Dino Thunder: Return of the Eclipse- Chapter 7: Beneath the Surface
Disclaimer: Saban owns all Power Ranger lines.
Copyright: All unrecognizable parts and characters are under December's Phoenix's copyright.
Summary: A new dinosaur joins the Rangers.
Crystal sighed for the hundredth time, rubbing her fingertips across her forehead. The words on the book's pages on her lap swirled around her like an endless sea of nonsense. Of course, it didn't help that it seemed her baby sister had the same problem. It also didn't help that Ethan's video game blared at top volume while he narrated himself playing it. Crystal's emerald eyes found Lucy first, noting the toffee-brown eyes narrowed at Ethan's back before returning to her book. Then she turned to Conner, sitting between Lucy and Kira, with his eyes on Ethan. Kira occasionally glanced up, but the grip on her pencil told the ninja she also started to get agitated with the Blue Ranger.
All four occupants of the table next to Ethan shot him miserable looks when he cheered himself on after completing a level. Eventually, having enough of it, Conner reached over and slammed his fingers on a few keys, abruptly ending the game. Ethan gawked while Conner returned to his paper. "Dude, I can't concentrate on anything when you are blowing things up in my ear," He told the geek, glancing at the girls at the table with him.
Ethan squeaked, turning around to face the four. "It took me three hours to get to that level." He complained.
Once the game noises stopped, Crystal immediately fell back into her reading, pulling her notepad from the table to the book to jot down something she found. Lucy tapped her leg with the toe of her aged Converse before yanking the highlighter from the cap in her mouth and marking something in her book.
"Sorry, but I'm with Conner," Kira added. "Plus, we have a paper due tomorrow."
"Yeah, why aren't you guys working on it?" Conner asked, but the question fell on deaf ears with the two ninjas.
The two sprawled in their chairs, dressed in shorts and t-shirts rather than their typical ninja suits. Crystal's legs were propped on Lucy's lap, her feet used as a book rest. Lucy's legs were on the table, knees hitting the edge while her calves were squished against the cool tabletop. The Lunar ninja's right foot, wrapped in her Converse, bounced occasionally while she had a bright yellow highlighter between her teeth. Crystal wasn't any better, with a neon green highlighter tucked behind her ear and a red pen between her teeth.
Ethan turned around to answer Conner. "Trent and I jammed ours out last week while you guys were playing David Beckham and—"
"Don't…finish that." Kira bit out, grinding her teeth.
"I won't." Ethan returned, holding his hands up in defense.
"Earth to Lucy," Kira leaned across the table to tap her friend. When Kira realized she wasn't reaching Lucy, Conner nodded, leaning over, bumping her shoulder, and sending the ninja skittering.
Lucy jerked away from the Red Ranger, dropping the book in her lap onto the floor with a loud, dull thud. Her head whipped around to face Conner. When her eyes found Conner still leaning over to her, Lucy placed her head in her hands, her chest heaving for a moment. "Gods, don't do that."
Kira laughed. "One of the best ninjas, and you can't hear me?"
Lucy shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment. "No, not when I'm actively ignoring everything around me to translate what looks like ancient Greek." She sighed, shoving strands of hair away from her face before bunching it in a messy ponytail. "What was the question?"
Kira motioned to the paper in front of her. "The paper."
"Oh, I wrote that the day it was assigned," Lucy answered, shrugging while leaning awkwardly to grab her book. "Rys mentioned wanting to research our powers, so I figured I'd crunch it beforehand."
"I graduated last year," Crystal answered, her words garbled by the pen in her mouth. "So, I have no papers to write."
"Hey, where's Trent anyway?" Kira asked, looking around.
"Hayley gave him the day off," Lucy answered, not looking up while she exchanged one book for another from the stack in the backpack they had brought. She readjusted herself, twisting comfortably and resting her legs against Conner's shins.
"For once, can you not put your legs on mine?" Conner asked, looking over at her.
"You're just in the way, buckaroo." Lucy returned. At the silence, she glanced up at Conner, noting his slightly unhappy look. "Don't get so butt hurt about it. Crystal and I do it to each other and our friends."
Conner turned to Kira. "But I think he's spending some quality time with his dad." He earned a bop to the knee from Lucy.
"Be nice. He told me he has a lot on his plate."
Crystal scoffed, flipping through a few pages. "I'll believe that when I see it."
