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-Two: Living On A Prayer

Carter propped himself up against a tree. According to Tommy's latest report, everyone was out of the island with the exception of himself and Kendrix. That was not including Jen who was staying on the island until everyone got off. It also excluded Cole, whom no one seemed to be able to get in contact with. His head still throbbed painfully and was not aided by the fact that his back hurt. He knew that Billy was working as fast as he could to get the teleportation grid aligned for his power source, but it seemed like he was waiting an eternity.

"Are you okay?" Jen asked, rolling up one of the sleeping bags.

"I'll be fine," he replied. He wondered why the drones hadn't attacked again during the night. It would have made the most sense since that was when they would have been most vulnerable. He could scarcely believe that this was the third day he was going to spend on this island. It seemed like mere moments ago that the drones had tossed him and Wes and Kira into one of the sections with orders to destroy one another.

The morning air was cool, but the sun shone brightly. In fact, it seemed to be overly cool on this island all the time—he could not remember the last time that he had felt properly warm. His fingers felt frozen and the only thing that kept him from believing he had frostbite was that he could move his fingers.

Jen poured out some of the hot coffee from the thermos that Mary Anne had her pick up a few minutes ago. She handed him the mug. The warm ceramic helped to unfreeze his fingers and he sipped the scalding liquid, not caring that it burnt his tongue and throat on the way down. He just flat out felt weak. He didn't want Jen to stay on the island with him just because she felt an obligation to. He hated feeling like he was the one holding down progress. He was the one injured and the one stuck on the island and was the one holding down progress.

"Carter, quit looking like you want to jump off a bridge."

He looked up at Jen. She had an easy smile on her face. He remembered her, knew who she was, but didn't know her very well. The Lightspeed Rescue Rangers had helped the Time Force Rangers when Vypra decided she didn't want to stay in the grave. All he had known at the time was that her and Wes cared deeply about one another and that she had a fierce devotion to her team and what they were trying to accomplish.

"Do I really look that desperate?" he countered.

Jen thought for a moment. "Yes. None of this is your fault. Quit acting like you purposely decided that the drones would hurt you and that the teleportation system won't align with your power source." She paused. "You'll see your family again if I have anything to say about," she added fiercely.

Carter had no doubt about that, however, he was fairly certain that Wes wanted her to stay alive and not die doing something stupid. He understood how Wes felt towards Jen—it was the same thing he felt every time he saw Dana or Cory or Heather. He closed his eyes, once again reflecting how glad he was that his family was far away from all of this.

"At any rate," he replied. "There aren't any bridges on this island for me to jump off and I can't climb a tree to jump out of that, so I wouldn't be worried if I were you."

Jen smiled as she sipped her coffee. "I'm sure you're creative enough to think up other ways of doing yourself in."

He snorted and shook his head. "Not creative. Sorry. I failed art class in elementary school. My best subject in high school and college was math."

"There're other kinds of creativity. It takes creativity to lead a power team, even if planning and strategy don't come across as creative."

"I'm not the leader here."

"No, but you were a leader. That is something that can never be taken away. You shouldn't feel inferior here just because the Dino Thunder Rangers have another leader. Almost everyone here was a leader." She paused. "Except for Eric, even though he still followed the mindset that he was the leader."

Carter shrugged. "Sometimes it's better to let people believe what they will."

Jen laughed. "Sometimes," she agreed. "So what's your wife up to these days? If I recall correctly, she was a pediatrician back when you guys bailed us out."

"Still is," he replied. "She just works part-time now as opposed to the full-time job she had then."

"Well, your kids are pretty little." She paused and then smiled as she obviously thought of something else. "Are you two planning on having any other kids?"

Carter stared at her. "I don't think so. Two is more than enough." He paused. "And don't think it's because we have a boy and a girl. I think we would have stopped at two anyways regardless of the gender. If we had more than two, we'd be outnumbered and that prospect does not appeal to me," he added. "You and Wes planning on having kids?"

Jen snorted. "I have no idea. We haven't gotten that far yet. I suppose if it happens, it happens and there's not much I can do about it." She shrugged. "I can imagine Wes with kids, but somehow I don't work into that picture."

"You'd probably do fine with them. Dana and I didn't know anything about babies or kids until Cory was born, but we picked it up fast enough."

"No practical experience?"

