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 Twenty: No Easy Way Out

Cole jerked himself awake. What had woken him up? It wasn't Kaye—she was still peacefully asleep in the carrier and probably needed her diaper changed, but since she was such a strange baby she wasn't going to cry about it. The sun was sinking over the horizon. He had slept longer than he meant to. Lord… he needed a shower and he needed to wash the clothing that he had with him. His stomach rumbled, reminding him that, while Kaye had the formula to satisfy her, he had not had anything to eat since yesterday.

Well… food would have to wait. Right now he needed to correct the fact that he smelt like a locker room. Bringing the carrier in the bathroom with him, he took a quick shower, letting the warm water wash away the tension of the past day and relax his tense muscles. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he gave the baby a sponge bath and put her in a fresh diaper and clothes. Now what to do about his clothes… He went through Andros' bag and selected the clothing that seemed cleaner than the others. After he dressed, he rounded up all the random amounts of laundry and took the baby (in the carrier) and her diaper sack with the dirty laundry, going in search of a laundry room.

The hotel had a laundry room that reminded him of the ones from the time he had spent at college—the kind that took quarters—and the little machines that had the soap and fabric softener. Once he had all the things he needed, he started the laundry and settled down to feed Kaye and read an old issue of National Geographic. Soon enough the clothes were ready to come out of the dryer. Kaye slept while he folded the clothes. He shoved everything back in the duffel bag and, picking up the carrier, went out to the car.

Another car had pulled next to his, Andros', car. He didn't recognize it, but since he had not had a conversation with someone older than three days, he figured it would be worth a glance to see who was checking in. As he put things in the car and shuffled Kaye from one arm to the other, he saw who was checking in. She was a shorter woman with black hair and glasses. She turned around and saw him…

Cole's heart constricted with panic. Shit! It was that cyborg woman in some kind of human disguise. As fast as he could, he shoved the carrier in the car and dived into the driver's seat. For a moment, he fumbled with the keys, but had the car running and backing out of the parking lot, just as a huge blast of energy hit the pavement where the car had been. He slammed the gas pedal to the floor and took off back towards the interstate.

"This can't be happening!" he cried, trying to breathe evenly and hold the carrier still in the passenger seat at the same time. A light drizzle had started over the road, making it hard to see the road.

Suddenly, the car stopped. "What the hell?" Cole yelled, trying the key in the ignition. Had the dumb thing stalled? He really didn't know. A Tyranno-drone leaped onto the hood of the car. Cole made a loud incoherent noise in the back of his throat. Kaye began to cry. Without thinking, he grabbed the two bags from the back seat and the carrier with the baby and dived out of the car, off the interstate and into the grassy, muddy knoll leading to a forest.

He ran. He ran as far away from the car and that drone as he could. All too soon, his legs began to cramp up from exhaustion and the rain, that had once been a light drizzle, was coming down in cold, hard sheets. He grabbed a blanket from the bag and covered the carrier so that Kaye wouldn't get too wet or uncomfortable.

"You can't track him in the rain, you fools!" came a harsh, female voice. "He'll surface somewhere. He can't stay in the woods with that baby. We'll look for him tomorrow."

Cole froze, realizing that they couldn't see him from where he was, slumped behind a huge tree. He looked around the tree and saw them disappear in a flash of green light. Checking his pocket, he knew that he still had his wallet and Wes' credit card. But how were they going to get anywhere before those creatures found them? He didn't know what he was going to do and the very thought frightened him.

Jen picked her way over the wire and headed into the forest. It didn't seem like Mesogog really cared who got on the island, because he seemed confident enough that no one was going to be able to leave. The woods were quiet, too quiet. Where was everyone? Mary Anne had said that there would be eighteen people on this island. So far, she had not seen any signs of life other than those of small furry creatures and insects.

Several twigs snapped as if someone had stepped on them. She whirled around and immediately her blaster was in her hand. She didn't have time to wonder at it as she aimed it in the direction of the apparent danger. When she saw who it was, she slowly dropped her defense.

"Carter?" she asked, slowly tucking the blaster in her belt and adjusting the backpack before stepping back over the wire to him.

"Jen," he replied with a smile. As quickly as the smile came, it faded. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"It's a long story." She held up her wrist with the silver bracelet and purple gem.

