Chapter Eight

Mondays were bad. Anyone could've told him that.

Tommy had class, leaving Melissa all alone and that wasn't a good thing. She was bored, slightly, but she was also curious as to what Tommy was hiding from her. He had been acting awkward every time she had mentioned the Power Rangers around him. So, that meant he was definitely hiding something. Either he was a Power Ranger again, which she thought was completely insane, or he was helping them. There was only one way to find out.

She wandered around his house, examining anything that looked suspicious. And seeing as though there were statues of dinosoarus all around the house, a lot seemed to look suspicious.

She found herself in his living room, after not having any luck in any of the other rooms. She examined the large dinosaur statue in the corner of the room.

She was surprised that she hadn't noticed it, before. She figured that it was all the excitement of seeing Tommy again. But, the statue was curious; too curious, in her opinion.

She lightly touched it and saw that its jaw opened. She smiled to herself and lightly pulled it down only to see a panel in the wall opened to reveal a stairway leading down. "Okay, can we say Temple of Doom?" She asked herself as she entered the stairway and began to head down it.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around at the room she had found. There were computers everywhere, along with little blinking lights and buttons. Her eyes went wide at the sight of it all. It was amazing that a science teacher would be able to afford to have this much technology in a cave underneath his house. "How'd you do it, Tommy?" She asked to no one in particular as she looked around.

She examined each piece of equipment, figuring that they were each designed for something different. But, when her eyes set on the main console, she knew there was more to this than what she expected.

She took a seat at the console and pushed one of the blinking buttons. A screen appeared and a video of Tommy began to play. "'My name is Tommy Oliver and this is my video diary…'" He said.

Melissa watched the diary intently. There were things in there that she was shocked that Tommy would know. There was only one thing that bothered her and that was the lack of her in the video. She had played a key role while alongside him and for some reason, she was left out. This made her even more curious. But, she was now positive that he was involved with the Power Rangers.

An alarm loudly sounded as the video came to an end. Another screen popped up to show a large, green gem. "Green Dino Gem detected." The computer said, showing her the location.

She stared at the screen for only a minute while she contemplated on whether or not to go after it. She didn't know what a Dino Gem was, but she figured that it had to be important, otherwise Tommy wouldn't have had his computer alert him when it was found.

But, then she realized that if she didn't go after it, this evil Mesogog, who she learned was after Tommy, would get his hands on it. She had to get it for Tommy.

She wrote down the coordinates that were scrolling on the screen and quickly ran to her rental car, a green, Ford Escort convertible. It wasn't good for off-roading, but it was the best that she could do.

She then drove off, entering the coordinates into the car's Global Positioning Unit. That way, she would get there in a flash.

Tommy pulled into his driveway as he came home to have lunch with Melissa, so she wouldn't be lonely, and entered the house. He didn't hear anything as he walked through the door, which made him figure that Melissa either wasn't there or she was taking a nap. But, the quiet of the house was just spooky. It shouldn't have been that quiet.

He furrowed his brow and tried to figure out if he'd seen the rental car outside. When he realized that he hadn't, he saw that the secret panel was opened and he knew that that couldn't be good. He quickly ran down the stairs, only to find no one there. He was confused, but for only a second.

When he saw the screen on the main console he knew what he had to do. Kira, Conner, and Ethan were still in school, so it was up to him. Melissa could wait.

"Dino Thunder, Power up! Ha!"

Melissa wandered through the area that was shown on the screen, trying to use her sensing ability to find the green Dino Gem. She wasn't having any luck. Her ability didn't work as good on objects as it did on people, but it was useful incase she lost something that was very important.

She rubbed her temples as she tried to relax and concentrate. This wasn't an easy ability to use, but she had had it for so long, that it seemed almost trivial to her. There was also the fact that she felt as though she was being watched and she didn't like that feeling.

She shook her hed to clear it. "I need to concentrate." She told herself. "Come on, concentrate." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn't move or make a sound as she listened to what was all around her. In this case, she needed pure silence to find what she was looking for.

Then, she heard it. There was a soft humming coming from behind her. She opened her eyes and walked slowly over to a rather large tree. She put her ear up to the trunk, where she heard the humming get louder. She had found it.

"This has to be it." She looked around on the ground for something sharp to cut the bark away. She found a jagged rock and began to hack away at the bark.

It didn't take log to break through. The trunk was mostly hollow, so it was very easy to break. She set down the rock and began to break the bark away with her bare hands.