The following morning, the Rangers were packing their stuff to head out to the bus waiting for them to run to the archeological dig site Dr. Oliver had them going to. Buzzing with excitement to be out of the class, the Rangers and their fellow students happily made their way to the bus. "There is only so much you can learn in the classroom." So Dr. Oliver had told them, nodding to the Rangers on their way out.
"You think we'll find anything interesting at the site?" Ethan asked, glancing around at the three around him. Kira and Lucy had their arms linked together, walking alongside their teammates with their backpacks slung on their shoulders.
Conner had his hands in his pockets and his backpack on his back. "Maybe. Hope it's something cool."
"For Conner's sake, I hope so." Lucy laughed, earning a squeeze in the arm from Kira and laughter from the Blue Ranger.
"You're gonna be jealous when I find something cool, and you don't." Conner returned, leaning over to push Lucy's head away.
The ninja stopped it, swatting his hand away from her. "Easy tiger. Maybe none of us will find something."
It took a little over an hour to reach the site, and Dr. Oliver explained that the students had to be careful when getting into the pits they had dug. The Rangers trailed each other, Lucy leading after mentioning an odd sensation. "It's a brain tingle." She answered when Ethan questioned it, but they followed her. Finally, she led them to another little dig site, less crowded and less surveyed than the others. Sticking close to each other, something they found they were doing more of lately, they had agreed to dig together.
The four scattered around the small dig site when Ethan shouted. "Hey, I found something!" He dug through the dirt with his hands. "Over here." He glanced up to see the three coming. "Check it out. I think I found something."
The three other Rangers moved around him. Conner and Kira squatted while Lucy stood over them. "Great, what is it?" Conner asked, looking down to see what Ethan unearthed.
"Maybe we should go get Dr. O," Lucy suggested. "Looks a little…morphasaurus."
"I'll go," Kira suggested, rising to her feet to find the good doctor wherever he found himself.
While Kira went to catch Dr. Oliver, Conner and Ethan delegated Lucy to hold the egg, arguing that she was powerful enough to stop anything from happening. "That isn't how it works!" Lucy grumbled lowly, the egg still in her hands. She tilted it around, examining the egg while they waited. "Well, that doesn't make sense." She muttered mainly to herself more than anything. But before the guys asked her, Kira and Dr. Oliver came back.
"What'd you guys have?" Dr. Oliver asked, leading Kira back to where the three were standing.
"Looks like a dinozord egg," Lucy asked, carefully handing it over. She lowered her hands when something snapped in her head. Her senses prickled at her neck. She reached out to grip the closet arm in warning, which was Conner. He glanced at her, seeing her eyes shift every second.
A voice spoke up from the other side of them. "Ooh, a discovery." Randall sang, carefully moving to the five. "How exciting."
All the Rangers stared at her in confusion. "Oh, no. We're not sure what it is." Dr. Oliver told her, putting his pen back in his pocket.
"It looks like a prehistoric egg." Randall pointed out. She held her hand out. "May I?"
The Rangers all glanced around at each other. "Well, I…" Dr. Oliver trailed off.
"Oh, don't worry, I won't drop it." Randall convinced him.
Dr. Oliver handed it over reluctantly. Once Randal had it in her hands, Dr. Oliver changed his mind. "I would take that back to the school lab and examine it."
"But of course," Randall shook her head, moving to hand it back to her. "Here."
Before anyone could get their hands on it to take it from Randall, Tyrannodrones came out of nowhere. They sent students and workers scrambling to get out of the way. Dr. Oliver glanced around, then nodded to Conner, who bounced back to him. Then, he turned to the three Rangers around him, taking off with them trailing behind.
Dr. Oliver dealt with the ones around Principal Randall and him. He kicked one back before punching another a few times to send him back. He spin-kicked another, moving over to reach for Randall. He grabbed her forearm, dragging her away from where the Rangers had found the dino egg. He kicked another tyrannodrone, then used Randall's foot to send another back. Again, he kicked a few back before realizing they were going after the egg.
He picked Randall up bridal style, using her legs to kick tyrannodrones back. He swung her around, clearing more and more of the tyrannodrones. Tossing her us, Dr. O punched a few back before catching the spinning principal and placing her back on the ground.
Conner somehow ended up across a dig pit on one of the wooden boards. He dodged a swing, turning around to shove another one into the shallow hole. He flipped back, avoiding a swing and landing before high-kicking a Tyrannodrone. He blocked another swing, using the wooden board to vault himself out of the pit. Turning around, Conner kicked one back. He blocked and sent another one flying. Conner sent a few back using the sifter around him. Kicking one last time, he sent a tyrannodrone flying back into a water-filled pit.
