Kimberly strapped the communicator once again to her wrist and felt the old tingle of excitement flow through her body. It felt good to be part of the team again. She'd thought she'd long outgrown that longing, but it suddenly came rushing back, as her heart began to race. Adam looked over and gave her a knowing smile. She knew he was feeling something very similar as he said, "Ready to go Princess?"

Grinning back at him, she replied, "Better believe it Frog-boy." As she looked around she saw the others stealing glances at each other, the excitement of being back in action apparent in all of their eyes. Leaning over she whispered next to him, "And I'm not the only one." She watched as Adam scanned the others as they too put on their communicators. She smiled to herself as he and Rocky exchanged quick winks just before their faces disappeared behind the Ninjetti masks.

"What do you expect us to find there?" Jason asked untransformed. Briefly, Kimberly wondered if he was going along. He had no Ninjetti spirit animal to guide him- surely Billy didn't expect his closest friend since childhood to take on a Justin and his forces without any power.

"Justin, in his mutated form definitely; beyond that, I'm not sure. I'm afraid this is not going to be sort of combat with which we're accustomed to dealing," the blond answered.

"What do you mean?" Rocky asked nervously.

"In the past, most of the monster's we've fought have been almost comical- something one would expect to see on a Saturday Morning kid's show if it were not for their seriousness. However, this is most likely going to be something truly terrifying. Justin has been manipulating the very building blocks of life. The results are very likely to be horrific."

"What about Jason?" Tommy asked. "How do you expect for him to fight without any powers?"

Billy smiled quietly to himself, "I tried to convince Jason to stay behind, but he refused. He has a right to be here, after all it is HIS body that's been cloned. He's promised to stay out of the fight, unless absolutely necessary."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling us everything?" Tommy asked the former Ranger leader.

"Would I do that to you?" Jason asked.

"If you thought it would help us win, yes." Tommy replied.

"I think I'm hurt," Jason said in mock indignation.

"Will you two stop it? You're worse than …, " Kimberly almost said, 'Zack', but caught herself. " … you're worse than a couple of comedians." Her words caught the whole room by surprise. Everyone knew whom she meant, and they all felt the loss of the first Black Ranger. They were suddenly reminded of the seriousness of the business at hand.

Finally, Billy broke the silence that had fallen over the gathering. "I think it's time we left." Looking over at Jason he asked, "Do you have what I gave you."

Jason nodded and swallowed. Billy quickly nodded back, his gaze sweeping across the room to settle on each of them, briefly seeking affirmation. Kimberly felt herself nod quietly to those sea-green eyes as they seemed to bore into her soul. There was something about his gaze that instilled confidence. Finally, he looked up, said, "Let's go," and touched the activation stud on his communicator.

*************************************************************

Rocky felt the familiar sense of flying as the teleporter took them. An instant later, he felt his boots on solid stone as the world reformed around him. They were in one of the old labs of the Command Center. Looking around, Rocky could see where most of the equipment had been jury-rigged to operate in ways it was never intended. Huge conduits snaked across the cracked floor of the former base. The entire back wall was a collapsed pile of rubble with several steaming pipes running through it. To the left were several large masses of machinery with various pipes and conduits leading from them to different places in the wall. To his right were a series of what looked to Rocky like surgical tables complete with operating equipment. A vaguely recognizable voice came from behind him, "So the former Ninjetti Rangers think they can stop me?"

Rocky spun around to see Jason standing behind them, wielding a wicked looking energy weapon. At least at first it looked like Jason- if you added about a hundred pounds of mass to him and a suit of scaled body armor the color of dried blood. "I was wondering how long it would take you to put the clues together." He turned and faced the blue-clad figure that was their leader and said, "I guess you're not as intelligent as I was led to believe."

Rocky could see Billy's eyes smile behind the mask, as he replied, "Perhaps, but I am still in my own body, with my friends around me." He stepped back into a defensive stance. "You are alone. Alone as you've always been."

The faux-Jason smiled, his elongated canines glistening with saliva.
"I don't need anybody." Faster than Rocky's eye could follow, he lashed out with a vicious kick to Billy's stomach. The force of the blow was such that it picked up the Blue Ranger and slammed him across the room to crash into rubble.

"What you need is a good spanking," Tommy said leaping toward his former charge, his body suddenly twisting. "Ninjetti corkscrew kick!"

Rocky winced as the Justin swept the White Ranger aside with a frightening level of strength with his forearm. Turning to face the other Rangers Justin/Jason said, "You're not man enough to do it." Looking down at Tommy he said, "And to think that I used to look up to you."

Without thought, Rocky found himself falling back into old habits, as he and Adam launched themselves simultaneously at the grinning form. "Up and over!" Adam yelled as he somersaulted over the taller man. Rocky dropped to a squat and swept his leg around.

Anticipating the move, Justin did a quick flamenco step to avoid the sweep, and rolled with Adam's somersault to slam him into the ground. What he didn't anticipate however, was the quick series of powerful roundhouse kicks- each one punctuated with a word, "That's. My. Man. You're. Messing. With. Kid." followed by a devastating spinning back-kick with which Kimberly hit him.

