Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or any of the weapons associated with the Power Rangers, so if you recognize it, it is not mine. I do own the characters, Ally Jameson, Fanny Abbott, and Todd Billingsway as well as any other characters from "Saving the World, Again" that may be brought into this story.
XRachX: Thank you for the review and I'm glad that you like the story so far.
Warstock-Leonhart: Okay, I understand that, as it can truly be a hassle sometimes. Thanks for telling me where it is.
Now, on with the Story!
Tommy's POVWe began working on the Command Center exactly two days after my return home. I had slept most of those days, as the other rangers worked out the plans for the command center and Kim would have rather me rested longer and worked less. The poor baby was worried about me, although none of the others seem to blame her and neither do I. We have been put into a place that no one likes to be in.
Kim has barely let me out of her sight and I know that she is scared for me, as well as everyone else that will be brought into this. I know that we all have the right to feel like this, but I brought them into this, this time. I have never been the one to do this before, usually it was Zordon or someone else and now it seems to be my turn. Jason told me that Kim thinks she is going to lose me again, but I am determined to not let that happen, I love her too much to let that happen.
The first of our jobs was to clear everything out of my basement, which proved to take the better part of two days, as we had to find some place to store it, which is why our living room is so full now. Some of it, we have decided to throw away, but there is some of it that we will be dragging back down there. Well, actually, I wasn't too willing to get rid of most of it.
Within the first week, we had made another entrance, besides the trap door in the kitchen. The kitchen entrance would become very inconvenient as time went on and we all knew that. We do actually have a life outside of being rangers, which is hard for some to believe. The second entrance led to the forest, which could be used at any time, without having to intrude on our house.
It has been a grueling week and a half, but we have finally gotten to the wiring and morphing grid, two of the most tedious pieces of work in this entire project. Rocky and Jason have been dropping in, at least every other day to help, but we are going to have to wait for Billy, before we can finish the panels and get the morphing grid on line. That is the one thing that will make or break this project and we all know that, which is about as scary as the whole project itself, if you ask me.
"Kim, make sure that the panel is secure before we try to turn this station on, okay?" Hayley asked peeking her head under the steel encasements, as all she could see where Kim's feet. Kim happened to be the only one small enough to work comfortably in these spaces, so there was really no question as to why she had been working under the encasements so much.
Tommy and Hayley had been busy trying to prepare the morphing grid for installation later on that weekend. They had gotten two of the panels up and running, but had four more to go, before they could even begin the installation of the unstable morphing grid, which would be their hardest task to date.
As for the dino gems, they had been hidden away for the time being and would not be brought out until they had found adequate partners for the gems. Having these gems put Kim and Tommy in more danger, but they didn't want to put the others in any more danger than they were already in and they were used to living in the high stakes part of the group. They had been doing that for years, without really thinking about it, until now.
"Alright," Kim said, tightening each bolt, before dragging herself out of the crawl space and crawling over to Tommy. Tommy and she had been surviving on a measly, four hours of sleep a night for the past four days. They were doing this in the hopes of getting the panels ready by the time Billy got there, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen, as it was already five o'clock on Friday and he would be there any minute now. This lack of sleep was starting to catch up with them, in a way they never thought it would. The coffeepot, which Tommy and Kim had rarely used, was now constantly keeping a batch of coffee warm, or making a new pot. But even the amount of caffeine that they were guzzling down only seemed to perk them up for a short period of time, before they needed to be recharged. It, however, was keeping them awake long enough to complete the tasks at hand, which was all they really cared about. "Go ahead and try it."
"You're a saint," Tommy said, knowing that she would not have gone crawling around in small, dusty places for just anyone or anything, for that matter.
They both seemed to have decided to live in the same pair of clothes while the construction of the command center was under way; in order to not ruin any more clothes than they absolutely had to. Tommy, already, had to go buy a new wardrobe as most of his other one had been blown to smithereens and they didn't feel like adding anymore to the list than absolutely necessary. It was going to be hard finding clothes that they both liked, within their budget, as being schoolteacher's gave them a limited budget, and Tommy needed to be the one to buy clothes, instead of Kim this year.
"No, I'm not. I'm doing this because neither of you can fit under there without getting stuck," Kim said, stepping over to Tommy's side and feeling him put his arm around her, which only made her more tired, as the comfort was increased.
She was starving, sleepy, cranky and about ready to start whining but all of that was going to have to wait until they got the remaining panels into an operational mode, no matter how long it took. They had absolutely no clue about how long it was going to take them to get the morphing grid up and running and that had to be completed this weekend.
