In the Face of Defeat
Chapter 5
Things We Must Do
Tommy pounded the console in frustration before calling down to the medical ward to speak with his wife and Kat. Kim was none too pleased, but understood the urgency of the situation, and Kat started preparing her surgical bay. Next Tommy called for Anton and Hayley to come up to the main control room to see how quickly they could get the invisaportal system operational.
"It can't be done", Hayley said.
Tommy looked at her with a completely straight face, "It has to be."
"No, you don't understand", Anton said, "The system is unbalanced. They only way to make sure they even have a chance to make it through it to send two other people, therefore putting all four at risk."
"Can you stabilize it enough for one trip?" Tommy asked, "That's all I ask Anton, one trip."
"I suppose, but it could damage the system further", Anton replied.
"We still need two people to send", Hayley interjected.
At that moment Conner and Kira walked in for their shift in the control room. Kira jumped slightly as the three people in the room looked over at them.
"How would like and all expense paid trip to the Animarium?" Tommy asked.
"With or without the kids?" Kira asked.
"Without them unfortunately", Tommy said.
"Then, no", Kira said, "I'm not leaving my kids for any longer than I have to."
"But you go on the supply missions", Conner said trying to make her see his point.
Kira sighed in annoyance, "That's different, I'm a ranger and it's my job to do what is needed to keep people safe."
"Then this is in your job description", Tommy said, "There is a ranger at the Animariun that has been critically wounded, and in order to get him safely here we need two people to go there so the invisaportal will stay stable."
"Did you say invisaportals?" Kira asked.
Tommy nodded silently preparing himself for what she would say next.
"Are you crazy", she said, "Every time I go through one of those damned things some big lizard is waiting on the other end." Realizing she snapped she looked over at Anton, "I'm sorry", she said.
"I'm fine", he replied in a dignified manner, "Besides it wasn't my idea to pick on you."
"Look Kira", Hayley said, "I understand, but this really is a life or death situation."
Kira nodded, "Who will take the kids?"
"I will", Hayley said.
"Alright, I'm in", Kira said, "When do we leave."
"As soon as we finish these modifications", Anton said.
Half an hour later, Elsa walked up behind Conner and Kira as they were saying their goodbyes to Shannon and Matt and said, "Anton has finished the modifications, and we need to hurry, Wes is running out of time."
Kira sighed, and said "Ok, let's get this over with."
As they walked into the command center, Tommy was just finishing his conversation with Jen. When he noticed Conner and Kira he said, "OK, We're ready, but don't enter the portal until I say it's safe."
Conner grabbed Kira by the arm as she tried to scoot backwards and dragged her over to the portal. They reluctantly took a deep breath before nodding to Tommy. As they were entering the portal, they could just make out Tommy saying "Ok, Jen, go now!"
Before they knew it, both Conner and Kira were on their backs, looking up at the trees above them. Conner was admiring the sky when he suddenly heard Kira's Pterascream. Alarmed, he jumped to his feet expecting to be surrounded by grinders, only to see Kira pointing at very scared, defenseless looking iguana that was clinging to a rock for dear life.
The next thing either of them knew, they were laughing hysterically when Tommy's voice came through the communicator. "Did everyone make it ok?"
Kira replied "OK? OK! I came through the portal, and what happened? Once again I was face to face with a freaking lizard!"
Conner hit the talk button on his communicator "You should have seen it Dr. O, it was hysterical, there was an iguana sitting on a rock near where we landed and Kira freaked out."
"Ow", he said as she sharply punched him in the arm.
"I can't believe I married such a jerk", she said as she got up off the ground, "You just remember this next time you feel the need to find 'tyrannodrones'."
Tommy laughed, and replied, "Well I'm glad everyone made it in one piece. We are working on getting the portals fully functional, in the mean time, enjoy your stay at the Animarium, and I will keep you updated."
"So what do we do now?" Kira asked as she looked around the forest.
"You did say that you wanted to get away from it all for a little while", Conner replied still rubbing his sore arm.