"No…" he trailed off thinking of the best way to phrase the next statement. "It's different when the kids are yours and not someone else's. You can't hand them back. People are handing them back to you."

Jen glanced down at his left hand. "I see the drones didn't get your wedding band when they stripped you guys of jewelry."

Carter laughed. "I was unconscious when that was going on and they probably couldn't get it off anyways." He shrugged. "I can't."

"I hope we can get everyone's jewelry back once this mess is over," Jen said softly. "I imagine that quite a few wedding rings got taken away."

He nodded and then froze. There was a flash of green light. Not again! He turned and saw drones materialize in front of them. When were these things going to quit? Probably not until one of them was dead. He struggled to his feet and landed in a defensive stance.

"Get out of here, Jen!" he hissed.

"No!" she replied. "You can't fight."

The drones advanced on them, in the usual mass numbers that they always seemed to appear in. Carter pushed the button on his morpher. "Lightspeed rescue!" he called and was morphed, taking away some of the residual pain and giving him some strength back.

"Dino thunder, power up!" he heard Jen call and he turned to see the Purple Dino Thunder Ranger standing beside him.

He kicked away the first few drones and then pulled out his blaster. He aimed and fired a few shots at the drones, taking down some. Jen was wielding a lance against the drones and was having moderate success in driving them back.

"STOP!" a loud, hissing voice commanded.

The drones froze and at the same time, Carter felt his body seize up and immobilize as if something was binding him tightly. He flew upwards and hit the trunk of a tree hard. The grip was released as he crashed to the ground and involuntarily powered down. He tried to push himself up, but had no success. The cut between his shoulders was more painful than it had ever been and was limiting his movement. He caught sight of Jen, powered down as well and being held between two drones.

"Say goodbye, ranger," the sinister voice said.

Something came down hard on his leg. He screamed as he felt and heard the sickening snap of his own bones. His body was flung at the tree again and this time his side took the brute of the blow, bruising and snapping ribs. Soon he was too pain-filled and delirious to realize what was going on. All he knew was that some time later, minutes, hours, he didn't know, he was laying on the ground and couldn't move. He could barely keep his eyes open, but when he did, his sight was tinted red.

He watched, half in his delirium, as the drones approached Jen. He wanted to help, but he couldn't move. He didn't know what was a dream and what was reality. Her mouth was open and she was probably screaming, but he couldn't hear anything. All he could feel was numbness over his entire body and a roaring in his ears. The thing that had attacked him approached Jen and hit her twice on the head with the blunt end of his sword. She collapsed to the ground, motionless and the drones and that thing materialized into thin air.

Carter closed his eyes. He was so tired. Somewhere he had read that when injured as much as he knew he was, one needed to stay awake. For some reason, he felt light and just wanted to sleep.

Dana… He could see her image before his eyes. No! He didn't want to die! He didn't want to leave his family, he didn't want Dana to be a widow! He was going to make it, he wanted to stay awake. He tried to speak, but he couldn't move his lips. Everything felt so heavy and so light as the same time. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter and all he could see was red. No! Stay awake!

The struggle to stay awake seemed to last forever, before he finally succumbed to what his mortally wounded mind and body wanted. He closed his eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.

Tommy knew something was wrong the moment he walked into the lab and saw the stricken looks on Billy and Mary Anne's faces. Sometime since Hayley had been abducted and returned, Mary Anne had taken over the tech duties. Not that Hayley minded the break. She was upstairs with the others trying to recover from the scare of almost being forced to destroy one another. He felt his heart constrict in his chest. What was going on now?

"What is it?" he asked quietly.

"We've lost contact with Jen and Carter," Billy replied softly.

"What?" he said several decibels louder than he intended.

"I can't get either of them to reply," the Green Dino Thunder Ranger explained. "Jen's morpher is still intact and so is Carter's as far as I can tell. I just can't get either of them to reply to my messages. It's like the morpher either isn't with them or they're unconscious."

"Shit," Tommy muttered, raking a hand through his messy hair. "We have to figure out a way to get the shields off of that island."

"I'm still getting life signals though," Billy stated. "Although that could mean almost anything."

"They could be on the brink of death," Tommy spat. Great, first he had thought that only two rangers and a baby were missing, but now the number of missing persons had just jumped to five. For the first time in a while, he felt helpless. He was out of ideas and had no clue what they needed to do next.

