt with but one he was sure was not ultimately much different than the ones he'd really dealt with before.

Tyler frowned some and he quickly moved into a fighting stance; at the same time he moved in front of her, an instinct he couldn't help but indulge.

"What are you doing?" she asked and he handed her the box carefully.

"Just get out of here, okay? Run; I'll try to hold him off."

Her eyes widened then narrowed. "Seriously? You can't fight him; come on, we both have to get out of here."

"No, if we both run he'll just shoot us; one of us has to hold him off, Shelby, so you get going and I'll try to keep him as long as I can."

"I don't need to saved, bub; if you're staying, I'm staying too!" Tyler winced, half tempted to yell at her but part of his mind thought of the girls about the ship; honestly if it had been Kira or his mother or Tori or Lana likely they would respond the same way. But they were Rangers and she wasn't and he at least knew some of what to do here.

"Look-" He was interrupted by another blast, extremely close to them and he reached into his bag, trying to find a weapon.

The first thing he grabbed was a banana, causing him to blink then throw it aside for now; he could have gotten hungry after all. Next was his underwear and between embarrassment he had managed to pull that out in front of a girl of all people, and confusion why he would even in the first place put them into his backpack, he tossed them aside very quickly and next extracted a shovel. Better, much better; another blast came and he tried to remember how the others might deal with this. He tried to block the blast, to what looked to be good results, sending it to either side of him and he grinned, standing up a little straighter.

"Much better," Tyler said.

"Grr!" the monster growled in frustation and sent another blast, and another, one after another that Tyler swung at and set flying around them, causing him to half laugh, especially as he managed to send the blast back at the ice monster, sending it to the ground.

"Score!" he exclaimed, followed by Shelby, smiling now, telling him it was a good shot; he was feeling rather good about himself until he noticed that his shovel was now, unfortunately, on fire.

Well so much for that, he thought to himself, dropping the tool and resuming his previous fighting stance. "Okay you got any good ideas then?"

There was a second of hesitation from Shelby before she stepped forward, holding the box out. "Hey, if you attack us then you'll destroy your...thing-"

"Energem," Tyler corrected, getting a glare from her.

"What I want will survive," the monster said and prepared to attack them again, "You won't!"

Tyler didn't have another shovel, he didn't have another weapon; the blast hit them this time and both yelled in pain as they fell to the ground, the crate breaking open and sending it's contents flying. Fossils, stones, and a crystal quite similar to the red one that in the blast became dislodged from Tyler's pocket and tumbled away. The monster exclaimed in delight, "The Energems!"

Tyler stared at the stone, at both of them, and he knew in that moment what he had to do. It was a choice and he knew it. Part of him wondered if this was anything like it had been for his mother and the others, if they too had felt time slow, crawl towards what felt like an inevitable stop yet never really reach it. Noise became unimportant, the equivalent of murmurs in the distance and his mind raced with an intensity that bordered on headache; the world around them dulled with the hum and all that mattered, all he suddenly knew was that he was on a precipice of choice and destiny. And he was not about to make the wrong choice.

The monster yelled and another blast came at them, freezing them this time but neither the cold nor the words meant anything to Tyler; Shelby saw a fire burn in his eyes and only seconds after his hand had shot forward hers did too, both teens' fingers just barely making contact with the crystals before the ice had encased their entire bodies.

Then it felt like electricity, though even that felt somehow like comparing heaven to hell. Every nerve, every cell, every atom in her body felt like it was alive with their own beats, their own existence; a shock of pink and a matching flash of red coursed through Shelby and Tyler respectively, and the ice crackled and cracked around them, breaking away. He felt powerful, she felt confused, and the monster screamed as the two stood, staring at their crystals. Images flashed in their minds, visions of dinosaurs, a T-Rex being engulfed in red light, a triceratops in pink and a raptor in green; Tyler understood, he understood far better than maybe he should. He knew in a way he was certain once his mother had known and as a stone gun appeared in the hands of both of the teens he couldn't help but smile even more.

"What...?" Shelby asked staring at the strange device, turning it over in her hand over and over

Tyler's eyes sparkled and a laugh threatened his lips "They're morphers!"

"No! Give me the Energems!" The monster yelled and he looked at it with a victorious smirk.

"No dice, frost face." He held up the crystal, the Energem, and before another word could leave the creature he slid it into the muzzle. He thought of what his mother Abby would have done, what Tommy or Kira would do, what any of the other Renegades would do next. And he aimed the gun at the creature, incidentall drawing his hand over the spinning cylinder in the gun as it moved from the muzzle and pulling the trigger. A blast of energy came forth, hitting the monster in the chest and eliciting a scream from it, and a laugh from Tyler.

"What was that?" she asked incredulous.

"That was nothing," he said continuing to laugh; he couldn't stop, not because it was funny or because he was amused. But purely because he was filled with so much delight, so much excitement, he couldn't hold himself back.

He looked at Shelby, "Hey, do you trust me?"

The question struck her but she knew there was no time to think, to contemplate the absurdity of him asking someone he barely knew this, or the insanity of possibly saying no. There was still the monster and there was this strange gun and the stone and she couldn't help but feel something inside her, a warmth or maybe a better description would be a spark.

She nodded and copied him, inserting her crystal and lifting her gun, spinning the cylinder and causing him to smile as the monster to try to rush them. Tyler didn't plan on shooting it though, he didn't want to just send a simple blast at it. After all if this was a morpher like he thought, and the crystal could cause the gun to blast energy that could hurt monsters, why not be able to blast out energy that could do something he always wanted to.

The words were probably wrong but he wasn't sure that was what was most important. And Tyler had always wanted to say them, practicing them as a child running around his room, pretending to defeat monsters like this one, pretending to be just like his mother. "It's morphing time!"

The effect felt immediate; they pulled the trigger together and a blast of colored light, red for him, pink for her, burst forth, snaked and swirled upwards and then crashed down onto them. And it felt like the electricity he had felt entering the cave times a thousand, making him wonder if this had been destiny all along that this would happen. He felt the suit form, the helmet encase his face, his body become charged with energy and the sensation of being connected to the Morphin Grid. And he knew even before the monster managed to speak the truth of what just happened.

"You've become Power Rangers!"

"Damn straight we have, and you're about to go down!"