AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry this took so long to update, but between spring break and being sick, it was hard to get a chance to work on it. I want to thank Jacks for helping me decide on how to handle part of this chapter. Just remember girl, you promised to protect me from Dagmar as long as I post the next chapter quickly.

Danny


Jason yawned and forced his eyes to open, to look up into Tommy's face staring at him from beside the diagnostic bed where he was laying. The former leader of the 'Thunder, Ninjetti and Zeo Rangers was wearing a pair of simple white coverall. "Welcome back to the land of the living O' Fearless Leader," his old friend quipped.

"How long have I been asleep?" Jason asked. Trini had warned him that he would probably be very tired after his treatments. According to her, his body needed time to acclimate to the new power activated in his body.

Tommy looked up at the clock and smiled, "About three hours longer than I was, which is about an hour longer than Kat."

"And that would be?" Jason propped himself up on his elbows and asked. Looking down he blushed as he realized that only a light sheet, and a pair of boxers covered him.

Tommy laughed and handed him a similar pair of coveralls. Jason noted that they were red, as Tommy answered, "Kat was asleep for just a little over twenty-two hours."

Jason smiled, "And we used to accuse you of being late all the time."

"Well, according to Billy, you've got more body mass, so you would take longer to acclimatize."

Jason pulled on the coveralls and sat back on the bed. "Did Zack's "Main-Brain" mention being famished too?"

Tommy gave him a startled look, before answering, "As a matter of fact, he did." Then leaning back against the wall, he said, "There was a time when you would have said "our Main-Brain."

Jason shrugged, not wanting to talk about it. "Well, times change."

Tommy shook his head, "Not like this Bro, and not for you." He reached out and put a hand on Jason's shoulder, turning him around to face Tommy. "This isn't like you, Jase. What's going on?"

Jason shrugged, "Nothing's going on."

"Like hell there's not!" Tommy almost yelled at him. "You've been acting like someone just kicked your puppy, since the moment you walked into this base." Taking his hand from Jase's shoulder, Tommy continued, "Look, whatever you and Billy felt for each other back when we were in High School wasn't that big of a secret. We all knew that you two were closer than you let on." He tapped his chest, "This is your best Bro, remember. The guy you used to have the long talks with in the middle of the night with."

Jason gave him a long look, "And your point is?"

Tommy sighed, "My point is Bro, that you aren't hiding anything. Except for maybe whatever caused you two to break up."

Jason laughed, "Break up? There was never anything to break up. Nothing," Jason "safed" his hands to either side, "I mean, nothing ever happened between us." Then remembering that night, he turned his back on Tommy before saying lowly, "Nothing ever had the chance to happen."

Tommy's voice softened as he put a hand back on Jase's shoulder. "Tell me about it, Bro."

Jason sighed, turned back to face Tommy and sat on the bed, "Okay, I might as well. Nobody is going to leave me alone about it until I do." Smiling up at Tommy he asked, "Is Kat pestering Billy like this too?"

Tommy shook his head, "No, that's Kim's job."

Jase laughed, "That might actually work. He'll tell Kim things that he won't…," then remembering why he was having this conversation, he amended, "or wouldn't even tell me."

Tommy sat in the chair across from him and said, "So what happened?"

Jason smiled and said, "Okay, you guys are part right. There's always been a closeness between Billy and me, something more than just Bro's. Now don't go and get any ideas. Nothing ever really happened between us." Jason shrugged and shook his head, "And I'm not saying that either one of us didn't want something to happen, I just think that neither of us really knew how to start it." He looked up, "Up until that night I left Angel Grove after graduating OCS."

Tommy nodded, "So that's when it happened?" Smiling he added, "You know, most of us thought it was when Billy went to Aquitar."

Jason snorted, "No, I think that was the start of it though. I was seeing Emily, and I guess he needed someone too." Shaking his head, he looked up and smiled, "You know the funny thing is, I get the feeling that most people would expect that if anything were to ever happen between two guys on the teams it would be me and you."

Tommy held up his hands, "Now wait a minute Bro. I don't have any problems with you and Billy, but I'm not interested."

Jason laughed, "I know." Then he smiled, "It wouldn't work anyway. Two alpha males and all. We'd be too busy jockeying for position."

Tommy shook his head, "Man, that's TMI, man- Too Much Information."

