2A/N: Can I say I am a little upset about getting rid of these lyrics? I mean, all of them as a whole is really making my story sound a little crappy. It just doesn't have that same effect. But as far as I could tell, look up Linkin Park's "One Step Closer" – and many others. I don't know, for those people who don't like them, I do. They have a strong effect on what I'm trying to convey in my story.
THE REASON - Part Thirty-Three: One Step Closer
Summary: The Ninja Rangers find a way to free Tommy from his ranger prison. But for how long? Mesogog has moved onto his next set of plans against the Rangers. And the outcome isn't what they expected.
Disclaimer: Same deal. The Power Rangers aren't mine. The title of the chapter isn't mine. To Linkin Park's "One Step Closer", thanks for the inspiration.
A/N: Here's the much needed twist or suspense I've placed into the story. And thanks again to all the readers, those from the beginning, as those who just decided to stumble on in and find out what my mind could come up with. Hope you enjoy it, and don't worry I'll explain everything in future chapters. And yes, the meteor does come into play in this. Tommy is freed, but only temporary until another solution can be made. But, let's get back to the hype of things. Read and review. May the Powers Always Protect You.
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"I'm free to see that my mistakes have lead to the hardest thing I'll ever have to live with. I'm sorry for all I've put you through." –Eclyptyk Neo
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The two ninjas stormed through the woods back to the lab, only to be met by a stern, concerned look by their yellow counterpart.
Aisha crossed her arms, shaking her head. "You guys got a lot of explaining to do."
Rocky held up his hands in surrender. "Don't bash on..."
"And why wasn't I told?" She cut him off, obviously upset that she had not joined in the plan.
"Hey!" Rocky called out, making it clear it wasn't his idea. "Don't look at me, okay, 'sha. This was Adam's idea. Not mine. I came along for the ride."
The yellow and red ninja turned to their black companion, wondering what he knew and had locked away in his mind.
"Sit down. It's a long story." Adam sighed, directing them to a few seats in the room.
He began to explain his theory about the meteor and how it had taken its effect on those who came in contact with it. He knew that it froze a person's inner self, acting as a recessive trait that one would not see. Though, the rock was destroyed, there was still faint readings running off of it. And if Adam had calculated it right, it could be used to free Tommy from his ranger prison.
"Is it possible?" Rocky grew interested, anxious to get their former leader out of his permanent ranger hold.
Adam shrugged. "It's worth a try. What do we have to lose? If we can awaken his animal spirit, then it will open the gate to the dino gem long enough to fuse a piece of the rock into his morpher. It will act as a guard to neutralize the bond between the gem and morpher."
Aisha smiled lightly. "It makes sense. Because it can't do significant harm to Tommy since the energy isn't that strong anymore."
"But for how long?" a voice called from the shadows.
The ninjas sprang to their feet, alert. But relaxed when they found the black dino thunder ranger emerge from the middle of the room, re-appearing from thin air. The act of invisibility by his dino gem.
"How long have you been standing there?" Rocky raised an eyebrow, wondering how much the legendary ranger had heard.
Tommy shrugged. "Not that long. But enough to hear that you may have a solution to this 'stuck-in-suit' fiasco."
"It could be temporary, T." Adam admitted with a sense of worry.
"It beats not doing anything about it. I think this will be the farther we get with it anyway." He shrugged, giving free response to any way possible to free him from his encasing. "Besides, I'm kinda tired of walking around in these black spandex."
"There could be side effects, though." Rocky reassured.
"At this point, I don't give a shit, Rocko. I'm about ready to rip this thing off if I have to."
The ninjas chuckled, knowing that the imprisonment of being stuck in amber and his ranger suit for nearly three weeks was driving him crazy. No one could blame him for wanting to rip it off, even if they kept commenting on the nice sty-lo. And they figured he wanted to get back to teaching, too.
Conner, Kira and Ethan came into the lab early the next morning. They were glad that the weekend had finally come, but still bummed out about not getting anywhere too successful in the past few weeks in the crime-fighting world of their lives. And they got news of something big that drew their attention at the early hour.
"Do you know what this is all about?" Conner asked, as he lead the two through the winding cave that would take them to the lab.
"None." Kira shook her head. "Aisha called me up about telling us something important, but that was it."
