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


Predators

"I always liked you." Norman smiled.

"Then why are you doing this?" Gaby asked. She fought down panic, trying to keep the tinge of hysteria out of her voice.

"I just want us to be together."

"But you have me locked up." She tried smiling herself. "That's not very nice. That doesn't make me want to like you."

It was a comfortable enough prison, but still a prison. After he and his robots had kidnapped her last night, they had driven for what felt like miles. She could see nothing from inside the van, and had quickly lost track of the turns they had taken. When they finally stopped, the cyclobots had dragged her out, into a large, darkened building, and through empty corridors. Along the walls she had glimpsed doors and windows into laboratories, most of them looking dusty and abandoned. Then she had been shoved rudely into a large office. Fortunately there was a bathroom adjoining it, and a fairly comfortable sofa, not that she had been able to sleep. Even more fortunately, before locking the door Norman had announced that she needed time to recover, and left her alone. Until now.

She had been frightened when he opened the door in the morning, carrying a tray of food. She was still frightened as she tried to eat, hoping to keep him calm, to distract him from whatever he intended to do for as long as possible. And from the way he looked at her, she had a fair idea of what those intentions were.

"But I had to bring you here, had to lock you up," he said, sounding almost plaintive. "You never noticed me before. I want to show you how much I've changed."

"Well, you look different…"

"Oh, the hair, and the skin. And my eyes." He smiled. "That's part of it." The smile faded. "No one noticed me before. I might as well have been a piece of furniture. No girl ever looked twice at me, including you."

"But… that's not true. Plenty of people noticed you."

"You didn't. None of the girls did." His voice had taken on a bitter, angry tinge.

"Well, you never made any effort-"

He seemed not to hear her. "I just -- faded into the background. But now, everyone's going to know who I am. Everyone's going to respect me." He glared at her, fists clenching.

Nervously, she tried smiling again. "But -- you hardly ever even talked to me. If you think I didn't notice you -- well, we didn't really know each other. I'm surprised you noticed me."

"I wanted to go out with you for a long time. We would have been great together. But then you started up with him."

"Him?" she asked tentatively.

"Eric!" He came closer again. "He's not good enough for you. You're a smart girl. Educated. You deserve someone like me, someone brilliant… Eric's just a dropout, a security guard. He's nothing."

"Eric's not nothing." Indignation firmed her voice and narrowed her eyes. "You don't know him."

Norman sneered. "I know enough." He reached down to grab her wrist, pulling her up to face him. "I'm the right guy for you, Gaby. And I'm going to show you."

"What do you mean?" Fear brushed over her again.

"I'll prove to you I'm better than him," he said softly, moving his grip to her arms. "I'll show you what I've done. What I'm going to do." He smiled, a twisted grimace of vindictive hatred. "Eric is gone, he can't help you. He can't help himself. And if he ever comes back... I'll get rid of him forever."


Wes sighed heavily and took a deep breath of fresh air. It was a relief to get out of that dark, dismal cave, even if it was only for a few minutes. The four of them stood outside the cave entrance. He stepped closer to Eric, watching him closely as he swayed unsteadily before sitting on a fallen tree trunk, seeing annoyance cross his pale, tense face at the inspection.

"You should have stayed inside," he said.

"Told you, I want some fresh air. Don't want to just sit around waiting... Besides, I can help keep an eye on those two. Do something useful, while I still can." He got up and started after Tony and Doug, who had moved several yards away to the cliff edge, and were looking down at the valley below.

Wes followed him and joined them, looking out. It was a magnificent view, the day bright and sunny, the humidity lower than usual, untouched prehistoric rain forest stretching out for miles. He heard a faint cry and looked up to see a pterodactyl lazily wheeling through the sky. The smell of vegetation drifted over him. For a few moments the knot of fear and dread in his gut loosened, and he smiled at the lush, natural beauty surrounding them.

There was movement in the distance, he spotted a huge dinosaur, bulky body on short, massive legs, long graceful neck ending in a tiny head, reaching into the treetops as it fed, long thick tail held behind it as balance. It took a slow, ponderous step. A group of smaller creatures darted through the trees, moving out of its way. Two legs, small arms, big heads that were all jaws and teeth, about the height of a man. The same animals that had attacked them.

"They're still here," Tony said softly. He glanced at Doug. "What do you think they are?"

"Some kind of Tyrannosaurus or raptor. There were a lot of species, different sizes but basically similar. The biggest and most famous was the Tyrannosaurus Rex."

"Nobody thought dinosaurs hunted in packs like that."

"They thought so in our time," Wes said. "And obviously it's true."

"Just makes them more dangerous," Eric commented.

"Dangerous or not, we need food," Tony said. "Doug and I found a trail down the cliff. One of us would stand watch at the top while the other one goes down into the forest. Of course, that was before these raptors or whatever they are showed up. They're smarter and faster than anything we've come up against before."

"But our morphers should be able to stop them long enough for you to get back up here," Wes said.