"The purple gem bonded with you?"

"Yeah-"

"Did you find someone? Who are you talking to?" came Mary Anne's voice over the communicator. Jen grinned. Carter stared at the bracelet.

"Yes, Mary Anne," she said into the communicator. "I found Carter. I'm assessing the situation as we speak."

"Cool," Mary Anne replied. "I'm standing by."

"I'm keeping an open communication line with Mary Anne," she explained. "I need to know what's happened to you guys," she continued. "What's the deal?"

Carter held up the wrist with the bracelet. "Mesogog has got some kind of link with these bracelets. If I cross that wire," he indicated the wire that Jen had just been jumping over, "then the bracelet will explode." The Lightspeed Ranger paused. "He wants us to destroy each other. We have until sundown tomorrow to get rid of the others in our section."

Jen rolled her eyes in disgust. "Sick freak," she muttered. "Did you catch that Mary Anne?"

"Uh huh. I'm working on hacking into Mesogog's computer system. Those bracelets have to be centrally linked from somewhere." There was a pause. "I'll see if I can neutralize them."

"Good," Jen replied. Carter had leaned against a tree and was supporting himself. She caught sight of the makeshift bandage around his torso. "What happened to you?"

"A preliminary scuffle with the drones."

"Drones?"

"Reptile freaks that Mesogog can apparently manufacture and send out in huge droves to capture us."

She shook her head. "Sit down," she ordered. "Mary Anne sent me with a first aide kit and some other supplies." He sat down on a nearby tree that had fallen. She set the backpack next to him and began pulling things out. "Take the shirt off," she ordered. Carter peeled his dirty t-shirt off and the makeshift bandage just fell off.

"Nice backpack," he said dryly, as she dabbed at the cut across his back with an alcohol pad. He winced as it stung where the dried blood had mixed with dirt.

"It's not mine," she replied. "It belongs to Susie. I'm borrowing it."

"It matches your gem."

Jen grinned to herself. It was true that the backpack was predominantly lavender and featured a purple Care Bear. It would definitely take some getting used to—thinking of herself as the Purple Dino Thunder Ranger rather than the Pink Time Force Ranger. She pulled out some gauze pads and secured them with medical tape.

"Who else is in this area?" she asked as Carter pulled his shirt back on.

"Wes and Kira," he replied. "Kira is the Yellow Ranger on your team," he added to clarify who this mystery woman was. She had not been briefed as to who was on the island, only that Wes and seventeen others were here.

"Success!" Mary Anne crowed over the line. "Mesogog needs a better firewall in his system, because it was easier to hack into than NASA. All the bracelets have been neutralized and I'm keeping tabs on it in case he tries to reactivate them."

"You hacked into NASA?" Carter asked incredulously.

"Just don't tell my dad," Mary Anne countered.

Jen laughed as Carter rolled his eyes and took the small scissors from the medical kit. He cut at the bracelet until it came off and then kicked it away from him. "If that thing explodes, I don't want to be anywhere near it." He replaced the scissors, stood up and let out a shrill whistle.

"Are you still at the base of the tree, Carter?" a female voice called from what sounded to be high up in the tree.

"Yes!" he called back.

"Okay!" she called down and then yelled, "Wes! Get down here!"

An incoherent reply came from even higher up. The leaves on the tree began to rustle and then a teenage girl, older than Mary Anne but a teenager nonetheless jumped down to the ground. Her jeans and shirt were dirty, but it was obvious that the shirt was yellow. The rustling continued and Wes jumped to the ground. He was equally as dirty as the other two.

"Jen?" he asked, his eyes looking like they were going to pop out of his head.

"Hi Wes," she said with a smile.

"You know her?" the girl in the yellow shirt, presumably Kira, asked.

"Yeah," Wes explained slowly. "She was on my team." He looked down at the silver bracelet on her wrist. He gently picked up her wrist and studied the purple gem in the center.

"Looks like she's on my team now," the girl said. "I'm Kira Ford," she said, holding out a hand. Jen shook her hand with a smile.

"I'm Jen Scotts." She paused. "Your bracelets have been neutralized."

"Good," Kira said. "I was afraid we were going to have to stay in that tree for a long time."

