AUTHOR'S NOTE – There's a LOT of stuff happening in this chapter, so it's super long. It was either that, or break it up into a zillion little chapters.

Mesogog sat on his throne with the unconscious Black Ranger at his feet and watched the situation in Reefside unfold. Elsa's plan to use the element extracted from the Tree of Life to enhance the Tyranodrones was pure genius. The idea that they could send wave after wave of nearly indestructible drones to fight the Rangers was utterly enthralling. Mesogog anticipated watching the Rangers drop, and wondered how long it would take for the first one to fall. He checked the digital clock on the main computer console; it read 6:15. Of course, it was immediately apparent that things were not destined to go according to plan.

Elsa hissed in frustration as the three unknown figures appeared in the courtyard to face off against the Tyranodrones. "Who are they?" she demanded of no one in particular. Two of them were dressed similarly to the former Rangers; the third was wearing street clothes.

For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, the Tyranodrones dropped dead on the courtyard.

"This won't do, Elsa." Mesogog stated from his chair. "If the Tyranodrones just stand there waiting for the Rangers to show up what good is your plan?"

"We simply must draw them out, Master." She was working frantically at the console. "Although the first three drones did not last long, I can work on improving the infusion. I will send down un-enhanced Tyranodrones to deal with those three. The principal is the same – if we overwhelm those ninja fools with drones, the others will come to their rescue. Once the Dino Rangers arrive, I'll send down a new set of enhanced Tyranodrones…then there will be no escape."

Elsa motioned to a group of Tyranodrones and sent them through an invisaportal dropping them directly in the courtyard of the municipal building. Almost as soon as they landed, they rushed toward the three ninjas and the fighting commenced. "That is more like it." said Mesogog as he settled back to watch the fight.

Elsa transported the fallen drones back to the lab and began scanning the bodies to determine how better to alter the next batch of upgraded Tyranodrones. She may have had a large number of drones to experiment on, but she didn't have unlimited time. She kept one eye on the fight in Reefside, and one on the clock. The first batch of drones she'd enhanced lasted less than five minutes; and that was with no exertion at all. As soon as the Rangers showed up and she sent the next set, she'd have less than five minutes to make improvements before the Tyranodrones expired. If her plan was to succeed, she had to keep the Tyranodrones and Rangers fighting nonstop.

Elsa had already determined that the infusion she'd used to enhance the first set of Tyranodrones was too strong; it had increased their metabolism to such a great degree that their bodies had collapsed from the strain, even without fighting the Rangers. For the next set she cut the infusion in half. She would have to watch the effects carefully. Half a dose might not give the drones the invulnerability she desired. It wasn't the drones she was worried about – she had enough of them to throw away in the fighting. What she wanted…what she needed was for the Rangers to stay engaged. They couldn't hold out forever, and she wanted to be the one to make them fall.

Billy looked at his watch; it was 6:20. They'd been making their way through the levels of Mesogog's fortress for nearly ten minutes. No one knew how much time they had before Mesogog attempted to drain Dustin of his Earth energy, but everyone felt a growing sense of urgency. Mesogog now knew about their attempts to contact Tommy and Dustin through Kanoi, but did he know about the Ninjetti and their plan to infiltrate his fortress? Had he detected their arrival when Haley transported them in?

Haley had very little information to go on when programming the scanner she'd given to Billy. The Dino Rangers had very little knowledge of the layout of the fortress beyond the level containing the main lab and holding cells. The device was building a schematic as they moved through the fortress, but there was no telling how many levels they had to traverse and what they'd find when they got there. From what Billy could tell, Tommy and Dustin were still several levels away, and were surrounded by a large number of others. Dustin's energy signature was strong and steady; Tommy's was too, but his neural pattern was somewhat erratic. Billy chose to keep that piece of information to himself.

With a silent gesture to the others, Billy moved forward. They followed leaving no trace of their presence behind them.

