"If Time Force has a strict rule about non-interference, how is it that Time Force can be present at every major event in time to nudge things along?" Tommy asked them.

They'd managed to check themselves into a hotel room just outside of Angel Grove, using fake names. Jen and Katie were sitting across the table from him, waiting for Camille and Trip to return.

"When time travel was originally developed, we feared that it would fall into the wrong hands. Time Force wasn't the only organization to have the ability to travel through time, so it became necessary to form Temporal Investigations. Rival companies would conspire to change history, to eliminate Time Force with even existing, making them the only company with the ability to travel through time. There have been occasions where someone attempts to change history, and Time Force is there to ensure that things go as they were meant to. For example; the day you and Katherine were captured, if Time Force hadn't intervened, you would have been destroyed. TJ and Cassie would have never met you, thus never been given the turbo powers. If not for that one event, future history would have been altered. They wouldn't have gone into space to join forces with Andros, Karone would have never rejoined her brother, and the alliance of evil would have taken over the universe," Jen explained.

"How can one event lead to so many different things?"

"All it takes is one thing. One leads to another, and another, and another; it's an ongoing thing. Even now, we're preparing for what will happen next week, or next month. Alex once told me that everything happens for a reason, that fate is only what we make it. I didn't understand him at first, but now that we work on the Slipstream project, I know what he was trying to say. Sometimes history needs to be nudged along," she told him.

"So everything is part of a grand design? Even me being frozen and thawed out 1000 years later was part of some master plan?" he asked.

"I don't understand all of it, but I know you being here has a purpose. We all play our part in destiny, but sometimes destiny has its own plans for us," she said.

Just then, the front door opened as Camille and Trip walked in, closing the door behind him. "TJ and the others are ready to go. The transport truck to the Aqua Base will be in position in about twenty minutes," Trip said.

"Very good. I want one of you to switch on the cloak and follow them just in case. If I recall, the Aqua Base had some very tight security," Jen said.

"I'll go," Katie said, standing up.

"Fine. Report in as soon as you know something," she said.

"Understood," she said, walking out the room.

(*)

Cassie, Ashley and TJ ducked down before a boulder as they watched security guards pull onto the beach in a transport truck. From the looks of it, there were two guards, a driver and a passenger. The sun was shining a little brighter than usual, making it hard for them to get a good look at what was going on. Each of them put a hand over their eyes to shield them from the light as one of the guards got out the truck.

He walked to the edge of the water and motioned to the other guard. Seconds later, something began to rise out of the water. It appeared to be a long, metallic bridge of some sort.

"That must lead to the Aqua Base," Ashley speculated.

"Come on, this is our chance," TJ said, silently motioning them to follow.

They hurried over to the truck, climbing in the back as the guard headed for the door… but he stopped.

"What is it?" the other guard asked.

"I thought I heard something," he answered, heading for the back of the truck to make sure.

It was at that moment that he showed up. "Hi," the young man said cheerfully as he walked over to the truck, stopping the guard from looking in the back.

"This is private property young man, you're not suppose to be here," the guard told him.

"I just wanted to go for a swim. Is that okay?" he asked.

"I said get out of here kid," he snapped, heading back for the door. As the guard climbed back inside the truck, TJ peeked out the back of the truck to see who it was.

"It's Justin," he whispered to the others.

Justin sat on the boulder, nodding slightly at TJ. TJ nodded back, and the truck headed inside the metallic tunnel.

~

The truck pulled into a cargo hold of some kind, and the second it stopped, Ashley and the others jumped out, ducking down behind some wooden crates at the far end of the room. The guards both stepped out the truck and began to unload the truck.

"You ever wonder what all this stuff is?" one of them asked.

"I'd tell you what they were, but I doubt you'd understand me," a woman said as she walked into the room with a clipboard in hand.

"Good afternoon Ms. Fairweather," the other guard said.

"Is this everything?" she asked, getting down to business.