Her eyes went wide at what she saw. The gem was sparkling in the sunlight. It was beautiful.

She reached into the tree to pull it out, but she was stopped by a horde of Tyrranodrones attacking her. "What the?" She asked as they grabbed her arms. She pulled away from them and began to fight back.

She kicked one of them in the gut and turned to kick another in the head. She was surprised when she felt that their skin was so thick and rubbery. "Boy, these guys are tough." She said as she fought off two more. "I don't know if I can keep this up." She said, feeling her muscles beginning to tense up. It had been a long time since she'd done this.

Melissa stirred slightly as she felt the coldness of the hard floor. She rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes to see where she was. "How'd I get here?" She asked, sitting up and looking around the room.

"I brought you here." Alpha spoke up from behind her, seeming slightly nervous. "Goldar and the chainsaw monster would have destroyed you…" He paused as a loud alarm sounded. "Ai-yi-yi-yi! The Rangers are in trouble!"

"What's going on?" She asked as she stood up and walked over to the viewing globe. Her eyes went wide at what she saw.

"It seems the chainsaw monster is more powerful than expected." Zordon said. "They're going to need some help. The question is… are you willing to help them?"

Melissa looked at Zordon and then back to the viewing globe. She watched as the Rangers were being thrown all around as they tried to fight off Goldar and the chainsaw monster. They needed her help.

"Suit me up." She said, smiling.

Melissa landed hard as she fought off the Tyrranodrones. This was extremely exhausting and she didn't know if she could take any more. She wasn't as young as she used to be, so this wasn't as easy as it had once been.

"Don't worry about the girl! Get the gem!" She heard a grating voice call to the Tyrranodrones.

Melissa didn't care who he was, though. All she cared about was getting the gem. She quickly crawled for it and had almost reached it when she was kicked hard in the stomach and sent into another tree. "Ow!" She yelped as she lay on the ground, pain searing through her entire body.

"Stupid girl! You cannot outsmart me!"

"It's not as hard as you think, Zeltrax!" Another voice called out, this one sounding familiar.

Melissa looked up from where she landed to see the Black Ranger. "Wow!" Was all she said as she watched him and Zeltrax begin to fight. His fighting technique was amazing. He could certainly hold his ground. But, there was something about it that seemed almost familiar.

When she finally realized what was going on around her, she rolled her eyes at him. He could have been fighting off the Tyrranodrones, but instead, he was fighting someone else; someone who was just standing there. "My hero." She sarcastically muttered as she got up and ran to the gem.

She kicked two Tyrranodrones in their backs, sending them to the ground. The others turned to her and began to charge. "Oh, damn!" She said as she ran from them. She ran to a tree and ran up it, only to do a back flip off of it and land behind the Tyrranodrones who ran into the tree. "Idiots." She said as she ran for the gem, again.

The Black Ranger spotted her and knew that he couldn't let her touch that gem. There was no telling what the gem might do to her. "You know, Zeltrax, this has been fun, but I have to go pick up something." He said as he jumped over Zeltrax and ran over to the gem. He figured that the time wasn't right to destroy the Black Ranger. Zeltrax let out a growl and teleported back to his master's lair.

Melissa reached for the gem as she fell to the ground right in front of the tree. She smiled widely as she almost got it, but her smile faded as a black-gloved had grabbed it before she could.

"You shouldn't mess with things you don't understand." He said, looming over her.

"I'll remember that for next time." She said as she stood up and stared at him, not impressed by him or what he had to say.

"There'd better not be a next time." He said as he ran off.

"Whatever you say…" She called to him. "Tommy." She said, softly.

Well, there's chapter eight. Yay, me!

Okay, I know I've been asking for suggestions for this story and I will use them, but not for this one in particular. I'm planning on writing maybe one or two more, it depends on what happens at the end of this one and how I begin the next one. But, I know for sure that there will be at least one more.

I have chosen the two former rangers that I want to include. One I will try to include in this one and the other will be included in the next one. You could probably have guessed which ones I'm going to include, though. So, I'm going to just tell you: Kim and Jason.

I'm just not going to tell you which ones are going to be included in which one. Ha-ha to you! :) (Don't mind me, it's eight in the morning and I just got off of work an hour and a half ago. So, I'm a little loopy at the moment.)

But, anyway, thanks to all of you who have reviewed and who are going to review this one ::hint hint::. Please, don't hesitate to still suggest some things. I can use a few ideas for the next one that I'm going to write, and I will give you credit! I swear I will.

Thanks agian.

Wolflver2003