Chapter 17-Chilling out

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“Whoa, careful, don’t bump your head.” Tommy said to Kat as they headed down the stairway to the Dino Ruins with Hayley, Conner, Ethan, Kira, and Trent close behind.

“”Y’ know Tommy, with the way you have the passageway set up here, it almost reminds me of…”

“Batman?” Hayley and Conner asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Kat said.

“I know,” Tommy agreed as he laughed. “And thanks to Hayley here, I’ve had to hear plenty of them.” he concluded as he got off the final step and stepped on the actual floor of the lab. He then took a few more steps before turning around and facing Kat with his arms outstretched.

“Voila!” Tommy said. “Welcome to the Dino Ruins.”

“So this is the place, huh?” Kat asked as she looked around the lab with a smile on her face.

“Yeah.” Tommy replied. “I mean, I know it’s not like the command center or the Power chamber, but…”

“Actually it looks almost as cool as those used to be.” Kat remarked. “In fact, this place looks more…comfortable than the other two, for some reason.”

“Yeah…” Tommy said as he chuckled. “Well, I had a little help.” he continued as he gestured to Hayley.

“Make that a lot of help, Tommy.” Hayley said matter-of-factly as she then turned to Kat. “Now Kat, just between you and me, let me tell you something: Tommy may be good with dinosaur bones, fossils, and such, but a rocket scientist-”

“-He ain’t.” said Tommy’s protégés with Hayley.

“Well, now that I think about it I kind of thought as much, because if he actually did do all this by himself, I would have been shocked.” Kat replied in mock criticism.

Fortunately though, Tommy picked up on the tone. “Oh well, thank you. That really hurts my feelings.” he said with a tone of feigned hurt.

“Easy Tommy. We’re just kidding.” Hayley said.

“Believe me, I know you were.” Tommy replied. “But still…just so you know, I have gotten better over the years…or at least in terms of taking care of my house and stuff.”

“Which gets dusty every week because he’s down here most of the time.” Ethan remarked.

“Ah-hah, very funny.” Tommy said.

BEEP-BEEP!

Tommy then turned around and looked at the main computer screen which was showing different areas of Reefside. Because it was showing different boroughs, the pictures were separated into six different images on the screen with the words “Scan complete” imposed at the center of the screen.

“Well, that’s good news at least.” He said as he stepped forward to the mainframe and took a closer look.

“What’s up doc?” Conner asked as he and the others walked over to where he was.

“Oh, nothing.” Tommy replied to his student. “Just that while you guys (with the exception of Kat) were on your way here ready to tear my head off, I was just starting my scan of the city. So far everything’s pretty quiet now.”

“Checking to see if those freaks show up again?” Kat asked.

“Pretty much.” Tommy replied.

“Man.” Kat mused. “Oh yeah, speaking of which, what were those things anyway?”

“Those dinosaur freaks that you saw are called Tyrannodrones.” Tommy said. “They’re foot-soldiers that were made out of a combination of Dinosaur DNA and technology.”

“Are they as worse as Tengu warriors and Cogs?” Kat asked.

“Hmm. Well, I’d say compared to Cogs, they’re much worse, but with Tengus, not so much.”

“What the hell are Tengu warriors?” Conner asked.

“Well, let’s just say they were Rita and Zedd’s version of overgrown emus.” Kat answered.

“Oh wait, now I remember seeing them.”

“You do?” Kat asked, incredulous.

“Yeah, in Dr. O’s video journal.” Conner answered.

Kat then got a sly look on her face and faced Tommy. “Really? A video journal, huh?”

“Yeah, I don’t know how he did it, but he was able to somehow create a journal of all the Ranger teams that have existed up until this point. In fact, it was actually while we were watching the journal that we had heard of you.”

Now Kat was feeling somewhat surprised and partly amused, but then again she wasn’t so surprised about the fact that Tommy would still keep an eye on things in his post-ranger life. After all, Tommy was always someone who liked to be prepared; even if he would at times be forgetful.

But what really got her attention was the part about Conner saying that he and his friends had ended up hearing about her in the journal. While that in itself it didn’t surprise her; what piqued her interest though was what they may or may not have seen regarding her.

“Really?” Kat repeated. “And what details did you guys see in there?”

“Oh, just that you succeeded that other girl (Kimberly I think her name was) in the Pink Ranger mantle. Why? Was there anything else…?”

All of a sudden Conner then felt a sharp poke in his right shoulder. He then turned and saw Ethan standing to his right tapping his foot whistling to himself. Trent on the other hand was standing behind him with his hand covering part of his forehead with a “I’m not gonna touch that with a ten-foot pole” look on his face while Kira was just shaking her head.