"Yes ma'am. I need you to sign here on line 24," he said, handing her some papers.

Ms. Fairweather took her glasses out her lab jacket pocket, slid them on and began to read over the papers. After getting a good look at them, she signed it and handed it back to him. "You can just unload them over there in the corner. I'll be back later on to inspect them," she told her.

"Yes ma'am," the guard said as she walked away.

"Jesus that babe has an ass," the other guard said.

"I heard that," Ms. Fairweather shouted just before she turned the corner.

"Dumbass," he said, shoving the other guard.

While they stacked the supplies in the corner, Cassie and the others snuck towards the door, ducking down a hallway. They snuck into the first room they came to, peeking around the corner. The room itself looked like a kitchen, or a cafeteria of some sort.

"Must be the mess hall," Ashley said.

"Ashley, you stay here and watch that transport. If it leaves before Cassie and I get back, just leave without us. We'll have to find another way out," TJ explained.

"I won't leave you in here," she said.

"We'll find another one," he repeated.

She sighed reluctantly. "Just be careful you two," she warned.

The two of them nodded, then quietly walked out the room, following Ms. Fairweather down the hallway.


~

Ms. Fairweather sat in the science lab of the Aqua Base, going over the schematics for the Lightspeed morphers. 'There has to be something I'm overlooking,' she thought to herself. Everything seemed to be in place; the power source was more than strong enough to generate the energy needed to morph, and the morphing sequences all seemed to be properly aligned, but that wasn't the problem. 'How do I connect them without it overloading? Come on Angie, think,' she thought.

She wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn't hear TJ and Cassie sneak into the room. TJ motioned for Cassie to go to the opposite side of the room, while he circled around on the other side. He quietly opened one of the storage lockers, but it was empty. Cassie tried another one, but no luck. It wasn't until they tried a third locker that Ms. Fairweather snapped out of her trance, turning around.

"What the…… how the hell did you two get in here?" she snapped.

TJ sighed. "We don't have time to explain. The world is in serious danger, we need the morphers," he told her.

"Let me guess, the most sinister force in the universe is on its way to Earth and you're the only one who can stop it, right?" she asked.

"Something like that," Cassie said.

"Listen, we really don't have time to explain it to you. We need the morphers," he said.

"Even if I believed you, the morphers are useless. Without the proper conduit to transfer the power, the morpher will overload and leave whoever wears it morphed permanently. Eventually the power would disrupt the nervous system and kill you," she told him.

"What if we told you we could solve that problem for you? Would you let us use the morphers?" he asked.

"How would you fix it?"

"Like I said Ms. Fairweather, there isn't much time," TJ said.

Reluctantly, Ms. Fairweather sighed. "Come with me," she told them, walking out the room.

~

'They should have been back by now,' Ashley thought to herself as she watched the guards unload the last of the supplies in the cargo bay. Finally, she'd waited long enough, leaving the mess hall and walking back into the cargo bay.

"Excuse me, I think I got separated from my tour group. Can you show me where the bathroom is?" she asked, walking over to the guards.

"Hey, you aren't suppose to be……" he was cut short as she rammed an elbow in his chest, then an uppercut that knocked him up against the truck. As he fell to the ground, the other guard reached for a weapon. Ashley did a back flip, kicking the gun out of his hand. She caught the gun in mid air, landing on her feet and pointing it at him.

"All you had to do was tell me where the bathroom was," she told him.

"Don't hurt me," he sighed.

"I don't want to hurt you, I just need a ride out of here," Ashley said, cracking a smile.

~

Ms. Fairweather led them into a room, stopping at a panel against the wall. She removed her nametag, swiping it across a censor pad, and the panel itself opened. She reached in, pulling out five morphers.

"I'm telling you the truth, they don't work without……" she was cut short.

"We believe you, and we promise to bring these back to you. When we do, they'll be working just fine," TJ assured her.

 For the first time, Ms. Fairweather nodded with approval. "Good luck you two," she sighed.

