Chapter Eighty-seven

Beneath the Surface

"I think it's time," Tommy announced suddenly.

"For?" Jason asked cautiously, looking covetously at the beer in Tommy's hand. Jason hated being designated. What little he'd ingested since they'd gotten to the bar had already worn off, leaving Jason sober while Tommy continued to sip and stare blankly at the wall behind the bar. It didn't help that Tommy kept randomly bursting into psychotic rants about Conner and Kimberly and nightmares and bachelorette parties and clowns and goats and monkeys and being locked in trunks and tomato sauce, which wasn't endearing them to the bar's other patrons.

"Time," Tommy said slowly, "for me to talk… to Kim."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "Maybe I shouldn't have let you have all that vodka."

Tommy glowered at him, then sighed. "It's time, Jase. It's long past time. I'm tired of it hanging over our heads. What good are all these games if I'm not going to take the plunge and talk things out? It's not getting me anywhere."

Jason considered this. "Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, it's not as if your little… plans… don't have flaws. I know I'd appreciate not getting caught in the crossfire, since the crossfire always seems to be things like getting into a fight to the death with a bunch of clowns…"

Tommy gave him an apologetic smile. "I wasn't thinking long term. I was just trying to get her interested again. Get her to see that… that… you know."

"That you're still a good boyfriend?" Jason asked.

"Something like that," Tommy agreed. "But I need to do more. Right now, I'm just… Kim's psychotic ex-boyfriend. I'm not Tommy yet. You know?"

"…Not really," Jason said. "But I'm working on it. What, exactly, are you talking about here?"

"I can't just seduce her," Tommy explained. "At least, not yet. I have to get it over with. Once it's settled, once it's… closed, then I can move forward. It's like trying to put on new shoes without taking off the old ones. It's time to just… just… I want to know why."

"Why she left you."

"Why we weren't forever," Tommy clarified. "Why… why… what the hell did that guy have I didn't?" he burst out suddenly. "Huh? She leaves me for Mr. Perfect and she's single six months later? She ran off for some great guy, 'wonderful' and 'kind' and 'caring'—" He was shouting now; Jason smiled apologetically around at the bar's patrons, many of whom were glaring. "Tony the Janitor?" Tommy bellowed. "Tony the Janitor? I'm Tommy the—"

"We're in a freaking bar," Jason interrupted in a panic. "Keep your voice down!"

Tommy looked at him blankly. "I was going to say 'doctor.'"

"Oh."

"I am Tommy theDoctor! Tommy the Racecar Driver! Tommy the Teacher! Tommy the Fighter! Tommy the Pow—"

Jason clamped a hand over Tommy's mouth. "Shut up, man," he hissed at Tommy. "When did you become such a lightweight?"

"This isn't about alcohol! This is about Kim! I am the coolest, best, most kick-ass guy in the world!"

"Uh-huh. Let's go. Time to get you out of here," Jason said, standing up.

"DOWN WITH FLORIDA!" Tommy roared, slamming his beer bottle down so hard it nearly cracked.

"Yes, yes, down with Florida," Jason said, tossing some cash on the bar and grabbing Tommy's arm, hauling him towards the door.

They got back in the truck, Tommy glaring straight ahead. Jason hated it when Tommy got like this… it reminded him of the Green days, before he'd destroyed the Sword of Darkness. Back when Tommy wasn't his friend… just the first guy Jason had ever lost a fight to, the guy who invaded the Command Center and nearly destroyed Zordon and Alpha, the guy who was under Rita's spell.

The guy Jason wouldn't want to cross.

Jason decided not to head for the house. After a few minutes of silence, Tommy asked, "Where are we going?"

"The park."

"Why?"

"So I can kick your ass," Jason joked. More seriously, he added, "Seems like you could stand to blow off some steam."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah." He glanced at Jason appraisingly. "You'll help me, right?"

"Blow off some steam?"

"Get Kimberly back."

Jason rolled his eyes. "You moron. I've been waiting almost eight years for you to ask."

Hayley and Anton stood in the center of the demolished laboratory, Hayley amazed, Anton resigned. He sighed heavily as he took in the damaged equipment and research, most of it beyond repair.

