Note: This story takes place somewhere after the episode "Master Vile and the Metallic Armor."
..........Rocky DeSantos couldn't sleep, and
as he often did when that was the case, he ended up at the command center.
..........Rocky looked warily around the command
center, it always looked eerie powered down like this, like a shell. He
shivered and, careful not to disturb the deactivated Alpha, diverted power
to the Zero-G gymnasium, a good workout always helped him go to sleep.
As the small screen flashed through a status check before returning to
standby mode, Rocky noticed something odd. "Computer, current status
of Zord storage bay seventeen."
..........Lights flickered on as computers
began consulting their own sensors, momentarily the answer flashed back,
ZSB17, ZORD STORAGE, CURRENT STATUS: MINIMAL POWER.
..........Rocky blinked. He'd thought he'd
seen something funny in the down cycle power consumption readings, Billy
would have recognized it immediately, but he was barely able to pick it
out. "Life readings?"
..........ONE.
..........Was there an intruder in the command
center? "Identify."
..........THOMAS OLIVER, CURRENT WHITE RANGER,
FORMER GREEN RANGER, ref. RITA REPULSA, ref. LOSS OF THE DRAGON COIN, ref.
SHOGUN RANGERS c. 13,086 B.C.E., ref. AQUATIAN FIRST CONT-
..........Rocky shut it off. If he let it
go on, it would keep listing references until the end of eternity. He'd
long ago accepted that the history of the Power Rangers stretched back
thousands of years, that he'd never be able to learn it all. So he'd given
up trying and made due with what he knew, the rest tended to sort itself
out.
..........What worried him more was Tommy,
what was he doing up at this hour? And in one of the old storage bays?
Absently, Rocky ordered the gymnasium powered down and entered the utility
elevator that would take him to Zord storage bay seventeen. What was in
seventeen? It sounded familiar....
..........Let's see, Titanus was in bay three,
the Dinozord wreckage in bay nine, the Shogunzords occupied bays six and
seven, Tor and the remains of the Thunderzords were in bay thirteen, and
Bays one and eleven were reserved for the Ninjazords when they weren't
at Ninjor's temple....
.........."Dragonzord."
..........As he spoke the words, the lift
doors swung open revealing a dimly lit collection of catwalks crisscrossing
the surface of a natural underground lake. But what took his breath away
was not the huge dead of the Dragonzord rearing above the surface, it was
the pale green luminescence from the lake he was sure hadn't been here
when he'd toured the underground bays a few months ago.
..........Warily, he stepped forward, his
steps echoing off the stony walls some sixty feet above his head. The sound
of dripping water seemed to be everywhere, it surrounded him, beating down
on him. He made his way to the nexus of the interconnecting catwalks. The
dragonzord's cockpit loomed some twenty feet above the surface of the water,
most of it's massive bulk supported be the water it was submerged in.
..........Rocky shuddered, he'd always thought
the Dragonzord was the most intimidating, he still had nightmares about
fighting Tommy's clone in the Thunder Megazord. Now, underlit by that eerie
green light that seemed to emanate from the very lake itself, those nightmares
returned in force. He checked the status board on the railing next to him.
The dragonzord's capacitors were drained, it's mighty fusion batteries
had been bled for Kimberly's repowerment, it's armament stripped to provide
ammunition for the falconzord, and it's final battle against the tigerzord
had rendered it fully operational.
..........Rocky blinked. Fully operational?
He checked again. Yes, all the damage to the dragonzord had been repaired,
the repair logs showed the work had been done slowly over the last few
months. Rocky looked again up into the blank red eyes of the dragonzord,
an icy knot of fear forming in his stomach. He repeated to himself, it's
completely depowered, there's nothing it can do, just because it's operational
doesn't mean it can reach out and grab you. But another voice whispered
in the back of his mind that a power coin could bring the zord back to
operational levels in under ten minutes. A fusion reaction couldn't hold
a candle to the raw power of a powercoin. Where was Tommy?
.........."Tommy?" Rocky's voice
mocked him as it echoed off the walls of the chamber. "Tommy!"
..........No response. Rocky began to lean
over the railing, scanning the depths of the water, if Tommy'd fallen in....
"Tommy! To-"
..........Rocky's cry was cut off as something
wet gripped his ankles, He felt himself losing his footing- his sneakers
slid over the edge of the catwalk. His head slammed into the catwalk as
he slid over the edge, Rocky saw stars before the water swallowed his vision.
..........Rocky became aware of the light
at the edged of his vision, green light. His eyes fluttered open to find
himself under the surface of the lake. Panicking, he struggled, becoming
aware of someone towing him by the collar of his shirt. Rocky struck blindly,
landing a number of poor blows on whoever had attacked him. Then a vicious
blow to his stomach, he wasn't sure if it had been delivered by hand or
by foot, left him gasping for air, but sucking water. Before the darkness
closed around his vision, he saw the great shadow of the Dragonzord looming
above him.
..........You know, other than that recurring
nightmare of the Dragonzord, drowning is about the only other thing that
really scares me.
