Chapter Thirty-five

Green No More

After stopping to pick up Trini's hairdryer, and enduring a long argument about whether or not Trini would be spending the night with Jason or Kimberly (Kimberly won; Trini made a few choice comments about what would not happen if Jason kept whining about her coming home, and suddenly the fight was over) they dropped the cars off at the hotel and began the trek to Wal-Mart. They'd barely gone three feet when Conner (who was taking care to walk on the other side of the group from Kira, and Trent just in case), asked why they never came into the ruins.

"Long story," Tommy said uncomfortably.

"You're not doing that 'I don't want to tell you anything' thing again, are you?" Kira demanded through narrowed eyes.

Jason laughed. Tommy cleared his throat. "No, I just…"

"Once we got there, we just sort of… didn't need to. Not today, anyway." Trini smiled and nudged Billy. "Remember all the time we spent there? Looking through the files and reworking the programs and creating new software?"

"Every minute," Billy replied with a broad smile.

"Hey, speaking of the programs in the Command Center, how is it recording all that stuff?" Ethan asked. "The stuff about all of us?"

"Oh, Billy set that up years ago," Tommy explained. "After Jason, Trini and Zack were replaced by Rocky, Adam and Aisha, he figured that we might all leave the team one day and created a program to monitor for upcoming Rangers and record their histories. When I went there with Hayley, she set it up to transmit everything to my lab, so I could keep it up to date. There are only three records of that information; Andros got in touch with Billy and got the specifics, so he has a similar program."

"Mine still works?" Billy demanded. "I thought it perished along with the Power Chamber!"

"No, it still works. I told you that." Tommy paused. "Surely I told you that."

"The absentminded professor strikes again," Jason muttered.

"I had no idea it was still fully functional! I had Alpha send me a file dump before he left the planet, but my information only details the events leading up to a few weeks before Zordon left for Eltar!" Billy stared at Tommy in amazement. "You still have all those files?"

"Sure. They were transmitted to my lab. Hayley has them protected like nothing else, though. Sometimes even I can't get into them."

"I got in pretty easy," Ethan pointed out.

"You got into the summary pretty easy. Besides, you're Blue. And I made that video log so that, if anything happened, someone would know the basics of what was going on. Besides, I had to remove a lot of the security programs to update the information about you three." Tommy smiled. "You never would have gotten near it otherwise." He paused. "At least, I'm pretty sure…"

"Tommy, that's an experimental program with nearly unlimited potential! The schematics I gave Andros are nowhere near as good as the original work! Alpha even improved it using the same technology tied directly to Zordon's intuition and the morphing grid itself. Do you have any idea what I could do if I had the original program to work with?" Billy's excitement suddenly halted and turned to panic. "Oh, GOD! Those files are being transmitted? Do you have any idea what will happen if the transmission is intercepted? How could you send that stuff over the airwaves! We have to go back!"

Billy spun and started to race back to the hotel. Trini caught him by the arm, nearly swinging him around in a circle from the momentum. "Billy, it's okay! Don't worry. I thought you knew all about it. Hayley and I have been helping Tommy with it. I made certain things were going off without a hitch. There are more backups on that program than there are guards at Fort Knox. I even tried to hack into Tommy's system myself to see if I could get through, from my house, from work, and from Tommy's lab; thirty-two hours later, I was still stumped. I asked Justin—you know, the Blue Turbo, the kid Rocky passed his powers on to—to try the same and he called me a week later, practically in tears and surrounded by his frustrated MIT roommates. Trust me; it's secure. You can try to hack into it yourself if you want, but I'm telling you, it's safe."

Billy breathed out a shaky sigh of relief. "Thank god." It wasn't that he didn't trust Hayley and Tommy—it was just that Tommy's computer knowledge was iffy and, having never met Hayley in person, he couldn't be a hundred percent certain of her skills.

"You don't honestly think I wouldn't say anything when Tommy told me he was transmitting it, did you?" Trini continued. "I thought about having him send them to me, also, but he has a lot better equipment, given the funding Anton Mercer set him up with, so he had better resources to ensure its safety. I figured that it was better it stay in as few places as possible. And it's the only transmission leaving the Power Chamber; Andros's program is powered with his own technology, not ours. Don't worry," she added. "It's safe and secure and as soon as Tommy gets his lab up and running again, I'll swing by and help Hayley transfer it to Aquitar. I thought Tommy would have told you. I'm sorry."