They would begin in-service on Monday and then school would start the following Monday. They couldn't lose anymore sleep than they already had and be able to function in their jobs, as normal people. It just wasn't possible, even for them. The command center had to be up and ready by Monday, or Billy and Hayley would have to work on it alone until it was ready for the new ranger team. They didn't have a choice about it anymore and Billy had already cleared it with his boss, although he wasn't very happy about it. There were bound to be other occasions in which he would be needed. He was hoping to save his off days for those occasions and not use them all up now, but whatever he had to do to get the command center up and running.
"Kim, Tommy, where are you?" Billy asked, peering down into what was once Tommy's basement, but it was beginning to look more and more like a command center, that even Zordon would have been proud of. He was astonished at what they had been able to do over the past few weeks, but he knew that they had probably lost a good bit of sleep to get this much completed. He could only hope that they hadn't lost so much sleep that they were surviving on only coffee. When he looked at the coffeepot, he knew it wasn't good, as it was brewing a fresh batch right now.
"Where do you think we are, Billy?" Kim retorted and Billy then headed down the stairs, carrying a bag of McDonald's and four twenty, ounce Mountain Dews, along with some tylenol, which Hayley had requested.
He had gotten the feeling that Kim and Tommy hadn't eaten in about two days from the limited amount of information he had been able to get out of Hayley during their five minute phone call. Hayley had not been too willing to talk about most of this to him over the phone, but she had told him that Kim and Tommy were running themselves ragged trying to get the place ready in time. Not that he was surprised by this, they had always done stuff like that before, including the last mission they were on. This time, however, it seemed that they were pushing their bodies to the extreme and Hayley had become very concerned about them. They needed their help with the final processes, which needed their minds to be clear, in order for them to be able to complete the tasks and not blow up Tommy's house in the process.
"I brought supper and both of you are going to eat," Billy said, as Kim and Tommy both smiled at his thoughtfulness, although they had no intentions of stopping just yet and he could tell that. With Billy finally being here, they hoped that they could get the remaining panels up and running within the next six hours and then start work on the morphing grid.
He had come here to help over the weekend with the final processes, but he could tell that Kim and Tommy needed to get some sleep and a square meal before they continued with the most tedious work. It might take Hayley and he longer to do the work that was left, but they could deal with one night of no sleep. He had pulled several sleepless nights in college and would be willing to do it again. He would do anything for the rangers, old or new, and they all knew that. They all felt that way, but some of them had more limited skills in this area than others. That was why he was here and they were staying out of the way, although they would come at a moment's notice if they were to be called upon.
"Thanks, Billy, but we really want to finish this before we do anything else. We'll eat after we're done, we promise," Kim said, giving him a tired smile and then looked up at Tommy to see he agreed with what she had said.
The panel that they had just been working on now came to life, but before Kim could get back into the crawl space, Billy had grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the hole in between two of the panels. She looked up at him, but did not struggle to pull away. She didn't have the strength to do that and now that he was here, the two of them could get the rest that they deserved. Tomorrow they'd all work on the morphing grid. He was going to make sure that they got some sleep tonight, even if he had to drag both of them upstairs and into their beds, which had been done before.
"Kim, you and Tommy need to get a square meal and some rest before you do anything else. It's too risky for you to work the way you are right now," Billy said, rather sternly, as to make sure that Kim had gotten the point that he wouldn't let her work until she had done so. Hayley gave him a thankful smile, knowing that they would listen to him when he said that they needed to rest. She knew that she would be much more cramped in the crawl space than Kim was, but if Tommy and Kim would get a full night's rest, everything would be go for tomorrow and that was the day that they needed them to be in their right mind, not tonight.
"Alright," Kim said, as she took a Mountain Dew out of Billy's hand and headed back upstairs, to eat in the kitchen. Tommy was grateful he had showed up because now they would be able to get some of the rest that they desperately needed.
Mesogogg hadn't been able to locate him, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he did and the remaining time that he had was slowly ticking away. He had never felt such hurry to do something before in his life, but they all agreed that he had good reason to, knowing that it was only a matter of time before Mesogogg found him. He wanted to be ready for when he did, because it was not likely to be pretty and they all knew that.
"Tommy are you alright?" Hayley asked, before crawling into the crawl space. In college, she had been known to go several days without any sleep and still be able to function like a normal human being. She was now glad that she had not lost that ability or these last two days would have been torture on her and everyone around her. Tommy, however, had not been as well off when he went a few days without sleep.