"Is it wrong of me to miss this place?" Anton asked wistfully.

Hayley shook her head. "No. Might not be a part of your past that you're proud of, but it's still a part of you." She stepped over to the shelf where he'd kept the specimen jars, most of which were smashed or at least cracked. "Besides, think of all the advancements you made… the things you accomplished. The things you could still accomplish with even a fraction of Mesogog's work."

Anton raised his eyebrows. "That's a good point, actually. I haven't… I try not to think about it much. All the things I created to destroy and exterminate…" He forced a smile. "Thank you for accompanying me, by the way. Elsa really didn't want to come here. It was harder on her than on me."

Hayley looked at him in surprise. "I would have thought it would be harder for you. No offense, but she was an innocent bystander."

"That's why it's harder for her. I have to face it, take responsibility for it. She wasn't in control of herself. Not only did I violate her free will, but… well. A large part of her transformation was psychological. Mesogog convinced her that it was her own nature, not the power I fed her, that was evil. It's… taken a toll."

"Tommy doesn't like to talk about it either," Hayley said. "How it felt to want his friends dead, to hurt innocent people, wondering if that desire was still inside him."

Anton grimaced. "He told me about it, once, after I found out who he was. He said he was one of the most efficient warriors Rita Repulsa had ever had… and that's why I brainwashed Elizabeth and Smitty into Elsa and Zeltrax." He sighed. "But enough of that. Let's find whatever's in here, get it under control, and get out of here, eh?"

Hayley nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I'm supposed to be leaving for Angel Grove in roughly an hour; I know Jason and Trini won't mind if I show up in the middle of the night, but I'd like to get there as soon as I can."

"Elsa and I are leaving in the morning," Anton told her as they stepped out of the laboratory. "Reserved the presidential suite at the Angel Grove Hilton."

"That ought to be nice. What's down this way?"

"Our private rooms. Mine, Elsa's and Zeltrax's."

Hayley swallowed. "Would you… you know, mind?"

"You want to see them?" She nodded. "Sure. I don't know that they're intact, but I wouldn't mind taking a look myself."

They started with Elsa's. "Wow, cliché alert," Hayley said, wrinkling her nose as she glanced around at the weapons and heavy black décor. "It's like something out of a bondage porno movie."

"I wouldn't repeat that to her," Anton said mildly. "Hmm… her favorite morning star is missing. And one of her swords."

"Think whoever's wandering around in here took it?"

"Probably not. I assume they simply weren't in their places when Mesogog cast her out. Zeltrax occasionally stole items belonging to her, part of his bizarre obsession…"

"I want to see his room."

Anton gave her a sympathetic look. He knew that Hayley had been friends with Smitty before Tommy had beaten Smitty out for the job at Mercer Industries; Tommy and Smitty had met in grad school, after Tommy and Hayley's friendship had been firmly established. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

They went to Zeltrax's nearby room. "Oh, jeez," Hayley muttered, sickened at the sight of the desecrated pictures covering the walls. "Poor Smitty."

"I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It's not your fault. Besides, if Mesogog hadn't turned him into Zeltrax, he would have died. He did die, really. He wasn't Smitty anymore." She sighed. "God, look at all these… I'd forgotten about half of this stuff. Karaoke night at Braum's Bar and Grill, every Wednesday… that Halloween when we all got smashed and woke up in Canada… oh, wow, that's Tommy's ex-girlfriend, Kennedy. I hooked him up with her after he and I broke up."

Anton was startled. "You dated?"

Hayley nodded. "It was Smitty's fault, actually. He had a crush on me, but I wasn't interested, so Smitty became even more jealous of Tommy—not only was Tommy beating him in half their classes and whatnot, but Smitty was convinced Tommy and I were more than roommates. He kept telling Tommy that there was no way a guy and a girl could just be friends, which got Tommy thinking that we should have feelings for each other, even though we didn't. So we tried, we failed, and we ended it, but things were weird, naturally, and he was starting to wonder if he'd ever manage to make a relationship work, so I hooked him up with Kennedy. Clingy, obsessive little thing. Took two months after he broke up with her for him to finally get rid of her—she found out he was hiding under the kitchen table every time she came knocking and finally got it through her thick skull that he was no longer interested. Eventually we patched up our friendship enough to move back in with each other, and then we started working on Ranger-related projects together. And that's where you came in."