Doug turned away from the view with a frown. "Hopefully. I don't want to get near those things again. I guess we might as well go now, while we know where they are."

They led the way to a small thicket on the cliff edge. As they pushed through, Wes saw the beginning of a steep trail, winding its way down the slope between rocks and a scattering of bushes and ferns to the trees below. It looked difficult, but passable for anyone reasonably athletic. Anyone healthy and with two good hands, anyway…

Eric had found a rock to sit on and was slumped, looking exhausted and dejected. Wes gave him another concerned glance. "You should be lookout. Stay up here. If you see anything, you can call me with the morphers."

Eric seemed about to argue for a moment, but then he only nodded. "All right. Just be ready to move if I call. I'll make sure you have a clear line of retreat."

"Good." Wes, Tony, and Doug moved out, not talking as they started down, all their attention given to picking their way. It proved to be not as bad as it looked, and they made good time. Halfway down, Wes stopped long enough to try to spot the pack of raptors again, unsuccessfully, but he could see little through the trees at this height. After several minutes they reached the bottom and crossed a small open area.

"Over here." Tony pointed, walked a few yards, and bent to pick up a large pod from the ground. It was almost two feet long, and looked something like a huge pinecone. "A seedpod. Most of the inside of this is edible," he said. "Enough for a couple of days."

"And here." Doug was under a small tree, the ground around him littered with what looked like walnuts. "Take as many of these as you can, and we can get out of here." Wes followed his example and began to fill his pockets.

"Wes!" Eric's voice abruptly rang from Wes's morpher, startling all of them. "There's another pack, coming right for you! Get out of there now!"

"Shit. Come on!" Wes paused long enough to see Tony and Doug start running, Tony still clutching the seedpod. Then he raised his morpher, touched the button, seeing the light cascading over him, the red and white Ranger suit replacing his dirty uniform. He summoned his blaster and followed his companions.


From across the street he looked at it. Norman Ryder's factory. Another abandoned building, dark, dusty, and unused, at least on the surface. Briefly Nightwing wondered why bad guys always seemed to go for places like this. And why there seemed to be so many of these old, empty buildings waiting for them. Then he dismissed the thought as unimportant. Just one precaution to take before he went in. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the familiar number.

"Babs?"

"Dick. Bruce said he called you."

"He did. Told me about Norman's chemical factory. Thanks for the help."

"But you're not calling just to say thanks."

"No." He smiled. She knew him so well. "The situation has changed. I think Ryder has kidnapped a woman. Eric's girlfriend. I have to go after him now."

Her voice quickened with concern. "What about the Rangers? Are they going with you?"

"Wes and Eric are still missing. Jen and Alex are still working on finding them. They can't take time out from that. I'm going in alone."

"Dick, let me call Bruce. He could be there in a couple of hours…"

"No. If she's here, Ryder's had her since last night. I think he took her because he has the hots for her. That situation can't wait either." He paused for a moment. "If you don't hear from me in half an hour, call the Guardians. And tell Bruce." Ignoring her protest, he hung up.


"See! I did all of this! All of it!" Norman swept an arm around the large laboratory he had pulled Gaby into.

She stared, impressed, but not in a pleasant way. It was a factory, rows of machines lining the walls, cyclobots operating them, the clanking of metal parts and the smell of oil filling the air. She watched the finishing touches being put on a robot arm, which was then carried to a robot body on a table between the machines. A cyclobot attached the arm. It was an assembly line. Cyclobots building cyclobots. No wonder he had so many of them.

"Yes," he said. "This is where I build them. I had some problems with the controllers at first -- the computers. Took me a few months to analyze the programming, and duplicate it. But I figured out how to make them completely from scratch. Now the only limit is how fast I can get the parts. Bought some, raided the Bio-Lab warehouses for more."

"Is that why you attacked the lab? For parts?"

He shrugged, grinning. "That was part of it… Mostly I wanted to show them. They forced me to quit. Never respected me. Now they know better." His grip on her arm tightened. "And I wanted you… but you got caught in that time machine."

She stared at him. "Yes," he went on. "I know about that. I've been studying it. Soon I'll build my own time machine, a better one than that…" He pulled her to a workbench away from the manufacturing equipment. She recognized Rick's coffeemaker-like machine at once.

"But -- how did you do all this?" she asked. "I mean… you weren't a robotics expert. You were a chemist, weren't you?"

"That's right. Maybe you did notice me, a little." His eyes were suddenly hot, a spark of something in them that made her skin crawl. "I was a biochemist, specializing in drug reactions and genetic engineering. Had a degree in electronics, too. I was always smart, but…" He grinned. "I worked on the Venomark serum, the stuff that cured that plague we had when the mutants were here. Until Collins made us drop the research.

"But I didn't give up. Kept my notes, and a sample. Then, about a year ago -- about the time you started at Bio-Lab -- we did some research on mutants. Some women who had been mutated artificially, by a chemical treatment. Again, we were ordered to drop it, and again I kept some of the tissue samples for myself."