"Hayley, I don't have a clue what you just said and I can barely keep myself awake long enough to eat this," Tommy said, grabbing the first hamburger he came to in the bag and sitting down. He, unlike Hayley, needed to get at least eight hours of sleep every night, but had only been able to get sixteen hours of sleep over the last four days, instead of his usual thirty-two. This had thrown him off, in more ways than people could imagine, but he would be able to take it with one, good night, of sleep.
"I didn't know that they were this bad," Billy whispered to Hayley, as she merely shook her head, although he could not see it. On the mission to Asoriotan, they had pulled several sleepless nights, but now they could barely function. Of course, on the way to Asoriotan, they had not been working for twenty hours straight and they had their powers to help give them some extra energy. This was a little bit different from then, as they did have work to do and there were no extra energy boosters.
"Billy, this is the most important thing to them right now. They have put everything aside, including planning their wedding, to get this done," Hayley said, as Billy handed her some tools.
He would have been much more willing to go under the panels, but it looked like it would be a tight squeeze for anyone who was over five foot six and weighed over one hundred and thirty pounds. He fit into both of those categories, so it seemed like Hayley was going to have to do all the dirty work, although she didn't like the idea that much and she was making no attempts to hide her disdain. He just hoped that she would get used to this work or it was likely to be a very long night.
"I didn't know that Hayley," Billy said and started talking her through the procedure that Kim had been performing over the last four hours. This was going to be a long night, because the procedure had to be repeated, in a certain order or it would not work and if they were not careful, the monotony would overtake them and there might be an explosion that killed them and the two people sleeping upstairs. They did not need an explosion, especially after all of the work that had been put into it thus far.
"Kim, you go get the first shower and I'll be up there in a little bit," Tommy said, as they had both finished devouring their food. If they were going to make them get rest, then the least they could do was take full advantage of this and get a full night's sleep, as well as a shower, which they both desperately needed.
"Okay, Tommy, but don't take too long," Kim said, as she stumbled up the stairs and down the hall until she reached the master bedroom. When she opened the door, she was so glad to see the bed, that she almost forgot that she desperately needed to take a bath.
When she walked into the bathroom, she was startled by her own reflection. Dust and soot had settled on almost every inch of available skin, while her fingertips were black with grease and grease stains marked anywhere that they had touched while wet. She wondered how Tommy could possibly stand to be around her, but could only figure it was because he looked just as bad, although she hadn't noticed.
To be quite frank, she hadn't had the time to notice his appearance or anything else for that matter over the last few days. She had been too preoccupied with the job downstairs that nothing else mattered anymore, which meant Tommy could have grown a beard and she wouldn't have noticed lately. That was just how out of it she was, because of the project they had embarked upon and how it had totally engrossed their lives, in every way imaginable.
"You think that you'll be able to handle this?" Tommy asked, walking back downstairs, to make sure that it was safe for him to go get some sleep. He didn't want for Billy and Hayley to have to work too hard, but they didn't seem to mind the work, not yet at least. Although, they had no idea what they were getting into.
"Tommy, go get some sleep and tomorrow we'll try to finish this up. Hayley and I can handle it, I promise," Billy said, looking over at Tommy, who gave him a grateful smile and then headed back upstairs.
Billy could tell that Tommy's body had gone on autopilot about a day and a half ago, but he was still trudging on, helping as much as he could. He had never known Tommy to be clumsy, but he was beginning to exhibit the classic signs of clumsiness, no matter how much coordination he usually had. Billy couldn't help but stifle a laugh when Tommy nearly fell, but he had the feeling he would receive a lashing if he did. Tommy did not seem to be in any mood to joke around with, especially with him in a sleep deprived state.
"Thank you, Billy," Tommy said stumbling over the last step and then headed to tackle the set of stairs that would lead him to the master bathroom. That bedroom was the only salvation he had right now and he could only hope that the bed had not left the house, and at this point, it wouldn't surprise him if it had. Their room had to reek from the filthy clothing they had been wearing and his furniture probably wasn't taking it too well or so he would imagine, if the furniture was able to smell.
"It's not a problem," Billy said, as Hayley peeked her head out at the two of them. She looked up at Billy, who was obviously trying to hide his amusement at Tommy's actions, but she was just happy to see him. It had been a long time since he had made the trip up to Reefside, too long, if you asked her.
"For you it's not," Hayley said, grabbing a wrench and ducking back into the cramped, crawl space. She was hoping to make quick work of all of this, but found that it was much harder than she had expected.
