It had been one of those days. A day when everything that was supposed to happen, actually happened. A day when everything got done, leaving one with a perfect sense of accomplishment. Tommy ran down the list in his head: morning training with the team, upgrades to the lab's computers, maintenance on the Zords, lesson plans finished and ready to hand in. As he prepared to sit down to enjoy some pizza and a beer he thought he should've been feeling better, more satisfied. Instead, he was feeling a growing sense of unease.

Things were far too quiet. There'd been not even a whisper of activity from Mesogog in over two days. His team had been cooperative and attentive in the morning. Haley had been helpful and focused in the lab. Tommy couldn't put his finger on it, but it smelled like trouble.

The phone ringing jarred Tommy out of his thoughts. That feeling of premonition became exponentially stronger as he moved to grab the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Dr. O. It's Kira."

She sounded okay, but Tommy was suspicious. Why was she calling when she knew she'd see him later that night? And was that Conner and Ethan he heard whispering in the background? Something was definitely up.

"Hi, Kira. What's going on?"

Kira paused. "Well, we just wanted to let you know we invited some people to come hang with us tonight at the café." There was a whispered conference going on and Tommy heard Kira mutter "hold on, I'm getting to it". The insistent whispering continued and Tommy sat silently waiting for a decision to be reached. An impatient Kira finally said, "Excuse me, Dr. O…" then in exasperation exclaimed, "Do YOU want to tell him?" The whispering ceased and Kira came back on the line.

"Sorry about that. Um…" Tommy could hear Kira take a deep breath, and then she said all in a rush, "We met a group of rangers at the beach we knew who they were because of the tape and they recognized us too and since they know who we are we though we could get together and talk at the Cyber Café because we've never met any other rangers besides you and you don't really count because you're on our team and we were hoping you wouldn't mind because we don't have to keep secrets from other rangers do we?"

Tommy sat in stunned silence and heard Ethan exclaim through the line, "I could've done THAT!"

Conner chimed in, "Weren't you supposed to play it a little cooler than that?"

Kira shushed them both. "Dr. O.? You still there?"

"Still here, Kira. Want to try that again?"

As Tommy listened the knot in his stomach eased. He'd been waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen, and this certainly qualified. He could sense the team's relief that he was willing to get together with the other rangers, and that he wasn't mad. They didn't know enough ranger history to know that this wasn't the first time teams had met, but it was certainly under the most casual circumstances. Usually Rangers came to help out when the active team was under extreme duress. This chance encounter was a nice change of tradition. By the end of the conversation with Kira, Tommy himself was looking forward to hanging out with both teams.

Kira, Conner and Ethan arrived at Haley's first. Kira needed to get squared away for the evening's performance. She insisted that Conner and Ethan grab a large table so that everyone would have a place to sit once they all got together. If there was going to be a large crowd, there would be no guarantee of seating later on. She made them promise on pain of death to stay with the table until the other Rangers arrived, and then ran off back stage to get ready.

Though Ethan gazed longingly at the computers nearby, he remained with Conner. "She's wound a little tight, isn't she?" he asked.

"Just excited, I guess. I am too, to tell you the truth." answered Conner.

"I know!" Ethan practically squeaked. He leaned across the table to whisper to Conner. "I can't believe we're going to talk with another team of Rangers!"

I just hope we measure up was Conner's unvoiced reply.

Conner didn't have much time to dwell on his insecurities because shortly after Kira rejoined them, the Wind Ninja's arrived. Clearly both Shane and Dustin had taken the time to shower – though Dustin seemed to think dry hair was not a necessity. All three were dressed casually. Shane was sporting a red basketball jersey over a red t-shirt; Dustin was wearing a long-sleeved yellow shirt proclaiming his motocross affiliation. Both were wearing black jeans. Tori was wearing one of her favorite blue half-shirts. Kira admired the light blue shawl/belt that Tori had looped around her low-slung blue jeans. I wonder if I could find that in yellow?

Tori spotted the teens first and raised a hand to wave. Kira waved back and gestured them over. Any nervousness or intimidation the Dino Rangers felt about hanging out with their predecessors was immediately dispelled by Dustin's enthusiastic greeting. "Dudes! I am so totally stoked to be hanging out with you guys! I'll be so bummed if you have to, you know…" he pointed to their wrists, "deal with an emergency."

He looked so crestfallen at the very idea that the Dino team laughed, and the ice was broken. Haley arrived unbidden with a round of sodas, and both teams settled down to talk.

The Cyber Café was pretty crowded by the time Tommy arrived. Kira's band had developed a nice word-of-mouth following, and the tourists in town for the weekend filled out the crowd. In spite of the number of people, the "Ranger table" was easy to spot. Sometimes Tommy wondered about just what it was that made most people unable to connect the ranger's "civilian" wardrobe with the Ranger's themselves. Was it only Rangers past and present that would be so drawn to the obvious conclusion? How was it that all of the people in the room missed the large concentration of primary colors at that table?

Conner was dressed in a long sleeved red t-shirt over blue jeans. On his right sat a boy who, according to his wardrobe, could only be Shane. Next to Shane was Ethan, and on his right was a blonde girl. That must be Tori. Hmm…her shade of blue's a little easier on the eyes than the rest of the colors. Across from Ethan, but sitting turned around with his back to him in order to have a view of the stage was a boy in yellow. That's Dustin…and the empty spot next to him is for Kira, leaving one left for me.

Tommy approached the table unseen because all of the teens were giving their attention to the band. The song ended and the crowd burst into applause. Kira, having spotted Tommy smiled in greeting. Conner turned and waved as he saw Tommy approaching.

"Hi everyone." greeted Tommy casually.

"Hey Dr. O." responded Ethan.

"The gang's all here!" added Conner.

Introductions were made around the table as Tommy was incoroprated into the group. It struck him immediately how at ease they all were with each other, and he was not surprised how they were seated by color affiliation, leaving him the single chair at the head of the table. Ranger Sociology 101…wouldn't that be something to look into?

Almost before Tommy was seated, Dustin started peppering him with questions about his Ranger past. Tori looked slightly apologetic at his badgering, but the rest of the rangers, his team included just seemed interested. But Tommy didn't want this to turn into a retelling of his Ranger history, and made sure to ask just as many questions in return. After Kira had rejoined the group it evolved into a rundown of each team's "monster-of-the-week" and a series of "what's the most ridiculous thing that ever happened to you as a Ranger" stories. Silly and serious – all of it was covered.

Tommy was glad that the Wind Ninja Rangers felt comfortable enough to be so honest in their description. Not all Ranger challenges were silly or goofy, some were painful and had long-lasting consequences. But it was important for his team to understand that, and see the living proof that they'd make it through stronger as a team in the end.