"He never told me you knew. Or who the other Rangers had been. He showed me, he proved he was telling the truth—but he only told me about himself. It was Mesogog who realized your involvement."

"That half Tommy's research was mine? Yeah. We figured it would be best, especially since it was such a risk to involve you. But we needed your funding, your… assistance."

"Zeltrax was furious when I told him that Tommy's Ranger status was part of the reason I selected him for the position. That was when this started, anyway." Anton gestured at the walls. "Would you like to take some of the pictures, Hayley?"

She shook her head. "Nah. I have my own copies, of most of them anyway. And I don't think I want any mementoes of Smitty that have knife slashes through Tommy's face." She smiled sadly. "He wasn't so bad, really. Pushy, jealous, arrogant, but he could be fun and he was dedicated to anything he cared about, be it his work or his friends. We had some good times."

Anton cleared his throat, uncomfortable. "You were at his funeral?"

She nodded. "The memorial service. Tommy and I both went. We hadn't seen Smitty in almost two years by that point, though. He stopped talking to us the minute he found out that Tommy had gotten the job."

"I'm sorry."

Hayley shrugged. "It was bound to happen eventually. He was jealous about Tommy's academic prowess, about me—especially after Tommy and I broke up and I still wouldn't go out with Smitty. I'm just glad Zeltrax never fixated on me the way he did on Tommy."

Hayley went over to a picture of the three of them from the Halloween that had landed them on the wrong side of the Canadian border—the last Halloween they'd ever spent together. It was a picture of her and Tommy, sitting on the couch in their former living room—the couch on which they'd watched a million movies, ate a million pizzas, and shared their first, disastrous kiss. They were already in costumes—Tommy a vampire, Hayley a witch. She was laughing as he pretended he was leaning in to sink his fake fangs into her neck. She could see the MIT pennant on the wall behind them, next to a shelf of Hayley's academic awards and Tommy's various trophies. Smitty wasn't in the photo, he'd been the one taking it… what had he been for Halloween that year? It pained her to realize she couldn't remember. It pained her even more to see the dagger sticking out of Tommy's forehead and the one protruding from her own heart.

Hayley shuddered. Zeltrax hadn't forgotten her, after all.

She seized the knife in her heart and started tugging. Not wanting to upset Anton or reveal her emotions to him, she called, "Hey, did you bring a weapon?"

"No," he said. "I didn't often use them as Mesogog. I learned how, but my powers meant I didn't require much beyond hand-to-hand combat."

"Well, might want to grab one now." She wrenched the knife free and removed the one in Tommy's skull. She started to turn away, then stopped and yanked the picture from the wall, folding it up and tucking it into her back pocket, unable to leave that particular memory behind. She handed one of the daggers to Anton and moved out into the hallway.

Werewolf, she recalled suddenly. Smitty was a werewolf that Halloween. How… ironic.

They had only taken a few steps towards Mesogog's former residence when a posse of Triptoids rounded the corner, bouncing jerkily towards them. Hayley yelped and spun around, preparing to run. No way were she and Anton a match for a dozen Triptoids.

"Triptoids!" Anton rasped. Hayley froze, shocked—he was using Mesogog's voice. "Halt!" he called.

Hayley turned. The Triptoids were standing completely still, at attention.

"Return to the storage bay," Anton hissed. "Await further instructions."

They turned and bounced away in formation, as simple as that. Anton smiled in relief. "Well. I guess we've found the intruders. They must have tripped an alarm."

"I didn't know you could use his voice."

Anton looked sheepish. "The Triptoids and Tyrannodrones are all voice-activated; they were programmed not to harm me, but they wouldn't take my orders. That way I couldn't order them to, you know, go drown themselves during the periods while Mesogog was dormant. I figured if I could learn to imitate his voice, I could eventually find a way to destroy the things."

