Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' (all incarnations) are property of 'Saban', who are in some strange way related to Disney, who run the show on ABC. No infringement is intended.

ROARING ON THE WIND

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Five: Faith of the Heart

Tommy opened the door to see Wes, Eric, Leo and Jason standing on the front porch along with a little blue rental car parked next to the other four cars parked in front of his house. A grin cracked over his face. What followed could only be described as quite a lot of bear-hugging and noise-making. Hayley and Billy stayed in the background, watching the whole scene unfold with a degree of amusement on their faces. Tommy imagined they looked like a fraternity or football team having a five year reunion party, when the minor annoyance details had faded, but all the good times were still fresh in their minds.

Wes was dressed more casually than Tommy had ever seen him dress. Normally, if he wasn't wearing his Silver Guardians' uniform, he was wearing some kind of suit. Today, he was dressed in blue jeans and a gray athletics' shirt. No one in the room was wearing red, ironically enough. It was as if they had all tired of the color years ago and were loathed to wear it now, whether it was psychological or not. Leo was wearing a blue plaid, short sleeved button up shirt with khaki shorts. Eric had on a 'Silver Hills High School Track and Field' shirt that was royal blue with black nylon shorts. Jason sported a green Hawaiian shirt and blue board shorts.

After the insane greetings, the room quieted enough for Tommy to ask when Carter and Cole were getting in.

"Their flight supposedly gets in three. They'll probably get here around four," Eric replied and pulled his cell phone from where it had been clipped on the waistband of his shorts. "I can call Carter and see where they are."

The noise level jumped again while Eric dialed Carter's cell number and was waiting for either someone to pick it up or the voicemail. He apparently had someone on line soon, because he said "Cole?" into the phone and then yelled at everyone in the room, "Shut-up for Chrissakes! I'm trying to have a phone conversation here!"

Everyone quieted.

"Cole? What the hell are you doing answering Carter's cell phone?" Eric paused. "Oh, I see. He's driving." The look on Eric's face was comical. "Where are you guys? Uh-huh… uh-huh… well, we'll see you guys in a little bit then. Uh-huh. Bye." He disconnected the call.

"So where are they?" Tommy asked.

Eric took a deep breath, looking like he was trying to compose himself. "The kid and the firefighter will be here in about twenty minutes. Their flight got in early."

"So when do we eat?" Jason asked.

Tommy laughed. "We could always eat the rest of Conner's Bagel Bites." He glanced back to Billy and Hayley who were laughing. Andros and TJ had cracked smiles. "But seriously, once Carter and Cole get here, there's a decent Chinese place not too far from here. We can eat there or order in."

"Excellent," Jason replied as everyone migrated towards the living room. Tommy noticed that Andros had slipped upstairs, probably to wake up Ashley. He wondered briefly if anyone else besides TJ had originally known that Ashley was coming along. "So what's the problem, bro?" Jason asked once everyone had found some place to sit.

Tommy sincerely hoped that all these people had not planned on staying at his house because he didn't have enough room for all of them. Right now by his count, there were seven people associated with the red ranger distress signal plus Billy and Hayley for a grand total of nine people, eleven once Carter and Cole arrived and even more if any of the kids decided to stop by and pay him a visit.

He looked at the people all over his living room. Jason had parked himself in one of the easy chairs. Tommy was not sure if the others just never argued with him and always let him have his way or if it was a sign of respect. Wes, Eric and TJ were sitting on the couch, while Leo was sitting on the floor by the coffee table, thumbing through an old issue of 'National Geographic.' Billy and Hayley hovered by the entrance to the kitchen, unsure if they should leave the group of them alone or remain. It was then that Jason realized that Billy was there. He stood up.

"Billy! Where have you been, bro? Haven't heard from you in years!" He pulled a slightly embarrassed Billy into a bear hug. "Weren't you in Hawaii?" Jason asked once he had released the former Blue Ranger.

"Affirmative. Now I'm in Reefside, teaching at the high school."

"That's great!" Jason turned to the rest of the group. "You guys, this is Billy. He was the original blue ranger." That warranted another round of introductions, after Billy explained that he had already met TJ. Then they had to introduce Hayley to the group.

