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, Dennis Alderway, Amanda Williams, Charlie Hughes, Ashley Meggs, Amy Tillery, Meagan Sipper-Stone 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 I'm glad that you're enjoying all of it.
jedi4jesu19: Glad that you have enjoyed it!
Now, on with the Story!
Another Boring Monday Tommy's POVIt has been two weeks since I received the black, dino ranger, powers and during these last few weeks, some odd things have happened to all of us, but they have not all been bad things, thank goodness. Mesogogg has finally decided to send some monsters of his own to attack the rangers, but they have not phasedour rangers, yet. Kim, however, has been taking some beatings with all of this and I don't really know what to do to try and stop that from happening. She will not be content to sit in the command center and watch the battles, so she's out there with us, for the time being.
Space Ranger HeadquartersOver the past month, Alpha had been gathering everything that he needed to make his, unscheduled, return to the Earth and the Power Rangers that he had first worked with. Tommy had done a good job with finding and training these new rangers, but as Alpha had watched the battles escalate in severity; he saw one thing that worried him, more than anything else did.
Tommy was allowing Kim to fight with them, which he knew, was inevitable as they were back together, but after Tommy was captured, he knew what had to be done. He had to get back to help them, because they did not have the capabilities to find someone quickly and time was definitely of the essence in a situation like that. Lucky for them, Tommy had been able to escape on his own, but next time they might not be that lucky. As the younger rangers did not have the experience that Tommy and Kim did in getting away from these creatures, even though they might now be able to make a clean escape if they were captured by Mesogogg, but Alpha doubted that and he was fairly sure that Tommy felt the same way.
"Andros," Alpha said, teetering into the module that Andros had lived in for many years now. He had only made one 'move' in the space station and that was when his last room had been destroyed by some monster they were fighting, as usual. He had packed his 'bags', which were a couple of metal trunks and had them rolling behind him on a trolley. Andros was not going to be happy with this, but he knew he had to go help them, no matter what anyone else said. They were not going be able to survive some battles without his or someone else's help. He knew that much and he knew that this is what Zordon would have wanted him to do, although he was not there to tell him that any longer.
"Alpha, why do you like you're planning to leave us?" Andros asked, as he walked over to the robot and could tell that he was not going to like what was said, when the robot started talking. Alpha looked at the ground for a few seconds before he had an idea of how it would be best to respond to Andros. He knew he had put his conversation with Alpha 5 about him leaving them to go back to the Earth rangers, in the far corners of his mind, but now he remembered it well. He was only hoping that Alpha was not planning to leave for Earth immediately, as not all of the rangers were there to tell him good bye, which was something they would want to do.
"I am leaving you, Andros. The Earth rangers need more help down there than you do, they've been lucky so far," Alpha said, as Cassie walked in behind him. She knew Andros did not want to let him go, but she had seen what was going on down there with her own eyes. Although Tommy had been able to find good rangers and a good support team, he still needed a little bit of guidance, which was something Alpha could give to them. Andros was scared that Tommy would not need Alpha, but the little robot seemed very sure that he would and knowing Tommy, he was not likely to turn Alpha away.
"Alpha, Tommy would have contacted us if something was going on that he couldn't handle down there," Andros said, although he had, had no contact with the person who gave him his first powers since the red rangers went on their mission, four years ago. Cassie could only look on with a little bit of laughter in her eyes, knowing how long it had been since Andros and Tommy had talked, at great length, about anything. She knew more about Tommy's life than he did, although she was not going to point that out to him right now. If she did, Andros was likely to have a yelling match with Alpha and they did not need to depart on bad terms, knowing that they might never see him again, as this work was going to consume his life.
"No, he wouldn't get in touch with us, Andros. He doesn't even know that I have been keeping tabs on them lately. He was captured for two days a few weeks ago, Andros. He didn't call us after he escaped, did he Andro?" Alpha asked, as Andros looked over at Cassie to see if what Alpha said was true. She could only nod her head, as Andros sighed. He knew that he didn't have a choice now. Not that he had ever really had a choice in Alpha's mind. He had to let Alpha go back to Earth and help them. Tommy meant too much to all the rangers than to let him continue to risk his life like this. Although they had all done it, he definitely seemed to find himself in those situations the most often out of the group and no knew why he was singled out that way, even the evil people didn't really understand it.