Jen smiled as Wes wrapped his protectively around her waist. She snuggled close to him despite the fact that he was dirty and smelt weird. Suddenly she got a flash of Wes sitting on a bed. The bed appeared to be on a ship somewhere and he was facing two other men. He was telling them that he still cared for her, but she had to go back to her own time. It was akin to him saying that he would love her forever, no matter what time. What was going on? Why could she see all these things? Even still, a warm feeling bubbled up inside her. Perhaps this would be her last trip to the present.

"Jen? You want me to go ahead and get the Dino Thunder Rangers out of there? If my dad is here, then I can get the thing realigned to the other guys. And my dad can probably send the others their morphers."

"Go for it," Jen said into her communicator. "Just leave me in here. I'll see about rounding up everyone left on the island." She paused. "Once you get them there, make sure they all get rid of their bracelets."

"Will do," Mary Anne replied.

Eric had had just about enough of this entire battle royale idea. In fact, he had had enough of all of these people and this situation. It was just his luck that he had been shoved in a section with Billy and TJ. Well, TJ wasn't so bad, but he was not a fan of Billy and did not exactly cherish the idea of being around him. Perhaps that was what Mesogog was counting on—someone snapping at a pointless grudge. Of course, it would have been nice if Mesogog had given them implements with which to destroy one another.

At the present moment, the three of them were sitting around on a fallen log, no ideas coming to them. Billy was supposed to be smart. Why wasn't he coming up with any ideas on how to get them out of here? He may not like most of these people overmuch, but he'd be damned if he was going to flat out kill any of them.

"There's got to be a way around this," Billy was muttering to himself.

"I don't see how," TJ replied. "We can't leave this area. Your telekinesis doesn't go any further than this island. We can't get our morphers. It seems like everyone who could possibly help us has been captured." He paused, looking defeated. "Tomorrow at sunset all of us are going to lose an arm or worse."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Eric said sarcastically.

"Chill out, man," TJ snapped at him. He was normally pretty calm compared to the rest of them and he had a long fuse. Now it appeared that he was at the end of his fuse and wasn't going to tolerate much.

"There has to be." Billy appeared to be in his own world, because he was clearly not listening to the exchange between TJ and Eric. "If only we had some kind of rudimentary tools," the genius continued muttering. "Sharp sticks or something…"

"What is he muttering about?" Eric asked through clenched teeth.

"Damned if I know," TJ replied rolling his eyes.

"Something…"

"Billy." He looked up at Eric. "Shut-up."

When he continued muttering, Eric felt all of his resolve snap. "That's it!" he muttered. "He is fucking dead!" He lunged at Billy. The genius let out a startled yelp as Eric tried to strangle him enough to knock him out. Frustration was coursing through his body. He hated waiting. He hated feeling helpless. And he hated working with others. TJ launched himself on Eric's back and tried to separate them.

"It's not worth it!" TJ was yelling.

And quite suddenly, Billy was gone and Eric was strangling the ground. He and TJ froze right where they were. "Where did he go?" Eric yelled.

TJ shrugged. "Like I know."

Suddenly something hit him square between the eyes. "What the fuck was that?" Something else landed on the ground in front of TJ.

"Your morphers," came Andros' voice.

"Andros?" TJ asked. "How are you in our section?" Andros and Ashley were walking into the clearing. Both of them had their morphers on their wrists.

"Apparently Jen came back to this time," Andros explained. "The purple gem bonded with her and Mary Anne got the teleportation system up so all of the Dino Thunder Rangers with the exception of Jen are off of the island. And she neutralized the bracelets by tapping into Mesogog's computer system."

"Jen?" Eric repeated, strapping his morpher securely to his wrist.

"The one and only," Jen said stepping into the clearing with the rest of the rangers on the island that were not powered by Dino-Gems—Hayley, Jason, Leo, Carter and Wes. Wes had his arm around Jen's waist as if he were considering the possibility of never letting her go. "It took us a while to find you guys," she said.

"Jen?" Eric said again, numb disbelief coursing through his body.

"Stop that," TJ told him. "You sound like a broken record."

"Shut-up!" he snapped at TJ, before turning back to Jen. "What's going on?"

