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, Richard Myles, and Todd Billingsway as well as any other characters from "Saving the World, Again" that may be brought into this story.
XRachX: Thanks for the review and you'll see what happens with Alpha later.
TrueRomantic: Okay, I'm going to break the news to you now that it will be towards the end of the story. Sorry about the wait, but I hope it will be worth it.
Daniaryezel: Thank you for the review and I'm glad that you have enjoyed the break in between these two chapters, since it does happen to be a little too much to digest at one time.
Now, on with the Story!
Hayley's POVWe worked all night to get those last panels on line, but we finally finished it about five minutes ago. I am so tired that I barely have the strength to pull myself out of the crawl space and head up the stairs to fix some breakfast, for all of us. I really don't know what I would have done if Billy hadn't been here last night. Kim and Tommy would have either fallen asleep or they would have caused an explosion in the basement if they had worked much longer last night.
So, you can see why I needed him here so much and I was really glad that he came at about two o'clock this morning. Otherwise, I might have caused an explosion, but I don't think there is any need to mention that to Kim or Tommy, not for a couple of years. I misconnected some wires and the alarms started going off, but lucky for me, Billy pulled me out and dove under there, to quickly fix the problem, before we had a catastrophy. If we tell them, then they might object to us making them get some rest last night and the last thing we need is the two of them mad at us this morning, when there is so much work left to be done.
"If I ever have to go through another night like that, so help me I will…" Hayley said cutting herself off, as she no longer had any idea of how she planned to complete the half true threat.
She was exhausted, filthy, irritated, and worn out, but happy that they had finally finished the last panel, as it left only one more project to do, before the command center would be complete. If Tommy and Kim had been able to get sufficient rest, then they would be able to start working on the morphing grid today and hopefully complete it by this evening. Although, Tommy and Billy thought, it would take much longer than that.
"You'll what?" Billy asked with a smile and then gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead, not minding the dirt.
Hayley, out of the kindness of her heart, had consented to be the technical support staff for the new rangers, as Tommy and Kim had no expertise in this area and he would be miles away in Angel Grove. Whether she liked it or not, she would most likely be doing this for a long time to come. It just came with the job description and he hated to break that sort of news to her.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it won't be pretty. I can promise you that much," Hayley said, playfully pushing Billy away, as he was covered in the same materials as she. He, however, didn't seem to care about how either of them looked or smelled as it had been a few weeks since he had visited Reefside and he had missed her more than she could imagine. She had made him a better person, although he had never told her that. It didn't seem appropriate, especially with the type of work they were doing now, even though he knew it was one of the highest compliments he could give her. He just wasn't sure if he was ready to put all of himself back out there, yet.
"Do you think we should wake them up?" Billy asked, as they emerged from the basement, into the semi-dark kitchen.
The house still seemed to be dead, although it was eight o'clock and the sunshine was billowing in through the sheer curtains in the living room. There was not a single appliance running and no sound was to be heard, besides the air conditioner that was running full force. It seemed that not a soul in the upper part of the house was awake, which meant that they had been able to catch up on their rest. Now if they could only pry them out of bed, to get them back downstairs to work some more.
"Not without fixing breakfast. They are both going to be starved," Hayley said, knowing that if they didn't Kim and Tommy probably wouldn't eat, and they needed to. They had too much to do today, without having to make a trip to the hospital because of one of them fainting from malnutrition.
"Go get a shower and I'll work on breakfast," Billy said, knowing that Hayley felt positively disgusting and would prefer to take a shower and change before continuing their work.
He didn't really care about how he looked or smelled because this was not the first time that he had been in such a condition, although it had been several years since he had been like this. On the last mission he had been on, it was a wonder that the other rangers didn't force him to take a shower, but his mind had been preoccupied by other things and they were not willing to make him mad, not then at least.