Kira cartwheeled into her pod. She ducked under a swing, pushing that tyrannodrone back. She blocked another swing, punching him back into a wheelbarrow. Kira kicked another one back. Then, turning around, she stopped a swing before sending him into a pit close to her. She kicked another, realizing that wasn't going to work, so she caught his incoming wrist, sending him spinning into the hole below.
Ethan stopped the two punches coming at him at the same time. He shoved them back, kicking back another tyrannodrone coming at him. Knowing that he needed more room than the tyrannodrones were willing to give him, Ethan ran to the nearest dig pit, jumping in it before throwing a tyrannodrone away from him. Ethan sent a few punches to a tyrannodrone, sending him back. He flipped over one, using his momentum to send him out of the pit. One tyrannodrone landed on a wooden board, towering over the Blue Ranger. Using his forearm, Ethan sent him crashing into the board to the ground.
Lucy flipped out of the way of a low sweep, landing on the wood board she had managed to get herself stuck on. She backflipped, her feet kicking up and getting the tyrannodrone closest to her off her tail. Landing quickly, the ninja turned around, slamming her fist into the stomach of the closet tyrannodrone, sending him into a pod of three or four. Twisting around, Lucy kicked her leg up, sending one into a bottomless pit below. Cartwheeling away from the center, Lucy took another one down before punching one and flipping another.
When her last tyrannodrone hit the ground, Lucy met up with the rest of her team, catching sight of Dr. Oliver and Randall near the entrance. Fantastic, they would have to get through Randall to get to the bus. Shoving her team along, the four scrambled to try and get out of the way of the two adults, but the principal had other ideas. She stopped the four, whom all winced as she spoke. "Would you four like to tell me where you learned to fight like that?"
"Karate club," Lucy answered, being the only one to look Randall in the eye. She shoved the three before her, taking off to the bus.
"Do we even have one of those?" Lucy heard Randall screech.
She nearly missed Dr. Oliver's reply. "I don't know. I'm still new here."
After the half-tragic day the five had, they moved to the lab to check out the egg they found. Crystal sat at the computers; her legs stretched out in front of her while a thick book sat on her thighs. A pad of paper sat on the table beside her, a blue pen in her mouth as a highlighter danced between her fingers. She glanced up at the sound of shoes, taking the pen out of her mouth. "What's up?" She smiled.
"Randall was at the site with us." Lucy sighed, moving to sit in the other chair. She lifted her sister's legs and sat down with them on her lap. "Demanded to know how we knew how to fight after Tyrannodrones attacked us."
"What'd you tell her?"
"Karate club."
Crystal stopped reading, her eyes finding her sister to ensure she wasn't lying. She burst into laughter, doubling over. Her sister started laughing. "Please tell me she fell for that one."
"Oh, I think she did. But she didn't like it."
"You got anything?" Kira asked with her hands on her hips. She watched Ethan start a scan of the egg they found. She, Conner, and Dr. Oliver were crowded around the table, watching the scanning happen.
Ethan sighed from where he stood with the scanner in his hand. "I don't know. Something's not right." He admitted. "I can't detect any signs of life."
"So it wasn't just me?" Lucy asked, making everyone turn to her. She cupped her hands like she held the egg once more. "When I held the egg, I couldn't find anything that told me something was there. It felt…empty."
"That's weird." Dr. Oliver stood straighter. "I'm sure that's a dimetrozord egg."
Conner glanced at him. "Dimetrozord?" He asked, sharing a look with Lucy.
"Developed from a Dimetrodon." Dr. Oliver answered. "It's amazing."
Lucy scrunched her eyebrows. "Is that a Dino with a large spine on its back?" She asked, turning to Crystal.
The older ninja shrugged. "Never took that class, so I have no idea." She answered, her eyes scanning the page in front of her. "All I know are the ones that we fight with."
"Sort of, Lucy." Dr. Oliver nodded. "The Dimetrozord has a saw blade instead of the sail-like crest it has."
"Dude, I saw those once at the museum. They're a little ugly." Lucy laughed. The Rangers chuckled. "Like I felt bad for the Dino sort of ugly."
"Thank you for your input, Lucy."
"Always happy to help, Dr. O." Lucy rose, setting Crystal's feet back on the chair. "But the Dino would explain the Tyrannodrone's attack. They probably wanted it."