Cassie smiled at her as the two of them rushed out the room and down the hallway. It didn't take them very long to get to the cargo bay, where Ashley stood over the unconscious body of a security guard and pointing a gun at the other.

"What took you guys so long?" she asked.

"We got what we came for, lets get out of here," TJ said.

Cassie and TJ jumped in the back of the truck while Ashley sat up front with the guard, pointing the gun at him as he drove back through the metal tunnel.

(*)

The truck made it back to the shore, where Justin was still sitting on the boulder waiting for them. Ashley got out the truck, giving the guard his gun back as TJ and Cassie hopped out the back. The three of them walked over to Justin.

"How did you know you would be here?" Ashley asked.

"Captain Mitchell and my father are good friends. After that meeting you had with the general, they thought you might try something and they asked me to keep an eye on you," he told him.

"Good thing you were here,"

"So, what are you guys up to?" he asked.

"How would you feel about going on one last mission with us?" Cassie replied.

Justin jumped off the boulder, landing next to them. "What are we waiting for? Lets do it," he said.

TJ nodded, and the four of them walked away.

(*)

TJ knocked on the hotel room door, and moments later, Jen opened the door, allowing them in.

"I take it your mission went well," she said.

"We got what we came for," TJ said, handing the morphers to her. "But Ms. Fairweather said something about them not working,"

"Did she say why?" Trip asked, walking over to them, picking one up.

"Something about the conduit not being able to transfer power or something," Cassie told him.

"Time Force had a similar problem when they originally designed the Chrono morphers. The power levels were on their highest setting, and the morphing sequences were on line, but there wasn't sufficient……"

"I have a feeling this is about to go over my head Trip. Just give it to me in English," Jen said.

"The power is working, but the wires that connect the power to the on switch can't handle the power," he said.

"Can you fix it?" Cassie asked.

"Its simply a matter of aligning the morphing conduits to……" he paused, glancing up at them. "Yes, I can, but I'll need at least one turbo morpher for parts," he told them.

It was Justin who reached in his back pocket, pulling out his morpher and handed it to him. "Are you saying after this, my morpher won't work anymore?" he asked.

"Your morpher doesn't have enough power to sustain your morphed form for very long anyway. I can use these conduits to run power through the new morphers, but no, the turbo morpher will never work again," he told him.

"Do what you have to," he sighed.

"So what's the plan you guys?" Ashley asked.

"According to the history logs, Shin Getti should arrive in Angel Grove in roughly two hours. That should be enough time for Trip and I to make the modifications to the morphers. Hopefully it will be enough to stop Shin Getti," Camille said.

"Where is Katie?" TJ asked, staring around the room.

At that moment, Katie materialized out of thin air. "Right here," she said cheerfully.

"Where did she come from?" Justin asked.

"I asked Katie to engage her cloak and follow you guys just in case something happened," Jen said.

"You mean she was with us the entire time?" Ashley asked.

"Actually, I was with you most of the time. Nice work with the guards by the way," she said.

"Thanks,"

"Okay everyone, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but our ride will be here in about twenty five minutes. After that, you're on your own TJ," Tommy said, walking over to them.

"We'll do our best," TJ said.

"You always do."

"I'll have the modifications done on these morphers in about ten minutes, but who is going to get the fifth morpher?" Trip asked.

Cassie, TJ, Ashley and Justin looked at one another with confusion. "We hadn't thought about it," Cassie admitted.

"What about Carlos?" Ashley asked.

"After Captain Mitchell asked me to keep an eye on you guys, I tried to call him. I thought he would know something I didn't. I couldn't find him. I even went by his house, but his sister said he was out of town," Justin mentioned.

"We don't have a lot of time to recruit anyone," Katie said.

"I have someone in mind. You guys just finish the morphers, I'll be back," Tommy said as he reached for his morpher.

"Where are you going?" Jen asked.

"To get an old friend," he said, then disappeared into a stream of red light.