"Thank you," Hayley said and headed towards the downstairs bathroom. She was so happy that he understood she needed this for her sanity, just as much as anyone else's that day. A good shower always refreshed her in a way that no amount of sleep could and she was thankful for that at times like these. After about thirty minutes she emerged, a new woman, hoping that the morphing grid would not be as hard as Tommy and Billy anticipated it to be. According to them, they would be lucky to get it finished by Monday, but Hayley was hoping that they were wrong on this one. Of course, they hadn't been wrong on it before now, but there is a first time for everything, isn't there? "They awake yet?"
"No," Billy said, pulling a pan-full of eggos out of the oven and placing them on the table. His culinary skills were limited to anything that could be simply put in the oven with a timer, and left alone. After that he had no clue what to do. Thank goodness, that it seemed like Tommy's cooking skills weren't all that great either. Otherwise, Hayley would have walked back into a kitchen with no food prepared. He had to admit he was surprised Kim hadn't stocked the shelves better, but then he remembered that they probably hadn't been eating at home over these last two weeks, if they ate anything at all. "Do you want to get them up?"
"No, you can. You've known them longer than I have," Hayley said with a smile, as Billy pulled off an oven mitt and playfully threw it on the table. She knew that she couldn't deal with either of them if they woke up grumpy. Billy, on the other hand, could manage to deal with them, somehow. She could only guess that it was because this was how they all showed up to school many days, although she imagined that he had his bad days as well, after all he was only human.
"Alright," Billy said, heading towards the other flight of stairs and after climbing them, towards the master bedroom. He was a little bit apprehensive to barge in and wake them up, but they were really going to need their help today. Last night they had been able to manage by themselves, but the morphing grid was a great deal more complicated and it was far too heavy for Hayley and he to carry and position correctly. When he walked into the room, he saw Tommy had fallen asleep on the edge of his bed with his feet still touching the floor. He looked to be in the same clothing he had been wearing the day before and seemed to have not gotten a shower last night either. Kim, however, was no where in sight, but he couldn't imagine the two of them having a fight last night. They didn't have the energy to spare for something like that, at least from what he had witnessed the night before, but he could always have imagined that they were not as fatigued as them had seemed. "Tommy, wake up. It's time to go back to work."
"What time is it?" Tommy muttered, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head back and forth, trying to overcome the reality of having to wake up. He finally sat up and looked around to see that he had not taken a shower and that Kim had not come in there to sleep last night. The only thing that he thought could have happened was that she fell asleep in the bathtub, unless she had woken up before him and he highly doubted that. She would have woken him up if that had happened and it didn't look like that had, as Billy was coming to wake them up. It was certainly going to be funny when he saw her, after spending a night in the bathtub.
"It's about eight o'clock," Billy said, as Tommy walked over to his closet and grabbed the oldest pair of jeans and a T-shirt that he could find. The clothes he was wearing positively reeked, to the point that he could not even stand the smell of them anymore, which meant he had no choice but to change clothes. Although, that would mean another pair of clothes that needed to be washed later on this weekend. As he looked at the floor, he realized that was going to be the next job tackled, once the command center was finished. Kim was not going to be happy when she noticed the loads laundry littering the floor, although he had not thought about laundry until he saw the floor. "Do you know where Kim is?"
"My guess is she fell asleep in the bathtub," Tommy said, as Billy's eyes widened and he gulped. He had not thought when he agreed to wake them up that he would have to get Kim out of a bathtub. It also helped prove the point that the two of them had been on their last mile and would have crashed soon, if they had not been forced to go to sleep. How was he going to get himself out of this mess? Tommy didn't look like he was going to offer to wake her up, but he was going to try to get him to, somehow.
"Tommy," Billy said, as Tommy laughed at his reaction. He then went over to the bathroom door and knocked several times. He planned to stay there until she answered, even if she was mad when she woke up. He, however, was not going to barge in on her or he knew he would suffer the consequences, even if he was her fiancé.
"Crap, it's cold," Kim said, as she jerked out of her peaceful slumber. Surely, she had not slept there all night, but one look at the window told her that she indeed had. This was not good, she hadn't realized that she had worn herself out this much over the past two weeks, but it was now obvious that she had. Now, if she could only pull herself out of this tub and stretch out her back, as it was aching from the position she had slept in. As she began to stretch, she caught a sudden cramp and to keep from swearing asked the other question that was on her mind. "Tommy, why didn't you wake me up?"