"Yeah." Dr. Oliver sighed, moving to the computer. He snagged the now empty chair. Crystal curled her legs under her to continue reading. A few minutes later, the doctor hummed after the Rangers continued staring at the egg silently. "This is weird. I'm still getting a heat signal from the dig site where we found the egg." He turned to look at the Rangers.
"The egg's not even there anymore." Kira scrunched her eyebrows together.
"Maybe there's another?" Conner tried.
Dr. Oliver sighed for the second time. "I better go check it out." Finally, he spoke, standing up. "You guys stay here and keep analyzing this one." He left the Rangers alone in the lab.
Ten minutes turned into thirty, and the Rangers were growing restless. Lucy and Crystal had moved to work on their footwork and training. The three primary Rangers still stood at the egg, overlooking it. Ethan finally sighed, setting the scanner down. "Guys, I don't think there's a dinozord here."
The computer beeped at that moment. Towering over the forest around it, a grey and blue dimetrozord, a large saw spinning around on its back, roared, crunching full trees to the ground. Conner breathed. "Well, there's one."
Lucy turned to him. "Thank you, captain, obvious, for the obvious statement." She mirrored the annoyed look Conner sent her.
"But how?" Kira asked quietly.
"What if you opened it?" Crystal tried, rounding the table to stand across from the Primary Rangers. "Wouldn't hurt to see if there is a dino in there."
Ethan carefully cracked the egg in half, lifting the top to reveal…nothing. An image of Elsa flickered a second later, cackling at the Rangers. "Not what you expected, Rangers." The image took off, flying high above the Rangers until it dissipated into thin air.
"I am so over the evil laugh," Kira muttered to Lucy, leaning on the counter beside her.
The Silver Guardian shrugged. "Yet, they seem to enjoy it." She glanced back at the screen, perking up. "Folks, that thing is going haywire. It's destroying Little Tokyo."
"You might wanna have Megazord backup." Crystal moved to the computer. She turned around to face the Rangers. "Lucy and I will stay here just in case someone else decides to join. Call us if you need help."
Conner nodded, moving back with Ethan and Kira behind him. "Ready?"
"Ready." The two replied.
Dino Thunder, Power Up!
Tyranno!
Ptera!
Tricera!
Staring at the screen in front of her, Lucy couldn't tell anyone which was worse: the large, baby blue-colored dinozord currently ripping its way through the forest or the ugly, 50-foot, double-blade-handed, Little Tokyo-inspired creature laughing at the downed dinozord. "Man, that monster is ug-lay," Lucy commented, resting her elbows on the table and her chin on her fists. "Like that large bird ug-lay."
"Lucy, do we want to know what you're talking about?" Kira asked from the other side of the morpher.
Fakely wincing while her older sister's laughter filled the lab, Lucy smiled. "I'm just saying that that monster is not the prettiest thing I've seen all year."
"How'd it going?" Dr. Oliver asked, returning to the lab.
"Not well," Crystal answered, turning over her shoulder to see Dr. Oliver moving toward them.
"They are getting their asses handed to them," Lucy commented, not turning around. "The Thundersaurus isn't strong enough to pierce through the armor. They need something stronger."
"Like what?" Conner asked.
The sisters turned around, forgetting that they still had the communication link. "I dunno. A blade or something." Crystal spoke.
"…A saw?" Lucy questioned, exchanging a knowing look with her teacher. "The Dimetrozord?"
"You guys have to use the Dimetrozord's saw." Dr. Oliver told his students.
Conner sighed. "Dr. O, if you haven't noticed, he's not playing well with others."
"Let me see if there is something I can do." Dr. Oliver lifted his morpher to rest on the table. "Concentrate."
With the sisters nervously watching the Rangers get taken down by the psychotic dinosaur and the monster towering over them, they silently begged that whatever freaky powers Dr. Oliver had worked. Seconds later, his morpher beeped, the head of the brachiozord swiftly and brightly morphing into the baby blue head of the dimetrozord.
"All right." Dr. Oliver smiled; watching the screen, a purplish pink crust shattered around the blue dinosaur. The Dimetrozord roared, pushing off the ground to swipe past the monster a few times, knocking him away from the Rangers. The Megazord scrambled to its feet in seconds, with the Rangers cheering on the inside. "All yours, guys," Dr. Oliver stated. "Wait till you see what he can do."