"Alpha, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, there are bound to be other people that can help them just as much as you can," Andros said, going through the steel doors of his room and back out, heading towards the main module of the ship. Alpha teetered along behind him, rolling his baggage behind him as they walked towards the transport bay, knowing that Andros had given in to his request.
"I wouldn't have asked it I didn't think that they would need the help down there," Alpha said, as Andros punched in Tommy's scanner code, but he did not show up, like he had in the past when he used that code, particular code. Why wouldn't Tommy show up at all? There would be no reason for him to not show up. This code had worked ever since they defeated Nicarni-Aso, two years ago.
"Where's Tommy?" Andros asked, as Alpha scooted him out of the way and punched in a new code and then Tommy's image was displayed on the screen. He sure had changed since the last time he had seen him, but at least he looked happy. The last time he had seen Tommy, he still had his long hair and earring, but those things were gone now and had been replaced by shockingly short hair. The only way that he could tell it was Tommy was because he was teaching a martial arts class at the moment and it did help that Rocky was standing only a few feet away, talking with Kim or at least that was who he thought it was. The last he had heard the two of them were still on the ropes, but it didn't seem to be that way anymore. "Why has his code changed, Alpha? It only does that if he gets new powers."
"He does have new powers, Andros. So you see he can not lead in battle and in the command center as well. There is a girl named Hayley, she has been helping him and Kimberly, but I'm sure that they can use all the extra help that they can get," Alpha said, as Andros realized what that meant. They had to be in over their heads, for Tommy to be willing to come out of retirement, for what seemed like the tenth or eleventh time. No one could be sure how many times it was now or even if some of those times had been considered retirement for him. If he was given the powers and actually fighting, Mesogogg must be testing them more thanTommy thought he could to all of them.
"Where do you want me to teleport you to?" Andros asked, as he focused the beam on Alpha. He hated to let him go, but there was not much they could do about it. It was time he returned to the rangers he had started this mission with, so many years before they even came into the ranger picture at all.
"Their command center, it's where I belong," Alpha said, as he handed Andros the coordinates and then prepared himself to be teleported. He did not like the experience of teleportation at all, but it was the easiest way for him to get there without Tommy and Kim knowing. "I'll miss you all."
"Good-bye, Alpha," Andros said, as he pressed the buttons in, slowly and methodically, wishing that Alpha would change his mind. Cassie waved towards him, as she let a few tears slip out, as Andros punched in the last key and looked over at her. He had become family to all of them and to see him go back to the family he had in the beginning. It hurt them a lot, but it was something he had to do, even if they didn't want him to.
"Good-bye, rangers. Let the power protect you," Alpha said, using the line that Zordon had used so many times on the rangers departure from his presence. It was one of the few things that could be carried to all rangers and it would not be misunderstood anywhere he went.
An Old Communicator AlertThat afternoon, at Hayley's Cyberspace, the teenage rangers had gathered to have a little down time in between battles and study for some of their upcoming tests, including Dr. Oliver's. They never knew when an attack would come and Dr. Oliver told them to enjoy the peace while they could, as it would be few and far between some weeks.
They had a new friend and fellow ranger, Trent Fernadez, but along with him came some new problems for them, at first. He got a hold of the white dino gem and went evil, for awhile there. Thank goodness, they had been able to get to him, in time to stop him from killing Hayley and Kim, in the command center a week ago. The two of them were pretty banged up from that confrontation, but after some talking to, they agreed to let Trent on the team, especially since Kim knew what it was like for the evil ranger to turn into one of the best, although Tommy would never admit it to them. Yeah, it had been rough since Dr. O got his powers, but it all seemed like it was going to be alright. Even the planning of their wedding was going smoothly, which was definitely a change for them.
Kim walked into the dojo, to see Tommy sparring with one of his students, and sat down on one of the benches, after talking with Rocky for a little while. She propped herself up against the plaster wall and smiled as she watched Tommy do the one thing he loved in this world, karate. She didn't think it best to disturb him, as she knew how much concentration it took him to spar with his upper level students. It had been a long time since she had done this and she knew him well enough to know what a distraction she would be on the mats or anywhere within his range of peripheral vision.
She took a glance at his wrist, out of old habit, and noticed that he was not wearing his communicator, which was odd for him to say the least. He never took the thing off, not even to shower, or sleep, but she guessed that when he taught, he felt as if he didn't want the chance at being distracted, as it could get him injured. That afternoon, for some reason, she knew he would need it, sooner or later, and went into the locker room to take it out of his bag.
