Back in Time
Chapter 13
Dr O woke up with a start, sitting up in his bed for a moment before the commotion that caused him to wake up registered in his mind. He jumped out of the bed and sprinted out of the door, skidding to a halt in the kitchen, seeing Conner and Trent both bent over and yelling in pain as Kira pulled on their ears.
"Shut up, you morons." She snapped, tugging on their ears in emphasis. "Dr O has barely slept since we got here, and you two dimwitts arguing isn't going to help him!" She tugged their ears once more before releasing them.
"Ow! Kira!" Conner moaned, rubbing his ear and standing up straight again, now that his ear wasn't being pulled towards the ground. "You're mean."
"And you two are idiots." Ethan commented. "She's right. Dr O needs his sleep."
"Too late for that now." The four teens jumped and spun around to see their science teacher stood in the doorway. "What is going on?" He asked, not seeing how Kira took him in before smirking and turning back around.
"These two decided that they were going to argue about who was making breakfast. Kira grabbed them and tried to shut them up, but apparently not soon enough." Ethan said from where he sat at the table.
"And who won?" Dr O asked, smirking at the looks of hatred the two teens were throwing at Kira.
"She did." Trent grumbled, still glaring at the yellow ranger.
"So, what's for breakfast then Kira?" Tommy asked, laughing at the white ranger's reaction.
"Cereal or toast." She replied, still with her back to him. "That's all we've got."
"Dr O, don't you think you should go put a shirt on?" Conner asked, making the science teacher look down. He had forgotten that he had only worn a pair of grey pyjama bottoms to bed, and when he ran out of the room this morning, he hadn't thought of putting a shirt on, which makes him suddenly realise why Kira hadn't turned around.
"I'll be right back." He muttered, heading back to his room to get ready. He silently cursed himself as he pulled a black t-shirt over his head. When they first started dating, he promised Kira that he wouldn't and couldn't do anything more than cuddling and kissing until she graduated. They were both worried about what would happen if anyone found out about them. And he certainly did not plan for the first time she saw him topless to be in a room with the other Dino Thunder rangers. "God, how could you be so stupid Tommy?" He muttered to himself before walking out of the room. He went back into the kitchen, seeing only Kira sat at the table, the boys no where to be seen. "Hey, where are the boys?"
"Outside." She said, looking up with a small smile, her cheeks slightly red.
"Kira, I am so sorry. I heard the boys arguing and just ran out of the room. I didn't even think to put a shirt on." He apologised, sitting down next to her.
"I know." She said, smiling at him. "It's ok. I know it was an accident."
"Then why did you turn away?" He asked.
"Because if I kept looking, I don't think I would have been able to keep our relationship a secret." She said with a smirk, making him laugh.
"So you liked what you saw?" He smirked, his eyes twinkling.
"Oh, I really like it." She replied in a low voice, leaning closer to him. "But now, I don't think I can wait until graduation." She whispered before standing up and walking out of the room, leaving Dr O staring after her with wide eyes. It took him a moment to realise that the watch like communicator Billy had given him was going off. Billy had realised that the Dino Thunder team's communicators wouldn't be able to contact Zordon or the other rangers, so he had given Dr O a spare communicator so that they had contact and could teleport. "Go ahead."
"Dr Oliver, there is a situation and we need you and you team to come to the command centre now." Zordon said, making Tommy walk out of the door and wave his team over.
"Ok. Can Alpha help with the teleporting? I've only got the one watch." He replied letting the teens know they were about to be teleported.
"Teleporting now." Alpha said. Not even 5 seconds later, the Dino Thunder rangers were teleported into the command centre in multicoloured streaks of light. They looked around and saw that the Mighty Morphin team were already there.
"What's going on?" Conner asked.
"Behold the viewing globe." Zordon said, making them all look at the globe in the middle of the room, and what they saw made the Dino Thunder rangers look at Dr O in shock.
"Isn't that Zeltrax?" Zach asked, looking up at the Dino Thunder rangers. "What are those things with him."
"Tyrannodrones." Conner said, looking back at the other rangers. "They're like our version of putties."
"What are they doing here?" Ethan asked, him, Kira and Trent still staring at Dr O.
"How should I know?" He asked, slightly wary under the stares of the rangers.
"You did create them." Kira said, making everyone else in the room look at him in shock.
"You did what?" Kim asked, looking at Tommy.
"Don't look at me." He said, putting his hands up.
"Ok, I may have accidently created them, but how did I know that Mesogog would use them as his henchmen?" Dr O said. "And instead of picking on me, shouldn't we be doing something?"
"Let's go see what he wants." Trent said.
"We're coming with you." Tommy said, the Mighty Morphin rangers all nodding in agreement.
"No you're not." Dr O said, making everyone frown. "Zeltrax is our problem. If something happens to you guys now it could disrupt the timelines even more."
"We've fought him, we know how strong he is. You're going to need our help." Jason said.
"Dr O, I get that you want to protect them, but this isn't your decision." Conner said, making Dr O look at him in shock. "I'm the leader of this team. And I say that for now, we go alone. But we'll call you guys the second we need help." Tommy frowned, but nodded. "Alpha, can you teleport us?"