"Yeah," Ethan nodded. "Got the heads up from Rocky on the net." The two dino rangers saw the tiredness in his eyes, concluding that he hadn't got much sleep--if any--in the past 24 hours. "Yeah, I know. I pulled an all-nighter playing this new computer game. But I'm stuck on level 25. Stupid flying monkeys are really shittin' my game. They're like rabid dogs."
"Dude, it's just a game." Conner sighed.
"These things will give a person nightmares."
"Anyway..." Kira cut the two off from exchanging any insults as she pulled the mouth of the dino skeleton outside the lab entrance down. "Time to focus on finding out what the hype is all about."
The teens slowly stepped into the room as the door slowly rose up into its sheath above them. But when they entered, no one was in the room. It was quiet, and the obvious answer was the ninjas were hiding out. And for fun, their mentor was joining in the fun, too. He was nowhere in sight.
"Ya know, I really hate when they do this." Conner sighed with frustration. "Just because their powers allow them to be stealthy, it doesn't give us much to work with."
"Well, Dr. O did warn us of their many surprise training sessions just to test our reaction time." Kira stated.
"But we're not ninjas." he protested.
"Who says someone has to be a ninja to use their instincts against an enemy?" A voice emerged from one of the shadows. Adam.
"You really gotta teach me that move, man." Ethan commented.
"A ninja doesn't reveal his secrets to just anyone. There is a deep commitment in it." Rocky pulled away from the shadows.
"Yeah, okay. But you gotta give us a break. We're still in high school." Conner whined, with a tinge of frustration.
"Don't go there, Conner." Aisha appeared, sitting on the stair step leading to the cental computer console. "So, were we."
The teens looked about the room in a dazed way as the ninja found their place around the teens.
"I don't assume we pass this test?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.
"You're lucky we don't make it any harder." Rocky said. "Yet."
"But than again, if you're looking at the real ninja here. You gotta talk to Adam about that." Aisha warned.
The teens looked at the black ninja, who didn't seem to approve of their reaction to the ninjas' test. He crossed his arms, shaking his head. When he looked up, he could only wink at the teens. It was the start of their training with the ninja rangers, and they knew it would only get harder.
"Man, I should have been the one going to ninja school. Not my twin brother." Conner shook his head.
"Please." Kira laughed. "You wouldn't have made it one day in there."
"Every person deserves a chance to try something new." Rocky instructed. "If they fail, the experience is still there as a lesson. And if they succeed, they move onto the next level."
"Okay, stop." Kira held up her hands, not used to seeing the ninja advisors in serious mode.
"Yeah, serious mode doesn't really look like you, Rocky. No offense." Ethan assured, hoping he hadn't said anything wrong.
Rocky bowed, acknowledging the comment. He pushed open a light smile. "I know. Not me, man. That would be Adam again."
Aisha looked at the black ninja, seeing that he didn't break out of it. "He does this to annoy people mostly."
"Speak from the heart, not the mind when speaking of truth." Adam directed seriously. "But than again it depends on what you want to know."
"Stop, dude." Conner pleaded. "It's bad enough we have to deal with Dr. O being all serious. And as long as you guys have been here, you haven't."
"Yeah, you guys haven't been spying on us, have you?" Kira grew curious.
"Why? Got anything to hide?" Rocky asked.
"No, it's just.. isn't there a set of rules you're still limited to following?" Ethan defended.
"Lemme guess, as top ranger, I have to set the limits to how far any of you are permitted to go?" A voice called out from behind them.
The teens whirled around to see the chair at the computer console turn toward them. But no one was in the chair, or so they thought. As they furrowed their eyebrows with confusion, a figure began to come present in the chair, revealing their teacher. And when the invisibility was gone he appeared, fully visible. Their jaws dropped.
There he was, Dr. Thomas A. Oliver, sitting in the chair no longer in his ranger form. After three weeks. He was dubbed in the usual black t-shirt with a black leather jacket and a set of khaki pants. His brown hiking boots finished it off.
The teens rushed over to him, as he got to his feet meeting the team on the main floor of the lab.
"Whoa! No way!" Ethan breathed.
"This has got to be a dream." Conner shook his head.
"It isn't, Conner." Tommy replied, displaying a gentle smile.
"But I thought you couldn't de-morph, Dr. O." Kira protested, still not believing her eyes.
He shrugged. "It's only temporary. Or, at least that's what we concluded."
"Temporary?" Conner seemed saddened at his teacher's last comment.