Tori floated in the void – seeking, searching. Here, time was meaningless, though the analytical part of her understood that in the physical world time was a serious issue. She could feel Shane's strong presence beside her as together they quested for Dustin. They did not seek in a particular direction; they expanded in all directions. They did not try to reach Dustin's thoughts, instead they sought his spirit.

It seemed to Tori that they found Dustin's presence very quickly, but time was a tricky thing. Dustin's light was steady and strong - he was not imperiled or frightened. Rather, he was quiet and resting. He recognized them immediately and welcomed them in. Tori and Shane surrounded his light with their own. Together they waited, until it was time to fight.

Conner was growing increasingly agitated. "Haley, "he argued again, "we can't just leave them out there to fight on their own. They're getting crushed!"

Haley looked at the clock. It was 6:25. Hunter, Blake and Cam had been fighting the Tyranodrones for nearly ten minutes. Every time it looked like they might get a respite, more drones dropped from an invisaportal. It didn't help matters that it was getting later in the morning and people were beginning to arrive to work in the surrounding buildings. Though most people were attentive enough to realize that the courtyard was not a safe place to be at the moment, there were still those who were not quite awake who wandered unsuspecting into the courtyard looking to buy their morning cup of coffee.

"Okay." Haley answered resolutely. "New plan. You guys power up and take out those Tyranodrones. Cam, Blake and Hunter can make sure the civilians stay out of your way. You guys get that?" she asked the ninjas.

"Sounds good to me." answered Blake as he flipped a drone over his shoulder and into the fountain.

"Back to the second string." grumbled Hunter, though he wasn't arguing too loudly about it.

Again, Cam didn't bother to waste his breath with a verbal response. He focused on knocking out a trio of Tyranodrones attempting to menace an unfortunate businessman who was just looking to get a cup of coffee. Through the audio link Cam could hear Conner call out the command, "Ready?"

"Ready!" was the response. "Dino Thunder! Power up!"

In no time, three flashes of energy – red, yellow and blue – teleported the Rangers to the courtyard where they were fighting. Cam was pleased to note that Conner was no longer disoriented by the transporter. Conner flashed him a thumbs-up as he ran over to kick the drone closest to the coffee kiosk. "Let's take these guys down!" Cam nodded in agreement and together they went on the offensive.

"My Lord!" Elsa cried out, "They've arrived!" The viewing screen clearly showed the arrival of the Dino Rangers who had immediately come to the assistance of the ninjas in the courtyard.

"It is time." Mesogog growled from his throne. Though he remained seated, he leaned forward expectantly as he watched the plan unfold.

Elsa noted the time on the clock; it was 6:27. The three drones she was sending down to Reefside had been given an infusion at half the power of the first set. They would certainly last longer, but might not have the level of invulnerability she was looking to achieve. She would have to monitor them carefully, and time it so that when their bodies failed, she would have the next set ready to go.

In a flash of green energy the enhanced Tyranodrones were transported and Elsa began working on the next three drones who had stepped up into the genome randomizer.

The first thing Tommy was aware of was excruciating pain. The second thing he was aware of was that all of the pain seemed to be concentrated in his head. He uttered a low groan and tried to force his eyes to open – they didn't respond.

He had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten into such a state. Instead of trying to force his eyes to work, he focused instead on attempting to remember what had happened. It frightened him to realize that he had absolutely no idea.

Tommy had an overpowering feeling that something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Bad things were happening that he had to prevent, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do. This wasn't his normal forgetfulness like forgetting the combination to his locker, or forgetting to meet Kim after practice. This was a total mental meltdown – Tommy felt himself starting to panic.

Again, he tried to force his eyes to open, hoping that if he got a look at his surroundings he might be able to figure out what was going on. He managed to get his eyes open a crack and had to shut them immediately. The light was blinding. Tommy rolled onto his side and threw his arm across his face, shielding his eyes in the crook of his elbow.