"Teleporting now." Alpha said, pressing a button on the control panel. The five rangers teleported to the park, seeing Zeltrax in the distance with a group of Tyrannodrones, terrorising anyone they came across.
"Come on!" Conner said. They ran to where the monsters were. "Zeltrax!" Conner called, making the cyborg turn to look at them.
"Rangers! Come to join the party?" He yelled.
"Doesn't look like much of a party to me." Kira commented. "You haven't got any music."
"How did you get Tyrannodrones here?" Ethan asked, glad that while this was going on, the Tyrannodrones were focusing on them and gave everyone still around the chance to run to safety.
"I brought a couple with me. The rest I engineered using Dr Oliver's original plans. Thank you Dr Oliver, for writing your experiments in such good detail." Zeltrax laughed. The teens looked at Dr O with raised eyebrows, making him wish the ground would swallow him whole.
"Yeah, alright. I get it. I messed up." He muttered, making Kira smirk. "Now can we get on with it?"
"You guys ready?" Conner asked, making them all nod, flicking their wrists so their bracelets turned into their morphers.
"Ready." They replied. "Dino Thunder! Power up! Ha!" "White Ranger! Dino Power!" They morphed into their ranger uniforms, before jumping over a few Tyrannodrones as they charged towards the rangers.
Back at the command centre, the Mighty Morphin rangers watched in awe as the team from the future took on the Tyrannodrones.
"They seem tougher than Zedd's putties." Jason commented, watching as Kira threw one into a group of four, sending them to the ground before they stumbled back to their feet. "They don't seem to stay down."
"I can't believe that somewhere in your future, you create these things." Trini said, looking at Tommy with a smirk.
"Neither can I." He muttered, watching his older self. "Should we help?"
"You heard Conner. He'll let us know if they want help." Billy said from where he continued working on the device.
"But he is not the leader of our team." Jason said, siding with Tommy.
"And Zeltrax is nothing to do with us." Kim said, making Tommy look at her in shock. "He is the Dino Thunder team's villain, not ours. Dr Oliver was right. If we go barging into their fight and any of us get hurt, it could change the future. Unless Conner asks for our help, we stay out of it."
Tommy just grumbled under his breath and went back to watching the fight.
"Man, I just got used to fighting Putties. I forgot how much stronger these guys are." Ethan said, kicking a Tyrannodrone back and using his Tricera shield to deflect their attacks.
"Dr O, try and get to Zeltrax!" Conner said, spotting Zeltrax watching from the side of the fight.
"On it." The black ranger replied, taking the opportunity to flip over a Tyrannodrones, landing in front of Zeltrax and using his Brachio Staff to slash the cyborg, sending him stumbling backwards before pulling out his own weapon.
"Where is your younger self, Dr Oliver? Is he coming to join the party?" Zeltrax asked, making Dr O frown.
"Why did you come here, Zeltrax? What was the point?" He asked, standing ready for whenever Zeltrax decided he was done talking.
"You." He growled. "You destroyed my life, so I will destroy yours."
"I didn't destroy your life, Smitty." Dr O said, trying to reach the man that the cyborg was before Mesagog turned him into what he was now. "We can fix this!"
"No! I will get my hands on your younger self, and I will destroy you once and for all!" He cried before beginning to fight the black ranger. Dr O stumbled back with the force of Zeltrax's attacks.
"You're not going to win this Zeltrax!" He said, holding his Brachio staff ready.
"And how are you going to stop me?" The cyborg asked, standing straight and seeming to mock Dr O.
"With us." Dr O turned his head to see the rest of his team beside him, having finally got the Tyrannodrones to stay down. "If you want to hurt Dr O, you've got to go through us." Kira said, making Dr O smile behind his helmet.
"You cannot stop me." Zeltrax growled.
"You wanna bet?" Conner asked, holding his Tyranno staff out, ready to defend his teammate.
"You're not worth my time." The cyborg growled before jumping into the invisaportal that opened up above him.
"Damn it." Ethan muttered, before freezing as he went to turn around. "Shit."
"What?" Trent asked, looking at the blue ranger with an unseen frown.
"I've just released. We might have a problem with going home." Ethan said, making the other rangers share looks.
"And what's that?" Conner asked.
"We have to get Zeltrax back too." All of the rangers stared at him, no one saying anything.
"Crap." Dr O muttered. "Right, let's get back to the command centre and see if we can figure this out."
Xxx
"So, we need to find a way to get the device near Zeltrax to send him back as well?" Jason asked, making sure he had heard Ethan right. The Dino Thunder rangers were all still morphed but had taken their helmets off as they sat around the command centre. Conner and Trent were sat on counters with Kira sat on the floor near them. Ethan and Dr O were stood near the viewing globe with Tommy and Jason. Kim and Trini were sat on the black, recliner like bed that Kira had been on the day before, Zach was sat on another counter and Billy was still working on the device that should be able to send the Dino Thunder team home.
"And find a way to erase Zedd's memories." Dr O said, making the rest of the room look at him in shock. "What? He knows about us. He's had Kira in the lunar palace. We can't risk him doing anything that could alter the future."
