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 Eight: It's Been A Long Time

Ah, Starbucks, the bane of his existence. After all the years he had been drinking Starbucks coffee, Wes still marveled at the fact that he forked over mass amounts of money for coffee that he could probably get at home for cheaper. It had to be some kind of trap that forced people to pay too much for coffee. He had resigned himself to the fate of stopping in a Starbucks every time he passed one a long time ago. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And he had joined the Starbucks Anonymous group.

He, Adam and Billy had decided to go to Starbucks just to get away from the madness at Tommy's house for a while. Mostly, he and the other red rangers had goofed around all day, completing the remaining repairs and helping 'tidy up' the lab (which a gotten to be quite a mess with several different people working on zords at once.) Adam and Billy had come over after they got off work and had helped test drive all of the zords to make sure that they were in full working order. Noticeably absent from the proceedings had been Hayley and the Dino Thunder rangers. Wes found that to be decidedly odd. What kind of team left the fate of their zords in the hands of complete strangers?

He shook his head. Billy had gone home for dinner and to check in with his daughters. It almost made Wes wonder if those girls got left on their own all the time. Now Billy was back and making the Starbucks run. A lot of people had placed orders, but Wes had chosen to ignore them—if they weren't coming along, he wasn't getting them anything. That was Eric's bad influence right there. Eric tended to not care about people with a few exceptions. He had his select bunch and ignored the rest. That was part of the reason Wes was so amazed that he had bonded with TJ and Cole so quickly back on that mission to the moon.

Billy parked his car in the Starbucks parking lot and the three of them got out of the car. Wes could smell the coffee. If nothing else, he loved coffee. A petite woman with brown hair, wearing a pink blouse walked into the Starbucks in front of them. For a brief fleeting moment, Wes thought she was Jen, but then shook his head. She was shorter and her hair was much browner than Jen's. He needed to get over her and stop wishing that she would just show up from the future. She wasn't going to do that and he knew it.

"Kim?"

He snapped to attention when Billy addressed the woman. The woman turned around and looked at Billy and Adam for moment. Then her face broke into a grin. "Billy? Adam?" she squealed and then hugged them. "How have you guys been? I haven't seen you in forever!" She gave both of them hugs.

Wes tried to keep his eye from twitching. This situation seemed to be the theme for the pseudo-reunion. All these old rangers (who didn't happen to be former red rangers) kept on running into each other. Was there some kind of subconscious signal that was going out to all former rangers when the red rangers got together? They were all coming to Reefside! He felt like running out onto the streets screaming 'they're coming.' He didn't do that. He kept his feet planted with a vague smile on his face.

"Is your eye twitching?" the woman, presumably Kim, asked.

Billy laughed. "That happens to him when he gets overwhelmed."

She then glanced at his chrono-mopher on his wrist. He had brought the morpher along just in case an occasion called for it. At this point in time, it was seeming a lot like overkill since he had yet to be attacked. "That is a serious watch," she commented.

He managed a wan smile. Adam decided it would be a good idea to introduce Wes to this strange woman. "Kim," he started. "This is Wes Collins." Adam had been introduced to the whole lot of them after Conner's soccer game and took it all in stride. "Wes, this is Kimberly Hart."

Kimberly Hart… why should that name ring a bell? Wes sucked in a breath. She was the original Pink Ranger and she was Tommy's old flame. So this was the girl that Tommy had been in love with after she dumped him. She seemed a little… cheerleader-like… a little too much for his tastes, but some guys went for that. He refrained from shrugging as they took turns ordering coffee. He could have used a shot of whiskey, but that wasn't forthcoming. For a brief moment, he thought about what it would be like to get drunk with all the participants in the 'distress signal.' As quickly as he that thought, he banished it. It was too frightening.

The four of them picked a table to drink their coffee at. He found it way too much of a coincidence that three former rangers—people who had been rangers with Tommy—had all managed to land in Reefside. But he figured he shouldn't read too much into it.

"So why are you guys in Reefside?" Kim was asking Billy and Adam.

"I'm not," Adam said with a laugh. "I'm the soccer coach at Angel Grove High."

"I'm teaching at the high school," Billy replied. "Taking over Tommy's classes actually."