"Because I went to sleep as soon as I hit the bed. Come on, we've got a busy day ahead of us," Tommy said, as heard the water splash, which signaled she was finally hauling herself out of the tub. To think that they were both so exhausted that neither had awoken from the awkward positions they had slept in, this was very odd, even for the two of them.
"I never want to do that again," Kim said, walking out of the bathroom, covered by a long, beach towel. This happened to be the only towel she could find and it reached past her mid calf, but that was still too much skin for Billy.
Billy took that as his cue to leave. He did not want to see anymore, although he did vaguely remember when they had switched bodies, but that was one memory as a ranger that he had tried to push from his mind. He still had not succeeded in doing that, though, no matter how hard he tried. Right now, he was having a vivid image flash through his mind and he excused himself from the room without another word. He did not want to relive that memory, if he could help it.
"Same here," Tommy said, going into the bathroom to take a quick shower and to shave. He hoped that it would wake him up some, as he still needed it a little bit. He was never truly awake until he had taken a shower and they both knew that. That was why he usually took the first shower in the morning instead of Kim, as he was prone to be late as is and she could usually guarantee he would get out of the house on time if he knew she was waiting for him to finish his shower. "You sore?"
"Sore doesn't cover it Tommy, and I think that I will have permanent water wrinkles after staying in there so long," Kim said, scrounging around for some clean clothes, but coming up empty handed. It was now showing how much the most mundane chores had been neglected since Tommy's unexpected arrival and the announcement of Mesogogg's presence. Everything had been dropped and it would continue to be that way until the command center was up and ready, which would hopefully be by Sunday night.
If not, Billy would have to take off work more now than he needed to, as Kim and Tommy had to be in attendance for in-service, there was no choice in that matter. If they did not attend, they would risk losing their jobs, and neither could afford that now, not with the extra expense the wedding was going to be on them. They decided they wanted to pay for most of it by themselves, although their parent's were going to help with some things.
"No, you won't, but I think this bathtub will have a permanent dirt line," Tommy said, laughing as he leaned over to inspect the bathtub, which certainly had a ring of dirt about three inches from the bottom of the tub. He could only imagine how much dirt he had on himself and he had not been in the crawl space. He could not wait to scrub himself clean, although he would be going back into the same circumstances in only a few minutes, but it would help some.
"Tommy," Kim said, warningly as she slipped into the cleanest dirty clothes she could find. She felt disgusting, but knew that washing the clothes would most likely have to wait until tomorrow or even the next day.
Coming back to California had been a mixed blessing, getting away from Richard was wonderful, but something still made her feel very apprehensive, like he could always come back. She pushed that thought from her mind and looked around the room, it was a complete and total disaster area. Well, the least she could do was try to pile the clothes up and carry them downstairs. That would be a start in getting their life back to as normal as possible.
"I'm just joking, jeez. I didn't know that this was what being sleep deprived would do to you," Tommy said, hopping into the shower and standing there for a few moments before grabbing a bar of soap and a wash rag. He was glad that his hair was shorter, as it would have taken forever if it were longer to wash and dry it, although he had to admit he missed Kim playing with it. There were lots of things he missed from the old days, but there were many new things that he enjoyed about what he had now, namely having her back in his life.
"Tommy, don't you go there mister," Kim said, rounding up the dirty clothes and walking downstairs. She seemed to have a little time to spare and could hopefully get a load started before they had to start working. She knew today was going to be a stressful day, to say the least. Billy and Hayley had been awake all night, so their nerves would certainly be frazzled this morning, while Kim and Tommy were in pretty good moods, considering everything that was going on in their life right now.
"Alright Kim," Tommy said, hoping that she was still in the room. He was really wondering if he was ready for all of this.