"No problem," Billy said weakly. "I just… you know, none of you have ever been suspected of being a Ranger by an entire city. It's not fun. All the information in those files… every Ranger on the planet would be at risk. Every Ranger on every planet."

"Don't worry," Trini repeated. "I've set it up to look like an elaborate hoax, should anything actually be intercepted. And if anything were to go wrong, you don't live on the planet, and I'd imagine dialing up Aquitar for a phone interview would cost more than your average Beverly Hills mansion. So only the rest of us would be screwed." She looked pointedly at Tommy.

"It's as secure as superhumanly possible," Tommy assured him.

"Can we have a look at some of it when we're done?" Ethan asked eagerly.

"I suppose so," Tommy said reluctantly. He frowned. "And don't you dare go trying to hack in, Ethan. Hayley will strangle you with an Ethernet cable and I'll help, get me? I don't want any tampering. Especially not while I'm reconstructing."

"Sure thing," Ethan said, a little too quickly. His eyes were fairly gleaming. "As long as I get to see the information, I'm good."

"I can't believe it's all still working," Billy said, continuing back down the sidewalk with the others. "It's amazing."

"Remember how we rewrote that one program to double as a stereo so we wouldn't go completely crazy when we were working on something important?" Trini asked him, grinning.

"Of course. You tried to teach me the Tootsee Roll when we were upgrading the alarm system." Billy shook his head ruefully.

"You tried to teach Billy the Tootsee Roll?" Zack demanded incredulously.

"Hey, he wasn't half bad. He claimed he hated the song but I heard him humming it when we were replacing the circuitry."

"That's because you got it stuck in my head making me dance to it," Billy insisted, blushing.

"The Tootsee Roll?" Trent repeated. "Isn't that that really old, crappy song about—?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Zack interrupted loudly. "That's our heritage you're bashing!"

"Yeah!" Kimberly said, punching Trent playfully in the arm. "I can still remember the dance… 'to the left…'"

She began the opening moves. Without even thinking about it, Tommy joined her, with Zack a split-second behind.

And, to the complete and utter horror of Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent, the six wise, mature, battle-hardened legendary superheroes began singing and dancing the Tootsee Roll in the middle of the sidewalk.

Cars slowed down to stare. The few pedestrians wandering by stopped several feet away to gape. If anyone who saw them was startled or amused to see six people in their mid-twenties dancing around and belting out the lyrics to "Tootsee Roll," it was nothing to the view from the Dino Rangers, who watched as if a cruel torturer had taped their eyelids open.

Jason, first leader of the world's first team of superheroes.

Trini, strong, capable, and smart; the glue that held the team together.

Billy, the most intelligent person on two planets.

Kimberly, the girl whose every mannerism screamed "cool and trendy."

Zack, the… never mind.

And Tommy.

Their science teacher.

Tommy had once pointed out to Hayley that his students rarely referred to him as a teacher; it was almost always "science teacher." Hayley laughed and told him that this was because science teachers were in a league all their own. They were almost always old, pudgy, balding or at least gray-haired, absentminded, very boring and slightly creepy. Math, English, foreign language, social studies, art—the teachers all varied. But not science. There were a lot of negative connotations associated with the title of "science teacher." It was a mark of the bond created on Power Ranger teams that Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent had grown close to him, overlooked it, and counted him a friend. Tommy might be young and good-looking with dark spiky hair, but he also had a memory like a guy who'd been smoking marijuana since the sixties, wore ties and lab coats, and occasionally sported reading glasses. He was still a science teacher.

And science teachers were not allowed to relive their childhood in front of their students, at least not by doing the Tootsee Roll on a street corner. It was practically a sign of the apocalypse.

When the dance finally ended, the six of them broke into giggles, nudging and joking with each other. One by one, however, they noticed the looks on their successors' faces. The two groups stared at each other, the original Rangers confused, the Dino Rangers mortified.

"What?" Tommy finally asked.

All four of them jumped as if waking up to the sound of a gong and promptly squeezed their eyes shut.

"The images!" Trent wailed, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes.

"It didn't happen. Dr. O didn't just do that," Ethan whimpered.

"Never mentioning this again. It didn't exist," Kira added, breathing as if trying to enter a meditative state.

