Less than two hours before dusk that day, Rocky DeSantos and Adam Park stood side by side at the front of the training room, observing their thirty two red belts performing their katas in unison.

Rocky's hair was slightly longer than it had been when he first moved to Angel Grove and he had a nice thick light brown goatee that framed his jaw and mouth well. Adam had cut his hair back to what it was during high school which suited him very well.

The fifteen foot tall room was designed to be more of a ninja training area than a traditional martial arts training room. Ropes hung from the ceiling near the wall opposite for Rocky and Adam. To their left, all of their belt ranks (a bare bolt for those without rank, white, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, brown, and black,) hung on the wall above a locked glass cabinet display of a collection of ninja and samurai weapons.

Originally, Rocky was going to open his own Martial Art's studio right after high school. However after he graduated, he discovered that he wanted to teach the martial arts the way they were taught centuries ago—with tradition and honor. Yet in order for him to do so, he was going to need help.

When Adam heard about this, he dropped his job as a stuntman to assist Rocky. Though being a stuntman was a thrill, Adam wanted to be doing something he could do for the rest of his life and also something that was more fulfilling to him. He asked Rocky if he could help and his old friend agreed merrily.

The two of them enrolled into the same college and double majored in business and history. They graduated from college and their studio has been open for the last four years. From the start, their business had been a booming success. More people became members each year. Plus, their staff was fantastic.

Both of them taught Martial Arts and how to use weapons with various teaching styles. While most instructors taught only the moves and techniques, Adam and Rocky's lessons incorporated physical fitness and the pushing of one's endurance. Due to countless weeks of research, they had constructed lessons that were similar—if not exact—to exercises that were done centuries ago. As a result, their lessons were tough and scared away some potential students. Yet those who stayed as students benefited in more ways than one. Indeed some students asked if they could work as instructors. Rocky and Adam had accepted them gladly.

"Feet together, hands at your sides," Adam commanded once their students had finished. "Excellent work today, all of you. We look forward to seeing how all of you do on Saturday's Advancement Testing."

"Please remember that classes are cancelled tomorrow and Monday," Rocky said. "Good luck to all of you on Saturday." Rocky and Adam bowed at their students, signaling the end of the two hour class. They lingered in the lobby as the students and staff departed.

"Rocky, can you toss me a water bottle?" Adam asked as he got a small black duffle bag from out of the office. Rocky did so and Adam took a few sips.

"It still surprises me how many people we have for lessons," Rocky said as he went to the door and put the closed sign up. "We aren't exactly easy."

"They come because they want to." Adam said after taking a sip of water. "When did Tommy say he and the others were dropping by?"

Tommy had called them earlier that morning, saying that he would be stopping by later in the evening with the rest of the gang.

"I think he said 7:30," replied Rocky, checking the lobby clock. "That's less than five minutes from now. I can't wait to see all of them again. It's been so long since we did anything together."

"That's for sure," Adam said. "And it's great that Trini's coming. She's been worrying herself sick since Jason disappeared."

"Yeah," answered Rocky. "Still, I wonder why we had to bring our old morphers. It's not like they can do anything."

He was referring to the morphers that had been cracked and charred when the Command Center had exploded. The former mighty morphin rangers regarded them as mementos.

"Who knows," Adam said, gazing at his charred and scratched morpher. As he stared at it, he remembered the last time he had used it. A little more than two years after the power coins were destroyed, he had used his morpher to become the original black Mighty Morphin Power Ranger to save the life of his ranger successor—Carlos the black Space Ranger—from one of Astronema's monsters. Adam had almost paid the price with his life by morphing at that time for he had been warned that morphing without a power coin could destroy him. In taking the risk, he had inspired confidence back into Carlos.

However, when Adam had learned that Jason had morphed when red rangers from ten different ranger teams teamed up to fight remnants of the Machine Empire on the moon, Adam was surprised to hear that Jason's morph was stable. Even now, it made no sense to Adam but he did not want to think about that now.

They didn't wait long. Through the wall long window in the lobby, Rocky and Adam saw a three vehicle caravan, pull into the parking lot. Tommy's black Jeep was in the lead, followed by Kimberly's 2005 olive green Taurus sedan, and Zack's metallic blue 2003 Ford Contour. To Rocky and Adam's surprise, they saw Billy riding in the passenger seat of Tommy's jeep! At the sight of him, they rushed out to meet him as everyone else parked.

"Have you heard anything from Jason?" Zack asked Trini, walking beside her and Kimberly.