They had all decided that he would be the mentor, with Kim and Rocky doing most of the side work. Sure Jason or Zack would have done a great job, but they needed someone who could live in Reefside and that wasn't possible for either of them right now. They hadn't been able to construct a teleporting grid, but Billy and Jason were both working on it. That job, was a far second from just getting everything up and running, which had to be completed soon, very soon. They were running out of the precious amount of time that they had been given by Mesogogg.
"Kim, did you really?" Hayley asked, seeing the back of Kim heading towards the laundry room. The pile of clothes was almost as tall as she was which made it look like the clothes had legs, not that Kim was carrying them. Billy had come down and mentioned Kim sleeping in the bathtub, but she couldn't believe that. Kim could not have been that tired as to sleep in water for the whole night and not notice it at all.
"Yes, Hayley. Tommy was too tired to wake me up, so I stayed there all night," Kim said, walking into the kitchen and Hayley caught the first glimpse of what Kim was wearing that morning. She had seemed to manage to find the cleanest clothes in their house, but her hair had not been attended to and was merely pulled back into a very messy ponytail. She had never seen Kim like this before and was surprised, as her hair was lumpy and the clothing had more stains on it from grease than Hayley had imagined it would ever have had in her lifetime.
Kim then saw that Hayley had made breakfast. So much for skipping that meal like she had planned to do that morning. Hayley must have figured out that they wouldn't eat unless they made them and she was correct in that assumption. Tommy and she would have preferred to starve until the entire project was completed, but Billy and Hayley seemed determined to keep that from happening.
"Did you at least get some rest?" Hayley asked, pulling out the butter and syrup and placing them on the kitchen table. She had also pulled out a half-full milk carton and some orange juice, as she was not sure what to fix Kim or Tommy, as their coffee supply had run out this morning at about four o'clock, which was not a good thing for any of them.
"Yes, if I hadn't Billy would have witnessed a murder," Kim said, as Billy walked into the kitchen. He had been picking up the extra laundry that Kim had dropped, which was no surprise because of the stack she had been carrying.
"Well, I witnessed enough, thank you," Billy said, as Hayley gave him an odd look, but Kim's cheek flushed a pale pink. She hadn't realized that she had made Billy uncomfortable, but she should have known he had always been rather uncomfortable about that, ever since they switched bodies he had been like that if he ever knew she did not have on any under garments and this was only the second occasion he had ever seen her in a towel. He hated what it did to his mind and wished it would go away, but it still had not done that.
"Sorry Billy, I forgot it would bother you," Kim said, as Billy smiled, as acceptance of the apology. Kim would always be one to apologize for something like that, even if she had done nothing wrong, except forget about what had happened a long time ago. He only wished that he could do the same.
"It's alright," Billy said, sitting down and he then pushed a plate towards Kim. She had yet to fix herself anything to eat and if she did not start eating soon, he knew that she wouldn't. He had known her far longer than Hayley and she was surprised at him pressing her on this issue. "Eat."
"No, we better wait for Tommy or he won't eat himself," Hayley said, as Tommy walked into the kitchen and sat down in the seat next to Kim, then leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek. He still could have used several more hours of sleep, but what he had gotten would be enough for the time being or so he hoped.
"I didn't know we had so many clothes," Tommy said, pointing into the laundry room. He had thought that there were no clothes left in the house, after Kim lectured him about having to shop for new clothing. As most of his acceptable clothes had been destroyed, not that he liked to remember any of that. Now he just had to find time to go to some place and pick up some khakis, as he already had enough shirts or so he hoped.
"Tommy, if I had known that this was going to happen, all of our clothes would have been clean before we started working on this," Kim said, looking from the laundry room, over to Tommy. He knew how to get her riled up and calm her down within a matter of seconds and he was succeeding at doing that this morning. Although that didn't seem to be his intention today, he was just lacking as much sleep as she was at the time.
"So today's not laundry day?" Billy asked, as Kim and Tommy shook their heads no. They had never set a quote 'laundry day', but from now on they certainly would, as to keep this from happening again or so they hoped.