"Dr. O can dance," Conner said, sounding more dazed than pained, though the pain was still there. "At least, he could in the nineties. How creepy."

"Ha, ha," Tommy said, rolling his eyes as his friends laughed. "Come on. Let's get to Wal-Mart so I can throw you guys back in your hotel rooms for the night."

"And then go dance the Macarena with Zack and Kim," Kira muttered to the guys. They laughed, the horror of the moment broken. Mostly.

They split up once they hit Wal-Mart; Kira mumbled something about hygiene and Kimberly and Trini dragged her off. The guys headed in another direction entirely; Jason and Tommy were all the way to the grocery aisle before Tommy realized they were alone.

"Huh," Tommy said uneasily. "Where do you think they went?"

"We lost Trent near the school supplies; I remember him saying something to do with Conner, a toilet and a new sketchpad. I know we walked by the electronics and the toy section, so that would explain Billy, Ethan, Conner and Zack. Don't worry, man. We've got their cell phone numbers, right?"

"Yeah. And I think they're all wearing their communicators still," Tommy said, relaxing.

"Ah. Haven't gotten past that point, have they?" Jason said with a knowing smile.

"Nope. How long did it take you to stop wearing your communicator and morpher?"

"Day you idiots lost your powers and ours morphers went haywire. Me and Trini and Zack were in the middle of a party in Singapore. Mixing with the teens there, trying to spread our message without coming off like a bunch of geeks that did nothing but talk about the global economy and world peace. We were able to blame the lights coming from us on the disco ball and the yelling, disorientation, and sudden need to go back to our rooms on food poisoning. After that, we still wore the communicators, but we only wore the morphers when we weren't in public. You really scared the crap out of us with that, you know."

"It's not my fault," Tommy said, trying to sound lighthearted. He knew Jason was his best friend and didn't really blame him for the problems the Rangers had had… but sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if things would have been different if Jason hadn't left. Maybe Billy wouldn't have left, maybe Kimberly wouldn't have left, maybe Zordon and Alpha would still be all right… and maybe their former base wouldn't be a dusty forgotten room hidden beneath a mountain.

"Yeah, well," Jason said, his tone joking, "you could have called us at some point. We were freaking out. We'd all tried morphing at the Peace Conference on rare occasions, but we hadn't felt the same amount of the power. Scared us beyond belief when we got back to our rooms and morphed, realized it was back. We thought you guys were dead. By the time we finally got in touch with you guys you were Ninjas or some such nonsense."

"I love the way you make it sound like we were just clowns wandering around in a stupor."

"Hey, you heard the kid at the gas station."

Tommy laughed. "Jane, the Bearded Lady. At least Zack got one of us right," he cracked.

"Yeah. It was you. Butch, the Multicolored Strong Man."

"Whatever. At least I'm not a bearded lady."

"No, you're a sappy guy."

"Hey!"

"Come on, Tommy. We both know you've got a creepy feminine side buried in you."

"I do not! Besides, you're the one who can't live without Trini."

Jason sighed, a distant look on his face. "Everyone should have a Trini." He frowned. "Well, no, only I should have a Trini."

Tommy shook his head. "Well, if you ever clone her, let me know." Jason gave him a suspicious look. "What? It was a joke."

"It better have b—RED POP!" Jason shouted, so loudly Tommy jumped. "Hell yeah! Bring the cart over here!"

"You're too much."

"It's not the color. It's not even that red," Jason said defensively as he began loading six-packs into the cart Tommy was pushing. "It just tastes really good."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"Oh, just because you can't settle down when it comes to colors—"

"Hey, you have three yourself."

"No, I have two."

"No you don't. You like red and you're still wearing a lot of black from the Gold days. And ever since you got with Trini you've gotten more into actual gold."

"She's a Yellow, man. It's her fault." Jason grinned. "Oh, look, it's the drink of Tommy's future." He held up a twelve-pack of orange soda.

"Put that down," Tommy mock-growled.

"Come on. This is me here. You can say it. The Orange is already starting to seep into your life, isn't it?"

"The only orange in my life is those shirts you insist on buying me for Christmas. Love the way you decided Volunteers shirts didn't count as an Orange joke."

"Hey, you like the Vols."

"That's no excuse for you to buy me the shirts. You only do it because they're orange."