When she returned to the gym floor, an old, familiar toll sounded through the communicator's speaker, one that caused her to stop dead in her tracks and stare at the shiny, silver bracelet she held in her hands. There was no way she could be hearing that, her mind was just playing tricks on her. She knew that she wanted to be back in the game, but there was no way she wanted it bad enough to go back to being a teenager.
"Alpha," Kim muttered, looking at the communicator and then quickening her pace as the toll sounded again, knowing Tommy had to hear it to believe it. Who else would use that toll or even know about it existing? Unless they knew, that Tommy was one of the original rangers and Hayley never knew that there were other tolls used on the past communicators. But why would Alpha want to get in touch with Tommy, now after all of these years that he had not contacted them? "Tommy, you have a call."
"Can it wait?" Tommy asked, as he paused in his sparring with Charlie and looked over at Kim, slightly worried that she had even intruded on this session, as she usually didn't talk at all while he was sparring. Kim was cradling his communicator in her hand and there was something about it that unnerved him. Why would she have his communicator, unless someone, from the ranger world, was trying to get in touch with him, but who could it be?
"No, you need to take this call, Tommy," Kim said, as Tommy quickly followed her into his office and shut the door behind him. He looked over at the telephone and saw it remained, securely, in its cradle. Then, he heard that familiar toll sound, bringing a flood of memories back and he looked down at his communicator, which Kim was now holding out towards him. There was absolutely no way, Hayley would use that tone. No one knew about it, except the first rangers, Zordon, and Alpha.
"Is this my call?" Tommy asked, as he gingerly took the communicator from her and held it to his lips. She watched as he pressed the buttons and called out to the person across the line, not knowing what to expect. "Come in, Hayley."
"Tommy, I'm so glad I got it touch with you," Alpha's voice said over the communicator. Kim clutched Tommy's hand, as she heard the robot's voice come over the speaker, nearly falling over upon it registering who was on the other side of the line. Why was Alpha contacting Tommy? Was there something else going on that they needed to know about? "I need to meet with you, soon."
There was no way there could be another evil threatening the Earth right now. They could handle Mesogogg, but if another one had showed up, the old rangers were coming out of retirement, no questions asked. This was something Tommy knew that they did not want to do right now, after they had finally settled into a nice little pattern of normalcy, although that could very quickly be changed, for any of them.
"Alpha, where are you?" Tommy asked, as he pulled his hand out of Kim's grasp and put his arm around her, pulling her as close to his side as he could and he felt her arms slip around his waist. He could tell that she was just as surprised as he was about all of this. They had all thought that Alpha had gone back to Eltar after Zordon died, put obviously he did not and now he needed to talk to them, which made them worry.
"In the command center, Tommy. Just meet me here once you are done teaching your karate class," Alpha said, as Kim and Tommy glanced at each other. How could he have gotten into the command center without Hayley or one of the other rangers letting him in? If Alpha were able to get in so easily, what was to say that Mesogogg wouldn't be able to get in as easily as well? They had taken many precautions, but it seemed like there were still some things that need to be updated on the new command center, but hopefully Alpha could do that.
"Yes, Alpha," Tommy said, releasing the communicator and placing one hand on his forehead and squeezing his temples. This sure was stressful and he was not sure he would be able to finish the class after the 'phone call' he had just had, with an old friend.
He had never thought he would hear from Alpha again and now that he had, he was not feeling all that well. He looked down at Kim to see that she had gone pale as well and he knew what he was going to have to do. They had to get home, immediately, as neither would be able to function until they knew what had brought their old friend back to Earth, so unexpectedly.
"Tommy," Kim muttered, asshe let him go and looked at his face. He felt the same way thatshe did about this, but there was not much they could doabout it. Alpha either wanted to help or he had some horriblenews for them.
"Kim, I'm letting my class go early today. We have to get to the command center now," Tommy said, as he went to reach for the door knob that led back to the mats of the dojo.
"That's fine, Tommy," Kim said, as she went out the back exit of his office, to gather his duffel bag and other belongings from the locker room. They could not teleport out, as the teleportation grid's installation had not been finished, yet. They had to drive the distance between the dojo and their house. But the question still loomed in her mind, why was Alpha here?
