~*~*~
The former Rangers were too busy arguing with Bulk and Skull over how they knew they were Rangers to notice the new arrivals. Erin, Melanie, Jesse, and Lisa strolled silently to the middle of the room. Each was clad from head to toe in black, with Jesse and Mel in black hoodies and Erin and Lisa in leather jackets. The four smirked as they listened to the conversations going on around them.
"So, how did you know we're the Power Rangers?" Kim kept her voice low.
Skull gave a maniacal laugh. "Oh c'mon! You mean aside from the monochromatic wardrobe and those weird watch-y things?...."
"They're called 'communicators', Skull." Bulk rolled his eyes at his companion.
"Oh yeah. Sorry," Skull sulked.
"How about how the number of you always seemed to change whenever a Ranger was created, or a power was taken away?" Melanie butted in, causing all eyes to focus on the newcomers.
"How about the way you always seemed to disappear whenever there was a monster attack?" Erin piped up.
"Or the way you talked to Zordon as well as morphed in public?" Lisa brought up, quietly.
"Or the way that I'm addicted to coffee!!!!" Jesse grinned wildly, gaining shocked faces and blank stares from the others.
"Yeah, we really were that obvious, weren't we?" a soft voice spoke up from just inside the door.
13 pairs of eyes now turned to stare at the newest and last arrival: a man in a black leather jacket, black slacks, black shoes, and a pair of black Oakley's smiled warmly at the crowd. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and took a step forward, removing the sunglasses. Again, he looked at his old friends, and then to the 4 people he didn't recognize. "You guys didn't think I was gonna let you do this without the original Blue Ranger, did you?" he smirked.
Lisa's mouth almost dropped open. "Oh my gosh… he's gorgeous!" she hissed to Erin.
"BILLY!!" Kat shrieked, struggling out of Tommy's arms and smothering her old friend with a huge hug.
"Nice to see you too, Katherine," Billy chuckled. "All of you." His gaze shifted to Lisa. He grinned and whispered "Hi," before giving her a wink. She smiled back and blushed.
"Wow! You don't look like you've aged a day!" Kat playfully touched his cheek.
Billy blushed slightly. "What can I say, the Eternal Falls worked… rather well, I might add."
"Oh, that's right! You went to what's-it-called with what's-her-name…" Rocky looked up from his sub sandwich.
"Aquitar with Cestria," Billy was somewhat annoyed that his friend couldn't remember.
"Wow… kinda gives a whole new meaning to 'sleeping with the fishes', doesn't it?" Rocky joked.
The entire group snickered quietly as Billy's face turned every shade of red and purple imaginable.
"That never happened!" The young scientist exclaimed, stealing a glance at Lisa.
"Uh huh… sure…." Rocky rolled his eyes as he laughed at his own joke.
"It didn't!"
"Alright, alright guys…" Melanie interrupted. "Now, as much as I'm sure it would thrill Lisa to see Billy take off his jacket and pound on Rocky, we've got some business to attend to."
Lisa blushed again and quickly tried to regain her composure. "Guys, we've got a serious situation on our hands… you're the only ones who can help us."
"Well, how about you quit stalling and just tell us what's going on?!" Tommy growled as he attempted to pull his girlfriend off of Billy.
"How about you sit down and shut up?!" Erin shot back.
"You're not the leader here, anymore, Tommy." Lisa gave him a sympathetic smile.
"No, I AM!!!!" Jesse screeched.
"You have to forgive Jesse, he didn't have his Haldol this morning," Erin glared at the young man who was now trying to pull gum off the bottom of his shoe with his teeth.
"Yeah, he's still pissed he got the Chicken Zord," Melanie snorted.
"Wait, you guys are Power Rangers?" Tanya asked, a bit confused.
"Well, not exactly. Zordon had to think of something to appease Jesse so he wouldn't destroy what was left of the Power Chamber." Lisa replied.
"Zordon's back?!" everyone's head shot up and Rocky dropped his sandwich on the floor.
"How is that possible?!"
"How long has he been back?"
"How did you get him back?"
"Who's gonna pay me for the sandwich I just dropped?!"
Melanie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah… Zordon's back." She shifted her gaze to Lisa. "And I'll let Lisa fill you in on how it happened," she finished, nastily.
All eyes shifted to the young blonde woman. "Well…" she stammered. "Erin, Jesse, and I were doing some very interesting work with neutrinos in my lab, and somehow we managed to tap into the Morphin' Grid. Before we knew it, we had been teleported to the Power Chamber, which had been restored when Zordon's tube was shattered by Andros. Most of the equipment, amazingly enough, was still fully functional, so Erin and I started playing around with axionic flux discriminators, quantum anaphasic vertion scanners, biomimetic containment capacitors…."
Lisa was cut off by Melanie. "That's all fine and dandy, but could you get to the point?!... and do it IN ENGLISH!"
Lisa felt her face grow hot. "Fine," she growled. "Pretty much, we learned of Zordon after doing some research through the hard copies of data found down in the sub-basement of the Command Center. We then figured out a way to bring Zordon back by using the neutrinos in the Morphin' Grid, but just as I flipped the switch, Jesse tripped over some wire sticking out from the panel below and spilled his coffee all over the controls…and thus bringing back Zordon…" she paused as a pained look came over her face. "… and his evil counterpart, Zordonicus."
Adam looked at Lisa for a moment with wide eyes before fainting and falling off the bleachers.