Soon after, Andros reappeared with Ashley. That got a loud cry of 'ASHLEY!' and everyone who had just arrived had to give Ashley a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Jason then settled her into the chair he had been sitting in. Tommy smiled. So chivalry wasn't dead after all. To Tommy's mind it felt like they had been repeating themselves all day, but it would soon pass. By tomorrow, everyone would be settled and on the same knowledge level.

"You didn't tell us you were bringing Ashley along," Jason said to Andros, giving him a friendly shove in the shoulder. Andros didn't reply. He just perched on the arm of the chair next to Ashley with an arm protectively around her shoulders. Her arms settled over her large stomach and a smile hovered over her mouth.

"So what's going on?" Leo asked Tommy once everyone had resettled themselves around the living room.

"He was stuck in his suit," TJ muttered.

"You're a ranger again!" Eric asked with a note of shock in his voice.

"Uh, yeah," Tommy replied, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Obviously you're not stuck in your suit anymore," Wes said. "So what's the big emergency?"

"I didn't activate the distress signal because I was stuck in my suit!"

"How'd you get out of the suit?" Leo asked.

"He must've smelt bad when he got out of there," Eric said with a laugh.

"He did," TJ affirmed.

"Guys! There are more important things going on that the fact that I was stuck in my suit! Can we focus please?" he said loudly. That got everyone's attention. He took a deep breath. "Okay, the power source for the Dino Thunder team—the current power team—are things called Dino-Gems. They're from the meteor that crashed to earth millions of years ago and contain enough power to create Power Rangers. I found them when I was doing that research on the island for my Ph.D. work. They've remained in hiding since the island blew up and have slowly revealed themselves. I know where five of them are—they belong to the five current rangers. However, there are nine in total and I don't know where the other four are. Mesogog knows about the other four and we need to find them before he does. Our zords have also taken a beating from our last battle and need to be repaired. The repairs that need to be done require more man power than just me and Hayley. And Mesogog has been up to something lately and I just feel it would be better to have more people around in case."

That speech was met with silence. Tommy took in the stunned faces and then his teacher instinct kicked in. "Any questions?" he asked.

He was surprised when Leo had one.

"Who's Mesogog?"

Carter looked at the mass number of cars parked in front of the small house in the middle of the woods. It had to be the right house just from that fact alone. He exchanged a glance with Cole and they got out of their silver rental car. The trip had been no problem. Their flight got in early and the guy at the rental car kiosk had gushed about getting good service for friends of 'Mr. Collins.' Carter had known that Wes' father was rich, but he hadn't known that he could command the respect of a rental car place.

The front door of the house was flung open and people began streaming out of the house. Carter had forgotten how huge the group of them could look. He grinned. It was almost akin to a homecoming.

"Kid! Carter!" Eric yelled, shaking Carter's hand and pulling Cole into a huge bear hug and lifting the younger man off his feet. Carter rolled his eyes. Everyone knew that Eric liked Cole a lot, but would never admit to anyone, including himself.

He didn't have much time to contemplate this, because he was attacked by Andros and Leo and found himself lying in the grass of Tommy's front yard. Somewhere in the back ground he heard Jason say, "So I guess he's not the new guy anymore, huh?"

Carter pushed Leo and Andros away from him and sat up. Ashley was standing on the porch, her arms around her very pregnant belly. A woman and a man Carter didn't know were also standing on the porch. He mentally kicked himself. He had temporarily forgotten that Ashley was so pregnant and he hadn't even thought to think that Andros might bring her along because of it.

"Glad you guys made it!" Tommy was standing over him, offering him a hand up. Carter accepted the assistance and was hauled to his feet.

"He needs to shrink," Leo muttered to Andros. Carter glared at Leo. For some reason, the conversation always went back to the fact that Carter was taller than all the rest of them, sometimes described as being 'crazy tall.'

Carter shook Tommy's hand. "I'm just glad Wes was around to make all the travel arrangements," he replied to Tommy. "So what did we miss?"

"His whole speech about how we have to save the world," TJ muttered.

He swung around to look at TJ. "What?"

"That's not what I said," Tommy quickly amended. Cole wandered over to where Carter and Tommy were. "The short version is that there are four more Dino-Gems out there, the source for the new power team which I am a part of." Carter felt his jaw drop open. "We need to find the other four Dino-Gems before Mesogog—the bad guy. We also need to repair the zords and just be alert for anything unusual."

Cole was gaping at Tommy. "Are you serious?"

Tommy nodded.