A voice very close by mocked him with words he couldn't make out. Something hard nudged his shoulder causing him to roll even further onto his left side. Tommy tried hard to concentrate, but the screaming pain in his head made it very difficult. Black Ranger? Did he say Black Ranger? Is Adam here too? Is he hurt?

Tommy's concern for his teammate overrode his pain. Slowly lowering his arm Tommy viewed the room where he was being held. The light was still painful but Tommy squinted through his tears try to make out people and shapes.

He appeared to be in some sort of laboratory – there were shelves lining the walls of the room, each lined with beakers and jars filled with unidentifiable liquids. Directly across the room from him, he could make out the shape of a woman with her back to him. She was intently focused on inputting information into the console she was standing in front of. Another burst of searing light caused Tommy to shut his eyes and turn away. The photo after-image was burned into the inside of his eyelids; it was tall and rectangular.

Blinking furiously, Tommy willed his eyes to obey and see things more clearly. Stepping out of the rectangular box were three obviously mutated monsters. But they didn't look anything like Putties. What is going on here?

Tommy noticed another figure to the right of the rectangular box – it was definitely not human. Though the creature's back was also to Tommy, he could see scaly limbs and a reptilian tail peeking out beneath the robe it wore. The lizard creature was also inputting data into a console, and seemed to be focused on the chamber slightly to its right. At first all Tommy could see in the chamber was a head of dark hair. Adam!

As though he had heard Tommy, the person in the chamber moved and looked up. The somber brown eyes that met Tommy's gaze were not Adam's, and Tommy felt a shock of recognition go through him. Dustin.

Fealdor was paying very little mind to the situation in Reefside, though he was grateful for Elsa's little distraction. He'd been certain Mesogog was going to punish him terribly, perhaps hurt him even worse than he's hurt the Black Ranger; but if he could make himself indispensable to Mesogog's plan, maybe future punishment could be avoided.

Fealdor was monitoring the Yellow ninja's life signs very carefully and he'd noticed something he'd missed earlier. He had mistakenly identified the power that had been aiding in the boy's recovery as coming from the Black Ranger. He though that by keeping the two Rangers together, the boy would recover more quickly. But after Mesogog had abused the Black Ranger into senselessness, it was clear that the boy was still being supported by some outside power, and that power had never wavered. If he'd truly been pulling power from the Black Ranger all this time, he should've been affected by the state the Black Ranger was in. Not only was the ninja unaffected, he seemed to be recovering far more quickly from the effects of the drug in his system than Fealdor had anticipated.

Fealdor glanced at the clock; it read 6:30. He glanced back at the display detailing the boy's life signs and was shocked to notice the change in his brain wave pattern. He was awake! Fealdor glanced over to where the boy was seated in the energy chamber. The boy had lifted his head and staring at something across the room. Fealdor glanced surreptitiously over his shoulder; Mesogog had not yet noticed that the ninja was conscious. Fealdor moved slightly to his right, cutting the ninja off from Mesogog's line of sight.

I'll tell him in a few minutes. A few minutes can't hurt. I just need some time to make sure the boy is ready. I cannot rush now and risk failure. This is my only chance to get this right.

Fealdor tried to calm his racing heart and focus on preparing for the energy transfer. It was almost time.

Haley immediately noticed something "off" when the latest batch of Tyranodrones was dropped on the courtyard. There were three, not a whole group. And almost as soon as they hit the ground, they split up. One made a beeline for Conner, one headed for Kira and the last went after Ethan. It was easy to track the three newcomers in spite of the number of other Tyranodrones engaged in the fighting. Their energy signatures were different and it had Haley worried.

"Guys," she called out, "you've got some incoming Tyranodrones. There's something different about them. Be careful."

"Different?" answered Conner. "How…?" The drone programmed to fight the Red Ranger was the first to reach him. It attacked immediately and without pause. Conner grunted as he parried each blow, but lost ground as the drone pushed him back. As he was forced up against the wall of the restaurant the air exploded out of Conner's lungs, but he managed to choke out, "Never mind."

