(Author's Notes: Hey everyone I hope you're all enjoying the story. To clarify any confusion about the first chapter/prologue the chapter is set in the present day. The first couple of chapters will take place in the past and then progress forward to the present day. The initial timeline of the story will take place five years after the end of the Dino Thunder. Also, there is going to a different twist on the infamous "Dear John" letter.)

Chapter 2: An Unhinged Urge Rising

July 16, 1990

Algoma Summer Camp

Outside Phoenix, AZ

Going to a summer camp outside of the state of California was a relief for eleven year old Kimberly Hart. Initially, the original plan was to spend the summer with her Uncle Steve and his family in Phoenix while her parents attempted to "work out" their issues. However, she and her brother Kenny knew that their parents' problems was indication of a fractured marriage on the verge of imploding.

Kimberly's mother, Caroline Hart thought it be best that her kids were away from home for the summer, to which her husband, Andrew agreed. However, a summer vacation in Phoenix included a one month stay at Algoma Summer Camp along with her brother and cousins to which was paid for courtesy of her uncle Steve. Kimberly's first impression of Algoma Summer Camp was it was a typical sports camp with various activities. Unfortunately, due to the last minute registration, most of the activities Kimberly wanted to sign up in particular gymnastics was full for the duration.

One of the camp counselors by the name of Quinn told her that the only activities available at the moment were the martial arts classes. She remember taking a few classes with Jason and Trini back in the day until her parents pulled her out one day thinking that it was violent for a girl her age. Taking her camp counselor's advice, Kimberly signed up for martial arts classes and quickly found herself learning the different forms of martial arts and fighting styles. Learning every fighting form gave a somewhat adrenaline and high rush inside the young girl she couldn't explain.

For some odd reason, Kimberly's martial arts class seemed somewhat exclusive and there were only a selective group of campers who signed up. Most of the other sports activities sessions were more open and lenient in participation. However, her martial arts activities classes were restricted to the same campers who signed up since the start and the daily sparring matches were more aggressive and intense compared to the classes Jason and Trini attended.

Most of the campers in her activity group consisted of older kids about two or three years older than her. The only person that was around the same age as her was a young boy with brown eyes who she learned from her camp counselor Quinn was named Thomas, or Tommy as everyone called him. He was an intriguing boy that caught Kimberly's attention, but unknown to her he too found himself drawn to her as they each participated in another sparring session one day with their respective partners.

"Kimmy, come here. How are your hands?" Her camp counselor Quinn asked while Kimberly is panting after finishing another intense sparring session. Her sparring partner was a boy named Ian who was three years older than her, but turned out to be conceited and arrogant to her displeasure.

"They hurt." She simply replied.

"It's 'cause you're bending your wrist." Quinn said as Kimberly groans. "Hmm let's see. Make a fist. Lock your wrist." He instructed the young girl on her punching form. "All right. This is a is a punch. This is a punch. That's shit. Lock your wrist and breathe like I taught you."

"There's a man watching us." Kimberly warned looking at their sensei observing the class. "You know for a camp counselor, you know a lot about martial arts. I'm guessing you're trying to make a good impression on your boss."

"Forget about him." Quinn reassured her. "Besides, I don't make enough as a camp counselor for this recruiting campers to join our classes for the summer. Let's just say the sensei of our little martial arts class is very selective of who gets to sign up for the summer. He's observing the progress of the students so far."

"He's not watching the other campers some reason. He's watching me and also he's watching the sparring match between Thomas and Doyle." Kimberly added. "Is it because him and me are the only eleven year old kids in this class? Is it because of our age or if in case you'll get held responsible if something happens to us?"

"You could say a little bit of both. I know you and Thomas haven't spoken to one another as much since the beginning. You'll never know if you don't try." Quinn said smiling rubbing the top of Kimberly's head. "Okay, since sensei is watching why don't we get this show on the road? The fight is that way, girl. Go out there and finish it."

"She's impressive for a young lady. Even the young boy who is giving Doyle a run for his money." The sensei said to Quinn watching the young students engage in some sparring matches with one another. "There is a lot of potential in this room, in particular the two youngest campers in the group."

"Yeah, probably some of my best work yet. I know there are others out there who have their eyes on them in the near future, especially young Kimberly."

"I know you mentioned the young boy Thomas wasting his summers in some rundown dojo on the other side of the city. His movement is fluent and also he fights with heart and soul, a discipline rarely seen in most fighters. You mentioned the boy was local in the city of Phoenix. What of the girl? Where did you say you found her, again?" The sensei questioned.