Carter shook his head. "I knew there was a new power team, but I didn't know that you had anything to do with it."

"Not even Jason knew until now." Tommy shrugged. "I didn't want mass pandemonium running through all the previous rangers."

"Who are the other rangers?" Cole asked.

"I think you're about to find out." Carter followed Tommy's gaze to a red sports car that was coming down the drive that led to Tommy's house. From a distance, it looked like it was packed with people. The car pulled up to the small crowd on the front lawn and the passenger's side window rolled down.

"If there's a party, how come we're not invited!" a teenage boy wearing a blue flannel shirt cried, sticking his head out the window.

"He's out of his suit!" a female voice from the back of the car yelled.

"Doctor O, dude, you've got to start telling us these things!" the driver reprimanded Tommy.

Tommy grinned at the kids in the car. "May I introduce the Dino Thunder Power Rangers?" he said.

A window in the back seat rolled down. "Why are you telling all these people this?" the girl hissed. "I thought we weren't supposed to tell anyone who we are. Who are all these people?"

"Kira, everyone here used to be a Power Ranger," he replied to the girl.

"Oh." She looked around at the group. "Why are they all here?"

"To help us out."

"Oh."

"Well," the driver said loudly. "I can see you've got all the help you're going to need with the raptor-cycles. We're going to the movies now. See all of you at my soccer game tomorrow. Bye!" The windows on the car were rolled up and the car zoomed off.

Carter stared after the car. "You went back to using high school kids?"

Tommy shrugged. "The Dino-Gems chose their owner. I couldn't control who they ultimately decided to pick."

"Soccer game?" Cole sounded like the idea of a soccer game was not the most appealing.

"Yeah. Conner has a soccer game tomorrow. I suppose that since I'm no longer stuck in my suit, I'm obligated to go." He paused. "You guys don't have to go though."

"Wait a minute! You were stuck in your suit?" The situation was becoming more and more outlandish as the fragmented explanations came out. What in the world was really going on? What was this Mesogog creature besides the bad guy?

"I'll explain everything in time," Tommy replied.

"Yeah well, explain it over dinner!" Jason interrupted. "Where's this Chinese place?"

Carter laughed. Yes, this was definitely like a homecoming.

Leo looked at all the faces around the table. Just how intense was what Tommy was asking them to do? There was no doubt that everyone would be willing to do whatever they must to protect the Earth, but how far did this extend? It seemed like the attacks were limited to the Reefside area. How, then, did it affect the rest of them and their families? There were rumors of a new power team in Seabrook, but there was no news of a half-man, half-reptile named Mesogog who was intent on returning the Earth to its prehistoric roots. In other words, he wanted to wipe out the humans (or alter them in some way) and bring back dinosaurs.

He was wedged between Carter and Andros at their table—actually, several tables pushed together to make room for all the people. Billy and Hayley had been introduced to Carter and Cole, but declined the invitation to dinner. Billy had to get home to his daughters, since he didn't quite trust the younger. Hayley had to go to the cyber-café she owned and do the normal closing up routine. Billy had promised he would be back as soon as he could to help determine the extent of the damage to the zords. Leo didn't know what he and Tommy were going to do about the teaching situation since Billy had been supposed to take over Tommy's classes and now Tommy was perfectly capable of teaching.

He decided not to dwell on it. Most of the intense work would start tomorrow morning. Right now everyone was intent on catching up in the year and a half since they had last been all together. Eric was grilling Cole about his personal life.

"I know you've been hanging out with a girl," Eric wheedled. "Who is she?"

Cole glared at him. "Alyssa."

"And you know her because…" Leo had the distinct impression that Eric was doing all this wheedling for the benefit of everyone who didn't know.

"You know why I know her!" Cole said through clenched teeth. "She was on my team!"

"Man," Eric replied. "Maybe I should quit dating normal girls and look for one who used to be a ranger. Then my relationships might last longer than three days."

"You were with the last girl you dated for four months," Wes countered.

"It was an exaggeration, stupid!"

Leo smiled. He and Kendrix had been each other's first in most senses of the word. Neither of them had had a serious relationship (or one that had moved beyond casual kissing after the high school dance.) Both of them were virgins when they started dating. What had sparked their relationship had to be the strangest of anyone sitting at the table. He had been having nightmares induced by Trakeena. One night Mike had to work and didn't want to leave him alone (the brothers had shared quarters on Terra Venture), so he asked Kendrix to stay with him. Leo had already gone to sleep when Kendrix came in their quarters. When he woke up from one of the nightmares, Kendrix was straddling his chest and they were kissing passionately. Things just snowballed from there.