Kim paled. "Tommy Oliver?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Billy replied, obviously not concerned that she was uncomfortable.

She stood up. "Why is he here?" she asked them. Wes stared at her. He could talk, he had just chosen to do a minimum of it this evening. "He's an ex-ranger, isn't he?" she said loudly.

Billy clapped a hand over her mouth and forced her back to her seat. "Tommy's one of the current rangers," Billy whispered. "We're all here helping him and his team."

"Why didn't he call me?" she hissed. "I could have helped. All I'm doing is teaching gymnastics at the academy here."

"I suspect it was because he didn't have your current phone number."

She looked shocked that he had just spoken. Wes gave her a look that clearly said 'what?' He raised his eyebrows at her. What he wouldn't have given to have Trip around in situations like this.

"Kim," Adam said softly. "Tommy doesn't need anymore help. Me and Billy showed up on accident. We weren't called in to help." He indicated Wes. "He called the former red rangers in to help."

"I want to see him."

Wes sighed. Either this woman was seriously regressing or she had just never matured beyond high school. He was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume the former. Although the latter wasn't seeming to far off target. Forget him needing a drink, she needed a drink more than he did.

Adam and Billy exchanged glances. "I don't think that's a good idea," Adam said softly.

Kimberly sighed, her face looking resigned. "Maybe you're right." She paused. "I mean we haven't seen each other in years."

Wes was nodding, not trusting himself to speak. If he did speak, something scathing was going to come out and he was going to regret it. He really needed to limit the amount of time he spent with Eric. Kimberly was staring at his bobbing head.

"And what do you know about it?" she asked sharply.

He shrugged and made his eyes go wide. Billy snickered. "I know more about it than you think I know about it," he muttered.

"Really?" Her voice was sarcastic.

"Really, really," he replied.

"Look," Kimberly said, directing her attention back to Billy and Adam. "I want to know what's going on. I want to help." She paused. "And it's probably time that Tommy and I had a talk about some things."

"Past time," Wes said under his breath.

Billy sighed and stood up. "Let's go," he said motioning to Kimberly.

Work on the new morphers was going well. Tommy had put the four missing Dino-Gems into a briefcase and locked them in the vault in the lab. He almost wished he knew who the owners of these gems were, because then he could bring them here and save them a lot of security hassle. Ah well. At least they had the gems and they knew that the gems weren't destined to be owned by Leo or Cole since both of them had handled the gems and the gems had not bonded with them. He glanced at Andros, who was working on the morpher for the orange gem.

He thought about why Ashley had come along. TJ had said that she didn't want Andros to go anywhere without her. It was akin to fear of having the baby alone. Tommy thought that was kind of silly since if she called Andros the moment she went into labor, he could make it to Angel Grove in plenty of time to see the baby born. Unless she was only in labor for an hour, which he seriously doubted. Then again, Carter used to say that Dana went neurotic when she was pregnant, so maybe the same principle held true.

He sighed. Whatever the reasoning, it was between Andros and Ashley and it was really none of his business. He glanced at the orange gem lying next to the partially completed morpher. They had run some scans on the gems to see which zord they linked to. The orange gem was linked to the Ankylo-Zord. The pink was linked to the Stego-Zord and the purple was linked to the Cephalo-Zord. The green gem had not shown any signs of being linked to a biozord that was already awake. They would have to wait and see. Billy had run some scans earlier that indicated what powers the gems might have—green was telekinesis, orange was phasing, pink was teleportation and purple was telepathy. Tommy wasn't going to ask how Billy had discovered that. Billy had his ways.

Tommy put the finishing touches on the green morpher. He had decided to make it a 'lock and key' morpher like his own. That also meant that the suit would look like his, but be predominantly green where his was black. The orange, pink and purple morphers were like the others with the head of the dinosaur on it.

Andros put down the screwdriver he had been using and rubbed his eyes. "Tired?" Tommy asked, sympathetically. They had already completed the pink and purple morphers, so if the finishing touches on the orange one had to wait until morning, that was fine.

"Tired of waiting," Andros countered.

"Ashley?"

"Among other things." Andros sighed. "I don't know. Part of me wants her here so I can be near her to protect her and be present the entire time she's having the baby. The other part of me wants her as far away from this as possible." He paused. "I just have a bad feeling about all of this."