"Well. Good thinking. I wish I had known they were voice-activated; I could have seriously exploited that. Should've had Tommy capture one for my own study."

"Well, if you're interested in them anymore, you're welcome to it."

Hayley's eyes lit up. Studying the minions… the Tyrannodrones had been basic prototypes when Anton had become Mesogog, she and Tommy had been part of the initial creation but they'd never perfected them, that had been Mesogog… the opportunities, the things she could do with that sort of knowledge…

"Anton," she said slowly, "do you ever think about, you know, rebuilding?"
"Rebuilding? My evil empire?"

She shook her head. "This lab. Continuing your work. Using it to help the next generation of Power Rangers, to better the earth itself. The invisiportals could revolutionize mass-transportation… Imagine if the hydro-regenerator could be used for healing, rather than reforming and enlarging monsters… think of the possibilities."

Anton looked around pensively. "It would be… useful, shall we say, this secluded lab… but expensive. And I'd have to do the majority of the work myself. I couldn't hire contractors to rebuild a place that holds all of my secrets and half of the Power Rangers'. There are extensive files on not only the Dino Rangers but the Ninja Rangers… and things that could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands."

"I'm sure other Ranger teams would be willing to help with not only the reconstruction but the research. I know Trini would love to get her hands on some of this stuff, and Billy as well. Ethan would probably set up a cot in the corner. Hell, you could probably order the Triptoids to help with the construction."

Anton's face darkened. "I could, but I won't." He exhaled sharply and glanced around some more. "It would take a lot of work, and money. But it's doable. And it could really benefit so many… it's something to think about, at any rate. I've got to get the invisiportal network recalibrated, anyway—I don't know why the portals are so tangled. It should be possible to exit through any portal once you've entered—I don't know why they're only going to one or two specific destinations each. I still can't believe the portal in my study now leads to the kitchen at China Express."

Hayley chuckled. "I'll never forget the look on that poor dishwasher's face."

Anton smiled. "Yes, well, let's get going, now that we've found out what tripped the alarm."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather look around some more?"

He shook his head. "I'd like to talk to Elsa about the idea, and do a little more planning. Besides which, you need to get to Angel Grove and rescue Tommy from his own insanity, and I have to be up fairly early tomorrow morning to leave myself."

"Good point. Back to the portal?"

"Back to the portal."

Anton and Hayley turned and headed to the portal that led safely back to the sidewalk in front of Hayley's Cyberspace. No sooner had they disappeared than Cassidy and Devin rounded the corner.

"I could have sworn I heard voices," Devin said, shaking his head. "I guess not."

Cassidy sighed. "We're never getting out of here."

"Okay," came Rocky's voice over Billy's communicator. "Ready when you are."

Billy glanced up and down the street. There weren't a whole lot of pedestrians on this particular corner, but that didn't matter; there were probably still plenty of people who could be looking out a window. This was pretty risky, hopping into a car owned by a fellow ex-Ranger while morphed, but he couldn't see any other way to do it. He couldn't find the zoo and it wasn't exactly easy to keep out of sight, even if he managed to get directions. He couldn't demorph while he still had the chimp; Trini had beeped him and told him how the rest of the plan had played out, including Trent's mention that the Blue Ranger was taking the chimp back to the zoo, and it wouldn't take much to make the leap from "guy heading towards the zoo with a chimpanzee" to "Power Ranger's alter ego."

Billy took a deep breath. "Hang on, Farky," he told the disgruntled monkey. Billy dove off the roof upon which he'd been hiding and went into a ninja-streak, across the street and in through the open back door of Adam's Mercedes. Farky screeched in protest, but Billy did his best to ignore it, concentrating on halting his streak before crashing into the closed door on the other side of the back seat. Rocky slammed the door behind him and quickly hopped into the passenger's seat.

"Go, go, go!" Rocky hissed, as Adam pressed his foot onto the gas and shot off down the street. Rocky buckled his seatbelt and turned to look at Billy and Farky. "Hey, Billy. How's it going?"

Billy glared at him from behind his hood. "Wonderful," he said dryly. "Thanks for picking me up, by the way—um, why isn't Adam wearing any pants?"

