Disclaimer: Power Rangers Time Force and all related logos are property of Disney and/or Saban Entertainment. I am using them without permission. KJ Sheldon, Lt. James Emery, Trinity Oliver, Camille Summers, Amanda "Mandy" Scott, Mr. & Mrs. Mathew Scott, Leo Claw and the "Omega Project" are property of yours truly.
A/N: This fic makes reference to "Adam & Eve", which is chapter 7 in the original Parallels series.
Please take a moment to review. I live for reviews!!
~~
"Isn't this beautiful?" he asked her as they walked hand in hand along the beach.
The sun was beginning to set, and reflections of sun bounced off the river as they walked. There was a slight chill in the air, and Adam quickly removed his jacket, throwing it over her shoulders.
"This is wonderful Adam," she sighed.
"I brought you out here because there was something I wanted to tell you," he said.
They stopped, turning to one another as he looked into her eyes. There was something about the way she looked at him, something in her dark brown eyes that made him melt.
"What is it?"
Oddly enough, he was sure that when the moment came, he would be nervous. He was sure that he'd have a hard to telling her what he had to say. To the contrary, there was no hesitation, no insecurity. "Kathryn, I love you. I've loved you from the moment I came here. At first I didn't want to say anything because…" she cut him short by taking a step forward, putting her finger gently on his lips.
"Shhhhhhh. You had me at I love you," she told him as she moved her finger, and then leaned upwards, kissing him warmly on the lips. She backed away slowly with a smile on her face. "I love you too," she admitted.
'Nadira to Adam, come in,' a voice said.
'I guess you have to go. Duty calls," Katie sighed, staring down at his Morpher.
"No, I don't want to leave you," he said.
"I know, but they need you. Besides, I'll be here when you get back," she assured him.
"I love you,"
"And I love you," she sighed.
'Nadira to Adam. Please respond,' the voice said again.
Adam opened his eyes, only to find himself in bed. 'All a dream,' he sighed inwardly as he rolled over, neglecting to turn on the light as he fumbled around the nightstand next to his bed in search of his Morpher. Finally, he sat up in his bed, stretching as he answered her. "Do you have any idea what time is it Dira?" he asked her.
'I know, but I didn't know who else to call. Camille and Trip are asleep, Tommy and Jen are gone, and James's duty shift doesn't start for another three hours,' she said.
He sighed. "Okay Nadira, what is it?"
'Sensors are picking up a temporal incursion. I haven't been able to pin point the exact location yet, but I know its in the early 31st century,' she said.
"Can you just launch a probe?"
'I tried, but there's some kind of interference and I can't get a positive lock in it once I send it through. Someone is going to have to go and check it out,'
"And let me guess, you want me to go?"
'I could always wake up Alex,'"No, don't bother him. I'll be there in ten minutes," he groaned.
~~
Adam stumbled into the hallway, still half asleep and made his way to the elevator. 'The dream was so real this time, so intense,' he thought to himself.
It wasn't the first time he'd had a dream about her, but it was the first he remembered it all with such clarity and detail. He could recall the sounds of the water rolling onto shore, the feel of the sand between his toes as they walked, the smell of the salt water in the air. It was all so…
"Real," he mumbled to himself. The elevator door opened, and there she was. He noticed that her uniform wasn't completely zipped up in the front, and her hair was simply pulled back in a ponytail. "Katie? What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Nadira called me. Something about an incursion she wants me to check out," she groaned.
"Same here," the elevator door closed, and they were on their way. "You look tired," he mentioned.
"My duty shift doesn't start for another three hours, but I didn't want to bother any of the senior staff with this. I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle together, right?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.
It was enough to make him crack a smile. "Right," he paused, noticing the exhausted look on her face. "You okay Katie?" he asked.
"Yeah, I just haven't been sleeping well lately. I've been having the strangest dreams," she mentioned.
It was enough to make Adam blush slightly. "Yeah, me too,"
"Really, what's your about?" she asked.
Just then, the elevator doors open. "Well, here we are, we better get moving," Adam said, avoiding the question altogether.
They stepped off the elevator, making their way down the hall. When they got to the end of the hall, they stopped in front of a door. It was Katie who put her hand on the panel next to the door.
'Identity confirmed. Taylor, Kathryn Lieutenant Commander. Welcome,' the computer said, opening the doors to the science lab and allowing them in.