"Precognition?"

"No, it's much more elusive than that."

"It's not too late to send her back to Angel Grove. I'm sure that Wes could put her on one of those puddle-jumper flights."

Andros shook his head. "I'd want her further from here than Angel Grove. I'd probably want her with my sister and brother-in-law in New York." He sighed again. "But I can't force her to go anywhere. And she won't go anywhere." He picked up the screwdriver again and put the top panel of the morpher into place. "I'm worried about her," Andros ended softly.

"We all are," Tommy replied. And it was true. Even Hayley and the kids were worried about Ashley even though they resented everyone else's presence and the kids were still angry with him for, to their minds, thinking they were inferior.

Andros looked up, a ghost of a smile floating over his face. "Thanks," he replied softly. "I shouldn't worry. She's got more people here intent on protecting her than she would anywhere else."

Tommy laughed and decided to pick up a new thread of conversation. "I didn't know your sister lived in New York. I thought she was still on Mirinoi."

"She just moved there. I had thought that her and Zhane were going back to KO 35 when they told me they were moving from the planet. Then they told me that it was going to be New York."

"Do you worry about her?"

Andros snickered. "Karone used to be one of the worst villains a ranger team ever had to face. I worry about her very little." They both laughed. Tommy knew that Andros was glad that Karone was no longer evil. He was fairly certain that Karone had been the Pink Galaxy ranger for a while, but he wasn't sure. He'd have to double-check with Leo, who probably knew more about it than Andros. (And was probably more sensitive to that subject since it involved Kendrix's 'death' in a matter of speaking.)

Tommy glanced up as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Adam and Billy appeared and were followed by… Kimberly?

Elsa sighed. She had to tell Mesogog that she had failed to retrieve the gems. One of those former rangers had beaten her to it. She could picture the one who took those gems from her and she wanted to kill him. He was one of the cocky ones, one of the ones who thought that nothing could defeat him no matter what. She would show him. He would be the first to feel her wrath. He would regret ever taking those gems to Oliver.

This is where she really missed Zeltrax. He was good at a one-on-one fight (unless the fight was against Oliver, then it was not so good.) Well, she had at least determined how many of the former rangers had their morphers or could still morph in some odd way. Seven of them… one of those seven could still tap into the power, even though he was morpher-less. The eighth one no longer could even tap into his power. That meant that he would be harder to track than the others, but it was a small matter. Mesogog might be pleased with that information. Of course, he might be angry that so many of them could morph.

"Where are the gems?" The low hiss of Mesogog's voice invaded her ears. She tried not to gulp and turned around to face him. He looked like he already knew the answer, but was waiting for her to confirm it.

"One of Dr. Oliver's minions beat me to them." She said it as softly as possible, thinking that it might help the situation.

"You failed to retrieve those gems?" It hadn't helped.

His voice, although not rising in volume, was rising in anger. She couldn't speak—her mouth had suddenly gone as dry as the Sahara. She nodded. Mesogog hissed angrily. So many things had gone wrong. He had failed to get all of the Dino-Gems before Oliver and it was obvious that it was making him angry.

"Oliver has those gems?"

It was really a rhetorical question. Mesogog already knew the answer. If one of Oliver's minions had the gems, then by now Oliver surely had them. She nodded again. Mesogog growled.

"Then we shall have to retrieve those gems from him." Mesogog stepped over to the Geno-Randomizer. "Must I do everything myself?"

"What should I do, Master?"

Mesogog whirled around. "Stay out of my way!" he snapped and went back to his work. Elsa sucked in a deep breath and fled from the room.

Once out in the hallway, she sank down onto the floor. She had better not tell him about the rangers that could morph. He would only be more furious.

Cole looked up at the zords in the now-quiet zord bay. It was always a humbling experience to be standing in front of one's zord and look up at the sheer size of it. It made you think about what kind of power the zords held and how it protected you more than once, how it saved your very life taking blows meant for you. All of these zords were sleeping. They would probably wake up once the rangers who owned them needed them. The Tricera-Zord opened one friendly red eye and winked at him. Cole grinned. At least the zords weren't angry with all the help.