"You tellus," Adam said through gritted teeth. "I was minding my own business, sitting in a movie theatre, when my morpher went spastic. I still have scorch marks on my butt."

"Oh, yes," Billy said. "We forgot, in all the excitement, that there might be a negative reaction when a different Ranger used one of the three morphers that were duplicated."

"'Negative reaction?' Try explaining to an entire theatre why your buddy's ass has gone light show," Rocky said dryly.

Billy cringed. "Did you explain things properly?"

"Best we could. Malfunctioning prototype cell phone. Who was causing the white sparks, anyway? Tommy?"

"Trent. I apologize for your inconvenience; by the time we found Conner, he and Bulk and Skull were scrubbing off the orange paint in the pool at the Angel Grove Inn, and—wait. You went to the movies?"

Rocky and Adam winced. "Um… we forgive you?" Rocky said hopefully.

Billy just chuckled. "Don't worry, guys—I wish I had gone to the movies. I—" He broke off. Blue and red lights had started flashing wildly. "Is that the morpher?" he asked uncertainly.

"No," Adam said, grimacing. "That would be the cops."

Billy's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, no."

Adam pulled the car over and began rolling down the windows. "Demorph, man!" Rocky hissed at Billy.

"I can't! Trent publicly announced that the Blue Ranger currently had custody of the stolen chimpanzee!"

"Great," Rocky growled. "Okay, everybody just be cool. We'll… figure something out."

Billy craned his neck to peer out the rear windshield at the approaching cop. "Oh, no. I know him."

"Who is he?" Adam whispered as he killed the engine.

"He was one of the officers who responded to the purse snatching, when I was posing as the Black Ranger."

"That guy who broke into Tommy's house?" Rocky asked.

"No, not him. His partner."

They all held very still as Abe got out of the cruiser and approached the driver's side window. He frowned down at Adam's bare legs, then looked at Rocky, who grinned in a manner often found in mental patients. Then Abe looked in the back seat, where the Blue Ninja Ranger sat with a soggy chimpanzee on his lap.

Abe blanched. "What the…?"

"Hi, officer," Adam said belatedly. "What, um, what seems to be the problem?"

"Huh? Oh. Speeding," he said distractedly. "You were… yeah. Speeding."

"I apologize for our infraction," Billy said formally. "I enlisted the help of these two gentlemen to return this poor chimpanzee; I'm afraid our presence is rather distracting for the driver."

"I bet," Abe commented.

"This chimpanzee is part of an evil plot by a villain," Billy added desperately. "I am attempting to return him to the zoo, now that, uh, he has been rescued."

Abe looked at Adam for confirmation. Adam forced a smile. "Officer… have you ever had a really weird day?"

Abe stared at him. Then he looked back at the Blue Ninja Ranger and the chimpanzee, who was now examining Adam's pants with interest. Then he looked back at Adam.

"You can go now," Abe said, and turned and walked away.

It was almost eleven o'clock when Jason and Tommy parked in the driveway of Jason and Trini's house. The moment they climbed out of the truck, they could hear heated arguing from the backyard.

Tommy sighed. "That's Kira. I'd better go break it up." Jason followed him around the garage and into the back. Kira was standing beneath a tree in the middle of the yard, shouting up into the branches while Tommy the dog ran in circles around her and the tree, barking happily. Tommy and Jason looked askance at Trent and Ethan, who were sitting on the back porch.

"Kira treed Conner," Ethan explained.

"And now he won't come down, and she can't get up that tree in those boots," Trent added. "We're waiting to see which of them caves first." He was still holding Mr. Mongolian Gerbil.

"My money's on Conner," Jason said.

"Nah, it'll be Kira," Ethan said.

Trent nodded. "She'll eventually realize she's acting crazy and stomp off, luring Conner into a false sense of security so that he comes down on his own."

"Kira will just smack him around later; she won't spend the next three hours waiting at the tree," Ethan agreed. "Conner, on the other hand…"

"Aw, the bonds between teammates," Jason joked. "Look how well they know each other."

Tommy shrugged. "Not like it's the first time she's treed him. I live on the edge of a forest, you know."