Jason smiled, "I didn't mean it that way Tommy. I meant, we'd be too busy trying to figure out who was boss- whom would take care of who."

"Oh, I see." Tommy said. "I guess you're right. We would at that, wouldn't we." He quickly added, "Not that I'm interested or anything."

Jason smiled and shrugged, "I know Bro. You're about as straight as the come. With Billy, it's different. He didn't mind my taking care of him- most of the time." Then sighing as he remembered how he and the sandy-haired Blue Ranger used to interact- how each recognized the other's strengths and let them lead when it was appropriate. "And I guess I didn't mind letting him take care of me when he could."

"What changed Bro?" Tommy asked.

Jason thought for a moment before answering. Tommy deserved an answer. Hell, Billy deserved an answer even more. Finally he said, "We talked, and I ran like a dog."

"Huh?" Tommy asked. "I've never known you to run from anything in your life." Smiling because enough time had passed for it to no longer be painful- for either of them-, he added, "Not even from me, when I was out to kill you."

Jason smiled, "Oh, it's easy to fight a monster or even the evil Green Ranger. Sometimes it's not so easy to fight yourself."

"I don't understand."

"Okay," Jason began, "It was like this. Right after the party celebrating my commission, Billy and I went back to his house. We had a few beers and just sat talking. After a while, I got the feeling that something was on his mind. He'd been too quite all evening. Now, Billy's not one to be a big partier, but even he's not as quiet as he was being that night. ":

"Okay, Billy," Jason asked putting his beer down on the coaster on the coffee table. "What's bugging you Bro?" The evening had been great, all his friends had been out to celebrate his making Lieutenant Junior Grade right out of OCS. Everyone had turned out and he'd had good time. However, all evening, he'd sensed something was bothering Billy."

Billy smiled up at him, "Is my countenance that apparent?"

Jason leaned forward, "It is now. You don't usually drop into Billy-speak unless something is bothering you."

Again, Billy smiled, this time weakly, "It has always been somewhat difficult to conceal distress from you Jason." Sighing, he leaned back onto the couch and said, "However, this is your celebration," was that a hint of hurt, Jason detected in his voice? "And I don't want to ruin it for you."

"Billy, something bothering you is enough to ruin it for me," Jason replied as he realized he meant it. Seeing the pain in his friend's eyes, brought out a protective streak in him. He wanted to pull the smaller man to him and just hold him, protect him, and make what ever it was go away. Sitting there, watching Billy look at the floor, he instinctively reached out and pulled his chin up so that Billy was forced to look him in the eye. Watching the slight beads of perspiration form on Billy's upper lip, Jason suddenly had an urge reach out and kiss them and the hurt away. Whoa! Where'd that come from? Jason mentally asked himself, startled at the intensity of the emotion he felt there.

For long moments, Billy simply sat there looking at him. Finally, Jason could see a resolution come into Billy's eyes………. "ALL HANDS ON DECK! RED ALERT! ALL PILOTS SCRAMBLE TO YOUR SHIPS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL…," the loudspeakers in the base suddenly blared.

Jason groaned and rolled his eyes at Tommy. "Sorry Bro, but," he indicated where the rooms lights had shifted to amber.

Tommy grinned at him, "You ARE going to finish this story."

Jason just smiled, "Later." He grabbed his shoes and headed out the door behind Tommy. Seconds later both men scrambled into the 'Tech bays behind the rest of their teammates.

Kat looked over at her husband and Jase and asked, "Do you think we can handle this yet?"

Jase shrugged, "If Billy designed it, we can pilot it." Maybe it was the effects of the 'treatment', maybe it was pre-battle adrenaline, but there was a conviction in his voice that echoed deep down in his soul. Climbing up the gantry to cockpit of his craft, he realized that it was true. He trusted Billy with his soul. Looking over at the blue-clad form climbing into the ship next to his, he grinned and gave his old friend a thumbs-up. Billy gave him a confused look and returned the gesture.

Sliding into the cockpit, Jason suddenly felt at home. It was like being back in the Tyrannosaur 'Zord, only this one could fly. Instinctively, he felt himself interfacing with the controls of the craft, as a complete understanding of its operational parameters and just poured effortlessly into his mind. "Billy, my Main-Brain, you do good work!" Zack's voice came over the speakers.