The Dimetrozord replaced the T-Res drill, forming a saw blade arm. The Megazord charged forward, using the saw to slice off both tips of the monster's sword arms. The beast snarled, looking at the blunt ends of his blades. "Now I'm furious." He growled.
"Oh, you want some more?" Ethan asked, pushing the Megazord forward with Conner and Kira. Another pass of the saw, aimed at the stomach, sent the monster scrambling back.
"Dimetro blade. Full power." Conner announced. In two precise swings of their saw, the monster fell to the ground in a fit of sparks, exploding on impact.
Dr. Oliver whipped around in his chair, cheering loudly for the team. Lucy and Crystal tapped their forearms, laughing at their mentor's antics. "Another bites the dust." Crystal joked, yelling out when Lucy shoved her away.
Lucy plopped down in her chair the following Monday, sitting between Conner and Ethan at the front table with Kira next to Ethan. The four fell into their conversations quickly while waiting for Dr. Oliver to begin whatever lecture they would receive about Dinosaurs today. They stopped when the small TV mounted to the wall for the daily school news popped up, Cassidy's face smiling back. "This is Cassidy Cornell with a special report." She announced. "I have discovered we have a superhero working here at Reefside High."
All the Rangers perked up, exchanging uneasy glances with each other. They tried not to arouse suspicion while trying to listen to Cassidy's report. Dr. Oliver dipped his head, grinding his teeth before he turned to the Rangers, finding them all in stages of disbelief and Lucy with a look that nearly killed.
Lucy clenched her jaw tightly, her hands gripping the table's edge until her knuckles turned a deadly white. She had no idea how Cassidy could have pieced any Ranger business together. Sure, the four of them were unlikely to have ever hung out before becoming Rangers, developing a friendship tested through morphers and megazords. The first rule she ever told the Rangers, one she practically trained into them, was secrecy.
While simmering in her rage, Lucy vaguely felt Conner and Ethan move to grip her wrists, ripping her grip from the table before she broke it. Sighing deeply, the ninja nodded to the boys. "Thanks." She murmured, her hand gripping the underside of Conner's leather jacket.
"Yes, Principal Randall fended off several prehistoric creatures in selfless bravery," Cassidy reported. "I was on the scene to bring you exclusive footage. Let's roll tape."
Lucy released a breath, her shoulders sagging slightly. She heard the rest of the Rangers' breath. Conner bumped her shoulder, chuckling, and motioned to the screen, making out what appeared to be Devin and Cassidy in the middle of the dig site. Cassidy repeatedly dropped something onto the ground with disgust. Then, everyone in the class began laughing.
"It seems that we're having a bit of technical difficulty. Please stand by."
Conner and Ethan turned to Lucy seconds after that. "I thought you were going to break the table." Ethan sighed, pulling out his notebook.
"I didn't realize I was gripping it that hard," Lucy answered, releasing Conner's jacket. She flexed her fingers, curling them into fists before bending them again. "After what Cassidy put me through two years ago, I contemplated breaking her face while at it."
Kira leaned over. "That's a fight I would want to see."
The Rangers laughed. "Probably not," Lucy answered. "Crystal would have a field day with the idea of me fighting in school. She'd ground me and then make our mom and dad ground me in case I didn't listen to her."
"You know, Crystal seems like that type," Conner added, earning a playful shove from the Guardian beside him. "Easy, hulk."
"I'm the only one that makes fun of my sister, dweeb." Lucy poked.
"All right, class, let's get started." Dr. Oliver stated.
After class, the four Rangers found Dr. Oliver standing in the stairwell where Randall left him, gawking. "Man, that woman is cold-blooded," Ethan stated, falling into the back of the pack with Kira. Conner and Lucy trailed the doctor, all four laughing.
"Yeah, but remember: Dr. O's got a thing for dinosaurs." Conner joked, tossing his little soccer ball around his hands.
Dr. Oliver held up his hand. "Don't even start, Conner."
"I, for one, think it's a perfect match." Kira laughed with Lucy cackling beside her. The two linked arms, continuing to laugh. They made their way through the halls.
"Hey, Dr. O. Maybe you can take her two-stepping sometime." Lucy laughed. "The two of you looked like you were having a great time earlier."
"Not you too, Lucy." Dr. Oliver told her. "Aren't you four late for your next class?"
"Yeah, we were hoping you could write us a note or something." Conner tried.
"Dream on." Dr. Oliver stated, laughing with his teammates.
Next Episode: Oceans Alert