"Box of Cracker Jacks. Actually, she's from out of town living in California." Quinn explained. "She's only here for the summer staying with some relatives. According to her uncle, the young girl's parents are experiencing some martial problems."

"And I'm guessing the frustrations of her parents' martial problems are reflecting upon her skills. She is probably looking for an outlet to let it all out. They are equally matched Quinn, both Kimberly and Thomas. However, she still needs refining. Perhaps with more discipline or different training..."

"Left hand up, child! Thomas focus on your footing like what sensei taught you guys!" Quinn instructed the students.

"When the war finally comes, we're gonna need real warriors and we need to preserve any prospects we see with potential." Both instructors' eyes divert as Kimberly's strikes against her sparring partner becomes more aggressive. Quinn smiles with satisfaction as the rest of the campers stop for a moment to watch the sparring match.

"You were saying sensei?" However, to the sensei's dismay he notices that a simple sparring match between Kimberly and her opponent is escalating in a no holds barred match. She lands a hard punch on her opponent and suddenly puts him in a submission lock to the point she's choking him out.

"Okay this is escalating out of control. She's killing him!"

"No shit. Kimberly. Kimmy!" A young Kimberly shrieks breathing heavily refusing to relinquish the submission hold. It was only through Quinn's intervention that she stopped that he had to restrain the young girl. "Kimmy. Kimmy. Slow it down. Drop your breath. Breathe in your stomach. Nice work. Okay guys class is dismissed for today." Once she calmed her, she noticed a look of shock and awkwardness among the other campers. The sensei had a feeling of uncomfortableness towards Kimberly's actions after the class was abruptly finished for the day.

30 Minutes Later

She was instructed to wait in the building until her brother Kenny and cousin Kelly came to pick her up once they finished their archery class. Something bothered Kimberly seeing the faces of the other campers after Quinn intervened and pulled her off of her sparring partner Ian. She was told to fight and finish it and she thought what she was doing wasn't wrong. But why did it seem to frighten the sensei and the rest of the class? It was as if something came over her and she couldn't explain it.

"For what it's worth, every once in awhile Ian does need to be knocked down a peg or two." A young boy told her smiling. "He's probably humiliated that he got his butt kicked by a girl today. You're Kimberly right?"

"Quinn told me to fight. He told me to finish it." Kimberly argued. "And you must be Thomas?"

"Only my mom and dad call me Thomas whenever they get mad at me. However, everyone else calls me Tommy." He smiled taking a seat on the steps outside the building next to her. "I think what Quinn might have meant was to finish the match, but I didn't think he tell you to choke him out until he passed out. Ian is a jerk, but at the end of the day, he's a skilled fighter. And in karate it's wrong to forcibly harm a person in any physicality."

"It didn't feel wrong for some reason." Kimberly guilty admitted. "I felt like I was capable of ending him right there, but then I stopped. I scared the sensei and the other campers didn't I? Did I scare you...Tommy?"

"Well you most definitely surprised everybody with that stunt today Kimberly. Do you want to listen to my advice? Whatever it is that you got inside you, whatever it is that burns so hot, that's good to have as a skilled fighter. But you gotta learn to control it and channel it into something positive."

"It seems like these sparring matches are as if they're training us for something else like we're going to war."

"I get that feeling too, but it's not so bad the martial arts activity classes." Tommy replied. "However, there'll be a time and place for you to turn yourself loose. You're a good fighter Kimberly, you just need to find a way to keep yourself grounded. But right now, the last thing you want is for everybody here to be scared shitless of you. Tame that fire inside or they'll tame it for you. Do you get me?"

"I get you." Kimberly said smiling. "Tommy, thank you for talking to me and making me feel better about today. Quinn said we should talk more often since we are the youngest kids in the class."

"For a camp counselor he does give some good advice," Tommy replied smiling back. "And hey...I think you're a really cool girl and I wouldn't mind sparring with you."

October 14, 1996

Pan Global Training Facility

Miami, FL

This wasn't the senior year Katherine Hilliard had in mind as she was in the dorm room of her friend and predecessor, Kimberly Hart. It was suppose to be a surprise visit to Florida to visit one of her old friends from Sydney, Australia who relocated to Miami to train with the national diving team. Plus, she was looking forward to paying a visit to Kimberly and filling her in on the latest gossips since her departure from Angel Grove following the end of their junior year of high school.

