Wes, Eric, Jen, Alex, Zaskin, Miller, and Mr. Collins belong to Disney/Saban.
Nightwing/Dick Grayson, Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Oracle/Barbara Gordon belong to DC Comics/Time Warner.
Tony Newman, Doug Phillips, and Ann MacGregor belong to Irwin Allen Productions.
I am using them without permission, however I have not and don't expect to make money from this.
Gaby, Rick, Norman, and any others you don't recognize are mine.
Rated PG-13 : Crude language; violence; sexual references.
Reviews are appreciated, please take a moment to leave one.
The Time Tunnel
Old Times
"In an attack reminiscent of the mutant attacks over two years ago, Bio-Lab is being overrun by robots. The Silver Guardians seem to be fighting a losing battle so far..."
Dick stared at the car radio, heart speeding as he wondered briefly if he was hearing things. They were back. Those robots... he had a momentary vivid memory of those powerful metal hands reaching for him.
They were attacking at Bio-Lab, innocent people were in danger. The Rangers would be there -- probably. But even they might need help. He turned the car as soon as he could and sped in that direction.
Norman stared numbly again as the two Rangers disappeared in a second whirl of color and darkness. For a moment the room was quiet. The remaining Guardians withdrew in a group and headed for the exit. At the doorway they stopped and opened fire again.
"Stop them! Get what we came for! And get that thing too!" he ordered, pointing to the machine Rick had been fooling with. A group of cyclobots charged the Guardians, driving them out of the room, then scattered, collecting parts and equipment from the benches. Another took the strange machine, lifting it and carrying it toward the main door.
In the momentary calm, Norman advanced to the first computer terminal he found that was still working. Quickly he inserted a diskette, made a few mouse clicks, pulled it out again, and then turned away. "Let's go!" he shouted.
The retreat was faster and easier than the invasion had been. The Rangers were gone, and the Guardians were in no shape to put up more than a token resistance. In seconds they were outside, starting to pile into the van that had brought him.
Norman paused, just outside the building, to cast a look back. He had showed them... No one there had appreciated him, but now... too bad he had to hide his identity. But he had done what he came to do -- most of it. He had wanted to take her, too... For a moment he felt a twinge of discomfort. Six people, just gone, including her -- because of him... But what was done, was done. It wasn't his fault, not really.
"Put the stuff in the van," he said to his cyclobots. The one holding the mystery machine trotted away obediently. He took one more look back and turned to enter the vehicle.
"Going somewhere?" The voice was coming from above him. Startled, he looked up to see a costumed figure, a man a little over average height, in a black and midnight blue outfit, standing on the roof of his van. He stared in astonishment.
"Batman?" he gasped.
"Nightwing! Just for that, I'll have to kick your butt."
With that, he was leaping down, straight at him. With a yelp of alarm, Norman fell back a few steps, letting the cyclobots rush at his attacker. He landed, knocking a couple of robots down, and fought back skillfully.
Nightwing kicked one cyclobot and then another in the middle, actually driving them back for a moment. Then he ducked and wove between two of them, letting them trip each other up. Avoiding another metal arm, he dropped low to kick his attacker in the knee, slammed an elbow into another, grunted in pain as flesh impacted metal, then dived to brace himself on the other arm and kick the cyclobot down.
Norman backed away, fumbling for his blaster, saw a sudden flash of motion and looked up to find Nightwing somersaulting over the robot's heads, landing on a couple of metal shoulders, then leaping gracefully to the ground right in front of him.
"Are you my buddy from the other night?" he asked, snatching at Norman's mask.
"Get away from me!"
But it was too late, the gloved fingers caught his cap and yanked it off. "You're not Blondie? Or have you done something to your hair?"
The next instant a fist was swinging at him. It hit, startling him more than hurting him. But it knocked his mask off. Nightwing grinned. Norman yelled in anger and stepped back, stumbled and fell, landing hard on the pavement, the blaster sliding out of his grip. He scrambled backwards and reached for it.
Even as Nightwing came after him, kicking the weapon out of his hand again, three cyclobots charged him, one of them getting a grip around his ribs. He cried out as it began to squeeze and struggled in vain to free himself.
Norman got to his feet, panic surging inside him. It was all going wrong, at the last minute... He tried to cover his face, looked for his blaster, but his way was blocked by the cyclobots struggling with Nightwing. He spotted his cap and tried to reach it, stopping abruptly as a blast beam struck the ground in front of him.
A group of Silver Guardians was running out of the building, already starting to fire at him and his cyclobots. Police cars were arriving with sirens screaming, men piling out with guns drawn. He snatched up his mask, left the blaster and the cap, made his way to the van and climbed inside, sliding behind the wheel. It was past time to be gone.
"Holy shit..." Jen murmured.
"What the hell is going on?" she heard Gaby say, her voice almost squeaking in fear and astonishment.