I swear, if I could have a contest for a surrogate older brother, Conner would win. she thought.

“Well jeez, what was that for?” Conner asked Ethan.

Ethan just made a cutting motion with his left hand and a cutting sound with his mouth.

“What?” Conner then looked from Ethan to Trent and then to Kira.

From her point of view Kat could tell that what the four teens saw was pretty much what Conner said so she decided to drop the subject and not say anything more regarding that.

“What about those other people that were with those tyrannodrones…the woman with the matrix clothes…the cat/bird-looking creature…and was that another White Ranger I had seen?” Kat asked.

“Yeah, it was.” Trent replied.

“How did that happen-?”

Trent just shrugged. “To be honest, even I don’t really know. My guess is that probably Mesogog found a way to copy my gem powers just in case the dark energy encoding got neutralized.”

“Wait, you mean…you started out being a Ranger on the dark side too?”

Trent shrugged again, a look of guilt already crossing his face. “Yeah…sadly.” He replied. “Wait…what do you mean, ‘too’?”

Katherine smiled knowingly. “’Cause that’s pretty much how I met Tommy and all the other Rangers. Of course, I wasn’t a Power Ranger yet.”

Whoa, thought the foursome.

“Brutal.” Conner said.

“Yeah…but in the end I overcame Rita’s spell and got the chance to make up for mistakes.”

Kira then looked at Trent and smiled. “Like a certain someone we know.” she said which made Trent start to blush.

Tommy smiled and then turned back to Kat. “Well, going back to what you said, the woman who looks like she raided Trinity’s closet is a humanoid cyborg named Elsa, who is Mesogog’s right –hand person and lead general. She’s the one who’s been leading the recent attacks on Reefside as of late, as you’ve probably seen firsthand.”

“Don’t remind me.” Kat said as she remembered her clashes with the cyborg.

“Well if you ask me I think Elsa could definitely go on Prozac.” Trent said.

“Amen to that, man.” Ethan said.

Tommy chuckled in agreement. “And of course, the cat-bird creature is a hybrid called…Felectro-I think you said his name was-Trent?”

“More or less, or at least that’s what I heard from Elsa.” Trent answered.

“Why the name Felectro?” Kat asked.

“Who knows?” Tommy replied. “Probably because of the fact that he has the ability to control electricity, I guess.”

Kat nodded. “But all those guys are really just the puppets, aren’t they?”

Tommy nodded. “Pretty much.”

“So, who’s the real baddie?”

“He calls himself Mesogog.” Tommy replied. “I don’t really know where he came from, but somehow he had shown up at around the same time that me and a fellow paleontologist Anton Mercer (who’s Trent’s adoptive father) had been doing research on Dinosaur DNA and combining it with human technology.”

A look of realization then began to cross Kat’s face. “Wait…so, in essence…you had helped create those Tyrannodrones?”

Tommy sighed. “Ironically, yes. But you have to understand, when Anton and I created them it wasn’t so they could wreak havoc and destroy everything in sight, in fact they were used mainly as assistants and proof that the research had bared fruit. But then Anton Mercer mysteriously disappeared and then shortly after that, Mesogog showed up and was somehow able to modify the ‘drones programming and turn them on me.” Tommy winced inwardly somewhat as he remembered escaping the Tyrannodrones and getting off the sinking island by the skin of his teeth.

Now everyone had remained quiet during the whole time Tommy had been talking, but none were more quieter than Trent, who knew more or less as to what may have gone down in terms of his father’s “disappearance” and his Mesozoic alter-ego chasing Tommy as he was trying to escape. Although Anton had told him about how he unintentionally became Mesogog, Trent had a feeling that his father didn’t tell him the whole story.

“What about the gems? How’d you find them? Or did you create them somehow?”

“I had found them.” Tommy said. “While I was on an expedition in…Montana-I think it was-I had ended up finding the red, yellow, and blue gems in a large asteroid that had been recently unearthed at the time. Later on I found out that the asteroid, because of its size and weight, theoretically could have been the one that killed the dinosaurs.” he continued. “Well, anyway, while I was studying the gems, I found that they seemed to have energies linked to three dinosaurs: the T-rex, Pterodactyl, and the Triceratops. That was when I saw what these gems could do and I decided to hide them for safe keeping, then a couple of years later those three right there-“ Tommy then gestured to Conner, Ethan, and Kira. “-had somehow gotten a hold of them, and well, the rest is history.”

“Well it’s like I once told my buddies here, Dr. O: Things happen when A) you’re in the middle of the woods; and B) when you fall into giant sinkholes.” Ethan said.

“Just don’t expect to find an underground lab the next time you fall into one, though.” Tommy replied which caused everyone to laugh.