The force of the latter sent Justin reeling sideways into a waiting reverse punch from Jason. Coming out of her spin, Kimberly dropped back into a ready stance and grinned, "Still got it. Gotta' love it."

"And you want to marry her?" Rocky asked of Adam as he regained his own composure. Adam just grinned and blushed.

Blood pouring down his face from the force of Jason's punch, Justin swung a lightning fast backhand at the former Ranger leader who barely avoided the skull-smashing blow. "Don't know where you got the costumes, but you can't fool me." Spinning around he growled at Billy who was pulling himself from the pile of rubble. "I know for certain that you don't have any powers any more. Mondo destroyed them."

Billy wiped the blood from his mouth and looked down. "And you call yourself a scientist. You should know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed." Nodding over to Jason, he said, "I think it's time Jase."

Suddenly turning to face the former Ranger leader Justin found himself tackled and slammed backwards by a leap from Billy. Justin brought both fists together and smashed them into Billy's shoulders, driving his face into the waiting knee.

Grunting in pain as the rough scales of the armor ripped at his face, Billy dropped something from his sleeve and drove it forward into the bigger man's groin. As the head of the short staff slammed home, Justin howled in pain. Billy rocked forward pulling his body upward, blood pouring from gashes in his face, until he was face to face with bigger man. "The Ninjetti power never left us." Reaching around behind Justin with the staff, Billy grasped both ends and brought it down into the small of Justin's back. "Some of us have just had access to it longer."

Howling in pain, Justin once again smashed both fists into Billy's back. There was dull thud as the blue-clad Ranger was driven further into the scales of Justin's armor, throwing both men off balance.

Rocky watched as Jason grinned and said, "It's Morphin' time!" Reaching behind his back he held something out- something Rocky only dreamed of ever seeing again- and called, "Tyrannosaur!" In a flash of light, Jason Scott was gone, and in his place was the Red Ranger.

Hurling Billy's limp body away from him, Justin screamed, "No! I will not lose to you. I'm better than… … …" What ever else he was going to say was cut off as Tommy's foot slammed into his mouth.

"I'm going to take you apart piece by piece." Tommy growled a dark fire in his brown eyes. "I'm going to rip you to shreds with my bare hands, and feed the pieces to the Ravens." There was a darkness in his eyes that was frightening. Rocky understood that it was primarily his desire to protect Billy, but it still sounded chilling.

Shaking his head in confusion, Justin muttered, "Too many Rangers, must power up," as Jason's tornado kick whipped around and drove him into one of the larger pieces of machinery. Electricity suddenly arced across the console and a shower of sparks hid Justin from their eyes, as he screamed in agony.

Rocky shielded his eyes from the blast as he glanced over to where Tommy was helping the fallen Billy to his feet. The young genius was rolling his shoulder, as if to determine if it were broken or not. Rocky winced inwardly at the memories of his own injuries that led to Justin becoming a Power Ranger.

"You okay, Rocko?" Adam asked as he too helped Billy to his feet. Rocky watched in what seemed to be slow motion as a scale-armored tentacle suddenly lashed out from where Justin was engulfed in electricity toward Adam. Without thinking, he lunged forward pushing the other three Rangers to the floor, only to be caught square in the back. There was a sudden sense of motion, and then an explosion of light and pain. Before the darkness mercifully took him, Rocky felt something in his back shatter like glass.


Billy watched in horror as his friend was slammed into the far wall. He heard the sickening sound of bones shattering and organs erupting, just before Rocky slid down the wall, leaving an oily streak of blood and bile behind him. Somewhere, some part of his mind screamed in frustration, but he viciously cut that part off and concentrated on the task at hand.

Looking over he could see where the electricity from shattered conduit was super charging Justin's genetic modifications. Some part of his mind registered that he must have included some sort of bio-electrical enhancements in the design, and that the overload of electricity was short circuiting his control of them. Before anyone could react, Justin screamed as he went from red, to orange, to yellow, to white. Suddenly his body contracted into a black and caramel colored goo that bubbled for just an instant before it exploded violently outward.

The whole room rocked from the explosion and huge chunks of ceiling began to fall. A large crack began to cut its way across the room with rifle-shot-like reports. Billy ducked his head to avoid being splattered by what was left of Justin, as he dodged and leaped several large boulders to land by Rocky. Turning to face the others, he yelled, "Teleport back to Tommy's!" as he hit the emergency stud on Rocky's and his communicators. Softly he told his team mate, "Hang in there buddy."

**************************************************

EPILOG

Tommy sat quietly with his legs pulled up under his chin watching the sun dip over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. It had been a rough couple of months, and he found himself in need of some quiet time to absorb it all. There were some high points there, but a couple of really scary low ones too. It was as if he was a Ranger again, and somehow that bothered him. He'd always suspected that he'd gotten into racing in a subconscious attempt to recapture the adrenaline high of fighting Rita and Zed's monsters. Now he began to understand that maybe he'd been wrong. Almost losing Rocky had shocked him back to reality. This wasn't a game anymore, it was something that had to be done. He'd lost his teenager's sense of invulnerability, and finally come of age. For some reason, that brought his spirit to a peace he'd not expected.

