Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Disney and the like, which I am not affliated with.
"No!" Ethan cried, diving towards the trio and grabbing for Conner and Kira. But it was too late. They'd already been sucked in, and the portal was closed. Ethan dove through empty air and landed on his face on the floor of the principal's office.
He had to get out of there, he had to get to the base and to Dr. O. so they could figure out what to do. He turned, put his hand on the doorknob to leave, but saw Dr. Mercer coming down the hallway towards Randall's office. Bad news--if he saw Ethan here, he would ask that Ethan go back to class. Not happening. Ethan dove into the closet that Trent had held Kira in, and pulled the door shut, just as Mercer opened the door to the office.
Ethan counted out five minutes, but he never heard Mercer leave. Tentatively, he poked the closet door open and peered out through the crack. He saw nothing. His brow furrowed, Ethan opened the door further, and even stuck his head into the room fully. Mercer wasn't there; Ethan was in the clear.
Ethan ran out of the room, down the hall, and out to the parking lot. When he was sure no one could overhear, he got a hold of Dr. O. "It's Ethan. We have a major situation, and I'm on my way there."
At the base, Ethan filled Dr. O. in as best he could. Their mentor didn't know the whole story about Conner's series of altercations with the White Ranger the previous day, so Ethan had to explain that, but the long and short of it was that the White Ranger had kidnapped Conner and Kira.
"Trent doesn't know how to work invisoportals, does he?" Ethan asked.
"Not to my knowledge," Dr. O. said. "Although, who knows how far Mesogog's influence reaches."
"Trent always makes it a point to announce that he works alone. But that could just be to fake us out," Ethan puzzled out.
"Well, whether or not Trent knows how to operate portals, Mesogog is definitely involved in this to some degree," Dr. O. said. The Black Ranger got up and began to pace. Though it was early still, he'd spent a good portion of time cleaning the place up. Hayley had come over the previous night, and had, according to Dr. O., worked until the wee hours of the morning fixing up the console. Only two screens were currently on-line of the six, but it wasn't bad. While she'd done that, Dr. O. had fixed up the Cycles so that they were operable again. That was a good thing, because Ethan had the feeling they would be of use soon.
Dr. O. was running a scan, looking for recent instances of the frequency used for portal activity. His hands stilled on the keyboard suddenly, and he leaned in closer to the screen. Ethan could just imagine the 'that's weird' frown that he knew so well taking place underneath the helmet. "That's weird," Dr. O. said, and Ethan tried hard not to smile.
"What's weird?"
"Two portals opened today, in the same location. Only about a minute apart."
Ethan frowned. He knew enough about the portal network to know that opening portals wasn't as easy as one would think, so that there weren't going to be a ton of invisoportals opening up around Reefside. Obviously, that meant that one of the two was the one that Conner and Kira had fallen into. "But that means that the second--"
His communicator flashed, blue light reflecting off of the Black Ranger's helmet. They still hadn't fixed the lights in the base, so his communicator seemed abnormally bright and conspicuous. Eagerly, he answered the call. "Conner, Kira, is that you? Where are you guys?"
"I'm sorry, but the Rangers can't come to the phone right now," a voice hissed. Ethan had only heard that voice once in his life, but there was no mistaking it, and he couldn't quell the shiver that slimed its way down his back.
Dr. O. went rigid, and turned on his own communicator. "Mesogog."
"Tommy Oliver," Mesogog answered, amusement apparent in his voice.
"What have you done to them?" the Black Ranger demanded.
"I've done nothing to them, Black Ranger," came the blood-curdling reply. "They gave up their gems willingly."
Ethan couldn't conceive of any reason that Conner and Kira would willingly give up the source of their powers. Mesogog had their bracelets, which meant that Mesogog had Conner and Kira. Or what was left of them.
He felt a sickening wrench. Conner and Kira were his best friends, and the only people who'd ever really understood him--or at least attempted to. Ethan felt a burning hot rage surfing over his body. "I am going to make you pay, you scummy lizard!" he yelled.
Ethan suddenly became aware of Dr. O.'s hand on his arm, an attempt to still the Blue Ranger. The communication between the Rangers and Mesogog had gone dead.
"Ethan," Dr. O. said quietly.
Ethan took a deep breath to calm himself. "We know that they've been taken to the island fortress," he said in a dark tone. "We need to figure out how to manipulate the network so that we can get inside. We can't afford to wait around for another one to open that we can borrow."
"It might be too late, you know," Dr. O. said, the voice of reason.
Ethan paid him no heed. "Get Hayley," he said. "We're two of the best computer whizzes in the state of California. I want her here for this."
Dr. O., Tommy Oliver, the man with the longest history as a Power Ranger of any of the Rangers in existence, sat back and took his orders from this teenage newbie. He knew from experience that losing your friends to the big bad was a horrific thing, something that provoked powerful responses in even the most reserved of Rangers, like Ethan. It was entirely possible that Conner and Kira were lost to the team in a way far more permanent than simply not being found. But the Black Ranger knew that Ethan wasn't going to stop until he had them back.
Ethan had never acted more like a Power Ranger than he did today.
Which was good, considering he might be one of the only ones left.