Billy shook his head. "I also don't think Kendrix is on that island. Wherever Mesogog has her, it's somewhere else."

"Can we get her morpher to her so we can get her out of where she is?"

"It would take more telekinesis than Andros or I have. I'd also feel better if we could contact Jen because she would be able to tell us where Kendrix was."

"Unfortunately, that is a luxury we don't have." He paused. "See if you can track down Kendrix by using traces of her power source. It won't be strong, but it's worth a try."

"It is," Billy agreed.

Tommy sighed. "And we'll just have to trust that Cole is safe and alive wherever he is. Hopefully he surfaces soon."

"Should some of us go to the island to make sure that Jen and Carter are all right?" Billy suggested.

Tommy felt a war begin in his mind. He wanted all the people he could to be alive and whole, if someone was sent to the island it was quite likely that they would suffer the same fate that Carter and Jen had. He didn't want more people missing or out of commission. On the other hand, he didn't want the pair of them to be stuck on an island, possibly dying. At this moment in time, he was having trouble determining what the greater good was. He sighed. He had to compromise both sides of this argument until he further knew what was going on.

"Keep trying to contact them," he said. "If there's still no response by tomorrow morning, then I'll send a team to find them."

"But what do we tell the others?" Billy asked.

The question was legitimate. Leo was already half-sick with worry over Kendrix and now that everyone was aware of Kendrix's condition, most could guess why Mesogog had her locked up somewhere else. Tommy could imagine Wes' reaction to this recent news about Jen. It would be much the same reaction as Leo only worse, since Billy was fairly sure that Jen and Carter were still on that island. Tommy could feel a throbbing starting in his temple. He had been called 'the greatest ranger ever' and now he was wondering what he had done to deserve that title. Right now, he felt like a mediocre leader. Not only was he dealing with his team, but with rangers that came from virtually every team before his current team.

"I don't know," he said with a sigh. "I don't know what to do now. We don't have zords. We have five people missing. Mesogog could unleash another monster at any moment and make it grow and we would be obliterated."

Billy looked between Tommy and his daughter. "Look, I'll go brief everyone on the current situation," he volunteered. "Mary Anne, keep an eye on the readings," he told the young teen. "And start the scans for Kendrix. We've already got her morpher programmed in, we just need to find her."

Mary Anne nodded and swung around in the captain's chair to face the screens, her fingers flying over the keyboard. Billy climbed the stairs leading to the house. Tommy gave Mary Anne a fleeting look and headed for the zord bay. The charred carcasses of the biozords were a vivid reminder of the advantage Mesogog still had over them. A lump lodged in his throat. The Dragon-Zord was in the zord bay and opened its friendly red eyes when Tommy entered.

"Hey, old friend," he said mournfully. "You don't happen to have any advice for me, do you?"

The zord roared. Tommy smiled. There was something reassuring about that roar. As if the zord was telling him that help would arrive. He shook his head. There was no help coming. He failed to understand how Billy could communicate with the zord. All his time with the zord, he had played the Dragon-Dagger to control it and had never assumed it more than a giant machine. Now, it appeared that it was linked first to the green Dino-Gem and secondly to the dagger. Billy had both and could talk to the zord like none of his predecessors could.

"I wish help was coming," he said sadly. "But there's nothing left."

The Dragon-Zord winked. Tommy smiled again.

"I'm glad you're optimistic, even if none of us are."

The zord just shook its giant head and closed its eyes, going back to sleep. Tommy shook his head. Maybe the zord was right and there would be help. Sighing, he left the zord bay and headed upstairs to face the questions and suggestions of the others.

Cole awoke from a fitful sleep. He and Kaye had walked until he found another motel off of the interstate. The rain had not yielded until well after he found the new motel and they got settled in. He had dragged himself into the lobby, cold, wet and dirty, dragging a squalling baby and two filthy bags. The woman had looked concerned, but took Wes' credit card without question and assumed, once more, that he was Wesley A. Collins and that the baby was his daughter.