"Yes," Kira replied "but that was six months ago when I was trapped in the command center and pregnant… and besides, I meant I wanted to go to a hotel or somewhere that I could be pampered, not go camping in an overgrown forest."
"And here I thought you weren't girly", Conner replied with a mischievous smile, "Ouch, not the other one."
"Learn to keep your mouth shut Jock", she said clearly satisfied with herself.
"Am I interrupting something?" Eric said as he stepped out from behind a bush trying to hide a smile.
"Just her beating my ass", Conner said now trying to rub both arms.
"I know the feeling", he said as he bent down and picked up the iguana, "I married a yellow too, and let me tell you that your friends will never let you live it down when your wife sends her zord out to find you because you're late for dinner."
Conner and Kira both started to chuckle as Eric turned around and looked at them, "What? It only happened once."
"That's all it would take", Conner replied with a smile of his own.
"Uh huh", Eric said as he pet the iguana, "Well let's head back, I'm sure you'd like to relax some."
Tommy entered the medical ward and saw Jen sitting on a chair nervously. "Hey", he said as he walked up to her.
Jen jumped to her feet and extended her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you Dr. Oliver."
Tommy took her hand and shook it as well, "Call me Tommy", he said, "And it's nice to formally meet you too."
Tommy motioned for Jen to sit down and took the chair next to her. A moment later Kim came out of her room holding Jason and followed by the twins.
"I'd like you all to meet Jennifer Scotts", Tommy said to his family, "She's the Time Force pink." Tommy them motioned to his family, "This is my wife Kim, our twins David and Crystal, and this here is little Jason."
"Are you really from the future?" Crystal asked and Jen just nodded.
David walked over to his father and asked, "Is Mr. Collins ok?"
"I don't know yet", Tommy said sadly. Kim grimaced as Tommy said that. Eric and Wes were both ushers at their wedding and she hated seeing Tommy look so worried.
"Hey", Kim said, "You need to stop worrying so much, unless of course you want even more gray in your hair."
Tommy ran a hand through his hair that was now almost shoulder length as he gave his wife of eleven years a slight smile, "I'm not going gray", he said to here.
"You're a power ranger, a father, and the leader of this community of over five hundred people, top it off with the fact that you're creeping up on forty and I think any man would go gray", Kim said as she sat down.
There was a loud bang as the sword that Kat had extracted from Wes fell to the floor. Everyone jumped at the sound and Jen gasped at Kim's now empty arms. Kim looked down and sighed, "Tommy, him too."
Jen looked at Kim confused, "What do you mean him too?"
"Let's just say that it's a family trait that they get from their father", Kim said as she tried to calm the newborn down and make him reappear. "You should have seen Kira and Conner's kids, not only can they scream the walls down literally, but they learned to crawl at mach speed."
Jen chuckled a little bit, "I never knew I came from such an interesting family", she promptly covered her mouth when she realized what she just said.
"Excuse me", Tommy said bewildered.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that", Jen said as she tried to get up only to be stopped by Kim.
"I think I would like to hear more", she said.
Jen sat back down and sighed, "I really shouldn't."
"I think it's a little late now", Tommy said as he crossed his arms.
"Alright fine", Jen said, "It is well known in my family that we can trace our roots directly back to Doctor Thomas Oliver and Kimberly Ann Hart, two of the greatest rangers to ever live."
"So we're like your grandparents?" Kim asked.
"Separated by nearly a millennia, but yes", Jen responded.
"And which of our kids leads down to you?" Tommy asked.
"I can't tell you, it might disrupt the future and endanger my own existence", Jen replied.
"Well", Kim said, "In that case, welcome to the family."
"This could be very interesting", Tommy said, "We've determined that the Dino powers are genetic, I wonder if your exposure to the active Dino Gems will cause some of our abilities to manifest in you, after all, there is no telling whether or not your line has crossed with that of any of the other Dino Rangers as well."
"Abilities?" Jen asked, "What do you mean abilities?"