Adam and Katie hurried over to Nadira, who was sitting front of the controls. "I'm really sorry to wake you guys, but I thought this couldn't wait. I've gone over the readings, and according to this, there is some kind of attack going on in the 31st century. I've been able to narrow the date down to… oh God, it's the year 3001, somewhere in Silver Hills," she told them.
"Alright Dira, open the Slipstream. If you have any more information for us, let us know," Katie said, heading towards the slipstream.
Adam, on the other hand, walked over to weapon's storage, filling a small duffle bag full of weapons and devices. Once the bag was full, he zipped it closed and walked over to Katie. "Okay, I'm ready,"
"What are you planning to do? Blow up the city?" she asked him.
"I just think we should be prepared,"
"Be careful guys," Nadira said as she activated the slipstream.
Without a word, Katie and Adam stepped into the blue swirling vortex, disappearing…
~~
The two of them stepped through the other side of the vortex, only to find themselves in what was left of Silver Hills. Most of the buildings had been destroyed, and there were bodies spread out through out the city. The sky was nearly pitch black, more than likely from the smoke that filled the air.
The vortex closed, and they made their way down the street. "All of this looks so familiar," Katie sighed, glancing around.
"Yeah, its Silver Hills," he said.
"I know, but there's more to it than that," she said.
"So what are we dealing with here? Mutants, monsters, aliens, robots?" he asked, changing the subject as they looked around.
"How about alien robots that have been mutated by monsters?" she suggested.
Before Adam could say a word, something attacked them from behind. It tackled him to the ground, and then bit him on the shoulder. Katie turned around, reaching for her disrupter and blasted the creature, knocking it off him.
Adam quickly got back to his feet, holding his shoulder in pain. "What the hell was that?" he snapped.
Katie walked over to the creature, getting a good look at it. It wasn't humanoid; it was more like a dog than a human. It had long, jagged teeth, and sharp claws. Its fur was thick, and the disrupter wound was bleeding a green-ish fluid.
"Oh my God," she sighed.
"What is it?"
"It's a mutorg," she told him.
"A what?"
'It's a mutorg. According to the history logs, the Vorhsoth invaded that reality a few years ago, and Time Force was desperate to come up with something to combat them. They used DNA from an org and a mutant to create the mutorgs, and then unleashed them on the Vorhsoth. They were able to defeat the Vorhsoth, but the mutorgs began to multiply and turned on Time Force. They slaughtered millions of people. About two years ago, there was a huge Thorolon burst that destroyed most of the mutorgs, but according to this, some of them survived and have been multiplying with an alarming rate,' Nadira explained.
"I was here. Me, Tommy, Jen, Trip and Camille came here on one of our first missions with the slipstream. Camille built the Thorolon burst, and it wiped out all the mutorgs. Or so we thought," Katie sighed.
"Its no big deal, we'll just build another burst thing and wipe'em out," Adam mentioned.
'I'm afraid it isn't that simple. Camille and Trip are the only ones who know how to build a Thorolon burst, then there's still the question of who transported to that point in time and what are they trying to do?' Nadira mentioned.
"Someone came from our reality to this one to get their hands on Adam and Eve," Katie said.
"What?"
"That's what the project was called: Adam and Eve. Time Force created two mutorgs, but they were too much for Time Force to control. They tripled their numbers everyday, each of them laying eggs. We came up with the Thorolon burst and wiped out most of the eggs, but we must have missed one," she said.
'No, you didn't. According to this, the mutorgs you see now have traces of Thorolon in them. Which means…' Nadira was cut short.
"One of them adapted to the Thorolon, which means that now, all of them are immune to the bursts. We won't be able to stop them," she said.
'Right now, just focus on finding whoever it was that traveled to that reality and stop them from doing whatever they're trying to do,' she said.
"Thanks Dira, we'll be in touch," she turned to Adam. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked him.
"I'll be fine, lets just get to work,"
~~
The two of them found their way to one of the only buildings in the city that weren't completely destroyed. With their cloaks engaged, they were able to roam the city without being seen.
"Looks like that's the place we're looking for," Katie said.
"What makes you think so?"
"Someone restored power to this building. More than likely the guy who traveled from our reality is here," she said.
At that moment, a group of mutorgs began to surround them.
"They shouldn't be able to see us," Adam said.
"Its you. You're hurt, and they smell the blood," she told him.
"You go, I'll hold them off here," he said.