..........Then the darkness was complete.
..........Rocky awoke to the stinging sensation
of a slap on his face, followed by another. As the water drained from his
ears, he was able to make out, "Wake up grasshopper, it's your auntie
Em, you must snatch the ranger from the catwalk before you can return to
Oz."
..........Rocky groaned, coughed, and spat
up water. Another groan as he flipped onto his knees and elbows and began
to retch the oily-tasting water from his lungs. By the time he was finished,
his mouth tasted like an old shoe. He began to take stock of his surroundings.
..........He was on his hands and knees in
about four inches of water. Looking up he made out the fuzzy shape of the
dragonzord's head above him. He was resting on the shoulder plate, just
a few inches below the water. He swung his head around to get a view of
his assailant.
..........Tommy sat there, sopping wet, dressed
in his standard white muscle shirt and faded stonewasheds. The expression
on Rocky's face must have been comical because Tommy was grinning from
ear to ear.
..........Rocky couldn't decide weather to
laugh or cry. He compromised by flopping on his back with a small splash
and letting out a low groan that seemed to emanate from the very tips of
his toes and work its way up and out of his mouth.
..........Tommy crawled over with a concerned
look on his face, "Hey man, are you all right? How many fingers am
I holding up?"
..........Rocky considered returning the rude
gesture but decided on a more offensive tactic instead. The uppercut caught
Tommy completely by surprise. Striking an unprepared opponent, a dishonorable
move, his sensai would have said. (Hell, Tommy was his sensai!)
Rocky didn't much care. He forced his aching body in a forward flip, landing
on top of Tommy's undefended form and pressed his right forearm against
his friend's windpipe. His action sent them both skidding about six feet
over the slick surface of the Dragonzord's armor. "No goddamnit I
am not all right! I'm tired, I have a splitting headache, I was attacked
by some idiot, AND I'M SOPPING WET! So no Tommy, I'm not all right! All
right doesn't begin to describe my emotional state. What does? In a word,
PISSED!"
..........Rocky drove the last word home with
a swift smack to the the side of his friend's head. He was pissed, he'd
come here hoping to work off some steam and now look at him! Tommy's reaction
wasn't helping matters.
..........Tommy was laughing hysterically.
Somewhere between fits of laughter Tommy managed to choke out, "Rocky,"
he was overcome by a fit of giggles, "you have... an Adam... on your
shoulder!"
..........Rocky blinked, looked at his shoulder,
a small black lake frog stared back. "Ribbit." It flicked out
its tongue, tracing a line across Rocky's right cheek before removing a
small black speck of something and swallowing it.
.........."You did not just lick me."
That set Tommy off again. The frog looked back innocently.
..........Rocky reached up with one finger
and wiped off his cheek, it was covered with a thin trail of slime. He
stared darkly at the frog. Tommy was laughing again. With a flick of his
hand, Rocky sent the frog-slime sailing in the general direction of Tommy's
face. Tommy's laughter was cut off immediately, replaced with what sounded
like gagging. Rocky turned his attention back to the frog. "You frog,
are sooo dead... just hold still for one second more-"
..........As if sensing the imminent danger
to life and limb, the frog launched itself from Rocky's shoulder into the
air. "Oh no you don't!" Completely forgetting about Tommy, Rocky
launched himself in pursuit of the frog. As he splashed down a few feet
a way, he felt the creature skitter away from his hands. Using what traction
his soaked sneakers would give, he gave chase. There it was, swimming just
below the surface of the water.... Rocky launched himself forward on his
stomach, his hands gripped triumphantly around the small amphibian he gave
a shout of triumph immediately followed by a shout of dismay as he slid
completely off the Dragonzord's shoulder plate and under the surface of
the lake.
..........Tommy, having recovered from the
unpleasant experience of swallowing frog goo, made his way to the place
where Rocky had vanished. "Rocky?"
..........Rocky's head broke water about ten
feet away. And in his right hand, held triumphantly overhead, was a very
disgruntled looking lake frog. "Yeah! Who's the man? Don't see you
looking' so confident now do I?" Rocky brought the frog right in front
of his face. "What're you looking' at?"
..........The frog stared back blankly, then
seemed to swell up, the bubble of it throat grew in size... and sent a
stream of warm water into Rocky's face. Rocky, in a daze felt the frog
slip out of his grasp and return to the lake. "He spit on me."
..........Tommy was laughing again.
..........Shaking his head, Rocky dove and
swam back to where Tommy was waiting. As Rocky lifted himself back onto
the shoulder plate, Tommy distinctly heard him mutter, "He spit on
me."
..........Rocky glared at Tommy again, but
couldn't summon the anger, something about the frog encounter had defused
the situation.
..........Rocky hung his head in his hands
and massaged his temples, all he'd wanted was a workout.... "Tommy,
what are you doing here?" He sounded very tired.
..........Tommy looked around at the zord
they were standing on. "Fixing stuff."
..........Rocky counted to ten very slowly.