"It's not that bad Hayley, and you know it," Billy said, laughing at her current position. She had her legs hanging out of the open hole, while her upper torso was buried under the encasement. Hayley had hoped to not have to completely immerse herself in the encasements, but soon found herself on her stomach, dragging herself towards the correct panel.
"You want to switch with me then?" Hayley asked, continuing to connect wires. She could see why it took Kim so long now to do the other panels. This got confusing after a little while and they couldn't afford to make many mistakes.
"No, thanks for offering though," Billy said, picking up some tools that he knew he was going to need when he attempted to work on the morphing grid. He had never been wise enough to ask Alpha how to make a morphing grid, but after some tinkering, they finally got it, but it was still much more unstable than they had wished it would be. If only he could get in touch with Alpha now, but no one knew where he was or if he even existed anymore.
"Kim, you done yet?" Tommy asked, peeking inside the bedroom and seeing that the bed was still empty. Well, if she was still taking a shower, then he was going to catch some shut eye before taking one himself. He then flopped down on the bed and was sound asleep within seconds. It wouldn't have surprised him if Kim had walked in, in a few seconds, but he missed everything that night. His brain had finally won the battle and he was not going to wake up, for quite awhile.
"What else have you found out about the explosion?" Hayley asked, while she busily connected the wires for the first panel out of the four that still needed to be connected.
She had been thinking over these past few weeks and could only hope that what Tommy had told all of them wasn't true. Of course, if it hadn't been true, she would be somewhere else right now and she knew that. She just didn't want to face the reality of it, although she knew she was going to have to, eventually. She was going to be working with the rangers and it was going to take some getting used to, having to live the way that they did, but Billy had been trying to help her adjust to it as much as she could before hand.
"Well, from everything that has been reported, that is the only explanation for what happened out there. Of course, no one has come out of the woodwork to tell a different story," Billy said, going over to work on the grid, but finding himself distracted by the things that had occurred over the last two weeks. Hayley had been calling him with questions about how it would be easiest to form a morphing grid, among other things.
He felt bad about bringing her into a life style that was so full of injuries and pain, which could be caused by the damn monsters that they had to fight or even by other rangers. She didn't know about Tommy, as an evil ranger or Kim and Jason being turned evil by Divatox, it wasn't necessary to tell her that little bit of triva. She didn't deserve to have to live this way, but she was determined to help them, even if she could only do maintenance work and if Billy had it his way, that was all she would ever do. He did not want her out there fighting, it would just be too much on his conscience if something happened to her.
"So, it's what we feared. Tommy really was the only survivor of that explosion. We don't have anyone elses to tell us his story is true," Hayley said, shaking her head in an attempt to keep the thoughts from clouding her focus.
They had all been silently praying that someone else would have survived, so that they could help them. They knew very little about what Mesogogg could do, other than Tommy's description. That description, however, was all they had to go on and it was very sketchy, at best. Tommy was only around the creature for a few minutes and he didn't know enough to give them a good idea of what was to come, so they planned for everything that they could possibly think of.
They were just as alone as they had feared they would be, if not more now, as they had no old friends to help them, although Alpha had been watching, with a great deal of concern beginning to cloud his mind. These rangers were being put through much more than Zordon had expected and he only hoped that they would be able to deal with it. He had been trying to come back to Earth, but had not been able to get back there, yet.
"Yeah, he was and he was really lucky, Hayley," Billy said, as Hayley crawled out of the crawl space to grab a steel panel and the bolts that needed to be attached to it. She glanced up at him for a few seconds, before heading back towards the encasement. He looked to be upset by all of this, which was the first warning that something might go wrong in all of this, from him. "I think that we really do have the right to be afraid, something about this makes me uneasy. We don't know enough this time."
"Well I'm sure that Tommy feels the same way. Is this the first time that you have ever felt this worried?" Hayley asked, now crawling underneath the steel paneling and pushing the plate in front of her.
For Billy to worried, she knew that it had to be serious. He had seen more of these things than she had and he seemed to be truly concerned about it, which surprised her a little bit. He had always been confident when he talked about what he had done with the rangers, but this time, he didn't seem to have to same confidence that he always had. There was something missing, but what was it?
"Yeah, Zordon's not here to tell us what to do and how to do it. We're on our own this time and we've never done anything like this before," Billy said and the two of them decided to concentrate solely on getting the panels finished by morning. That alone, was a big enough task for the whole ranger team, so it was possible that it could overwhelm them, within a few minutes if they were not careful. They would be able to continue their conversation later, but it would have to wait for the time being.
AN: Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! I decided it would be best to split the building of the command center into two chapters, so stay tuned for the next one!