"Alpha, it's so good to see you," Kim said, walking into the command center, with Tommy only a few steps behind her. The robot teetered over to her and gave her a small hug, before heading over to Tommy, who looked at him with a question obviously playing on his mind. He did not blame Tommy for having several questions to ask of him, but hopefully he could answer most of them without too much trouble.
"It's good to see you too, but I know that you want to know what brought me here," Alpha said, as Tommy shook his head in agreement with him. Alpha then sighed and went over to one of his trunks and opened the lid. He then pulled out the information he had on Mesogogg and found a place to load it. Tommy was not going to like seeing this when it came up, but he had to know all of the facts about Mesogogg, if he was ever going to be able to defeat him. "Does he look familiar to you?"
"Anton Mercer," Tommy said, looking at the screen, as Kim looked up at Tommy, wondering why seeing Anton Mercer would get this type of reaction from him. Anton Mercer had showed up with Trent, but he seemed to be nice enough to Tommy, although they both agreed it was suspicious that he hid himself until now. There were all of those months when they had assumed Tommy was the only one who survived the explosion on that damned island, as they had now named it, but when they went to talk to Mercer about Mesogogg, all they received was the silent treatment. Yeah, it was more than a little bit suspicious for the ranger blood running through their veins, but he had never done anything to make them ask him if he was Mesogogg. "What does you being here have to do with him? He's just showed back up after the explosion."
"Yes, Tommy, but hasn't Mesogogg been around since Mercer disappeared and came back?" Alpha asked, as he punched in a few more keys and a fact sheet came up comparing Mesogogg and Mercer. Tommy began reading it and saw that there was a link there that could not be avoided, but could Anton Mercer really be Mesogogg? And if he was, was Trent willing to stay and fight against his father, once he found out? "Tommy, I want to help you. I know that you have Hayley, but there is going to come a time when she can not be here and you'll need the help. She can still do what she is doing, I just want to be able to help gather information for all of you."
"Alpha, how did you even know Mesogogg had attacked us?" Kim asked, as Alpha turned around and headed back over to his suitcases, again. He knew that they were going to ask about that, so it would probably be best that they heard it from Zordon himself. Then they would truly know the whole reason behind his sudden return to them.
"This is probably going to be hard for you to watch," Alpha said, as he placed the video in a player and pressed the play button. Zordon's image soon appeared on the screen, with what was his last will and testament. As soon as Kim saw Zordon, she felt Tommy put his arms around her and him settle his chin on top of her head. She felt dizzy, but he was able to keep her from fainting, as she grabbed one of his hands and held onto it with all her might. None of the rangers had ever seen it, as Alpha was sent to the Space Station soon after it was made and this was the first chance he had, had to show it to any of them.
"Hello, everyone. This is one of the last times that I will have an opportunity to do this and I think there are some things that all of you need to know. To the rangers, I want you to continue in the line of duty, as long as the people of Earth need your protection. Rangers will always be needed in this world and it has been a privilege to be around so many of you, during my short stay here. Now there are some things I want to say to the rangers that I have chosen to protect this world, as I hope it will help you down the line.
"Tommy, you will find her again, trust me on that one. It may take a long time, but you will, have some faith and trust in me on this one. Jason, be strong for the rest of them and the leader that I know you are. You will have to make some tough decisions, but they will listen to you, when they won't even talk to some of the others. Kimberly, we all make mistakes in this life, I only hope that you will be able to correct your mistake before it is too late. Rocky, you have proved yourself worthy of this task, do not doubt your abilities. Adam, I know where your strength lies, do not let her get away from you, like you have seen so many of your friends do. Aisha, watch out for your friends, they are going to need it over the next few years. Billy, they will need all of information that you can provide and expertise only you can give. I only hope you will be there to give it to them. Zack, keep them smiling, times will be rough on all of you. Trini, you will find everything you need, although it may be later than you like. Katherine and Tanya, although I did not know you as long as the rest, I know that you will always be there to back them up, when they need the extra encouragement. Alpha, there is one thing I ask of you, watch out for the rangers once I am gone. They will need leadership some day and you will need to come back and help them. Good-bye rangers and let the power protect you," Zordon finished, and the video flickered out, until the white noise took over. Kim and Tommy, where both crying, while wishing he was back there with them now. He would have been there to help them with all of the problems they had, had and he would have been a wealth of knowledge that they so desperately needed right now.