"What does that have to do with cyclobots?"

He smiled again. "People never noticed me, never appreciated me. So ordinary, so plain, just fading into the background… I hated it. I isolated the mutating agent from those samples. Figured out that it would change me. Make me even smarter, stronger. Make me so special everyone would notice. Figured out how to neutralize the side effects with the Venomark serum. Used it on myself."

"What? Is that what turned you…"

"Purple and silver? Yes. I didn't expect that. First my hair turned white... Tried to cover it with hair dye, but it doesn't stick, comes off in a few hours. My eyes and skin have changed too, in the last few days... but it was worth it." His voice was intense, his face alight. "I did get smarter. Much smarter. And stronger. So what if I look unusual? Everyone's going to notice me now. And you… you're going to love me."

"Norman, you can't just make someone love you."

"Can't I?" He pulled her closer, smiling.

She twisted her arm, trying to pull free. "Let me go!"

"Gaby, we're meant for each other. Face it."

"You're crazy!"

His eyes glimmered with anger and a different passion. "There's no use fighting it. You can't get away." He held her close, twisting her arms behind her back, pressing her against his body, his face coming down to kiss her.

"Let go, you freak!" she shouted, relieved for an instant as he released her, still keeping his grip on her wrist, then regretting her words as she saw his face flame with rage.

"Freak? You don't want me? Fine, maybe you'd rather go back into the past again!" He yanked at her arm, dragging her to the bench with the time machine. With his other hand he flipped a switch. The machine hummed to life. Gaby tried to free herself again as he grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her nearer. "Last chance, Gaby," Norman murmured in her ear. "I've turned the machine on... I can send you back millions of years, and no one will ever find you. Give me what I want or you'll be dinosaur food."

They both looked up, Norman hissing in surprise, as darkness suddenly formed in the air above the machine, swiftly resolving into a black and violet swirl. Norman fell back, dragging her with him, as it swept down into a whirling cone. She struggled, both of them staring as the timehole faded.


Whoever thought of dinosaurs as slow and sluggish couldn't be more wrong. Wes stopped in alarm as he saw three of the raptor-like hunters spring out of the trees into the open area at the base of the slope, cutting them off. Then he charged forward, firing, knocking them down before they could reach Tony and Doug.

"I've got you covered! Go!" he shouted, turning to see more pursuing, still more emerging from the forest. How could they move so fast? He fired again and again, trying to drive them back, but they had the three humans surrounded, moving in on one side as soon as he was facing the other way.

Slowly they worked their way toward the path, Wes turning in a circle. He saw and heard more blasts, powerful ones, and looked up to see Eric in his Quantum Ranger form coming down the path, pausing to shoot at their attackers. The dinosaurs fell back with angry roars, clearing the way to safety.

"Go on!" Wes said, pushing Tony and Doug ahead. He turned, moving backwards after them, keeping up a barrage of energy blasts. A glance over his shoulder showed Eric about halfway down, but faltering, falling to his hands and knees, then raising an arm to fire past him. He looked back to see a dinosaur that had gotten too close fall to the ground.

At the bottom of the path, he looked up. Tony and Doug, ahead of him, had reached Eric, who was on his knees, still firing steadily to cover their retreat. They reached him, he waved them on, they started for the top again. Wes turned back to fire at two of the creatures that seemed about to follow him, and began to climb.

He noticed a strange sound, glanced up, and saw nothing but bushes and rocks, the rest of the path blocked from his view. Eric had stopped shooting. After pausing for a few more blasts, Wes was on his way again. The dinosaurs seemed to know when they were defeated; when he paused to look back, the last of them were disappearing into the trees.

Tony and Doug were waiting just outside the cave, their faces tensing as they saw him.

"Where's Eric?" Doug asked.

"Isn't he up here?"

"No, he was on the path the last time we saw him."

"You didn't pass him on your way up?" Tony demanded.

"No." Wes stared back at the cliff edge. "We've got to find him."


"That's it. We've got it." Alex smiled wide, looking up at her, his face so happy, despite his obvious exhaustion, his expression so alight, that for a moment Jen blinked and looked away. When he smiled like that, he seemed so much like Wes.

"Are you sure?" Rick asked. "You can find them now?"

"Yes," Jen answered him. "If your machine took them to these coordinates, we'll find them." She stood up. "And we'd better get going."

"I assume you're going to insist on coming with me," Alex said.

"You assume right." They exchanged another smile as he got up.

"Good luck," Rick called after them as they headed for the door.

A quick walk took them outside again, into the sun and a warm, gentle breeze. Jen blinked in the light, raising her arm, ready to use her morpher to summon her flyer for the trip to the beach. Then it would be a quick flight through time -- and then... Wes would be waiting. She hoped. And Eric, of course.

"Tell me again they'll be all right," she said softly.

"Of course they will. Let's get going." Next to her, Alex raised his morpher.


TBC...