"And because I know you'll end up wearing them on laundry day when you can't find anything white to wear." The Tennessee Vols were one of Tommy's favorite college football teams… but unfortunately, they wore orange-and-white uniforms.

Tommy grimaced. "You got that from Hayley, didn't you."

Jason laughed. "No. It was just speculation. Thanks for the confirmation."

"Would you stop with the Orange jokes? I'm never going back, I tell you. NEVER."

"Ah, come on. You can't tell me you didn't love being back," Jason said as they headed down the aisle, stopping every so often to throw something edible into the cart. Almost unconsciously, they began to check for eavesdroppers, lowering their voices slightly as they turned to talk of the Rangers, automatically taking care to avoid using the word "Ranger" when possible.

Tommy sighed. "It wasn't all that bad."

Jason turned to look at him, surprised. "Funny. You practically did a happy dance when you got the Green back. And the White. Now it's just 'not all that bad.'"

Tommy snorted. "Jason, you know how I told you I detected the Black energy and then had Hayley make up a bracelet, just in case?"

"Yeah?"

"I left out the part where I was never planning to put the bracelet on. When I grabbed the Dino Gem, I intended to take it out of the fortress, get it back to my lab, break it open, find someone to give it to and then go take a nap. Take a freaking nap, I tell you! The stupid thing was calling me the whole time I was strapped to that stupid life-force extractor. The whole time, I was sitting there, thinking, 'No, no, no, I'm not going back, I'm not putting on the bracelet, the world'll be just fine without me,' and it still won't stop… stop trying to get me to pick it up. Hard to explain how they do that, really. So anyway, finally I'm like, 'Okay, I'll take it back to the lab and choose someone else. Not like I can let Mesogog use it.' Then I get out of the fortress, have to use the rock holding the Gem like a shield, and the next thing I know I'm invisible." He paused. "I was pissed."

Jason laughed long and hard. "Pissed, huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was joking and laughing and everything—cuz, you know, that's what we do—but I was annoyed, man. Annoyed as hell. Had to keep positive for the kids' sakes, and to annoy Zeltrax and Elsa and Mesogog, but I was ticked." He shook his head. "It was one thing to help Conner, Kira and Ethan out with the occasional pack of Tyrannodrones. It was quite another to find myself looking out at the world from inside a helmet. Again. But there was nothing else I could do, once the Gem was exposed and bonded with me. It wouldn't work with anyone else after that. I was stuck with it." Tommy laughed, slightly bitterly. "That was what took me so long to reappear. Kira and Conner and Ethan were freaking out, thought I was dead. I heard Kira scream 'No, he can't be gone' and that's when I sucked it up and put on the bracelet. It's ironic, but if it hadn't been for Zeltrax, I never would have become the Black Ranger." His gaze turned distant. "Hayley and I got so trashed after I got back from clothes shopping. I hadn't drunk that much since the day I turned twenty-one."

Jason laughed, but Tommy didn't join in, wandering aimlessly forward, lost in his thoughts. Jason rolled his eyes slightly. Jason knew Tommy liked to be alone and brood when something was bothering him… but he also knew it wasn't healthy. (He knew it wasn't healthy because Jason did it too, and Trini had spent years convincing him it wasn't healthy.) Jason frowned thoughtfully, trying to get Tommy talking, trying to make him remember the good times.

"Must suck," Jason said suddenly.

"What's that?" Tommy asked absently.

"Being a Ranger like you were with them. As a mentor, not… not one of the guys. Must bug you, that they're the ones staring rather than doing the Tootsee Roll with us."

Tommy let out a snort of laughter. "It does. But…" He sighed. "We're not that far apart. I care about them in a different way than you guys, yeah, but we're still a family, just like every other team I've been on." He smiled. "Took me a while to realize it, but they feel the same way."

"Yeah?" Jason said.

Tommy nodded. "Of course, they were always coming over. And it was weird for me, because they weren't just coming over to learn, or to train, or whatever. Kira spent a lot of time jamming on her guitar in my basement, and Ethan used my computers all the time, and even Conner—the outdoorsy type like nothing else—would stop in for hours at a time just to hang. Once I almost accidentally beat the crap out of Trent because I found him drawing in the lab at four in the morning and thought he was an intruder. They would ask me to come to certain events a lot, too. Kira's gigs at Hayley's. Trent had some of his drawings displayed during the school's art fair not long after the prom, asked me to come see his work. Ethan made me promise to show up for his gaming tournaments. And Conner was quick to imply that he wouldn't mind if I'd come to his games. It was weird, but sometimes I really did stop being their mentor. I was just one of the gang sometimes." His smile broadened. "And when I wasn't, I was often the older brother. I remember going to a DDR tournament of Ethan's at the mall, and Kira came over to me and begged me to scare off some punk who kept hitting on her. It was something you would have done for Kim, you know?"