"All right Rangers, this is your first mission," Admiral Hazard's voice broke through any reply the Blue Ranger might have had. "There's a large Draconic sited on radar heading toward the San Francisco Bay area. CIC is feeding the coordinates into your nav-computers now. Good luck."

"Yes, ma'am." Jason replied into his mic. Scanning his instruments, he added, "This is Red Ranger One, all systems check, launching in five, four, three, two, one, NOW!"

Jason had expected to feel the familiar weight of being pressed back into his seat by the G-forces generated with the launch of conventional aircraft. However he felt little more than he would pressing the accelerator on an automobile. He had to double-check his instruments to be sure of his air speed. He smiled quietly to himself, as a familiar voice came over the radio, "Cool stereo."

"Why does Kimberly always get the cool stereo?" Zack asked nobody in particular.

"Because I knew she would be incapable of resisting commenting on it," Billy replied.

"Cut the chatter Rangers," Jason admonished into his radio. "We're almost at the interception point." His radar was already picking up a huge mass closing with the coast. "Form up on me, and get ready to engage."

"Holey Moley! That thing is huge!" Kat's voice called back.

Jason watched the form slowly come gliding out of a cloudbank, and had to agree. How in God's name could something that big get off the ground? It was a good thousand meters long, with a wingspan half again as big. It's scales shone with a sky blue color, that reminded Jason of a winter's day. The wings started as a deep cerulean and faded into a frosty white at the tips. Huge silver-white horns adorned its head and the main juncture of its wings. It was almost painfully beautiful to look at, and obviously deadly. He keyed his mic and radioed to the others, "All right Rangers, this it. We'll have to engage it in fighter mode, because we don't want it to make landfall."

"You can say that again, Bro." Tommy's voice said. "That thing hits San Fran, and it'll look like Tokyo after one of Billy's Godzilla movie fests."

The giant reptile seemed to not notice their presence at all, as it beat its huge wings toward the coast. "We're going in," Jase told his teammates. "Form up on me and try to stay clear of those claws."

"Trust me Bro, staying clear of those things was foremost on my mind," Rocky radioed back.

"Good man," Jase replied as he accelerated toward the creature, and called up the weapons lock.

"Remember Rangers," Billy's voice came over the speaker, "your weapons are ten times more powerful than anything else on the planet. Take care where you're firing, we don't want any blue on blue incidents."

"Huh?" Kimberly asked. "What are blue on blue incidents?"

Jason smiled and answered, "Friendly fire Kim. I don't care how much you and Adam have been arguing, you can't shoot him down in the middle of the firefight."

"Rats!" Kimberly said jokingly over the radio.

"Hey!" Adam protested. "Just for that…." Whatever he had to say was lost as Jason's craft was suddenly rocked with a blast of cold wind and lightning when the dragon finally noticed the smaller craft closing with it. It raised back it's huge head and simply exhaled.

Lightning and wind suddenly buffeted craft toward the deck below. Jason struggled with the controls, trying to fight the growing ice and electrical surges that were dancing along his wings. Finally regaining control, he pulled up hard on the yoke and leveled his 'Tech off, just meters above the choppy waves below him. "That, was close!" he muttered into his radio. "Anybody else hit?"

"Negative Red Ranger One, he hasn't laid a claw on us yet," Adam's replied as Jason brought his craft into a climb to gain altitude again.

Taking a second to catch his bearings, Jason studied the radar screen. The dragon dominated whole quadrants of the readout, with nine other 'Techs- Jason reminded himself to ask Billy why he called the Omni-Techs- buzzing around it like so many flies.

Jason looked up in time to see Tommy throw his 'Tech into an impossible ninety degree bank, just barely avoiding the huge jaws from swallowing him, craft and all. "Hey guys, be careful out there. Unlike Goldar or Mondo, this Godzilla wanna-be's not going to give us chance to recover. He's just going to eat us and be done with it," Jason radioed.

"I hear you Commander," Billy radioed back. Jason looked up at Blue Ranger One as he drove his craft into an attack stoop. "Cover me, Red Ranger Two, I'm going in."

Jason was almost paralyzed with dread as he watched Billy's craft drop from its orbiting position into an attack run- Rocky right behind him, spewing out sixty millimeter armor piercing rounds. The dragon, ducked its head taking the fire on the bony crest above its eyes. The creature must have realized that the Rocky's fire was meant as a distraction, because Jason watched as it locked its eyes on Billy's forward craft.