Andros answered. "My telekinesis is stronger than Billy's because I've had mine my entire life. I was able to get through the force fields around the island and get everyone's morphers. I found everyone with Jen's help." He paused. "She's telepathic… Only we couldn't get to Kendrix…" He trailed off.

Eric's gaze automatically snapped to Leo who was holding her morpher. He looked like he was ready to hang himself at that exact moment. Desperation reigned in his features. Eric paused a moment to feel sorry for him before deciding that he needed to attack Andros for hitting him in the head with his own morpher. He had just gotten Andros in a headlock, when Jen screamed, "HEY! CAN WE FOCUS PLEASE?"

"Mary Anne is working right now on tuning the teleportation system in for your various power sources. When she contacts me and tells a certain one of you to morph, you'd better do it if you want to get off of this island at all."

Eric wondered what would happen if Mesogog caught wind of any of this. Or what would happen when he discovered that the bracelets weren't working. How many drones would it ultimately take to finish all of them off? He sank down onto the fallen tree that he had been sitting on earlier. He sincerely hoped that the girl knew what she was doing.

Wes held out his wrist as Jen carved the bracelet loose with the flimsy pair of scissors that were in the first aide kit. Night had fallen and, with more supplies Jen had gone back to get, they had a fire roaring along with blankets for everyone. Most people were asleep. The pocket knife Tommy had sent broke after the first few bracelets, so they were back to the scissors. TJ and Eric had buried all of the other bracelets in another section.

It was amazing that teleportation was so close to them, yet so far off and elusive. Jen pulled the bracelet the rest of the way off. She chunked it over the wire and into the next section.

"Don't do that," TJ reprimanded, getting up with the flashlight and going after it.

"Sorry," Jen called after him.

A muffled reply came, but it was unintelligible. Wes smiled as Jen shoved the scissors back into the lurid Care Bears backpack and snuggled up against his side. He had missed her so much that it had turned into a dull aching pain that he had grown used to living with. Now that she was here, he remembered what it was like to feel whole again. It had been like his other half had been torn from him and he was wandering the world searching and never finding. Well, she had found him.

He remembered the first time he sent her back to the future along with Trip and Katie and Lucas. He had thought he would die, but it had to be done. He had thought she would go back to Alex and live happily ever after. A fleeting thought had told him that she had only been subbing him for Alex and it wouldn't have worked ever. Then she came back, when the Wild Force rangers needed their help. They had affirmed what they both felt, but in the end, he sent her back to her proper time.

Now she was back and this time it had nothing to do with Time Force or mutant criminals or half-mutant, half-orgs running around time. This time she had come back to him.

"Are you back here for good?" he whispered.

"Of course," she replied. "You don't think I got on a ship illicitly just to stay for a nice vacation, do you?" She paused. "Of course, I should have never gone back that second time. I shouldn't have listened to you."

"Are you saying I don't give good advice?" He tried to sound hurt and failed.

She laughed. God, he had missed her laughter. Well… he had missed just about everything about her. "No… you give good advice. I just should have ignored it."

He rolled his eyes and kissed her temple. "As long as you stay here," he whispered.

"It's very comfortable where I am right now. I plan on staying as long as possible."

He laughed. "I wouldn't get too comfortable. Who knows that that reptile freak is going to come up with next?" She elbowed him in the rib cage. He ignored the unspoken barb. "Will you marry me?"

"Is that even a question?" she replied, yawning. "As soon as all this mess is over, we can elope to Vegas and go on an extended honeymoon somewhere."

"Hawaii?"

"Only if you promise to wear those lurid Hawaiian shirts and shorts everyday."

He just laughed and pressed another kiss to her temple. He wished that this reunion was under some other circumstances, so that he wouldn't have to remain sexually frustrated until this whole ordeal was over. However, it seemed like a small matter. The love of his life was back where she belonged—in his arms. He pulled a blanket over them as his eyes drooped shut. He knew that there was a reptile freak to be dealt with and that he shouldn't feel so confident, but the feeling came over him anyways as he fell asleep.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: If you guys have any questions about the fic or why something in particular was done, then please e-mail me! I don't have the e-mail review alerts turned on (although I should), so I have to come to the site and manually look at the review board. (Hence the reviewer responses at the end of some chapters.) Put like 'question' or something as the subject and I will get back to you. Thanks for all the reviews and the comments! --EK