"Whoa, these guys are tough!" Kira called out as she deflected blow after blow. She ducked under a blow and rolled to her right; she nearly rolled down the stairs leading to the fountain. Blake came flying in with a high kick to the drone's shoulder. The Tyranodrone knocked him aside, but it gave Kira enough time to get back on the offensive.

"I think they've been taking their vitamins!" Ethan responded. He kicked the legs out from under the drone attacking him, but barely had a chance to recover before it came back at him. A kick from the Tyranodrone sent Ethan flying into the newspaper kiosk. Landing on his back, Ethan was momentarily blinded by flying newspaper. Cam leapt over the kiosk to challenge the drone. His attack had nearly no effect. The Tyranodrone paid him no more mind than it would a mosquito. It never wavered from its path to get to Ethan.

Hunter vaulted over the low stone wall separating the restaurant from the courtyard. Conner saw him coming and ducked beneath the blow the Tyranodrone had aimed at him. Hunter's kick knocked the drone into the wall and onto its knees giving Conner a chance to regroup. But the drone got back on its feet fast. Wanting more room to maneuver, Conner ran toward the fountain before turning and taking a defensive stance.

Ethan scrambled to his feet and flipped out of the reach of the drone. Unwaveringly the Tyranodrone followed Ethan's trajectory and ran after him.

Haley anxiously watched the fight unfold. The three Rangers were bright splashes of color around the fountain: Conner on the west, Kira in the north, and Ethan in the east. Each was being stalked by an upgraded Tyranodrone. The ninjas had their hands full keeping the other Tyranodrones otherwise engaged.

Something on the display console caught Haley's eye. The diagnostic part of her noted that the time was 6:33. The energy signatures of the enhanced Tyranodrones were beginning to fluctuate. They spiked very high, then very low. Haley tried to catch a pattern. "Guys!" she called out. "On my signal be ready to attack."

The Dino Rangers each called upon their Thundermax Sabers. Ethan privately hoped Haley wouldn't wait to long with the "go" because the Tyranodrones were closing in fast.

"Now!" came the command.

Each Ranger's saber lit up – red, yellow, blue – and sent sparks flying as they crashed into the attacking Tyranodrones. It was the first time anything the Rangers had done had inflicted any type of damage on the enhanced Tyranodrones. With renewed confidence the Dino Rangers pushed the attack; one by one the new Tyranodrones fell, and did not get back on their feet.

There was no time to celebrate. As soon as the last one fell, three more arrived. Sabers in hand, the Dino Rangers rejoined the fight.

Mesogog watched in amusement as Elsa scrambled to determine the level of infusion to give the third set of Tyranodrones. The Black Ranger let out a groan from his position on the step beneath Mesogog's chair. "Have you decided to join us, Black Ranger? I am pleased you will witness the destruction of your precious team." Mesogog couldn't resist giving Tommy a hard nudge with his foot. It pleased him to no end that Tommy Oliver would be conscious and unable to prevent any of Mesogog's plans from coming to fruition.

Mesogog turned his attention to the fight in Reefside. The foolish children and their even more foolish ninja friends were fruitlessly fighting Elsa's enhanced drones. A movement in the lab caught Mesogog's eye; he dismissed it when he realized it was just Fealdor doing more of his endless calculations on his computer. If the fool manages to drain the energy from the Yellow Ranger there may be a place for him yet, though I don't know how much more of his screeching and cowering I can take. I could always "improve" him the way I improved Zeltrax. The idea was appealing.

Mesogog was drawn out of his thoughts by a change in the situation at Reefside. The Rangers had pulled their weapons and defeated the upgraded Tyranodrones. Elsa was ready and immediately sent down three more. Now that she was in the thick of the fight, Mesogog noted that she was much more relaxed and confident. She is worthy. She will serve me well when the new world has begun. He looked over his shoulder at the door to his secret room. It is only a matter of time.