In a deadly arc, it lashed its tail around to bat the blue trimmed craft from the sky. Without thinking, Jason gunned the afterburners on his 'Tech and accelerated toward the spade shaped tip of the creatures tail, firing everything he had. He could feel the dull throb of the Omni-Tech's twin cannons spewing out dense metallic rounds. Ignoring the screaming of collision klaxons, he followed up with two missiles on top of the twin particle cannons mounted against his fuselage.

He watched as the concentrated fire separated the wide blade from the rest of the tail as it went spinning off into the sky. Instinctively, he rolled is craft to the port and flew through the intervening space between the tip and what was left of the tail. Suddenly something slammed into the belly of his 'Tech and he felt himself skipping across the sky. Fighting hard to avoid going into a flat spin- something that he knew, this close to the deck, he'd never be able to pull out of in time- he rolled his craft on over and pulled back hard on the yoke.

The 'Tech shuddered under him, and screamed in protest, as it fought inertia, gravity, and the negative lift of flying upside-down, until it finally leveled off and he found himself flying back toward the dragon. He looked up just in time to see Blue Ranger One empty its four missiles, on top of a full powered burst from its particle cannons into the creatures screaming maw, and then bank hard to the port, barely avoiding the five-meter long teeth in its mouth.

"Jason, what in Hell do you think…" Jason's radio suddenly cut out as warning alarms all throughout his cockpit went out. His instrument panel blinked once, then twice, and then went dark. He felt the ship's engines suddenly flare out just before he was slammed forward in the cockpit.

Shaking his head, he cleared is vision and made some quick calculations. He had the altitude and air speed he needed, the Command Center was within range, barely. Hitting the emergency radio control in his helmet he radioed, "Red Ranger One to Command Center, I've had a flare out. I'm going to attempt a controlled glide home."

"What the hell do you mean you've had a flare out? Those engines can't flare out!" A woman's voice came over his speaker.

"Command Center, I mean that I've got no power, and right now, I'm in a controlled glide. I don't know what's happened, but I've got zero thrust."

"Have you tried your back batteries?"

"I have back-up batteries?" Jason asked.

"Red Ranger One, on your yoke, there's a guarded switch under your middle finger, can you feel it?" The voice sounded frustrated with him.

Jason felt where she was indicating and flipped the toggle guard out of the way. Pressing down hard, he watched the control panels light up again. However, there was still no engine power. "Got it Command Center. I've got partial power, but still no thrust."

Tommy's voice joined him over the radio, "Command Center, this is White Ranger One, I have a visual of Red Ranger One's 'Tech. There's some kind of gook, all over the air intake for his engines. It looks like it's eating through the armored shell."

There was a pause and Jason could tell that the person on the other end of radio was considering options. "All right Red Ranger One, bring her in on a controlled glide. We'll clear the emergency runway for you," the other voice told him. "White Ranger One, you're his guardian angel. Make sure he makes it here in one piece."

"Affirmative, Command Center," Tommy replied.

He heard another voice over the radio, "Ma'am, Commander Scott's Harrier is still on the runway."

"Well get that hunk of junk off now. I don't care how, push it off with a cat, just get that runway cleared. You've two minutes."

"Yes ma'am," the other voice snapped back.

The next two and half minutes were a blur as Jason fought the Omni-tech down to the emergency runway. It was worse than trying to land a Hornet on a carrier in rough seas. Finally, he got her to a stop at the end of the runway, just in time to see Tommy's Omni-tech hover over him, and then return to the launch bay, as emergency crews surrounded Red Ranger One. What a first mission, Jason thought as he climbed down out of the 'Tech. Flare out my engines, and have to make an emergency landing. You'd think I was first year pilot.

A short red-haired woman wearing a gold jump suit was looking at the damage on the underside of his craft. He could smell the acrid odor of burning metal, and armor. Shaking her head she looked back at him. "Dragon's blood! In my engines!" She turned and looked at him, muttering something unpleasant under her voice.

Ignoring her curses, Jason asked, "What's the status of the rest of the team?"

"The rest of the team is on its way back. Your dragon winked out." She smiled up at him, "Congratulations Commander Scott, yours' is the first team to successfully drive off a Draconic."