"Why?"
..........Tommy bit his lower lip, he wasn't
quite sure of the answers himself. "I'm not quite sure."
..........Rocky was silent, studying Tommy's
eyes. They seemed to have this desperate, pleading quality to them, they
almost screamed 'please tell me why I'm doing this!' Then Tommy blinked,
and the moment was lost.
..........Tommy turned away from Rocky and
started pacing. "Will you look at me? I've spent the last four months
restoring a seventy-five ton wreck, and I don't know why!" Tommy kicked
the base of the Dragonzord's neck. He was almost screaming at the ancient
machine. "Goddamn you! Why won't you leave me the hell alone? You
haunt my dreams, why do I never find you, why are you always hiding? Will
I have no peace?"
..........Tommy turned to Rocky, "You
see this?" He gestured expansively at the eerily glowing lake. "I
know you've been here before, it wasn't glowing then." Tommy was angry
now, "I've never seen it that way! Whenever I'm here, it glows green!
Billy can't explain it! I can't explain it! Once, just once, I'd like to
see it normal, but nooo, I have to put up with this mystery bullshit!"
Tommy punctuated this last statement with a vicious punch to the Dragonzord's
armor. He sat down heavily nursing his hurting
hand.
..........Rocky, not knowing quite what to
say, walked over to his best friend and sat down beside him. "You
want to talk about it man?"
..........Tommy was sullen, "How can
I talk about it? It's just important somehow. The Dragonzord's all I have
left-" He paused mid sentence. "All I have left? No why did I
say that? I have the Falconzord, my Shogunzord, why would the Dragonzord
be all I have left?"
..........Rocky wasn't sure how to respond,
"I don't now, why is it all you have left?"
.........."Because-" Tommy went
quiet as realization dawned. "Because it's all that Zedd and Rita
weren't able to take from me." He turned to Rocky, "You weren't
here man, you don't know what it was like when Zed was slowly draining
the Green powers."
..........Actually Rocky had gotten most of
the story out of Billy and Kimberly before she'd left, but it was more
important for Tommy to work this out for himself. "They stole them
from you."
.........."Yeah! And in the end, there
wasn't anything left except the zord."
..........Rocky turned to Tommy, time to ask
the real question, "Why didn't you just give up the Green Ranger powers?
Towards the end they were barely functional anyway."
..........Tommy looked Rocky deep in the eyes,
"Because, as painful as it was to have them stolen from me, it would
have hurt so much more to give them up. Can you imagine how it was for
me? Zordon chose his people based on emotional stability, social conscious
and fighting ability. Rita just chose someone who could fight. I once asked
Zordon, if it hadn't been for Rita choosing me, would I ever have made
the cut?"
..........Rocky was silent, he knew the coming
answer.
.........."He told me no. Sure, he followed
it up with a lot of BS about how much I've grown as an individual in the
last few years and would probably have made it today, but when it came
right down to it, the answer's still the same. I shouldn't have been here."
..........Now Rocky was getting irritated,
"Look at yourselfman! What do you have to be depressed about? Look
at me!"
..........Tommy looked at him.
.........."Cut it out! I'm serious!"
..........Tommy grinned sheepishly, "Come
on man, what do you have to be depressed about?"
.........."What don't I? Do you realize
that red is supposed to be the command color? What have I done as a commander?
I was never comfortable in the Red Dragon Thunderzord, How often did I
take the Red ape Ninjazord into battle? Once? Even when we're in the Shogunzords
you take point."
.........."Hey, go easy on yourself,
there's more to command than just-"
.........."Like what? Fighting ability?
We both know you, Adam and Kat have me beat there. Tactics? I couldn't
think my way out of a paper bag. Charisma? Tommy, look at me! I don't inspire
that kind of confidence." Rocky seemed to collapse. "I'm stupid."
..........Now Tommy railed back, "Hey,
you can't say that about yourself! I've seen you in battle, you are not
stupid."
.........."Maybe."
.........."No! No maybe about it! You
think anyone can do what you do? I started out with the Dragonzord remember?
Remote control. It takes a lot of skill to pilot a humanoid zord, I found
that out when I switched to the Tigerzord. You took to it like a fish to
water. Notice how it takes five people to pilot a Megazord? So what if
I take command in the Shogunzords? You're always the one leading the charge,
even with Kat helping me you're better at maneuvering, you practically
wear your zord. That's raw ability."
..........Rocky was quiet for a moment before
responding, "You really think so?"
.........."I know so."
..........Rocky started chuckling, pretty
soon he was laughing out loud.
..........Tommy was confused, "What's
so funny?"
.........."Do you realize we've been
sitting here arguing about who's life is more screwed up?"
..........Now Tommy was laughing too. "You
win."
.........."Hey!"
.........."Just kidding. Hey, what say
we get out of here, it's getting way to late for me."
..........Rocky nodded agreement and they
began making their way up the Dragonzord's neck so they could jump back
onto the catwalks.
.........."He spit on me."
..........Tommy just smiled.