When Kendrix died, he thought he would die right along with her. Those days were an endless march of torture. He had more fights with Mike than he cared to remember about 'moving on' and 'stopping his self-inflicted guilt.' What Mike hadn't known was that he had been about to propose to Kendrix. He had even found them quarters of their own and that was going to be the surprise right before he asked her to marry him. Maya had been helping him decorate. When the Quasar Sabers were put back in the rock and Kendrix returned to her physical form, he had been so afraid of losing her again that they got married two days later. For a long time, it had been hard for him to let her go anywhere without him because he was so afraid. He had to learn to let go before he killed their marriage.

They had been married five years. They didn't have any children although they were still young enough to have as many as they wanted. He shook his head and tried to focus on the conversation. He would try to fix whatever was going on between him and Kendrix when he got home.

Andros had never seen such a large group of people make sleeping arrangements so quickly in his entire life. It had taken them longer to decide to who was going to room with whom back during that mission to the moon. This was amazing. Tommy had said, in no uncertain terms, that Andros and Ashley were staying in his guest room. It would eliminate any commutes from hotels for Ashley and he was of the opinion that that would be better for her. Andros agreed with him, although he didn't say anything out loud.

Eric, TJ and Cole were going to stay in Tommy's living room. He had a sleeper sofa and an air mattress that would work for them. The idea of them staying in the living room was that if anything came up suddenly, someone would be there to deal with it. That left Wes to find a hotel for Leo, Carter, Jason and himself. It was still rather early, so Wes didn't foresee any problems with the hotel situation.

At that particular moment in time, Eric, TJ and Cole were in the living room watching Ghostbusters on HBO and eating popcorn. Ashley was upstairs, probably asleep already and probably tired of being surrounded by all these men. Andros was in the kitchen with a cup of tea, trying to organize his thoughts. And Tommy was down in the lab, checking the surveillance for Reefside—making sure no monsters were attacking.

He supposed that he was scared that Ashley would have the baby while they were here or that something bad was going to happen to her. He had not had any encounters with the Tyrrano-drones or Mesogog and his underlings, but he had a nasty feeling that any encounters with them would not be the most pleasant thing on the planet. And they still had a lot of work to get done—repairing the zords, finding those Dino-Gems… he could see now why Tommy wanted all of them there in addition to the team. And now Billy was committed to helping them. That added more manpower. Why did he feel like this was a war brewing and sooner or later things would come crashing down around them?

He thought of Brian, eighteen months old and staying with his mother-in-law. He was glad that Brian was far out of harm's way if something should happen while on this mission. The last thing he wanted was for something to happen to his son. God, he would have never thought that being married and having children would change his perception so much. He was willing to die if it would mean saving his family. His hazel eyes glanced to the three watching the movie in the living room… yes, he was willing to die for the insane asylum escapees as well. He could only imagine what chaos would have happened if Eric, TJ and Cole had been the same age and grown up together. He smiled to himself.

"Andros!" TJ called from the living room. "Get in here! You're going to miss the best part of the movie!" Andros was fairly certain that TJ was referring to the scene with the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man, but he stood up and went into the living room.

"Finally," Eric said when Andros sat down in one of the armchairs. "I was beginning to think that you had drowned yourself in the boiling water."

"That would hurt," Cole said absently.

Eric rolled his eyes. "No shit."

Andros laughed. Being a Power Ranger was like being in a family. You don't get to pick who you're a ranger with or who the rangers before and after you are. Sometimes they're your only reason for staying alive and sometimes they're your reason for wanting to jump off a bridge. But they're family, a Power Ranger family.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews guys! They really made my day-- I really do enjoy knowing what you think. Ideas, comments, suggestions and the like are all welcomed as well. I'd like to thank old and new reviewers (and I know some new people picked up the story at the last update.) As usual, I'm a horrible person and have mass amounts of reading to get done for class, so no reviewer responses. And if you've read the story, just drop me a line (review) to let me know your out there and reading. :) Thanks a bunch-- you guys are the bane of my fan fiction existence. lol --Etcy