Jason grinned. Tommy was looking cheered up already. "Was he scared?"

"Oh, yeah. The works. Babbling, whining. Might have even shed a few tears."

"Good work," Jason said, nodding and smiling with relish, thinking of all the many times he'd gotten to do the same thing. There was something gratifying about scaring a guy away from a girl. Something primal and territorial and, well, manly.

Tommy cleared his throat, obviously thinking the same things. "Anyway, I never thought much of things like that, until right after Hayley cured my little fossilization problem."

"What changed then?" Jason asked curiously.

Tommy laughed. "Nothing changed, exactly. It was just… realization dawning."

Flashback

"I said, 'power down,'" Tommy told the suit firmly. It didn't budge. He looked up at Hayley, Conner, Kira and Ethan resignedly from behind the helmet. They were staring at him in shock.

"I think we might have a problem," he said grimly.

He waited. This was the moment when the teens asked what they could do, and Hayley started theorizing about how to fix it and dragged Ethan back to the computer while Conner and Kira did their best to help. …Yep. Any minute now.

Then—

"You're alive!" Kira wailed in a strangled voice, and she flung herself at him. The next thing he knew, Kira was wrapped around him like an angry squid, arms and legs thrown about him. Tommy staggered, unprepared for the attack/hug, but she was so light that he didn't have much of a problem regaining his balance.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but—"

"I was so scared!" Kira practically sobbed. She whacked the back of his helmet, hard enough that his eyes slid out of focus momentarily. "Don't you ever do that to me again!"

"Kira, it's okay," Tommy told her, bewildered. He took her by the waist and tried to gently pull her off and set her down, but before he could a red blur dove at him.

"Oh, thank god!" Conner cheered. "You're alive! You're not going to spend the rest of all eternity as a big yellow-orange rock! You're back!"

"I missed you!" Ethan added, and now Tommy found himself in a group hug with all three teens, that even while morphed he found uncomfortably tight. The three were clinging to him for dear life.

"Promise us you'll never die on us," Kira told him, or rather the space behind him; Conner had pushed her so tightly against Tommy that she couldn't pull back enough to look at him.

"I promise. Now, let's all just calm down," Tommy said in exasperation. "I'm back. I'm not going anywhere. Trust me. People have been trying to kill me for ages, and none of them have succeeded yet. I'll be just fine. …Okay, I'm having trouble breathing…"

Suddenly Conner seemed to realize just what he was doing, and he dove backwards, knocking Ethan away from Tommy as well in his haste to regain his cool factor. Conner cleared his throat. "Right, sorry."

"Heh," Kira muttered, looking over her shoulder at Conner, Ethan and Hayley. "This is… kind of awkward." She climbed down and hastily stepped back into the line, her face bright red. Ethan whistled innocently for a moment before stopping himself.

Tommy sighed inwardly and looked at Hayley, glad they could finally get down to business. Thankfully, Hayley was rarely emotional. She wasn't going to go all mushy on him and—

"Tommy you freaking idiot!" Hayley roared, throwing herself at him. Tommy caught her reflexively and fought the urge to groan. Of course. See, this was the difference between his old team and his new team. In the old days, people just asked if he was okay. Maybe the occasional hug, but mostly high fives and pats on the back, a little clasping of the shoulder and a few choruses of "Knew you'd make it, man!" Now, everyone was freaking out just because he'd spent a few days as a fossil. It wasn't even anything major.

He hugged Hayley for a good long while, waiting as patiently as he could for her to pull back. When she finally did, she naturally began hitting him—hard.