"To keep a long story short," Tommy began. "I'm back in my civilian form. Thanks to these three. They tapped into my ninja powers long enough to open up the gate for the gem and morpher to break. Adam, then re-harnessed the power of the meteor to fuse into my gem as a way to neutralize the bonding between my gem and morpher. But since the meteor residual energy is weakened, it will only hold off for so long."
"How long?" Ethan asked.
"Hard to say." Tommy admitted sadly, pulling up his jacket sleeve. The gem was glowing with a gray haze, as opposed to its usual black-gold texture. And there was no way to hide it without covering it completely. "Days. Weeks. Maybe only hours. So, to answer your eagerness in having me come back to teach will still continue to be postponed."
The teens looked down at another defeat, but knew that he couldn't risk trying to teach a class without knowing how long the freedom was gonna last. But they were relieved that some success was coming their way.
Tommy clapped his hands together and headed for the forest entrance. "Now, if you'll all excuse me, I'll be out catching some much needed sun."
His students followed suit, hoping to get some quality time with their teacher. Since the past three weeks, it just wasn't much the same without actually seeing his face when they talked to him. Only his body language gave them the answers to how he reacted. And if all was true about Tommy maintaining his civilian form for so long, they would use it as much as possible. Just as he would.
The teens walked alongside their teacher in the park. Each commenting on the relief of seeing him in his normal set of clothes rather than that of him saving the world in. Not that it was bad, even if he knew how to wear the ranger suit well, no matter what color. But three weeks was taking its toll on the entire team when they had no real answers to what they wanted. Or needed. Dr. Oliver had to agree with his students about this move to free him from the ranger imprisonment. The only problem was asking how long it would last.
Every few steps, the group would stop as Dr. Oliver took in a breath of air. He felt the drain of energy. His vision would become blurry and his steps faltered, but he figured it was the side effects of being in suit for so long. The protection was no longer there and his body just wasn't used to being in its normal state, his civilian form.
"You feeling okay, Dr. Oliver?" Conner caught his teacher as another step sent him wavering.
"Yeah." Dr. Oliver said slowly. "I assume it's the side effects of being in the suit for longer than needed to."
"Three weeks." Ethan nodded, still shocked at how his teacher managed to entertain himself after so long. "I give you credit, Dr. O."
"No kidding. But than again, I got the chance to run through some old pictures of you." Kira chuckled.
"Don't remind me. I would have lost trying to pick a fight with the four of you anyways." he shook his head, remembering the day Kira and the ninjas had fumbled through his boxes of old pictures from high school to present day. "Next time, I shouldn't tell people to take pictures."
The students chuckled as their teacher joined in. None of them would have expected to create such a fatherly/friendly bond with a teacher. Especially during their high school career. But than again, he was also the great legendary ranger that no one had no idea about outside the ranger family. And they always had the student body--who noticed–wonder how a computer geek, a soccer player and a singer became the best of friends by the time junior year hit. Their advisors did mention that junior year was the hardest year to face, and they didn't have to lie about that. Taking ACT and SAT tests, choosing colleges, finding out what you want in the future, taking up more responsibilities, etc. It was all there.
But the light jokes and trips down memory lane were short-lived when people began running from the boardwalk in a screaming panic. The rangers exchanged a look of confusion and headed over to the boardwalk to see what was going on.
The White Ranger was terrorizing the area with his laser arrows and a swarm of Tyrannodrones.
"Hey!" Conner called out.
The White Ranger turned around, slowly and bowed as a means of greeting. "Well, hello, rangers. I was wondering when you'd show up. Did you miss me?"
"Hardly." Ethan glared at him.
"Trent, this has to stop. This isn't like you." Kira pleaded.
"Sorry, but I got a job to do. It's in the script to have the evil ranger terrorize the town." he countered, not taking much interest in Kira's plea.
Dr. Oliver stepped forward, holding out his hands. "We never wanted any trouble in the first place, Trent. But we can still help you. If you let us. Don't do this. You shouldn't even be siding with Mesogog."
"I don't need any help from a bunch of posers." The White Ranger shook his head. "But I must say, I'm impressed you found a way to free Dr. Oliver from his ranger imprisonment. And I have a little surprise for you guys as well," he directed them to turn around. "I think you'd be impressed. Especially you, Dr. Oliver."
