Disclaimer: All characters are property of Saban Entertainment. However, some names have been taken directly from Toei and Gekisou Sentai Carranger. This is purely because I like the Japanese name better than the American name. I have no intention of making a profit off of this story, so don't sue.

A freak accident sends Tommy to the future! There, he sees a horrifyingly desolate Earth, and it turns out he is Earth's only chance to avoid destruction!

It took three chimes to wake Tommy up. He was in a deep sleep, with his face buried in his pillow, the worst position for a ranger to be in. If Zordon had not been calling him, he would undoubtedly have woken up soon from lack of oxygen. It didn't help that the thunder was roaring outside his window.

Tommy awoke with a start. The fourth chime was starting. Quickly, Tommy grabbed his red communicator off his desk and said, "Go ahead, Zordon."

"Tommy, is something wrong?"

"No. Ah, I was just really asleep."

"The Timetable monster is attacking in the warehouse district of Angel Grove."

"Timetable? Didn't we destroy him?"

"No. Timetable teleported out before you could destroy him. Hurry and join the other rangers."

"Now? It's 5:00 AM, and it's pouring outside."

"Timetable is attempting to break into a local shipment of jewelry. Perhaps Divatox feels it is unwise to attack in broad daylight."

"Oh, that's right, the whole pirate thing. Sorry, I guess I got used to the whole idea of villains attacking just so they can destroy the Power Rangers. I'm on it. Tommy out."

Tommy walked over to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face to wake himself up. Then, he ran out the house, hid behind a tree, and morphed.

Rocky prepared for impact. After years of fighting monsters, he knew the perfect way to hit the ground with minimal pain. Quickly, he curled himself into a ball and rolled on the ground once he made contact.

"Rocky!" Kat and Tanya quickly rushed to Rocky's side. Kat asked, "You OK, Rocky?"

"Yeah."

Timetable backed away from the rangers and gloated, "Out of practice, rangers?"

From out of nowhere, a flash of red jumped up and hit Timetable. Tommy drew his Lightning Sword and slashed the monster again. As Tommy backed away to his teammates, he said, "Time to clean your clock, Timetable!"

Rocky mumbled, "'Clean your clock', Tommy? Isn't that a bit obvious?"

Tommy shrugged. "It's five in the morning. You come up with a better snappy one-liner."

Timetable reeled from the attack. As he braced for another assault, the rangers lined up in formation. Timetable and the rangers circled each other, searching for weakness. In the background, lightning began to light the sky, and thunder roared, as the night storm hit full force. Suddenly, Timetable turned and ran.

"No!" cried Adam. "He's headed for the jewelry!"

Tommy sighed. "I'll never get used to not being the primary target." Turning, he said, "Rocky, can you hit him with your Blaster Seekers?"

"No problem!" Rocky pulled behind his back and summoned his weapon. "Turbo Hand Blasters, Blaster Seekers!" He locked on the fleeing monster and fired. Twin blue streaks burst out from the blasters and made a beeline for Timetable, striking him straight in the back. In pain, the monster saw the rangers running towards him. He executed a teleport-jump, warping from the warehouse area to the nearby power generators.

Timetable turned around at a sudden noise, to see Kat and Tanya jumping up to attack him. Kat fired her Wind Stun, freezing him in place. Tanya struck out with her Star Charges, creating a Star Strike field which electrocuted him.

The girls landed, then quickly took cover as Adam and Rocky both activated their long range special weapons, knocking Timetable to the ground. Tommy jumped and completed the classic ranger assault formation, using the Lightning Slash to administer the deadly blow.

Timetable flew off the ground from the attack, striking a power generator straight on. Suddenly, lightning came from the sky and struck the generator, sending endless jolts into Timetable. Lightning lashed out from Timetable's body in every direction. Timetable was shrieking in agony.

One of the lightning strands stuck Tommy. The other rangers, who had taken cover on the side, as was normal operation during the classic ranger assault formation, could only watch as more and more lightning poured from the generator to Timetable to Tommy. Suddenly, as soon as it happened, Tommy vanished. The whole encounter took less than five seconds.

Tommy woke. Somehow, it occured to him that what he should have been feeling with his hands was the concrete floor of the generator floor, not dirt. Groggily, Tommy realized that he was not where he thought he was.

Despite the pain, Tommy stood up and forced his eyes to open. He most definitely was not anywhere near the generators. He stood between buildings, somewhat resembling Angel Grove's business district. The buildings themselves were far more elaborate, with hints of technology Tommy had only seen on other worlds. The sky was probably his biggest indicator; blood red tends to catch the eye that way.