"How dare you get yourself turned to stone! Leave me to watch out for the Rangers! I've been sick to death with worry, working day and night to bust you out when I wasn't playing Behind-the-Scenes Girl! 'Oh, don't worry, Hayley, I'll be fine,' HA! You liar! Don't you ever get yourself fossilized again! Do you have any idea how scared I was? You jerk! Never again, do you hear me, never again! Trent's gone evil and Conner became a geek and Kira became a priss and Ethan became a jock and I finally got them fixed with this meteor fragment thingy and then I used it to bust you out and it fried the rock so we're going to have to find some other way to fix Trent because he's still evil and would it have killed you to talk a little faster when you tried to tell me who the White Ranger was I can't believe you almost got killed again! Running off and blowing up the moon, and then blowing up the island, and then getting kidnapped, and then the Black Ranger thing and will you stop it already you suck! NEVER AGAIN, TOMMY!"

"I'm sorry!" Tommy bellowed, effectively cutting her off, but just barely. She glared at him for a moment longer, and just when he thought it was safe to mention his inability to power down she threw herself back into his arms and clutched him tightly.

"Idiot," she said sulkily, and he exhaled slowly and hugged her back resignedly.

Then three cries of "Dr. O!" nearly made him go deaf and once again he found himself getting squished to death, only this time Hayley was closest, pinned to Tommy instead of Kira. At last, they all drew back and tried to look nonchalant.

"Okay," Tommy said warily, considering bolting out of the room if they tried it again. "Are we all done?" They nodded. "Great. Thanks for your concern. I really appreciate it, and I'm sorry I scared you. Now, back to the problem." He gestured at the suit and then stood there expectantly, waiting for everyone to return to normal and hop to.

"Um, Dr. O?" Kira said, frowning. "Okay, I know the suit looks good and all…"

End Flashback

Jason was clutching the cart for support as he tried to reign in his laughter. Tommy himself was chuckling; it was one of his favorite memories as a Dino Ranger, even though it marked the start of a long period of sitting around in his suit, rarely taking his helmet off for fear of losing it, rarely able to sleep from the power boost and dying for a hot shower.

"Oh, man," Jason wheezed. "That was great."

"Glad you liked it," Tommy said dryly. "Anyway, that was when I first realized there was more to us than four kids fighting evil and hanging out with their science teacher." His face clouded over with regret again. "I'm sorry, Jason."

"What about?" Jason asked, still trying to get control of himself. He finally straightened up, rubbing the stitch in his side.

"About losing the Dino Gems. It could have been us who—"

"Oh, shut up, Tommy. It wasn't your fault. It was destiny."

"You believe in destiny?" Tommy asked, almost conversationally.

"Of course I do. Things work themselves out, Tommy. I've really learned that time and again since Zordon first teleported us out to the Command Center. If I hadn't gone to the Peace Conference, for example, you wouldn't have had anyone to dial up as the Gold Ranger, and what would you have done if I'd stayed the Red Ranger? Called in Adam and Aisha without calling in Rocky? Those three were a team; they came in as three and they're still a triangle. Me and Trini probably wouldn't have been the same, either, with her traveling the world and me in Angel Grove."

"You mean, maybe she'd have dumped you in a letter," Tommy said bitterly.

Jason raised his eyebrows, startled. He decided not to address that. "We did work out though. And the choices we made were a part of it. You, Tommy—if you hadn't joined up with Mercer, he may or may not have ended up as Mesogog. But if he had, there wouldn't have been anyone to reclaim the Dino Gems and fight him if you hadn't chosen that path."

"You think it was fate?"

"You can't do something that isn't fate, Tommy. That's the definition of fate—what's meant to be."

"How do you know anything that happened was fate, and not a series of freak accidents and a lack of anti-psychotic medication?"

Jason grinned. "Faith. There's a reason 'faith' and 'fate' sound so similar, bro."

"When did you get so philosophical?"

"Marrying Trini will do that to you." Jason shrugged.

"I wouldn't know," Tommy said dryly. Tommy thought about it for a moment. "I guess you're right. Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing neither of us took the Red Gem. We wouldn't have been able to retrieve the Shield of Triumph, and we'd have been really screwed without the Triassic Ranger."

"Why couldn't one of us have done it?"

"You had to be completely in tune with the Dino Gem energy, and I'm fairly certain you also had to be a Red; I don't know, that part's murky. But neither of us would have been in tune with the Red energy."

"Why not?" Jason asked.

"Because of our other powers. You had a better shot than me, but we're both still linked to our old powers, and we would have been even if we didn't still have them at our disposal. You can't be in tune with one power when you're using others."

"Ah. So… you gave them to… Conner?" Jason's questioning tone made his real meaning obvious.