The dino rangers slowly turned around. Each of them found their mouth's become slack as it dropped open at the surprise. Standing there in front of them was another power ranger, dubbed in pink. And by the looks of the suit it was designed for a female–a petite female. A gold shieldran across the chest. In the middle of the shield was a diamond encrusted with a three-pronged foot. Not like those of the dino rangers, but one with a painful past, a dragon foot. There was a set of arm bands also encrusted with the same three-pronged dragon foot. The design of the suit and helmet followed closely to the White Ranger's outfit with the white patterns along the side of the uniform, with a facsimile to the original three dino thunder rangers. The helmet also appeared to have the design of a Chinese dragon's mouth.
"No way!" Ethan breathed. "Another one?"
"That can't be who I think it is, can it?" Kira asked, looking over at her mentor.
Dr. Oliver took a small step forward as he felt his knees weaken. "No. It can't be true. This has to be a dream."
"Think again, Tommy." The pink ranger replied, the voice deepened.
"No. It can't be..." he said quietly.
"Um...I think this would be a good time to morph, considering I don't want to get my ass kicked by two evil rangers." Conner said.
"I agree." Ethan took his place beside the red ranger.
"Wait!" Dr. Oliver held out a hand, forcing the teens to stop short of morphing. He looked back at the pink ranger. "Kim? Is that you?"
"I don't know a Kim." The pink ranger replied cold-heartedly.
"Um..no offense, Dr. O, but this isn't the time to be negotiating." Kira said, looking back at their white foe.
Dr. Oliver took another few steps forward, hands up in a truce. "Look, I don't want to cause any trouble. I don't want to fight you."
"Well, than that makes one of us." she replied.
The White Ranger was slowly approaching the team, swinging his sword slowly around as a tease. The swarm of Tyrannondrones were close behind, waiting for the moment to attack. The teens took a step back, looking at their pre-occupied teacher, wondering what to do.
Then the Tyrannodrones advanced on the teens as they sprang into action against their aggressors. The White Ranger moved toward them swiftly, sending a whirl of attacks at them without breaking a sweat or losing his stride. They hit the ground, groaning in pain.
Then from the shadows three color-coordinated ninjas appeared, taking out the Tyrannodrones heading toward the weakened teens. The White Ranger moved to occupy the new set of threats.
The teens moved to a clear area on the boardwalk and morphed, joining in the fight to keep the White Ranger and the Tyrannodrones at bay.
On the other side of the boardwalk, Tommy had made it within arms length of the new pink ranger without as much as throwing a threatening attack toward her. Yet, he still couldn't believe his eyes. He prayed it was a dream. Wanted it to. But as he looked into the black visor of her helmet, he couldn't seem to penetrate the wall of looking into her soul. She was as stiff as the White Ranger was when the rangers faced him weeks ago for the first time. He felt the surge of energy grow between the two of them. He looked down at the cuff honing his dino gem as it began to glow with its black and golden haze. Then it began to run over his arm across his chest and to his other arm flying into something held by the pink ranger.
With that done, he fell forward, unable to get the feeling back in his legs, as if he was paralyzed. He cowered in pain, lowering his head to his lap as he felt the sudden dizziness drain through his mind and his vision blurred.
"Tommy!" The ninjas rangers called out to him in a panic.
Conner turned around, holding down a Tyrannodrone seeing the drain of energy escaping his teacher. "Dr. O!"
Tommy groaned again, as he looked up into the face–the helmet–of his adversary. The glowing energy began to glow with a haze of white and green.
Rocky and Conner moved toward the fallen ranger, but could not get through. There was an invisible barrier between them and the rest of the battle.
"Aww, man. This isn't cool. Yo, T, get up!" Rocky demanded.
"Dr. O! Dr. O, get up!" Conner encouraged quietly.
Trent swung his sword, striking Kira and Ethan. They hit the ground, just as Adam came from behind to push Trent to the ground. But the White Ranger kicked the black ninja away. Aisha was there to pull him back before Trent had a chance to strike him.
"Ya know, this thing about not really having those powers is really getting to me." she commented.
"No doubt. But it does bring back some memories." Adam commented with a light smile.
"No time for jokes or talking," Kira said as she broke through them as a set of Tyrannodrones came after her. "More fighting."
The ninjas threw out their hands, sending the row of Tyranndrones down like dominoes.