Once in their room, he had gotten Kaye dry, fed and settled into a makeshift crib he constructed out of extra pillows and towels. She settled down immediately and went to sleep. He had then taken a quick shower and slipped into the complimentary bathrobe at the motel—as all of the clothes in the duffel bag needed to be put in the dryer. His stomach rumbled, but he ignored it and, too exhausted to find food, fell onto one of the beds and fell asleep. However, his sleep was disturbed by nightmares of the drones and an uneasy feeling that he was being watched. He woke up every half hour it seemed and had to check to make sure that Kaye was all right and still with him.

It was finally morning when he awoke. Kaye was awake and staring at him inquisitively. He raised an eyebrow at her and set about feeding her and changing her. He wished that he had not had to abandon the car. All thought he had of getting a cell phone charger and calling Alyssa had vanished with the drone attack. And the others… he didn't know where the others were, if the Dino Thunder Rangers were still on that island. For all he knew, he could be the only one left and he was car-less and running with a baby that was not his.

"This is getting bad, Kaye, very bad," he said to the baby as he burped her. "If only I had brought my cell phone charger from home, none of this would be happening."

The baby said nothing. He didn't blame her. The topic was not really one that was conducive to idle chatter. It was actually rather depressing. He mentally slapped himself. He was not going to go slaphappy because he was so anxious and fearful.

"I need to get some food," he said mindlessly. "And then I need to get a cab or something so we can get out of here and someplace where those dumb reptiles won't look for us." He paused. "But where? Where can we go?"

He thought briefly of getting a cab to the nearest airport and jumping on the next plane to Turtle Cove, but if those drones found a way to fly, he would be endangering everyone else on the plane. No… a cab or even a rental car… His thoughts froze. Perhaps he could get a cab to a rental car place and then he would have transportation once more. As soon as his hopes inflated, they deflated. What kind of rental car place was going to give a guy with an expired driver's license a car? None. Nil. Zilch. It had to be the cab.

He settled Kaye into the carrier and then got dressed in some of the still-damp clothes from the duffel bag. It was better than nothing. He then rounded up all of the things and headed for the lobby. The woman there was helpful and called a cab company that took credit cards. Soon enough a cab was on its way for him and Kaye.

"Where're you two headed?" the woman asked, trying to start a friendly conversation as he waited.

"Up north," he replied vaguely. "We're seeing my… uncle," he finished lamely.

"Oh that's nice!" the woman gushed. "By the way, your daughter looks just like you!"

That was a lie and Cole knew it. Kaye was fair-haired and eyed, taking after her parents. Perhaps the eyes led her to believe the similarities… but the fact remained that Kaye looked like Andros and Ashley and nothing like Cole. Of course, he supposed that strangers could draw the similarities without trying.

The cab pulled up. He thanked the woman and got into the cab quickly. He named a hotel in the LA area for the driver to take them to. It was a really ritzy place, but he figured that if he could get in there and lay low, it would buy them more time. Besides, who was going to look for him in a really ritzy place where he obviously wouldn't blend in?

The Geno-Randomizer sputtered to life as Mesogog entered it. Elsa sighed, remembering when Zeltrax tried this and it failed. The Dino-Gems were no longer a source of power, since they didn't give their power to anyone other than their owners. The morpher on the male still on the island was worthless, a man-made source. The only option seemed to be what was happening right now. The machine slowed down and the doors slid open.

Elsa suppressed a gasp. The thing that came out was Mesogog, but wasn't Mesogog. It looked much more like a dinosaur and looked angrier and more ill-tempered than Mesogog had ever been before. Obviously, it had worked.

"Nothing can stop me now!" Mesogog's voice had gone from a low, sinister hiss, to a loud rumble that rattled her very bones. "I will go out at dawn and those rangers will not stand a chance against my new power!"

Elsa didn't doubt that. She was becoming increasingly more frightened of him as the transformation he had undergone started to fully form in her mind. He had gotten rid of more of his human DNA. He was trying to become an intelligent dinosaur. He was repressing whatever was left of his other half. If she didn't hate the rangers so much, she might have been tempted to work with them.

Mesogog turned and left the room.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews and comments! I hope that the beginning paragraph of this chapter cleared up any uncertainties over who is and is not still on the battle royale island. Also, welcome to new reviewers-- I know a couple of people picked this up at the last update. :) Continue with the great feedback guys! Also, my request for y'all to e-mail me if you're confused still stands-- my e-mail address can be found on my profile page. Once more, thanks for sticking around and reading! --EK