"No, usually I do laundry every day. That is about two weeks worth or even more. I don't wear as much clothing during the summer," Kim said, noticing that some more shirts were lying in the kitchen floor and sighing, as she did not want to get out of her seat. Billy noticed them too and went over to pick them up, as Kim looked rather reluctant to have to stand up again. "Thanks Billy."
"What are friends for?" Billy asked with a smile. Now might be a good time to tell her what she would be doing for the day, although he doubted that she would like her assignment. "And besides, you'll be the one crawling around under the panels today. I think Hayley developed claustrophobia last night."
"Fine, I'm glad that I never liked these clothes," Kim said, looking down at the jeans and T-shirt. At least these were old clothes; otherwise, she would not have been happy. She had tried to keep her newer clothes from being ruined, but she still had managed to ruin a pair or two, which did make her mad.
"Do we have to eat breakfast?" Tommy asked, as he picked around the eggos and finally took a bite. He appreciated them cooking breakfast, really he did. But they didn't have any more time to waste if you asked him. They had already wasted time by letting them sleep in as late as they did.
"Tommy, just eat. We're going to need the energy later and you know that," Kim said, as she had already cleaned her plate and was waiting for Tommy to finish his food. He seemed to be the only one at the table, who was not willing to eat the meal at all, which was odd for Tommy. He would usually eat, unlike her, when she was stressed about something of this magnitude.
"Okay," Tommy said, as he quickly shoved the food into his mouth, as he saw that he was not going to win this battle with her this morning. He was just anxious to get down there and finish the work, but he could not explain that to her. They then headed downstairs, to begin the tedious work of installing the morphing grid.
"What do we need to do?" Kim asked, as Hayley and Billy were standing over the grid, trying to figure out how best to install the grid into its spot. The third and fourth panels had been left empty and the grid would be installed in these two panels. They had already done some preliminary tests and it seemed that it had been assembled correctly, so far, now they had the toughest thing to do, which was actually doing the installation.
"Kim, we need you to crawl in between the third and fourth panels and help guide us on positioning this monster," Billy said, as Kim looked at him for a few seconds and then turned to go into the crawl space without a complaint being uttered. She was not going to like being stuck under there all day, again, but Hayley obviously did not want to go anywhere close to it, not that she could blame her. She wouldn't have done it, if it hadn't been for Tommy's gentle prodding and reassuring smile."You'll also have to do the additional wiring."
"Okay," Kim said, as she disappeared under the panels, into the little world she had gotten used to over the last few days. At least she could think while she was under there, if nothing else.
"Tommy, we need you to enter the dino gem codes into the morphing grid. I didn't understand the order that they needed to be put in. Your instructions weren't exactly clear," Hayley said, as Tommy took the list from her and began punching in the numbers for each dino gem. He just hoped that he got it right the first time. Otherwise, Billy and Hayley might kill him for the additional work they would be doing, to undo his accidental mistake.
"Billy, would you mind passing me a wrench. I'm gonna make sure that everything is tight under here before we put that grid in," Kim said, looking up through the hole and saw a wrench heading her way, along with a look from Billy that guaranteed he wished he would have thought of that. "Thanks."
It took them several hours to get the initiation sequence done on the morphing grid, but once it was, they were ready for the installation. They could only pray that nothing went wrong, because if it did now, they would have to start from scratch and they didn't really have time for that now.
"Okay, Kim, tell us when we are exactly over the hole," Billy said, as Tommy and he carried the morphing grid over to its slot. The monster had to weigh at least one hundred pounds and both of them were glad that they were not having to lift it alone, otherwise it probably would have been dropped.
"You're good," Kim said, after telling them a few vague directions as to which way to move the grid. They then settled the grid into its slot, now her real job would begin.
"Kim, can you do the wiring by yourself?" Billy asked, knowing that it was a lot of work to do, in a very limited amount of time. This grid had to be hooked up within the next few hours, if they were going to get it activated this weekend.
