The problem with trying to save Anton was that Tommy had no idea how he'd pulled off the transformation in the first place. It shouldn't have been scientifically possible. Shapeshifting was something that you either were or weren't born with, and humans weren't born with it. A spell might permit a human to change their shape, but it was magic, not science.

And if Anton had used magic, Tommy didn't know how much or what part it had taken in the experiment.

They needed data. Finally Tommy went on a mission alone, making himself invisible and searching Anton's mansion. It looked utterly abandoned, and Tommy felt no sympathy at all for Anton. (Beneath the hate was pain and regret. Maybe if Tommy had done something sooner…)

He found the journals and stole them.

He didn't tell the kids what he'd been doing. He just drank a lot of coffee the next day and watched as they played and trained with the energy of teenagers everywhere.

Maybe it would work. Maybe.

They found out that Anton and Mesegog had separated after they found Elsa. She told them everything she knew, enough so that Tommy was sure she had been under some sort of spell. It was weird, the magic that Mesegog used. More like proto-magic than anything a real mage would work with.

"We've got to rescue Dad." Trent demanded.

"We need a plan." Conner told him firmly. Trent glared, but backed down. "What do we know?"

"Just that they're separate." Tommy told them. "Mesegog might destabilize without Anton in him. Or Anton might still be able to shapeshift into Mesegog. I'm not even sure how the initial transformation worked, let alone them separating."

"Well, we can always kill Mesegog now that he's on his own." Kira suggested cheerfully.

"I think I know what to do." Trent said suddenly. "I'll go in there and pretend I want to make a deal—trade our Dino Gems for my dad. He brings my dad out, I get him back, we go home."

Silence fell.

"Okay, that's one thought." Tommy agreed. "But how about we try that with a little backup?"

Everything was in position, thanks to Tommy, Trent, and their respective abilities to remain unseen to the human—or reptilian—eye. Tommy fell back to the forest to wait; he would need the cover.

Tommy waited, and waited, and waited—

His morpher beeped. Showtime.

Tommy murmured the spell this time. He needed a slight alteration, one that Rita had taught him so long ago he was worried he'd forgotten it. As he shapeshifted and got bigger, though, it became fairly clear that he hadn't.

Mesegog's island, meet Godzilla.

Tommy grinned as he lumbered over to the compound. He wasn't actually Godzilla, still a dragon—just a big dragon. Very big. Big enough so he could walk up to the laser and step on it. It made a very satisfying crunch.

Tommy started tearing his way through the compound, in a leisurely fashion. The idea was to drive Mesegog through the portal that was set up with a nice, nasty trap. Trent and Anton were already through; Tommy would only have to follow once he got the signal.

"Dr. O, he's here!"

And there it was. Tommy released the spell and jumped into the compound as he did. It was a disaster, but the invisportal was wide open. Tommy morphed and jumped through.

Mesegog had definitely done something to himself. He looked like he'd gotten even weirder than before, and that was saying something. Tommy shifted into his dragon form, squinting when Mesegog created illusions of himself. Then he exhaled a bit of magic to cancel out the illusions.

Then the fight was on.

Tommy had to give Mesegog this much: When faced with four Rangers and a dragon, he actually seemed to be surviving the encounter. He was quick and strong, and the psi blasts he was using couldn't break into anyone's mind, but they doled out damage like a physical blow.

Tommy was idly considering whether he could bite Mesegog's head off or not—although the taste of Mesegog's prior creations was a definite deciding factor there—when Mesegog suddenly grabbed Trent, tore his helmet off, and shot a psi blast at him.

Trent screamed. It was an unholy, keening sound, something that no human should or maybe even could make.

Tommy ripped Mesegog off, pinned him down, and blasted him with fire.

You dare touch my kit? You DARE?

Mesegog screamed, and Tommy threw him into a wall. Trent rejoined the others, his helmet back on, staggering slightly as he joined his kinetic blasts to the others' weapon combination. Tommy turned and wrapped Trent in a wing, and Trent staggered against it, demorphing.

Tommy picked him gently up and lowered him behind some crates where Elsa and Anton and…Cassidy and Devon? What the hell? Tommy decided he didn't care. The others were running up to Trent, shouting his name, and Tommy was already planning the death threats to keep Cassidy from putting this in the school paper—

Mesegog sort of exploded with energy behind them.

Tommy growled.

Something was pricking at the back of his head. Something to do with the Dino Gems, and how they worked, and if they were to send energy to each other and use it to form an attack…

But Conner, bless him, was already doing it.

A huge dragon roared up, a dragon of golden light, and it swallowed Mesegog whole before exploding.

And then it was over, and Mesegog was gone.