"I won't leave…"
"I said go!" he yelled.
He quickly disengaged the cloak, reaching for his Morpher. "BLACK RANGER CHRONO ARMOR," he called out, transforming into the black ranger.
"TIME FOR, TIME FORCE," Katie said, replacing her clothes with her ranger uniform.
The two of them stood back to back as the mutorgs moved in closer, surrounding them. Almost all that once, the mutorgs charged at them. Adam fell to his knees, slicing the mutorg in the stomach as it rushed towards him. Another one rushed at him, but an axe kick knocked it over. A third one jumped towards him, biting his arm, sinking its teeth down into the Morpher. It was enough to send a shock through the mutorg's body, and it collapsed to the ground.
Katie called for her Chrono saber, charging after the mutorgs. It didn't take too long for her to trapped up against the wall as the mutorgs surrounded her. "Um, Adam, a little help over here," she screamed.
Just then, someone crashed through one of the windows in the building, landing a few feet from them. They aimed a weapon of some kind at the mutorgs, emitting an electromagnetic shock that blasted a hole through them. "Come with me," the stranger said, grabbing Katie's arm.
Adam delivered one more axe kick, then followed Katie and the stranger into the building, closing and locking the door behind them.
"Your Morpher, it has been damaged," the stranger said.
"Who are you?" Adam asked.
It was Katie who got a good look at him. He appeared much older than he remembered, and he now had a full beard and mustache. There was also a scar on the right side of his face, and his eye looked to be missing.
"Logan?" she asked.
He nodded. "Kathryn," he said.
"Come on, hes not our Logan. Our Logan has been gone for over a year now," Adam pointed out.
"A year? It's been much longer than that," Logan said.
"What do you mean?"
"When Time Force received word Dez was leading an assault on Earth, I was attacked by Logan from another reality. My best guess is someone from Chryo Tech wanted someone inside Time Force to help coordinate an attack. They took me to Chryo Tech, and when they realized that weren't going to get any information out of me, they banished me here, to this world," he explained.
"That's what we assumed happened to our Logan when we realized the one that replaced him was a fake, but that was only about a year ago," she said.
"I've been here for at least six years. I was here when you, Jen and the others came here for the first time, but I stayed out of sight. At first, I thought you had come to rescue me, but when I heard my own voice giving you instructions, I realized that you hadn't. I didn't want to create a paradox by telling you what happened, so I stayed out the way," he explained.
"Oh my God, it is you," Katie sighed.
"And who is this?" Logan asked.
Adam powered down. "Lt. Adam Park, black ranger," he introduced.
"By your ranger uniform, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. How can you be…"
"It's a long story, we don't have time to get into it. We're here because someone opened a time hole from our reality to this one, we have to find them and stop them from doing whatever it is they plan to do," she told him.
"I'm the only human here, I have been for quite a while. I've been working on a way to open a stable vortex of my own so I could return home, but it's unstable. About 18 months ago, I found an active probe that had a Time Force signature. I began modifying that probe hoping I would be able to determine which reality it came from in hopes of opening a vortex myself," he said.
"18 months ago? Nadira told me she sent out a probe a few minutes before Katie and I came here," Adam mentioned.
"There's something about this reality that makes time move slower here. Maybe it has something to do with all the radiation, or maybe…" she was cut short.
"You're telling me that I've only been missing for a year?" Logan asked.
"Yes sir,"
"Wait a sec," he paused. "What if the incursion Nadira detected wasn't someone from our world coming here, what if she picked up Logan trying to open a time hole back to our reality?" he asked.
"That would explain why it took her so long to pin point the location," she said.
"And with the time variance on this world, she probably only picked up small traces of the time hole," he added.
Katie reached for her Morpher. "Katie to Nadira, respond," she said.
For a moment, there was static…
'Nadira here. Go ahead Katie,'
"We found the source of your incursion. Activate the slipstream, we're coming home," she told her.
'Right away Commander,'"You got promoted?" Logan asked.
"Yeah,"
"Congratulations,"
Moments later, the vortex opened in front of them. Katie motioned for Logan to go in before them, and he quickly went through. Next was Katie, but as Adam tried to go through, sparks shot out of his Morpher where it had been damaged, and the vortex collapsed…
~~
Preview: Funny how time fliesNext time on Parallels II: Logan, Nadira and Katie try to find a way to rescue Adam, who is trapped in an alternate reality.
~~