Billy swore in frustration. The Ninjetti crowded around him. Though they had encountered no resistance in their infiltration of the fortress, they had had very bad luck attempting to find their way around. Though the tracking device was building a map of where they'd been, it couldn't help predict where they were going. It seemed that the layout of each level of the fortress was different from the next. And though they were closer to their destination, there was no telling how long it would take to get to Tommy and Dustin.

Billy checked his watch. It was 6:35.

"We're in some trouble here, guys." he explained. "We've been making our way through the fortress guessing at where to go next. It doesn't help that each level is different from the last." Billy sighed in frustration. "We can keep going the way we have been, but we're wasting a lot of time."

Rocky nodded in agreement. "Anyone have any other suggestions?"

Kim and Aisha shared a glance, but had nothing to say. Adam looked inquiringly at Billy. "You can read Tommy and Dustin's energy signatures with that thing, right?"

Billy nodded and showed the device to Adam. Adam waved it away and instead looked up toward the ceiling. "Dustin's has changed, hasn't it?" he asked, though his gaze was still far away. Alarmed Billy looked more closely at the device. Dustin's energy reading wasn't showing the drastic drop that Billy had been anticipating, but as he looked more closely he noticed that Adam was right, it had changed.

"How did you…?"

"I can feel it." Adam answered softly. "Tori and Shane are there." Adam lowered his gaze from the ceiling and looked at Rocky. "I can find him."

With no hesitation Rocky ordered, "Let's go."

With Adam now in the lead, the others followed swiftly. Billy felt a faint stirring of hope. Maybe we will make it in time.

Ethan had lost track of how long they'd been fighting. However long it was, it was definitely the longest sustained fight they'd ever had. He promised himself he would never complain about a two-minute fight again, no matter what high score he had to leave behind. He was hurting and the Tyranodrones were relentless, but they had no choice but to fight. At some point earlier, Ethan had broken off from his fight after blasting his drone into a dumpster and went to help Kira. Haley's frantic cry that the drone had gone into the mall as was attacking civilians got Ethan's attention – fast. The ninjas had managed to hold it off long enough for Ethan to get its attention and draw it back into a fight outside. Eventually it was defeated, but another one had taken its place.

They'd used the Thundermax Sabers, sabers in laser mode, and all of their individual weapons. At one point they were lucky enough to be physically close enough to put their weapons together and make the Z-Rex blaster, but even that victory did not last for long. Blake, Hunter and Cam did all they could to try to injure or distract the Tyranodrones, and though they'd been run pretty ragged, they refused to teleport to the safety of the lab.

Haley was in constant contact – monitoring the stability of the Tyranodrone's energy signatures and signaling the best time to strike. She warned Bradleys and Cam about incoming civilians so they could prevent them from entering the battle zone. It was late enough in the morning for the traffic to have picked up, but most people saw what was going on and headed in any other direction.

Of the three Rangers, Conner was having the "easiest" time fighting the Tyranodrones. He'd picked up the trick of using his super speed to streak out of the range of the drone fighting him; as long as he didn't run far enough away to be seen as "leaving the fight", the drone would diligently follow after him. He could wear his drone down running, drop in a few strategically placed blows and run again. Invariably his Tyranodrone would drop first leaving Conner free to come to the aide of Kira or Ethan since the drones were not being sent down individually – always in groups of three.

Kira also had the advantage of using her dino power at a distance. Whenever the hand to hand fighting got too intense, Kira could blast the drone with a Ptera-yell and force it to back off long enough for her to regain her footing and strength. Ethan fared less well than the others; his dino-armor only worked in close quarters, and though it gave him added protection, he could only sustain so many blows before he gave in under them.

Ethan found himself sprawled on his back under a tree near the stone chess boards. The last blow from the Tyranodrone had sent him sprawling, far away from the assistance of the others. Ethan shook his head to clear his vision. The drone was bearing down on him. Ethan barely had time to throw up his Tricera Shield before the blow struck. He could feel the force of it reverberating down his arm. The pressure didn't let up and Ethan was forced further down onto the ground.

