"You know, the climb up here seemed so much easier when we were in high school," Tommy gasped as he tried to lift himself up. Jason leaned over and offered his hand which Tommy gladly took. Tommy was starting to wonder what compelled him to agree to climb the mountain that the Command Center was on.
It was only a couple days ago when Tommy bumped into Jason at Hayley's café. Due to Connor's big mouth, Jason found out about the Dino Thunder Rangers. Seeing his best friend again and watching his protégés leave for college left Tommy feeling in a slump. So, after a night of tequila drinking, Tommy decided to take Jason up on his offer for a visit to Angel Grove. Of course, Tommy waited until the hangover passed. After making the usual stops around Angel Grove, Jason somehow managed to convince Tommy to climb up the mountain where the Command Center once stood.
"Don't worry, bro. We're nearly at the top."
Tommy nodded and began to walk alongside Jason. They spent the next few minutes walking in silence. Tommy noticed that their environment was being to look familiar. He looked over at Jason and saw that he seemed deep in thought. Tommy sensed that something was off with Jason.
"Everything alright, Jase?"
Jason nodded. "Just reminiscing."
The two stopped and looked around. Tommy got chills when he realized that they were standing where the Command Center used to be.
"I can't believe this is where the Command Center used to be."
"Yeah, it's almost as if it never existed."
"I haven't been here since…since I was a Zeo ranger," Tommy said. He kneeled down and placed his hand on the ground.
"I haven't been here since Zordon passed."
"You came back here?" Tommy asked, surprised. "I thought you moved up to San Francisco with Emily."
"I did," Jason said. He took a seat next to Tommy. "But I started feeling homesick and decided to visit. The second I arrived, I just felt it. So I wasn't really surprised when I heard through the ranger grapevine about Zordon." Jason took a deep breath. He was glad that Tommy decided to visit for the weekend. Though they hadn't been in touch for a while, he knew that he could always confide in Tommy. "I decided to come up here to pay my respect. I left feeling empty."
"What do you mean?"
Jason shrugged. "Just that, I felt empty. I went back to San Francisco and stayed with Emily for a bit longer when I realized that I couldn't stay. I had the sudden urge for adrenaline to fill the void. To sum it up quickly, I broke up with Emily and ran every direction that led away from Angel Grove to satisfy my hunger for adrenaline."
"That sounds exciting," Tommy said, suddenly feeling envious. While he was studying his butt off at college and going on digs, Jason was left to run around the world doing who knows what kind of dangerous, adrenaline filled things.
"Yeah, but in the end, Angel Grove called me once again. Coincidentally, it was when you contacted me about the Red Ranger Mission."
"I don't think that was a coincidence," Tommy stated. "Remember what you told Connor? The power is still within."
Jason shrugged. "Either way, after the mission I took off again."
"And now you're back again. If a monster suddenly drops from the sky, I swear, you have ranger ESP or something!"
The two laughed. "No. This time, I think I'm back by my own accord." Jason turned and saw that Tommy was waiting for him to explain. "Plain and simple, I missed home. I kinda got sick traveling all over the place and I realized that it was time to go back and stay put."
Tommy smiled and shook his head. "It's quite the opposite for me."
It was turn for Jason to listen to Tommy vent.
"I'm tired of staying put. The only time I traveled out of state was when I went on digs with Anton Mercer. The only exciting adventurous thing that ever happened to me was being a power ranger!"
Jason chuckled. "Being a power ranger wasn't exciting for you?"
"What I meant was, I've been a power ranger since I was a teen. I need something else in my life!"
"Man, who would've thought we'd end up like this? I'm tired of adventures and wanna settle down and you wanna do something more adventurous than defeating evil. Honestly, I thought you and Kim would've been married by now."
Tommy only smiled. "Settling down is at the bottom of my list right now."
"Where does that leave Kim?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing!" Jason cried. Even now, it was still fun to tease Tommy about Kim. "It's just that you didn't really reject the thought of marrying Kim."
Tommy began to speak, but the words got caught at his throat. His attention wavered from Jason to the open sky. "D-did you see that?"
"What?" Jason asked, immediately standing up.
"The flash in the sky!"
"What flash?" At that moment, the sky flashed again a violently wind picked up of nowhere.
"What the hell is going on?" Jason cried. An ear screeching sound was heard, making the two men drop to the ground. Tommy saw a clunk of metal headed their way.
"Look out!" Not knowing what else to do, Tommy pushed Jason away and quickly jumped to the side. A loud crash was heard and Tommy felt the ground beneath him sink in. He quickly tried to scramble away, unfortunately Jason wasn't so lucky. Tommy heard a loud groan and then silence.
"Jase?" No answer. "Jason?" Tommy got up and ran around the newly made crater. He looked down the hole and saw Jason, pinned down under the metal clunk, which he now realized was a very small space ship.