"Well, as you've no doubt noticed my kids and I all have the ability to become invisible. As Kim mentioned, earlier, Kira has her Pterascream, and Conner has super speed. Ethan has super strength, and impenetrable skin, and Trent has camouflage as his ability, as well as a limited version of super speed. This could be interesting depending on whether or not your family tree has crossed with that of the other Dino Rangers at any point." Tommy said.
Kat walked out of the surgical bay wearing bloody gloves as well as a bloody apron. She took them off and placed them in their proper receptacles before walking up to the others.
"I've done everything I can", she said, "There was a lot of damage to his organs and he's lost a lot of blood."
"Will he be ok?" Jen asked.
"It's up to him now, I'm keeping him in a coma for the time being, but I'm afraid the outlook isn't good."
At that point, Jason walked into the room. He noticed Kat first as she shot him a look and said "Relax Honey, Elsa is guarding the kids." Before turning to Tommy and saying "Tommy, Anton asked me to tell you that the invisaportals should be stable enough to transport one person by themselves within the next hour. Also, as a thought, the Zeo crystals may be able to help Wes now that Kat has done the hard work. They did rebuild the command center, and return all of you to your correct age."
Tommy looked at Kat, who thoughtfully replied "But we're missing three pieces of it, and we have no way to get them because they are off planet."
"Good point," Tommy said, "I will have to check the logs from the time and compare them to some of my data, but we may be able to use the Dino Gems to help offset the missing pieces of the Zeo crystal, although I'm not sure what exactly the side effects of doing so, if any, might be."
At this point, Jen, who had been watching the back and forth between the two, decided to interject "ENOUGH! Wes is dying, if you can use the crystals to save him, just do it already. I don't care if he glows in the dark for crying out loud. Use whatever crystals you need to, hell use the trizarian crystal from Eric's Zord, as long as it doesn't blow us all up, I don't care!" She paused as she saw everyone staring at her, "Sorry, I've had a long day, and I've come too far to let him die, so just do whatever you need to do to save him already."
"We can't", Tommy said, "At least not till we can get Conner and Kira back."
"How does Jenny feel about babysitting?" Tommy asked Jason and Kat.
"She's always looking for something to do", Jason said, "and if Crystal is helping, well you know that those two are joined at the hip."
Crystal popped up as Tommy looked at his eleven year old daughter, "Alright Squirt, I need you to go and get Jenny, go to the Crantson's to watch Cestria, Shannon, and Matt. Also tell Hayley that we need her in operations. David, you're coming with us, we have a lot of work to do."
"I'll keep him as stable as I can", Kat replied.
"I'm staying with the baby, but if I can help let me know, and she's staying with me", Kim said as she motioned to Jen.
Several hours later the invisaportal system was running smoothly thanks to all the extra manpower that went into building it. After a few minutes they brought the system online, and Kira and Conner back to the Command Center.
"That had to be the shortest vacation I've ever been on", Kira said as she picked herself up off the hard floor.
"We were gone for less than a day", Conner said as he did the same.
"That's the life of a ranger", Tommy said, "Remind me to tell you about our class trip to Australia sometime."
"No offense Dr. O, but I'm not in the mood for a story from the olden days right now," Kira said.
"I still think it's funny that none of the Dino rangers call you by your name like everyone else does", David said.
"It's because I used to be their teacher", Tommy said, "But right now isn't the best time to discuss thing like what people call me Sport."
Tommy walked over to a vault and entered a combination. Once the vault opened he grabbed his Dino morpher and slapped it to his wrist. "It's been a while since I've worked this", he said.
"Welcome back to our team", Conner said with a slight smirk.
Tommy rolled his eyes as he led the Dino Rangers down to the medical ward. Once they got there Ethan and Trent were already there waiting.
"Alright guys", Tommy said as he lifted his morpher, "Ready."
"DINO THUNDER, POWER UP, WHITE RANGER DINO POWER!", they all said at once, and in a flash of light the five Dino Rangers stood in the middle of the room.
A/N: Chapter five had rolled out. We're only looking at a few more before starting the second arc. Please read and review.