Ethan had his hands tied with Trent, still having a problem getting one attack in on the White Ranger. But with that, the Tyrannodrones fled, leaving the rangers to fend for themselves. Adam, Aisha, Ethan and Kira rushed Trent forcing him back toward the conflict with the black dino thunder ranger and the pink ranger.
"Stand down." Adam demanded.
"You wish." Trent huffed. He swung his sword out again, striking the team going against him.
The rangers hit the ground hard, crashing into Conner and Rocky, unable to get up.
"You guys are so pathetic." The White Ranger sneered as he found a place beside his pink companion.
The rangers groaned, watching helplessly from where they laid as the energy was continuing to get drained from the top ranger.
The pink ranger slowly opened up her hand to reveal what appeared to be a coin. But not just any--the dragon coin. "Look familiar?"
"No." Tommy cried, trying to push the coin away, but the weakness had caught ahold of his arm as it fell limp at his side. He felt the surge of evil thoughts fill his mind. Of his
mistakes, and his battles with the original team both physically and verbally. "No. Make it stop."
"Tommy, fight it!" Adam called out.
"Dr. O, no." Kira cried.
Tommy shook his head in frustration, beating his temples with his fists to try and ease the pain. But it was there. All of it. The memories of being evil. Of nearly destroying the
power rangers. Of nearly losing his friendship with them after he was brainwashed. To the point of losing his powers. "No. Please. Make it stop."
"Tommy!" The ninja rangers called out again.
The teens scrambled to their feet.
"You guys ready to do this?" Conner asked with no hesitation to their next move.
"No doubt." Ethan nodded.
"Let's do it." Kira agreed.
"Super Dino Mode!" they called out.
Their suits began to glow with the power of their dino gems, and it began to transform. The white patches began to take shape as spikes, pulling them into a new level of power. Into the point of near invincibility. They headed off for the White Ranger, knocking him down, disrupting the drain between the pink and black ranger. The ninjas moved to drive the pink ranger back to avoid draining the black dino ranger of anymore power. But they could only get so far when the strange cry of the crane echoed through their minds, sending them to their knees. It felt lost and in pain.
The two evil rangers fell back, as the rangers–dino and ninja--took their positions in front of the fallen ranger. If the evil rangers were gonna go anywhere near the legendary ranger, they would have to plow through the wall of other rangers. Their stances making it clear they would do anything to divert attention away from the black dino ranger.
"We'll be back." The White Ranger called.
An invisi-portal opened up and the two evil rangers disappeared into it.
The dino rangers brought their hands across their chest and forced it back down just as quick. "Power down." They stated as their ranger suits were demolished to reveal their normal clothes.
When they turned around, Rocky and Adam were already pulling the black dino ranger to his feet, using them as support.
"Yo, T, you okay?" Rocky patted the man on the chest to get his attention.
Tommy groaned, falling limp in his friends' grasp. "Something's wrong." His head dropped in a daze, as he collapsed.
The two ninjas moved to re-position their footing as they pulled Tommy back over their shoulders.
"What the hell is going on?" Conner said with a tinge of anger.
"Duh, dude! Another evil power ranger." Ethan smacked him on the back of the head.
"No, I think the better question is was that who I think it was?" Kira asked.
"Look, whatever it was, got all of us pretty run down." Aisha nodded, flexing her arms pushing away the pain.
"Yeah." Adam nodded. "C'mon, we'd better get back to the lab."
No one had to be told twice as the black and red ninja took the lead with the dazed and weakened black dino thunder ranger around their shoulders. The teens followed after and Aisha took the rear, trying to encourage them that things were gonna be okay. But now, it was hard to tell when the ninja rangers had took the hardest hit mentally. They heard the lost cry of the crane trying to lead Kim back into light. The teens took the hit physically. The pain of getting beat by Trent who didn't as much break a sweat. Fear ran through all of them for the fallen ranger they all knew as the best and what he had just gone through both physically and mentally.
To be continued...
A/N: There you go, peeps. Kinda the big 'Oh-no. Not good. Definitely not good.' Well, the original plot was to have two evil rangers, but if I was ever gonna get anywhere, I had to drop that idea. But you'll begin to see why. I mean, Mesogog isn't big about trusting humans to do his job, right? Yet, he does hold interest to the black dino thunder ranger, and it won't be a good outcome if the rangers don't find anything soon. And relax, I'm not gonna make this some huge tragic event. You'll just have to see all right. Later daze all. And keep reading and doing what you're doing.