"Now you see what I mean?" Jason asked a while later.
He and Tommy had just finished checking into their hotel room. The kids still had some time before they closed up for the night, so Jason and Tommy were planning to relax until it was time to meet the group for dinner. Tommy was currently stretched out on his bed, staring up at the ceiling while Jason paced around the room.
"I don't know," Tommy said. "I haven't made up my mind about him."
Jason scoffed.
"He insulted you, too, bro," he said.
Tommy shrugged.
"We've all said or done stupid things at the worst possible moment," he said. "I'm not going to hold that against him. I'll give him a fair chance."
"You're supposed to be on my side," Jason grumbled, sitting down on his bed.
Carefully shifting into a sitting position, Tommy winced and put an arm around his ribs.
"Sorry, Jase," Tommy said, shaking his head. "As an unofficial big brother for the girls, I want nothing more than to stand over Nick and scare him senseless so he'll stay away. But as a ranger, I have to be impartial. Nick is either going to earn my respect or he won't—but I have to base it on his actions, not first impressions. If I could do that, I would have let you kill Cole on that mission a few years back."
Jason rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come on," he said. "That kid was asking for it. And I was not the only one annoyed by him."
"I know," Tommy said. "Believe me, I know. I'm fairly certain the only reason TJ didn't drag Cole to the simu-deck and use him as a practice dummy was because Andros threatened to disable it. And that was only after I gave him a death glare."
Jason chuckled.
"You know," he said. "I still don't understand why Wes and Eric like him so much."
"Oh, they don't," Tommy said, shaking his head. "They just tolerate him better than the rest of us. Remember dinner the one night when Cole flipped out?"
Frowning, Jason nodded.
"Well, there was a reason," Tommy grinned. "Wes stuck something gross in his dinner, so he went to take a drink. But Eric had put hot sauce in his drink."
Jason burst out laughing.
"Wish I had thought of that," he laughed. "The look on the kid's face was priceless. It's still beyond me how his team tolerates him."
Tommy shrugged.
"He's like an annoying little brother," he said. "He's your brother, and you care about him, but you really just don't want him tagging along all of the time."
"All of the time?" Jason said, raising an eyebrow.
"Ok, most of the time," Tommy conceded. "The point is, he grows on you eventually—during the moments when you don't want to hurt him. And we both need to give Nick the same chance. There's a reason neither of us brought morphers—we're only here to observe."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jason grumbled. "I know. Reserve final judgment until we've had the chance to observe. Got it."
Chuckling, Tommy leaned back against the headboard.
"So," he said. "How interested are you in that training session? Because I've got a couple of ideas that might just take the young rangers by surprise."
Jason started laughing as Tommy grinned.
"So, how long do you think we'll get to spend with the kids before they ditch us?" Tommy said, glancing over at Jason.
They were walking through the park on their way to meet Madison, Vida, and the boys for the afternoon. The group had begged off hanging out that morning, so Tommy and Jason had guessed they'd had some kind of training scheduled. They'd taken the flimsy excuses without question, knowing it wasn't always easy explaining sudden absences.
"Who knows?" Jason shrugged. "I barely saw them the last time I was here…"
"And that's why we didn't have a lot of other friends in high school," Tommy grinned. "It's hard to spend time with anyone when you're constantly on call—with no way to judge when the next attack is going to come…"
"Yeah," Jason sighed, nodding. "I'm just hoping not to repeat the vampire incident."
"You and me both," Tommy said, shaking his head.
Hearing screaming start a short distance away, Tommy and Jason both snapped their heads around to try and figure out where it was coming from.
"There goes our afternoon plans," Tommy said as they both took off in the direction of the screams.
They found people running in panic from some strange looking creatures and a couple of monsters. Tommy and Jason immediately started shouting for people to run, jumping into the fray to help them escape.
"What a fine day it is to harvest your life-force!" one of the monsters cackled. "You'll do just fine! Take it, Spydex!"
"Laser lift!" they heard someone shout. "Get those people to safety!"
Tommy and Jason glanced around to see the rangers charging in. But they didn't stop getting people away from the creatures. A short distance away, the rangers started helping people escape.
"Come with me!" Xander called, helping a few people stumble away.
Just a few yards away, Madison was flipping over a Hidiac.
"Run!" she shouted, looking around.
She didn't see Tommy and Jason in the middle of everything, too focused on the people in her immediate vicinity.
"Go!" Nick ordered, snapping at a few more civilians.
The rangers fought off the Hidiacs, trying to give the civilians as much of a chance to get away as possible. Then Chip caught sight of some of the Hidiacs surrounding a father and daughter.