“What about yours, Trent?” Kat asked.

Now it was Trent who was starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable, namely because he wasn’t sure how to explain. “Well I didn’t exactly find mine the way Conner, Ethan, and Kira did, much as I wish that had been the case.” he answered. “Mesogog had actually gotten a hold of it first, and from what I do know, he had done something to it (I don’t know what exactly) but somehow he had put some kind of dark energy encoding on it so once the gem bonded onto someone’s DNA not only would he/she have it’s power, but it would also…”

“…corrupt that person’s personality and make them act like the polar opposite of themselves?” Kat supplied.

Trent nodded. “Yeah.”

“Y’ know, you kind of failed to mention that before.” Conner pointed out.

“I’m still trying to make sense out of it, even now.” Trent said earnestly. “I mean, somehow I enter an ivisiportal, end up dab-smack in the middle of Mesogog’s lab, and while I’m trying to find a way out the gem literally bonds to me from the table without me even picking it up or touching it. Now I don’t know if that’s weird, or just coincidental.” It was the truth, even though Trent knew he was leaving some stuff out.

“The gem was meant for you to have, Trent. Even though finding it tampered with wouldn’t exactly be my idea of finding it myself.” Tommy said knowingly.

Kat nodded in agreement. “Oh yeah, Tommy, speaking of the gems bonding to your DNA…what’s with that?”

“When the gems are touched by a certain individual, the energies inside it then bond to the person’s DNA, thus giving them special abilities depending on the dinosaur that it’s based on. It can range from super-agility to camouflage, skin-armor, create sound-waves using your vocal cords, or in my case, invisibility.”

Kat narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “No way.”

Tommy smiled. “Way.” And with that he then looked at his gem, concentrated, and then looked at Kat. For two seconds Kat saw nothing, but then she noticed the black gem on his bracelet begin to glow. Next thing she knew she saw Tommy completely disappear into thin air.

“Tommy?” she asked. “Where are you?”

“I’m right here.” Tommy said as he picked up a pencil and then started tapping the table with it. Once he saw Kat looking in his direction he then deactivated his invisibility and reappeared in front of her. The surprised look on her face was priceless.

“What do you think?”

Kat couldn’t stop her shocked smile from spreading. “Well, that’s definitely something we never had back in the day.”

Tommy smiled nostalgically. “I know.” He said as he slowly found himself staring right into Kat’s eyes again.

“Well, if you think that was something, watch this.” Conner said as he walked up to the center of the main area and then dashed all the way to the back. Then he turned around and dashed back to where the others were. “Ta-daa!”

“Show off.” Ethan said.

“Hey, at least I can actually show what I can do.” Conner said.

“Well, I may not have Sonic-speed, but I can ram through things like only Knuckles can, literally.” Ethan continued as he activated his gem power and a skin-like armor began to cover his arms.

“Okay, could you guys just cut it out already?” Kira asked as she then turned to Kat. “Y’ know, this is what I have to put up with every single day, of course, with Trent and Dr. Oliver being the only exceptions.”

“Believe me Kira, that’s a feeling I know only too well.” Kat said.

“Oh come on, back in the day me, Billy, Adam, Rocky, and Jason weren’t that much of a pain.” Tommy protested.

“No, but you guys still had your moments.” Kat said.

Tommy sighed. “Okay, true.” He admitted which caused all three women to laugh.

“So Kira, what’s your gem power?”

“It’s the sound-wave thing, or the Ptera scream as I like to call it.” she replied. “And Trent over here has got almost the same ability as Dr. O.”

“Except that it’s a little more like the Predator’s camouflage.” Trent said as he activated his gem power. “The only way you wouldn’t be able to see me at all is if I was standing still, otherwise if I was moving, you’d see a ghost-like apparition of sorts.” He concluded as he deactivated his camouflage.

“Wow,” Kat remarked. “So, how do the gems bond to you guys?”

“The gems bond only to the people that are meant to hold their powers.” Hayley said. “Let’s say I had found the Red dino gem for instance, now just because I was the first one to find it and actually hold it in my hand doesn’t mean it’s going to bond to my DNA.”

“Or, to put it in a nutshell, you don’t choose the gem, it chooses you.” Tommy supplied.

“And those gems tie into your Ranger Powers too, don’t they?” Kat asked.

“Thanks to Hayley, they do.”

With all the information that Tommy, Hayley and Tommy’s protégés were giving her, one would almost think that it would be too much for one person to handle. But for some reason, Kat found herself interested by it almost. In fact, just seeing Tommy turn invisible or seeing Conner zoom to one side of the room, piled on top of the fact that all of them (except herself and Hayley) were Power Rangers was enough to almost make her want to take up the mantle again.