He sighed. The emergency seemed to be over for the most part, yet everyone was reluctant to leave. It was like a storm brewing and it had yet to break loose. He knew that the others had felt it, which was why all the repairs were stretched out until this morning, why they had waited until tonight to start building the morphers, why Carter hadn't finished working on Tommy's Jeep until this afternoon. It was like they would all be needed soon. Well, he wouldn't be much use in a battle. All his powers had gone back to Princess Shayla. He didn't have a morpher, he didn't have ranger powers like the others.

For some reason, Jason could still tap into his powers, even though the original power coins had been destroyed. TJ had his Turbo morpher and Andros had his astro-morpher. Leo had brought his Quasar Saber and morpher from Mirinoi to Earth. Carter could easily get his morpher from his father-in-law and Wes and Eric still had their chrono-morphers. Maybe he could still tap into his powers if he concentrated hard enough or something. Cole didn't know.

"Hey."

Cole turned around to see Tommy coming into the zord bay. "Hey," he replied. "How are you holding up?"

Tommy shrugged. "I hadn't expected Kim to show up here wanting to know what's going on and why I didn't call her." He paused. "Billy and Adam have huge mouths!"

"Maybe they thought they were helping?" Cole suggested.

Tommy just growled and kicked at one of the crates in the zord bay. The Ptero-Zord opened its eyes and squawked indignantly before going back to sleep. Cole couldn't decide if Tommy looked defeated or angry. It was probably a combination of both. Tommy sank down onto the crate he had just kicked. Cole sat beside him.

"Has she changed?" Cole asked.

"I can't decide," Tommy replied. "One minute she seems like the mature woman I would have imagined she'd have grown into and then one minute she seems like a high schooler again." He paused. "I mean you would think that winning gold at the Pan Globals would have made her grow up."

"How old was she when she went?"

"Seventeen."

Cole shook his head. "That's really young to have already gotten something you've dreamt of for years. It's like burning out. You've achieved everything you ever wanted when you were so young, nothing else holds any luster."

Tommy cocked his head to one side. "What are you saying?"

"Maybe she's subconsciously regressing as a way to cope with what the world expects her public image to be like."

"Were you a psychology major?"

Cole smiled. "Minor."

The current Black Ranger shook his head and sighed. "I don't know what I was expecting her to be, but it seems like we've both been expecting something that's not there."

"It happens," Cole replied.

They sat in a comfortable silence just looking up at the zords for a moment. Cole could see what was happening to Tommy. He had loved Kim for so long that he had put her up on a pedestal and invented attributes to her that didn't exist. She had probably done the same for him and here they were, meeting again after so long and discovering that what they had held onto didn't exist in the real world.

"I think it's time I put the past away for good," Tommy said softly, startling Cole out of his reverie. "Kim and I had our time together. Maybe that was enough."

Muffled voices came from the lab. "I think someone is snooping around," Cole joshed, a grin spreading over his face.

"Well, I think we should stop them from snooping," Tommy replied, a mischievous glint coming into his eyes. He motioned Cole to come quietly and they stealthily came out of the zord bay and into the main lab. It was probably just Leo or Jason or someone along those lines causing trouble for the sake of causing trouble.

There was no one in the main lab. The voices were coming from the vault. Cole changed his idea about who was down here. It might be Andros checking the security on the morphers because he had helped build them. The vault door was open and they hid behind some crates. The vantage point was rather good. They could see into the vault and the people in there couldn't see them.

However, all his theories about who might be down there were wrong. Billy and Adam were showing Kimberly the completed morphers and the Dino-Gems. That's right- they had been trying to be nice to her and giving her a grand tour. Cole exchanged a glance with Tommy. They couldn't hear what they were saying. He watched, half in horror and half in fascination as the three of them picked up the orange, green and pink gems and the respective gems flashed a brighter shade of their color. If those gems hadn't just bonded with those three, then Cole had no idea what just happened. And from Tommy's expression, that was exactly what had happened.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews! I have two major questions that anyone who knows is free to answer. 1) What does 'GSA' stand for? (It's the space organization in Lost Galaxy... for all my research I don't know that.) That is more curiosity than anything else. 2) Did Wild Force ever team up with Ninja Storm? That's all for my questions. Thanks once more for the reviews! -Etcy