"I can try," Kim said, as she began connecting the wires to their counterparts in the back of the grid. She knew that she had all the time she needed, but the sooner she got it done, the sooner they could finish everything else. They still needed to clean up the mess they had made, in order to make it presentable when they tried to convince some teenagers to become rangers. It took her about thirty minutes to finish the task and crawl out from under the encasement, now they just had to see if it would all come on line. If it didn't, she would be heading back under the encasements, to do some additional work.
"Who wants to do the honors?" Hayley asked, looking at the three former rangers. She did not want to be the one to flip the switch; it should definitely be one of them. They had been there from the beginning and they deserved to start this new team up, on their own, without her doing anything as the morphing grid came to life.
"Billy, it should be you," Kim said and before he could object Tommy had seconded the motion. Kim and Tommy felt that they were doing enough and maybe this would repay Billy for all of the work he had done and would continue to do for the new group of rangers.
"Alright," Billy said and he went over and punched in the start up code. The panels came to life and they waited, holding their breath to see if the morphing grid would power up, within fifteen second it did and they all let out sighs of relief. The job was finally done and now they had a command center for the new rangers to call their own.
"We did it," Kim said, looking up at Tommy, happy tears forming in her eyes. They had both had their doubts, but now it was finally coming true. "We actually did it."
"Yeah, we did," Tommy said, giving her a hug, as the two of them laughed, with the happiness filling his heart. Billy and Hayley were just as happy, but they were already heading towards the final task, to clean this place up.
Space Station"Andros, I need to go help the rangers," Alpha 5 said to the red ranger, trying to convince him. He had been helping up there for the past few years and had been closely monitoring the Earth rangers and their problems. They had done a splendid job, so far, but there would soon come a time when they would need his back up and he needed to be there for them.
"Alpha, I don't understand. They aren't in any danger," Andros said, looking down at the robot and wondering what exactly Alpha knew that he didn't know. The rangers would have contacted him if something went wrong, wouldn't they?
"Yes they are and Zordon would want me to help them, please let me go," Alpha said, as he looked around their command center. It was well equipped and Alpha 6 was there real maintenance person, not him. Tommy and the other rangers would soon be dealing with a trouble they had no clue about. He needed to be there to help them, no matter what Andros said.
"Alpha, we will have to wait and see. If they are in danger, I will let you go," Andros said, wondering if he should contact Tommy to see what was going on down there. He hadn't been keeping up with the occurrences that had been going on with the Earth rangers, although he had heard some vague details about their last mission from Alpha. It seemed that they had defeated one of the greatest evils known to ever roam the universe, but now there was another one out there. Could these rangers ever catch a break?
"It may be too late by then, but as you wish Andros," Alpha said, walking over to the database, and beginning to pull all the information he had gathered on Mesogogg. He was sure that Mesogogg would not stay in the shadows much longer and that he would be heading back to Earth soon, if the Space Rangers weren't attack as well.
Mesogogg's Lair"Master, they have finished their work," Richard Myles said, having teleported into Mesogogg's lair. He had met him a few years before and had immediately become interested in his job. It was only a perk that he was now spying on Ms. Kimberly Hart and whoever that man was. He had been doing this for years, but now his information was going towards the greater good or what he thought was the greater good.
His mission had started two weeks before, on the night that Tommy Oliver unexpectedly came back home, to the woman he loved. He was supposed to have been killed in the explosion, but he had somehow survived and he was now causing problems. He had the dino gems and had been busily working on building, something, over the last few weeks. He had not been able to enter the house, to see for himself.
If Kimberly so much as saw him, she would possibly try to kill him herself, which would only make him use the powers that Mesogogg had given him. This Oliver fellow did not seem like he would be hard to dispense of, but his master seemed to think differently. This was the man that she had refused to leave for him? It almost made him laugh, at how foolish she was being. Pretty soon, she would be begging him for forgiveness and he would be able to have her or so he thought.
"Good, now you must make sure that the girl is taken care of," Mesogogg hissed and then sent Richard back into action, to see what type of havoc he could create.
AN: This is the end of this chapter. I hope that you have enjoyed it. Feel free to review!