"Penny for your thoughts?" a welcome feminine voice asked as a shadow passed between him and the sun.

Looking up, he saw Kimberly's petit silhouette outlined with the blazing corona of the setting sun. Smiling at her, he said, "'S that all they're worth?"

Turning and sitting next to him, she replied, "It's all I can afford right now. Weddings aren't exactly cheap these days, you know."

Tommy chuckled. He'd heard that the upcoming Park/Hart wedding was taking on a life of its own. Smiling at the former Pink Ranger he said, "I was just thinking about the past few months since Billy returned from Phaedos."

"Good thoughts I hope," Kim ventured carefully.

Tommy smiled, "Where Billy's concerned, yes. Other's not so much. It's hard to think about Rocky being hurt in a good light."

Kim patted his hand, "I know what you mean." Taking a deep breath, she smiled and watched the setting sun for a few moments before replying. "But he's going to be all right. It's a long road ahead of him, but I think that before long, he'll be up and around again." Turning to face him she continued, "He was the real hero of that fight I think. He sacrificed himself to save you, Billy, and Adam."

Tommy let his thoughts drift to his old Red Ranger friend, and couldn't help but realize that Kim was right. Right after the mission to Phaedos, he'd told that Fred Gillman that he'd shown true bravery, and had been right. What Rocky had done went head and shoulders beyond that. He'd really put his life on the line to save his friends. That was a debt that he couldn't easily repay. "I know, Kim. I'm not sure how to thank him."

Kim patted his arm, "He doesn't want any thanks, Tommy. He did it out of love. You would have done the same for him. We know Billy would too, he's done it before." She leaned back against the rock as the setting sun slowly dipped below the Western Pacific, "I guess I'm fated to be surrounded by brave men who are willing to give their lives for each other."

"Speaking of brave men: has Jason got the situation with the police cleared up yet?"

Kim nodded, "Yeah. It helped to have the Red Ranger come to his aid."

"I'll bet." Tommy smiled at the idea of his best friend running a schizophrenic conversation with the police as both the Red Ranger and Detective Jason Scott. "What about Justin?"

"Billy said that his mind was completely wiped. He can and will be re-educated. It's going to be a long fight though. His brain doesn't learn as quickly as it did when he was a child. It seems that although he was a Doogie Howzer in the past, he's going to be just a little slow from now on."

"Flowers for Algernon," Tommy said.

"Huh?" Kim asked.

"It's a book about a mentally challenged man who becomes a genius for a while but is forced to go back to being mentally challenged. Mrs. Appleby had me read it in my senior year. Very good story."

Kim smiled at him. "I'll have to look it up."

"Do that."

For long moments, they sat there watching the evening stars slowly appear over the ocean. Finally, Kim broke the silence again, "How're things with you and Billy?"

Tommy smiled and thought of the golden haired scientist who'd suddenly returned to his life to cause so much chaos. He sighed and leaned back, "I don't think I've ever been happier in my life. It's funny, Billy and I should never have even been friends- we really didn't have much in common outside of Rangering- but now we're so much more."

Kim chuckled at his side, "I know. If you were going to pair off with anyone based on things you had in common, I would have thought it would've been Jason."

Tommy laughed and said, "Not in this lifetime. That boy is so straight, it makes my hair hurt."

The two once again shared a quiet moment, not needing to talk. Their old relationship, now morphed into something sweet and mellow- a change brought about the honesty they'd been able to share of late- didn't need words to communicate the deep bond between them. "Have you told your folks yet?"

Tommy turned to her and smiled, "Mom and Dad are happy for us."

"I always did think you're parents were a class act."

"Yeah."

"How about you're pit crew? You planning on having Billy in the Winner's Circle with you after you take Talladega this year?" Kim asked.

"My crew knows." Tommy smiled at her. "Billy's already made several adjustments to the Pontiac that's shaved several seconds off my starting time, and the new handling is awesome. After that, they don't seem to have a problem with us being a couple. It's strange, I guess all those months being a grease-monkey for the 'Zords transferred over to working with my pit-crew amazingly well."

"That's Billy for you. Give him something to build, modify, or repair and he's happy." She stopped and looked at him, "Making it something for you makes it that much more important to him."

Tommy smiled, remembering his thoughts last night as he lay awake, Billy sleeping quietly curled next him in bed. The love he felt from Billy seemed so right, so complete. He'd realized that it was so Tommy-centric that he'd have to be careful not to come to take it for granted. "I know. I have to be careful with that too. He's so giving, that sometimes I'm afraid I may take more than I give."

Kim smiled over at him, her eyes sparkling in the starlight. "I'm glad to hear you say that Tommy." Her voice suddenly became serious, "I want you to be happy- both of you. But if you ever take him for granted or hurt him, I'm going to kick your white-falcon butt."

Tommy smiled at her, "I hope so, Kim. I hope so."