Kat's visit began normally as possible first reuniting with her old diving teammate and friend from Australia named Candice and then with Kimberly. She did happen to fill her predecessor in on the latest changes in regards to the Power Rangers including their upgrades to the Zeo Ranger Powers, plus the sudden return of Jason at the beginning of the senior year at Angel Grove High after his departure from the Peace Conference. She even filled Kimberly in on her big "brother" once again taking the Ranger mantle and becoming the Gold Zeo Ranger.

Kimberly suspected that the blonde Australian was taking a shine to her and Tommy's best friend and brother indicating on Kat's latest reports from back home that most of it consisted of stories involving Jason. Kimberly and Tommy were surviving the long distance relationship and jokingly promised that on her return home that the couple intend to drag Kat and Jason on a double date with them.

How did a simple visit with old friends turn into an event that left the Pink Zeo Ranger being the one to comfort a distraught, bewildered and confused shirt bloody former comrade and friend in her dorm room? From the events outside the nightclub to the police station and on the car ride back to the dorm was a blur to both women as Kat did the one thing she knew at the moment: help wash off the events of tonight from both their memories.

"Kim, sweetie...it wasn't your fault what happened tonight." Kat attempting to reassure her friend. "The...the police ruled it out as self-defense and you weren't at fault for any of it. Yeah, this is what happens when it's all ages night at nightclub and random pricks decide to mess with a bunch of underage girls. Kim, listen to me you don't have to apologize for anything okay. You...you did what you had to do."

"But that's the thing Kat, I did it without hesitation and the police ruled it out as self-defense I get it." Kim explained sobbing. "I don't why I did it...but it was like I became unhinged and for some reason, I enjoyed it. That's the scary part about all of this because it felt like an adrenaline rush. Yes, the cops said the guy had a criminal record but he was a human being who did stupid shit, but still he had a life...and then I took it."

"It was because he tried to attack you, he and his other buddy assaulted us tonight." Kat argued justifying Kim's actions but knowing in the back of their minds the line between self-defense and murder. "You were defending yourself I was there."

"I hit that guy with a steel pipe to the point I killed him due to blunt force trauma to the head. I didn't stop until he was laying motionless on the ground and his blood was on my hands. For god sake's I was a Power Ranger that fought for the side of good and destroyed intergalactic monsters that were evil. I didn't know what I was capable of doing in my power...until tonight and I realize I am capable of taking a human life without hesitation."

She could see the internal struggle raging inside of Kimberly about the incident. There was the battle of moral and ethical code due to her tenure as a Power Ranger versus the justification of self-defense in the name of taking a human life. Although Kat felt a somewhat relief of justice being enacted, she felt a sense of fear of the newfound capability Kimberly awoke within her, an uncontrollable and unhinge urge waiting to be unleashed.

"But it doesn't make you a killer because you are not one Kimberly Hart." Kat reassured her friend giving her a comforting hug. "Don't let tonight redefine who you are..."

"...Unfortunately...it just impacted my future and my place here. And who could now accept me...for who I am now, especially Tommy?" Kim cried.

"You don't know that. Tommy loves you and you're his whole world. He needs to know what happened tonight..."

"But he can't because Tommy deserves better. My friends deserve better than this. There is more to me than anyone can imagine. I feel this part of me that has become unhinged, uncontrollable for as long as I can remember. If they saw what lies inside the real me, who will accept me then?" Kim questioned.

"What are you say?" Kat asked looking confused. "Kim, what are you going to do?"

"I...I...need to put some distance between myself and everyone I love, especially Tommy." Kimberly sighed. "It's funny I remember someone once telling me there was an untamed fire inside of me. If I didn't tame it, somebody else would. If that fire burns, then who will be the next person to get burned by it?"

"Hey listen to me you're not alone in this. You don't need to shut yourself from the world just because of one incident." Kat said pleading. "Kim, don't do anything that will leave a trail of heartbreak and sadness in your path. You have a good heart...it's what draws people to you."

"But I have unhinging inside that will destroy even the pure hearted which is why I need you to promise me Kat." Kimberly replied taking her friend's hand. "I need you to promise me...that...you don't tell the others about what happened tonight. I need you...to be there for our friends, especially Jason and most importantly, Tommy. He deserves so much better."

Inside Kat's heart, she knew it was wrong to agree to her friend's request, but she couldn't deny Kimberly. It was a debt she owed to her for helping her overcome her own personal struggles with evil in the past. Reluctantly, she listened as Kimberly explained about what she needed to do in order to protect Tommy from the unhinge urge rising in her. Unfortunately, she knew that once she got back to Angel Grove, Kat was going to be welcomed home to a world of heartbreak and confusion courtesy of an infamous letter that was penned because of one infamous night in Miami that will be a burden she had to carry home.