The lab was gone. The building was gone. Bio-Lab was gone. The four of them were alone in a forest of strange looking fern-like bushes and pine trees. There was no sign of civilization. They all stared around for a few moments, too stunned to speak. Shakily, Jen raised her morpher and powered down. Without the suit, she noticed that it was warm, and humid, and that she could smell decaying plant life and something unidentifiable that made her nose itch.
"Is everyone okay?" she asked.
"I think so," Zaskin said. "What was that? It felt like -- being electrocuted."
"Oh, my God. It worked," she heard Rick say faintly.
"It worked? What worked? Did you do this?"
"Yeah..." He grinned, took a deep breath, and laughed. "It actually worked!"
Jen grabbed his lab coat by the collar. "What worked? Where are we?"
"I..." He laughed again. "We might be in the same place. I don't know. The right question is; when are we?"
"What?" She let go and backed up a step, firmly getting a grip on herself. "All right, Rick, when are we?"
"I don't know!" He grinned. "Don't know exactly. A few million years ago, I think."
"Earlier that that," Zaskin commented. "Look at these plants. Horsetails, primitive cycads, early angiosperms, no sign of grass... This is at least fifty million years ago."
"What?" Jen said again, rubbing her nose. "Millions of years?"
"Oh, my God," Gaby said softly.
Jen turned to see her several yards away, staring through the trees. Rick took several steps to her side, stopped, and stared also, muttering to himself. They all quickly joined her, and stood looking at the impossible.
There were five animals visible in a clearing beyond the clump of trees they were looking through. They were huge, around twenty feet long, and looked almost like a large rhinoceros. Almost. They had scaly, mottled, red-brown skin, two huge horns coming from the tops of their skulls, a giant bony plate growing from the backs of their heads, and a shorter horn above snouts which curved into beaks that reminded her bizarrely of a parrot.
"Triceratops?" Rick asked in a hushed tone.
"They're a little small, I think..." Zaskin said. "Could be Protoceratops... but they weren't this big... or -- or Torosaurus... Or something else... I'm not an expert. There were a lot of similar species."
"You mean... we're looking at dinosaurs? Real ones?" Gaby asked, her voice cracking again.
"There's nothing else they could be."
"Rick?" Jen asked, feeling her knees start to tremble. "How do we get back?"
"Well... the machine should bring us back automatically. Except... it should have done it by now. I guess that part didn't work."
"What? Why the hell did you do this if you can't get us back?"
"Those robots were attacking us! I got scared!"
She grabbed him again. "Rick, we can't stay here! We've got to get back!"
"I'm sorry! There's nothing I can do!"
"You mean we're stuck here?" Gaby exclaimed.
Zaskin had been staring raptly at the dinosaurs, ignoring their exchange. He started into the trees, saying, "I want to get a closer look."
"I don't think we should get any closer." Gaby grabbed Zaskin's arm, pulling him back.
"I agree. We need to find a safe place, and figure out where -- when -- we are, and how we're going to get back," Jen said with an angry look at Rick that was interrupted by a sneeze. Or if we're going to get back, her mind added. But she didn't say it.
"This looks familiar..."
"What? What?" Wes looked around, stunned. As Eric had said, it looked familiar. Horrifyingly familiar.
"We're back."
"Back in the past again? No... can't be. Not dinosaurs again."
"Yeah? Then what's that?"
Wes turned, jumping back as he saw a -- thing through the trees in the distance, an impossibly huge gray bulk, a long neck stretching up to a tiny head, lost in the treetops. As he watched, gulping in disbelief, the head turned and regarded them calmly, the jaws slowly grinding.
"Holy crap. We are back... But how?"
"How the... how should I know? You're the one who touched that damn machine!"
"I did not touch it! That -- that timehole just opened up all by itself!"
"All right." He could see Eric take a deep breath. "Either way, we're here."
"Do you think the same thing happened to Jen and the others?"
"Once again, I don't know. All I care about is finding them and getting home." Eric raised his arm and said, "Power down," transforming back into his navy-blue uniform.
Wes raised his morpher and demorphed also before replying, "Me too, Eric. My girl's gone, too."
"I know." Eric's face softened for a moment and he reached to touch Wes's arm. They exchanged a brief, half-hearted smile.
"If they're here..." Wes held up his morpher again and called into it. "Jen! Jen!" They waited, but there was no response. Eric tried to locate her with his morpher, also with no result. "I guess they're not here. Not in this time," Wes said, swallowing back his disappointment and renewed fear.
"We've got to get out of here," Eric said, his voice harsh. "Get back. Find out what happened to them."
"But how?" Wes could hear his own desperation.
"It was that machine Rick was using. It was a timehole, it must have been."
"But what was a timehole generator doing at Bio-Lab?"
"I could ask you that. You sure you don't know anything about it?"
"Eric, I swear. You know as much as I do."
"Jesus. So we're stuck. Unless you have any ideas?"
"None," Wes said glumly.
"Do you think we're in the same time we were in before?"