Jason snorted. "Whack jobs, one and all."

"Come on," Tommy said. "Let's go see if Kim, Zack and Trini are ready to head back to the hotel."

"Kim and Zack," Jason corrected as they went inside. "If you're going to go through with this whole conversation thing, you might want Trini out of the way. That'll make it easier."

"Yeah. That's why you want her to sleep here tonight. For my sake."

Jason grinned. "I didn't say I wasn't going to benefit from it."

They headed into the living room, where they found Zack, Trini and Kimberly surrounded by a multitude of Spencer's equipment. "We got the handcuffs sorted by color," Zack announced. "Kimberly said you told her she could have the pink ones and the leopard-print, and Trini wanted the red—mind if I take some of the black?"

"Help yourself," Tommy told him, rolling his eyes. It figured that when a group of Power Rangers was presented with forty-nine pairs of fuzzy handcuffs the first thing they'd do was sort them by color.

"And I can have some of the pole-dancing kits, right?" Kimberly asked. "My friend Donna—"

"Help yourself," Tommy interrupted hastily; the last thing he needed to think about right now was Kimberly pole-dancing. "Any word from Billy?"

"And where are Rocky and Adam?" Jason asked.

"They're together—Billy got lost on the way to the zoo and Rocky and Adam picked them up," Trini explained. "Billy beeped me. They're working on a way to sneak into the zoo still, and then they said something about having to find Adam some pants and Zack some flowers—"

"What?" Jason demanded.

"Yeah, I didn't quite catch all of it. Oh, and Kat checked in—she's catching a plane out to Los Angeles that should get her here by tomorrow night, so she'll probably be staying with Adam, Tanya and Aisha."

"We still meeting Tanya and Aisha at the airport tomorrow at five?" Tommy asked.

There was a general murmur of agreement. "By the way, Hayley called a few minutes ago," Trini said. "She just left, so she should be here around two in the morning. I figured we'd put Conner in the guest room and Billy and Hayley out here on the couches, since they'll probably want to stay up talking and whatnot, and that way the dog won't be able to get into the hamster and gerbil's cage; I already assembled it and put the hamster in it. I think Trent's still got the gerbil… oh, and Hayley said not to worry about any messages on your phone from Elsa; Hayley said she already handled it."

"I still haven't worked my way through all the messages about monkeys," Tommy said. "I can't believe Conner gave those two my cell phone number."

"I still can't believe Bulk's got a girl," Jason said. "I don't think I'll ever hear the word 'monkey' again without thinking about Bulk having a baby."

"It's not really an unreasonable word to bring that up," Zack mused thoughtfully. Then he shuddered. "She was actually hot?"

Jason nodded. "Not exactly Carmen Electra, but definitely a catch."

"Wonders never cease," Zack commented.

"I think it's sweet," Kimberly said. "I'm glad he found someone. Although if you'd tried to tell me ten years ago that Bulk would have a live-in girlfriend and a kid on the way while I'm still single, I would have probably smacked you for being an idiot."

"Life is weird like that," Tommy said. "Anyway, are we ready to head back to the hotel? I'm beat."

"Soon as you figure out how to get Conner out of that tree," Zack said. "We tried and failed. Repeatedly. Kira wouldn't budge, either."

"I've done it before. Although it helps to have a box of Cheez-Its and a pellet gun…"

The others laughed. "Ah, the imagery," Zack joked.

"You staying here tonight?" Tommy asked Trini. "What with Hayley coming in and all?"

Trini gave him a suspicious look, then glanced at Jason. "Yeah. Might as well. Do you mind, Kimberly?"
"Nah. I've got Kira to hang with, anyway—provided Tommy can solve the tree thing without snack food and weapons."

"I might have some corn chips and throwing stars," Jason said thoughtfully.

"No need," Tommy said. "You guys finish sorting that; I'll go get the kids together."

"All right," Kimberly said, picking up one of the trash bags and beginning to shove her share of the merchandise into it. "Maybe we'll get to have a peaceful night for once."

Jason smirked at her. "I wouldn't count on it."

End Notes: And now, things are about to get… interesting…