"Stop!" he shouted, running to help.
He cried out when he was struck by a blast from Gnatu, the monster stealing the people's life-force. It caused him to stumble backward. Before he could catch himself and charge again, several Hidiacs grabbed him and held him back.
"Let me go!" he cried, struggling to get away. "No!"
Gnatu stepped forward to take the father and daughter's life force, but she was stopped by a sudden interruption as Tommy and Jason intervened. Tommy grabbed the little girl, shouting for the father to follow as Jason took on the Hidiacs. He turned and ran, holding the little girl as he bolted away from the creatures. Chip watched in surprise as Jason actually forced the undead minions back a few paces, his kicks and punches hitting hard.
"Get off!" Chip yelled, still trying to pull away from the Hidiacs.
The Hidiacs recovered faster than Jason was ready for and one of them hit him hard. Jason went flying backward. He landed hard several yards away with the Hidiacs chasing after him. Chip finally broke free, throwing off the Hidiacs and running to help. But the father, who'd been trying to run after Tommy, was closer. They caught him and, before Chip could do anything, Gnatu stole the man's life force. Chip shouted in rage, attacking the Hidiacs and Gnatu to keep them away from Jason. Madison and Vida's big brother was still on the ground, pushing himself up.
"Come on!" Chip shouted, attacking Gnatu.
She caught him, pinning Chip in place.
"You're too late," Gnatu cackled as he tried to break free.
"What did you do to him?" Chip demanded.
"I just relieved them of their life-force," she answered. "I have a better use for it. Don't worry. They don't feel a thing."
"Fiend!" Chip cried, pulling loose and attacking again.
But Gnatu blasted him, sending Chip flying. The other rangers were still busy getting people away and fighting the remaining Hidiacs.
"I'm not done yet!" Chip growled, charging again.
But Gnatu just sent him flying again.
"And you call yourselves protectors of the city?" Gnatu laughed. "What a joke!"
Before Chip could pull himself to his feet, she was gone with her monster.
"Hey Chip!" Nick exclaimed, rushing over to help him up.
The Hidiacs were gone and all of the rangers hurried to Chip's side.
"Are you ok?" Vida asked as Chip slowly got to his feet.
"Yeah," he muttered, shaking his head. "But these people aren't. I couldn't save them…"
"You tried your best," Daggeron said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"But it wasn't good enough!" Chip snapped.
"Hey, rangers," Tommy snapped, drawing all of their attention. "Sorry to bother you, but we've got a problem."
He was helping Jason to his feet, the little girl still clinging in terror to his waist. The rangers froze, looking at the two men in shock.
"Are you both alright?" Daggeron asked, taking a step forward.
"I'm fine," Tommy said shortly. "But I think he twisted something—he can't put weight on his ankle."
Jason was leaning on Tommy, grimacing as he tested his left foot again. Putting weight on it, he nearly fell. Vida started to jump forward to help him, but Madison put a hand on her arm to stop her.
"We can't," she whispered quietly.
Vida sighed, but stayed where she was.
"Daddy!" the little girl cried, seeing her dad lying on the ground.
Tommy put out a hand to stop her from running over, leaving Jason to carefully balance himself. Crouching down, Tommy pulled the little girl close.
"It's going to be alright," he said softly, hugging her. "The power rangers will fix this and get your dad back—I promise."
The rangers froze, exchanging glances. But Tommy ignored them, speaking softly with the girl a little longer. Finally he stood up, picking her up again and hiding a wince from her as he jarred his ribs. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face against him.
"We appreciate what you're doing," Tommy said, looking at the rangers again. "But the police are going to be here soon to deal with these people. So, unless you plan on talking to them…"
He trailed off, looking at them expectantly.
"Let's go," Daggeron said.
Nodding, the other rangers turned and followed, disappearing. And not a moment too soon. Emergency responders began arriving on scene. After reassuring the little girl again, Tommy let one of the responders take her to check her over and turned his attention to Jason.
"Come on, Rex," Tommy said, putting an arm around Jason to help him walk. "Let's get that ankle checked out."
Jason limped along beside him toward one of the ambulances that was pulling up.
"I can't believe you made that promise in front of the rangers, bro," he chuckled. "I could almost see their eyes popping out of their heads behind those visors when you promised the kid they'd fix it."
"Oh, this is getting fixed," Tommy said grimly. "If they can't, my team will. I'm not letting this go."
"Don't worry," Jason said, shaking his head. "Neither am I."
He grimaced as he put too much weight on his ankle again and nearly fell. Tommy sighed.
"Well, we'll give the kids a chance first," he said. "For the moment, let's make sure you didn't break anything."