“So, is Mesogog yet another one of those freaks who just want to take over the world and destroy anything that gets in his way?” Kat asked.

“Surprisingly, no.” Tommy said. “What he wants to do is pretty much return Earth back to its prehistoric roots, and I don’t think that means just reviving ancient plants.”

“In other words, dinosaurs, giant crocodiles, and the Megalodon shark, right?”

“Yep.” Tommy said. “And of course, with him as the head honcho.”

“Y’ know, sometimes the more things change, the more they end up staying the same in the long run.” Kat mused.

“I know.” Tommy agreed. “Now between the six of us we’ve always been able to botch up his plans in more ways than one, but ever since his new creation Felectro showed up-“

“-we’ve been getting our asses handed to us while that thing’s been harassing everybody.” Conner added as he thought back to when Felectro had Krista hostage and dared Conner to fire the Z-rex blaster at them. He fumed inwardly to himself and tried to calm down, but some of his anger still stayed which was starting to puzzle him a bit. Even when Zeltrax had taken Krista Conner hadn’t been that pissed off. Now, just thinking about what Felectro did, and seeing Krista in trouble, and him not being able to do a thing…for some reason, it still angered him a bit.

“Well, fortunately though I haven’t come across a problem that didn’t have a solution to it.” Hayley said as she sat down at the chair by the main computer and started punching in keys with Conner, Ethan, Kira, Trent, Tommy, and Katherine watching. Eventually the screen then started to show past fights between the Rangers and Felectro.

“Okay, that thing looks like a rip-off from the Megaman Zero games.” Hayley remarked as she saw Felectro completely.

“I know, that’s what I’m saying.” Ethan said.

Hayley then punched in some more keys and then it showed the hybrid battling the Rangers.

“Okay, this doesn’t look like your typical freak of the week.”

“Oh, no.” Conner agreed as he subconsciously rubbed his chest.

Then Hayley came to a part where it showed Tommy using his Brachio staff’s wind power against Felectro.

“Hmm. Well, hello, hello.”

“Whoa, Hayley, what is it?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t know, but I think I may have found something.”

“What, you mean there might be a way to short-circuit Felectro for good?” Conner asked.

“Probably,” Hayley said. “It’s a little bit of a long shot though, but it just might work. Conner, Ethan, I’m going to need your weapons.”

“Our Thunder-max blasters?” Ethan asked.

“No. Your signature ones.”

“You mean Conner’s staff and my shield?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh okay…but, don’t we have to morph?” Conner asked.

“You won’t have to. Just concentrate and they’ll appear in your hands. If you want to say them out loud, that might help too.” Hayley replied.

Conner and Ethan then stepped apart from the group and then stood at the main center of the Dino ruins. Once they were standing side by side they then closed their eyes and concentrated as best they could. Finally Conner decided to just go ahead and say its name.

“Tyranno staff,” he said.

Suddenly the dino gem on his bracelet began to glow and it transformed into his morpher. Then a small ball of light emitted from it and floated up in front of him only to transform into a bouncing collapsible Bo staff with the Tyrannozord’s head on top.

Ethan on the other hand just concentrated and his bracelet turned into his morpher as well, then it also emitted its own ball of light which turned into his Tricera shield.

Once the duo grabbed their respective weapons, the staff and the shield stopped moving around on their own.

“Okay Hayley. We got ‘em, now what?”

Hayley then punched in some keys and the table to the left of the main computer opened up, revealing what looked like a large built-in tray, and several scanning devices attached to the side. She then got up from her chair and checked the thing over. Once she saw that everything seemed okay she then flipped the main switch to turn the giant table on.

“Okay, now place the staff and the shield there, right next to each other.”

“Whatever you say, Hayley.” Ethan said as he and Conner placed their respective weapons on the tray.

“All right…” Hayley said to herself as she then sat back down by the mainframe and started typing.

“Um, Hayley, not for nothing, but do you want to fill us in here?” Trent asked.

Hayley just smiled a confident smile as she looked at Trent and the others. “Trust me guys. I think I’ve got an idea.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Kat asked, curiously wanting in on this.

At first Tommy was about to say something, but a look from Hayley that told him, “Give me a break, Tommy. You know you want to include her in this.” pretty much stopped him. Almost instantly a warm smile began to spread and he nodded invisibly.

“Actually Kat, I think there might be.” he said as he put his hand on her shoulder, feeling a small rush go through his arm as he did so.

Hayley smiled to herself as she watched the exchange out of the corner of her eye.

You know, why do I get the feeling that Tommy’s life is about to change for the better?

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