From somewhere far away Ethan could hear Conner yelling his name. Certainly the voice was getting closer, but even with his super speed, Ethan knew Conner wouldn't get to him in time. I refuse to give up! Ethan thought even as he struggled against the Tyranodrone crushing the life out of him.

Then without warning, Ethan felt a surge of power pour through him. He didn't know where it came from, but it didn't matter. Instinctively he yelled out, "Super Dino Mode!" Suddenly he had the strength to push the shield and throw the Tyranodrone off of him. The drone crashed spread-eagle on a chess table, then rolled off. It climbed slowly to its feet.

Conner arrived at his side in the next instant. "What was that, dude?" he asked incredulously. Even wearing a helmet, Ethan could hear the grin in Conner's voice.

"I don't know, and I don't know how long it will last, so I'm using it!" Ethan pounced on the still stunned drone. Haley soon identified Ethan's drone as being the next one ready to fall. With two massive blows from the Tricera Shield and the Tyranno Staff the Tyranodrone crashed to the ground unmoving. Ethan and Conner celebrated with a quick high-five before Conner sped off to assist Kira.

Elsa was growing concerned. There were many factors she hadn't considered when she'd instituted her plan – the ninjas, while generally ineffective against her improved Tyranodrones, did provide enough of a distraction to allow the Rangers to catch their breath and get a second wind; the Red Ranger's speed allowed him to wear his drone out, then come to the assistance of the others, speeding up the deterioration process of the remaining drones; this new display of Super Dino powers was completely unexpected and allowed the Rangers to sustain the fight far longer than anticipated.

But the factor that she hadn't considered and concerned her the most was this – in her mind she always knew she had unlimited drones to work with; what she didn't count on was her limited supply of infusing agent. Because of the high amounts of the element she had to use to create the enhanced drones she was already three-quarters of the way through her supply. She had enough for one, maybe two more sets of drones before she would be out. She had anticipated the defeat of the Rangers long before this. She looked at the clock nervously. It was 6:45.

Mesogog who had been watching intently yet quietly all this time seemed to intuit Elsa's distress. He stepped down from his chair and over the still prone Black Ranger. Elsa felt him approaching and quaked a little where she stood. But Mesogog did not seem inclined to berate her. Instead he stated with loathing, "It is the Red Ranger who disturbs your plans. Always the red one..." He recalled the feeling of red he got from those who had invaded his domain earlier; how they had thwarted him. It made him angry.

With a neck popping twist Mesogog turned to Fealdor – he had noticed the Yellow ninja's wakeful state. "Fealdor!"

Fealdor actually jumped. "My…my lord?"

Mesogog strode sinuously over toward the console before the energy chamber. He leaned in and hissed in Fealdor's ear, but maintained eye-contact with the boy. "What are you waiting for?"

"Uh…nothing…just checking…some final adjustments…"

Mesogog ignored Fealdor's rambling and moved to stand before the energy chamber. The boy inside got to his feet. There was something different about him Mesogog couldn't identify. But what did it matter. The boy's gaze was steady and calm; his whole manner seemed to say do your worst, you can't touch me. It infuriated Mesogog.

Whipping around, Mesogog strode back to his chair. The Black Ranger had sensed the change in the air and had already levered himself into an upright seated position. Mesogog grabbed him by the shoulder and hauled him to his feet. He whirled around intending to demand that the boy call on his power or risk further injury to Dr. Oliver. The Earth ninja was one step ahead of him – "Power of Earth!" he called out tossing his street clothes aside. He stood, steady as a rock, within the energy chamber.

Growling, Mesogog thrust Tommy away. He landed sprawled on the chair, and pulled himself up until he was sitting in it. "Do it!" Mesogog demanded of Fealdor. "Do it now!"

Fealdor flipped the switch.

"We're almost there!" Billy whispered, indicating the wide doors of the chamber that stood before them.

Adam gasped and started running, "We're too late."

TBC