Wes looked around. They were in a forest, a few of the trees looking familiar, many not. There was no grass, but many small fern-like plants grew on the ground. It was warm and humid, and he smelled damp earth and decay. He shrugged. "I'm no expert. Seems the same, but it was probably like this for millions of years."
"California was underwater for most of the time of the dinosaurs so we should be near the time they went extinct, but that doesn't fit the animals we saw." At Wes's surprised look, he added, "I looked up some stuff, after the last time." He looked around again. "This even looks like where we were before. Recognize that cliff?" He pointed up.
They were standing at the foot of a cliff face, rock and earth rising above them to what looked like a plateau. Wes looked in the opposite direction to see a mountain in the near distance. "This is where I fell," he said. "Up on that plateau is where the dinosaur chased us, and knocked me off." He glanced around nervously.
"I think the first thing we'd better do is find shelter. Then figure out what we're going to do."
"What if someone comes after us and can't find us?"
Eric was silent for a few seconds. "You're right. We should wait for a while. But we'll have to find someplace more protected when it gets dark. Maybe that cave where I hid from the Tyrannosaurus or whatever it was, the last time."
The last time... Wes fell silent as he found a seat on a fallen tree trunk and watched Eric pace restlessly. That had been just about two years ago, immediately after Eric had first become the Quantum Ranger. He had hitched a ride through a timehole, and Wes had jumped aboard the TF Eagle, Eric's flyer, with some crazy idea of helping... It hadn't quite worked out that way. They hadn't been friends then, in fact Eric had resented his presence, resented him. They had argued, and even had a physical fight. Then the timehole had opened again, Eric had taken off, and Wes had been terrified that he would be left behind. Would be trapped here, like they seemed to be now.
"That was a long time ago," he said, as much to himself as to Eric. Then he added, "At least we're on the same side now."
"We were always on the same side. I just didn't like you," Eric responded with his usual bluntness.
"Huh." Wes frowned at him and decided to ignore the remark. "We got home okay that time."
"Yeah. We were lucky." Eric was quiet, looking up into the sky, his face tight. "But I have the feeling there isn't going to be a convenient timehole to take us home this time."
Wes turned his eyes away, his heart sinking. He had the same feeling.
"I want my son back. And Eric, and the others... We'll take whatever help we can get."
Nightwing rubbed his sore ribs, wincing slightly. He watched the middle-aged man talking to him. Alan Collins, Wes's father, owner and CEO of Bio-Lab. He was upset, naturally enough, with his son missing.
He had been here once before, in the Silver Guardians' infirmary. Only the night before, he realized with surprise. He had been treated again today for some minor injuries. There were other people in other beds, Guardians who had been injured in the fight, those who hadn't been hurt seriously enough to go to the hospital.
Also in the room was a short, grim-faced man who had been introduced as Steve Miller, in command of the Guardians in Eric and Wes's absence. The two men standing nearby watching them were Silver Hills Police Lieutenant Quinn, his dark face pinched with anxiety, and Detective Jimmy Duran.
The Guardians, with the help of the police, had disposed of the cyclobots remaining after their master had escaped in his van, rescuing him from them in the process. The masked man had left his cap and blaster behind. Both were now in the custody of the police.
"You were here before. Teamed up with Wes, Eric, and Jen. You saw the man who was controlling those things, close up. We have to find him, make him tell us what happened to Wes and the others."
"Don't know if I'd say we teamed up. I tried to help out. Last night it was dark, I never got much of a look at the guy. Today I just saw him for a second, but I think I'd recognize him. Whether it was the same man -- the one I saw the other night had very light hair. White, or close to it. When I pulled this guy's cap off, he had brown hair, but he was the same size, and he moved the same way -- I think he's the same guy."
"Good. You're the only witness we've got who's seen his face."
Nightwing looked up again at Collins, seeing his worry. "I'll do whatever I can," he answered. He turned to face Quinn and Duran. "If you find hairs on that cap, check for hair dye."
Quinn nodded. "We know our jobs," he said.
"I'm sure you do. I have a question." He faced Collins again. "Do you have any robotics experts on staff? Anyone who would have the ability to build those robots?"
"None that I know of. Dr. Zaskin would know. But he's gone. We can find out from his people."
"Ask them about anyone who's left recently, too. For any reason." He paused to think. "I understand you had some parts from the first cyclobots stored, and they were stolen recently."
"Yes. Wes told me they thought these newer ones were based on that design."
"Sounds reasonable. We may be looking for someone good in robotics or computer science who worked here at the time you were studying those first cyclobots."
"Right. We'll find out." Collins nodded.
Nightwing stood up. "I'll need to see the lab they attacked. Get a list of what they took. See pictures of your staff and former employees who fit the description." He paused for a moment to think. "Knowledge is our best weapon here. We need to know exactly what happened, if we're going to get those people back. I want to interview witnesses, see any surveillance tapes you may have."
"The police will cooperate fully," Quinn said grimly.
"And so will the Guardians," Miller added.
"Good." He glanced at each person, briefly holding their eyes. "We may need to work fast. Let's get going."
TBC...