"I never thought of that." Kira muttered, the nods coming from everyone else indicating that none of them had.
"How are we going to manage that?" Conner asked. "It's not like we can just walk into the Lunar palace and use the gem on him." Kim and Kira shared a look, both smirking as they did.
"Yes we can." Kim said, looking around at the confused looks. "Kira and I have been there. We know our way around. You can use those invisaportals to get us there and back once Zeltrax is gone and Kira can use the gem to erase Zedd's memories."
"And we can double check that there aren't any more Tyrannodrones there." Kira added, making everyone else look at them in shock. "What? It's a good idea!"
"Do you really think we're going to let you go into Zedd's palace?" Trent asked, making Kira jump up with fury on her face.
"What do you mean 'let'?" She asked, making Trent lean back slightly. "You don't 'let' me do anything. I am my own person. This is a way to fix a big problem, and it will work. I need to be the one to do it since any of you using the gem could damage the future. I decide whether or not I am willing to take the risk, not you!"
"Kira, calm down." Dr O said, making her turn her glare on him. "We're just worried."
"Well don't be." She snapped, feeling slightly guilty at the sad look in his eyes. "I can take care of myself and you know it. And besides, Zedd's memories will be gone before he can even think about doing anything."
"Kira is correct." Zordon said, making everyone look up at him. "Zedd cannot be allowed to keep his memories of the Dino Thunder team, and Kira must be the one to erase his memories. Kira and Kimberly are the only ones that know their way around the lunar palace, so it must be them to go." Zordon saw the glares that all of the male rangers in the room were giving him, and Dr O could have sworn he looked slightly smug.
"Guys, they'll be fine." Trini said, sticking up for the female rangers. "You are all way too overprotective. They are rangers and you guys have said that Kira has gotten herself out of hostage situations without your help before."
"Fine. When the time comes, we'll be ready to open a portal and bring you back." Conner said, sending a glare towards Dr O when he went to argue.
"You called him Smitty." Tommy said, making Dr O and the rest of the Dino Thunder team freeze. "We were watching on the viewing globe and we heard him say you ruined his life. Who is he?"
"He was an old friend." Dr O said, making Kira look at him in concern, which went unnoticed by everyone except Jason. "We were at college together. We were up for a job against each other with Anton Mercer, and I got it. He blamed me for him not getting the job. He worked in a lab after we graduated, and there was an accident. Something exploded. He was badly injured, but he could have been saved. Mesagog found him and turned him into what he is now. He made him evil, tortured him and made his belief that it was all my fault stronger in the hopes that he would destroy me."
"It wasn't your fault, Dr O." Kira said, seeing that he was blaming himself. "Mesagog did that to him. Not you."
"I could have prevented it." He said, looking down.
"How?" Tommy asked, making Dr O look up. "By the sounds of it, you did nothing wrong. There was a reason you got the job over him, maybe it was something making sure you weren't the one injured in the accident, something making sure you were here to fight again."
"What, like Morphing grid gods?" Dr O replied sarcastically. "They're out to get me. I'm sure they're up there, laughing their butts off at the shit they put me through." Kira rolled her eyes, having heard enough rants about the so called morphing grid gods.
"Ok, let's get back on topic." Conner said, drawing attention away from Dr O and Zeltrax. "Billy, how's it going with the device?"
"I think I have determined how it operates." Billy said, making Conner frown. "With some careful alterations I should be able to get it operating in a way we desire."
"Umm, what?" Zach asked, looking around to make sure that he wasn't the only one that didn't understand the blue ranger.
"We need to make some changes to make the device send us forwards in time instead of backwards." Dr O said, making everyone nod in understanding. "We still have another issue with erasing your memories."
"I thought Kira was going to use the Dino gem?" Trent asked.
"She is, but we need something to put your guys to sleep as we lock away the memories." Dr O said, making everyone share worried looks.
"Why?" Kim asked.
"Because once I've used the gem, I need time to put it back where it came from, get back here and then we need to use the device to get us home." Kira said. "We can't risk you guys seeing us after we've locked the memories. We don't know what effect that might have, so we need to find a way to put you to sleep so that we have time to get the gem back and leave."
"That makes sense, I guess. Any ideas?" Ethan asked.
"Rangers, I suggest you discuss this later on." Zordon said, making everyone look up at him. "I understand that you are keen to get home, Dino Thunder rangers, but you will do yourselves no good if you exhaust yourselves. Go and relax." They all nodded, everyone in the room knowing that Zordon always knew what they needed, and right now, what they needed was rest.
"You guys heading to the cabin?" Tommy asked, Dr O nodding. "Mind if we join you?"
"Don't you guys have school?" Conner asked, making the Mighty Morphin rangers laugh.
"It's Saturday." Kim replied, making the Dino Thunder rangers share looks.
"Really?" Ethan asked, making them all nod. "I guess we never did stop to figure out what day it was when we got here."
"Well, since we have a free day, let's hang out." Zach laughed. Alpha pressed the button that teleported them all to the cabin, a day of rest very much appreciated by all 11 rangers.