"No," Trini said, gazing at her silver wedding ring. For some reason, the diamond refused to sparkle even though the sun shined brightly upon it. "It's been a week now and Jason still hasn't called me. It's not like him to do this."

Zack rubbed her back with his hand. "You filed the missing-persons report," he said. "Now we just have to wait."

"I'm tired of waiting, Zack," Trini said, a bite of anger in her voice. "I know something's wrong."

Zack knelt his head forward to her ear and whispered, "We'll know something soon."

Meanwhile, Rocky had Billy in a tight embrace. "It's about time you came back for a vacation!" Rocky exclaimed after releasing him. "We thought you left us!" he added as a joke.

"Well, it would've been hard to leave considering I am a dad now," Billy replied, flashing an enthusiastic smile.

"What?" Rocky asked, hardly able to talk out of sheer excitement. "You and Cestria?"

"Billy, that's fantastic!" Adam chimed in, giving Billy a warm hug.

"When … how did you get here?" Zack asked, joining the party.

"I teleported to Earth earlier this morning," Billy responded, filled with ecstasy at seeing his old friends. He briefly glanced at the red and black logo on the front door of the thirty foot tall building. The words, "Park and DeSantos Academy," enclosed the silhouette of a samurai raising a katana in a circle. It reminded Billy of Sean. Taking a few casual glances around, Billy checked to see if Sean had just teleported in. To his dismay, Sean was nowhere in sight. Calmly, Billy masked his worry with the joy of seeing his high school friends again. "Your place looks awesome," he added.

"Thanks," Adam chuckled.

At that moment, Trini and Kimberly walked up to Billy. "Hey, stranger," Kimberly said. "Next time you move to another planet, don't leave without saying good-bye."

"I'm sorry about that," Billy said, still smiling.

Kimberly made a mock stern face. "I accept your apology."

"It's good to see you again, Billy," Trini said, trying to sound happy but her preoccupation with Jason made this impossible.

Billy saw her suffering and knew that he could not waste any more time delaying. Catching up with his friends' lives would have to wait.

"So why didn't you come by earlier today?" Adam asked, still smiling.

Billy turned to Adam, seriousness asserting within him. "Because I needed to see all of you at the same time," he said. He glanced back at Trini. "I came back to tell you guys why Jason has been gone for a week. But let's go inside first. It's not for others to hear."


As Rocky and Adam were leading the others to their lobby, Sean crouched in a low guard stance with a green katana in his hands, waiting for Goldar and Scorpina to attack. Had this been any other time, Sean would have been fine with crossing blades with the golden dual but he was late in getting to Rocky and Adam's Academy. All of the invited rangers should have arrived by now. Yes, he thought as he stretched his senses over to the Academy while maintaining eye contact with Goldar and Scorpina. They are right on schedule.

Suddenly Goldar and Scorpina charged with swords raised high. Deciding to humor them, Sean allowed them to attack but caught their swords with his own.

"Do you two mind doing this another time?" Sean asked, holding them back easily.

"Why?" Scorpina snickered.

"Are we keeping you from something?" Goldar asked mockingly.

"As a matter of fact, you are," Sean said. With a circular strike, he sent Goldar and Scorpina's swords out of their hands and slashed their chests, causing them to fall backwards. That was too easy, he thought.

Suddenly a message screamed in his mind. The others were in trouble. Yet before he moved, multiple bolts of bluish lightning struck the area that surrounded Rocky and Adam's Academy. Judging from the time of day and the position of the lightning, Sean knew that it had come from the moon.

Sean stretched his senses toward the Academy. After all of his hard work of protecting the former rangers for all of their lives, they could not be dead.

He forced himself to remain calm. If the former rangers were dead, he would have sensed it. Nevertheless there was something wrong with them. Yet something was shielding his senses. It was imperative that he get there.

As Goldar and Scorpina began to advance on Sean, he leaped high over their heads, kicked them both to the ground. He was about to teleport way when he was hit in the back of his shield with an energy blast. Since his shield's reflecting ability wasn't activated, Sean was hit by the full force of the blast but it wasn't strong enough to cause him any damage. He turned around to see who had blasted him.

"You aren't going anywhere," Scorpina told him with her armor covered arm extended as she got to her feet.

"That's what you think," Sean said. And before Scorpina stood, Sean teleported to the back of Rocky and Adam's studio as a green streak.

Scorpina turned toward her brother. "It's started," she said happily.

"We better get back," Goldar said. "I don't want to miss this."

"Nor do I," said Scorpina with relish. They disappeared in flashes of yellow and orange flame.