"I told you, the Gem chooses, not the Ranger. Besides, Conner's actually done fairly well. Yeah, he's a kid, and a goof, but so were we."

"So were you. Not me. You."

"Fine, so was I. For all his idiotic tendencies, he's actually fairly open-minded and in touch with his thoughts and emotions. He's willing to listen. And he'll try anything once. Not only did he attain the level needed to become the Triassic Ranger, but he tapped into Super Dino Mode before any of the rest of us." Tommy smiled. "Took me quite a while. Getting in tune with my powers when I was irritated about having them wasn't easy, not to mention the White Ninja and Red Zeo energy was still floating around and getting me confused." Jason chuckled. "And Conner wasn't a bad leader," Tommy continued. "Took a lot of the pressure off me. I got to sit in the lab more."

Jason stopped suddenly, frowning. Tommy turned to him expectantly. Jason looked up at him sharply. "That's why you offered to be Blue," Jason said accusingly.

"What?"

"The Dino Gems. Back when you had all five, I was going to be Red, you would be White, Zack would be Black, Trini would be Yellow and Hayley would take Blue. Then you lost the Black and White in the explosion and we had to decide what to do."

Tommy nodded, wondering what the point here was. They had all sat down after the explosion, all five of them, to try to decide who would use the remaining three. Hayley had immediately made it clear that she wanted three of the others take them; she insisted that she'd gotten along just fine without ever being a Ranger and would be fine if she never became one. Then Zack had said he'd decline also; he flew all over the world with his job, worked unpredictable hours, and, despite his line of work, was never as strong as Jason and Tommy when it came to fighting, and Trini was possibly slightly better than him (it had cost Zack a lot to admit that). Then it had come down to whether Jason or Tommy would be the Red, and Tommy had offered to be Blue.

"I thought you meant it when you said you wouldn't mind switching colors again," Jason said, staring at Tommy in shock. "You just didn't want to be the leader."

Tommy snorted. "Of course I didn't, Jason. I was through. I'd lead the team for far too long and I wasn't planning on ever being a Ranger again. I didn't want more power and leadership and responsibility; as it was I was spending all my free time researching the morphing grid and building zords with Anton and so on. I wanted to be a paleontologist, for crying out loud. I wanted to settle down. I didn't want to be the one who had to lead you and Trini into battle. Much as I loved being the leader, it wasn't easy, and I was more than ready to be the follower if I had to put on the suit again. It was difficult enough working with Andros and fighting various battles around the universe." He smiled self-deprecatingly. "Besides, Blue's an easy color. Jeans go with everything."

Jason laughed, but he gave Tommy a sympathetic look. It suddenly occurred to him that even without the fact that Tommy had fought longer than any of them in uniform, he'd also spent the most time working on Ranger projects. No wonder he was ready to retire.

Jason was about to open his mouth, intent on consoling Tommy, when Zack and Conner came out of nowhere and began dropping large yellow cases into the cart. Jason looked down to see what they'd bought.

"Oh, no!" he groaned, lifting the cases out and shoving them at Zack and Conner. "We're not getting Play-Doh!"

Author's Notes: Play-Doh eaters of the world, unite!

That flashback, by the way, came to me when I watched the end of "Leader of the Whack," and then realized that it was completely possible that something happened between that scene and the opening scene of "Burning at Both Ends." They were two separate episodes, not a two-parter. It just sort of clicked the moment I heard Kira's line… they didn't catch on right away, which seemed kind of silly, as he'd said "Power down" twice. They all looked worried and startled at the end of "Leader of the Whack," and then cut to them being confused at the beginning of the next episode. Next thing I know, there were flying hugs.

And finally… come on. Try to picture the six of them doing the Tootsee Roll. Go on, try. Now picture the teens' reactions. Anyone else cracking up?

The "Tootsee Roll," for those of you who are unaware, is an old song that was extremely popular in 1994. It's one of those songs you're embarrassed to admit ever listening to, but will instantly start dancing to the moment you hear it. I'd forgotten about the gender gap amongst PR fans when writing this chapter; I apologize. I suppose you could liken it to songs like "MMMBop," the Macarena, or old Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and NSync stuff… sorry, that's as far back as I can remember… if that doesn't work, just try to picture them dancing wildly on a street corner to whatever utterly embarrassing song floats into your head. Same difference