"You see, he asked me to watch after you and I have been doing that. I watched you, Kimberly, destroy Nicarni-Aso. I watched Tommy nearly be killed on that 'damned' island, as you like to call it, and I watched Mesogogg send out his first attacks on you and the new group of rangers that the two of you have put together. If you do not want me to be here, I'll leave, but all I want to do is offer you my assistance," Alpha said, as Kim and Tommy, looked at each other and then at Alpha. They were not going to turn him away. They knew how much they needed his help, but they didn't know how receptive the rest of the team would be to this new face.
"Alpha, we want you to stay, but the others have to meet you and they have to be part of the decision," Tommy said, as he went to contact the new rangers and felt Kim still clinging to his hand, as he pulled her along. Neither of them could believe that Zordon would leave a message like that for all of them and it still hit them hard, although it was a long time removed from the actual event of his death. "And Alpha, the rest of the old rangers need to see that, too. It's been a long time, maybe they'll be able to handle it."
"I know, Tommy. They will, one day," Alpha said, while busily unloading his luggage and storing things away in the command center. All of the information he had gathered had been put into their main data collection module, which would surely help them as things went on. He was glad to be back with all of them, but he was wondering how the younger rangers would take to him.
Hayley's Cyberspace"Dr. O, what's going on?" Conner asked, as the other rangers gathered around him. They could not see anything going on outside, but they knew there were many miles of Reefside that were out of their sight range.
"I need you to meet me at the command center, there is someone here that you need to meet," Tommy said, as Conner and the other rangers exchanged a glance before, going to tell Hayley where they were heading off to. They did not want her toworry about an attack, since it just seemed like Dr. O had something on his mind. "Before you leave, tell Hayley I need her to come too."
"Okay, Dr. O," Conner said, as Trent headed over to talk to Hayley and she soon turned the place over to one of her other employees.
"Let's go, whatever Tommy has up his sleeve must be important," Hayley said, as she gathered her purse and keys. Tommy had better have a good excuse to get her to leave the cyberspace in the care of Alicia Spigett for any prolonged amount of time.
"So you don't know what it is, either?" Conner asked, as Ethan hit him in the back of the head.
"Conner, if she knew, I don't think Dr. O would be asking her to come with us, would he?" Ethan asked, as Trent and Kira could only smile at their actions. Hayley couldn't help but be reminded about Zack and Jason, as the two of them acted like this when the other said or did something moronic.
"Well, I just wanted to make sure," Conner said turning around to face Ethan.
"Heaven forbid we stop you from doing that," Trent said, as Conner glared over at him. It took them a little bit longer to get to Dr. O's than normal, but when they arrived everything seemed to be normal, at least from the outside.
"Dr. O, what did you call us here for?" Ethan asked, as he saw nothing that seemed out of the ordinary, yet.
"To let you meet someone that is important to me and will hopefully be helping us out here for awhile," Tommy said, as Alpha walked out from one of the storage closets and continued about his business, not noticing the teenagers that were staring at him.
"Who are you?" Conner asked, as Alpha just shook his head. There was always one ranger who did not think before they asked questions, obviously Conner was the one for this group of rangers. Tommy had told him that they should recognize him from the video diary, but there was a possibility that some of them wouldn't and he had thought that Conner would be the one.
"Alpha 5. I helped Zordon when he first created the Power Rangers and I'm hoping that you will let me help you as well," Alpha said, as Hayley looked over at the robot and thought about how Billy described him. She sure needed the extra help in finding information on Mesogogg and his gang and according to Billy, Alpha was one of the best people for the job. There was no way to find any information, until they were fighting the monsters and by then, it was too late. Alpha had capabilities that she didn't and she knew how much she needed the help. "Are you Hayley?"
"Yes and I think we could definitely use some help around here," Hayley said, with a smile and she watched as Kim and Tommy, silently celebrated her allowing him on the team. They had been afraid that Hayley wouldn't take to Alpha, but she seemed to be fine with him being here, thank goodness.
"Thank you, now I see that this teleportation grid needs to be finished," Alpha said, as Tommy smiled and watched him go to work on the grid. Alpha would have it up in a matter of hours and it was going to take them weeks to finish it, with Jason and Billy having to come in from Angel Grove to help every weekend until it was done.
AN: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! I know that it is on the short side (for this story), but it needed to be in here and I hope that for those of you that were waiting for Alpha to return will like it! Happy reading, until next time!