"Halt." A simple word, somewhere from the building cracks. Tommy realized he was not alone, and forced himself to wake up fast. The voice did not have a friendly tone about it. Slowly, a lone figure stepped out from the shadows. It looked almost like a robotic policeman. On its chest were the three traffic signals; the theme also continued along much of its body. The color of green plastered its body.

The robotic policeman spoke again. "Halt. Identify yourself."

Tommy stopped. It looked like a policeman, but he also knew it could easily be a foe as well, so Tommy was reluctant to give any information, especially since the robot did not immediately identify him as the Red Ranger. "Uh . . . identify yourself."

"Green Senturion unit 05T23. Identify yourself."

"Can you tell me where I am?"

"Identify yourself. Failure to identify yourself will lead to termination."

That cleared things up quickly. Good guys don't kill people without provocation. Tommy moved slowly, giving the impression that he was injured. Quickly, Tommy threw a side kick directly into the Senturion's chest. The Senturion stumbled a few steps, then drew its gun. Tommy ran and turned the corner at the next intersection, just as the Senturion opened fire.

The Senturion approached the corner, only to be met with the Turbo Blade of the Red Ranger. Off-guard, the Senturion failed to deflect the blasts from Tommy's Auto Blaster. Tommy took out his Lightning Sword to end it, but the Senturion recovered quickly and dodged the blade. The Senturion transformed his gun into a sword of his own, though it resembled a baton more. The two quickly moved into a duel, with neither side revealing any weaknesses to exploit. In the end, the Senturion unit was stronger, and knocked the Lightning Sword from Tommy's hand. The Senturion pulled back his baton to strike again.

Three clear shots penetrated the air, striking the Senturion cleanly in the back. Tommy could hear shouts from around the corner, but he ignored them for now. Tommy threw the Senturion to the ground and picked up his Lightning Sword. Tommy powered it up and slashed the Senturion dead center in the chest.

Tommy heard more voices behind him, accompanied this time by footsteps. Satisfied that the Senturion was offline, Tommy turned to face the newcomers. They were not soldiers, as Tommy had expected after seeing the weapons fire. They seemed like ordinary folk, except for the fact that they were carrying laser guns and several brown bags.

The one who had fired the shots walked up and approached Tommy. Cautiously, he said, "Who are you?"

Tommy stared at this newcomer. He was friendlier than the robot, and he already had a good reputation in Tommy's mind, but Tommy still resented that he was basically asking the same thing as the robot.

Seeing Tommy's silence, the boy (for he was merely a boy, not much older than Tommy) said, "I'm called Deron. Does that help?"

" . . . Tommy."

"Tommy, how did you take out that Senturion by yourself? It takes about six of us to bring one down."

Tommy simply looked at his Turbo uniform. His uniform had always told people that he was a Power Ranger, given strengths nobody else on Earth had. He had literally never been asked how he defeated an opponent.

Deron seemed to notice the uniform as well, as he visually withdrew the question. Instead, he said, in a friendly sort of way, "I guess that means you're against Erasmus too."

"Erasmus?"

"Yeah. Most of the loyal guys don't just assault Green Senturion patrols."

"Am I missing something here? Who is Erasmus?"

At this, Deron looked at his teammates behind him. Slowly, he motioned for one of them to step forward. From her bag, Deron picked out a device that resembled handcuffs for the entire lower arm. Deron said, "Tommy, we're going to grab that Senturion with these. Can you get him for us?"

Tommy turned to get the fallen robot. Once his back was turned, Deron swiftly locked the handcuffs on Tommy. Tommy quickly spun in anger.

"Sorry, Tommy, it's the rule. All suspicious personnel are to be checked out by the head guy himself. Nothing personal. I think you're a good guy." Deron motioned to the others, and they put handcuffs on the robot as well.

Tommy could feel the cuffs interacting with his powers. Slowly, Tommy demorphed. Tommy panicked, but upon further inspection, he could still feel the power within himself. The cuffs only deactivated the morph; it did not take away his powers.

Deron said, "C'mon, Tommy. This way. The sooner we do this, the sooner those cuffs will be off."

It was a long and mostly boring journey. Deron responded to all of Tommy's questions by saying it was against the rules for him to answer. Tommy responded to all of Deron's questions by saying he couldn't be certain Deron wasn't the enemy. Tommy said it in a mostly humorous fashion. Despite the cuffs, Tommy couldn't help but feel that Deron was not the enemy. He was simply too friendly. Whenever Tommy looked on his face, he could see genuine guilt on the trick he had played on him.

Tommy suddenly stopped walking. Since the path was mostly uphill, the team had already been moving slowly, so it took a few seconds for them to realize their prisoner was not moving. One of the older men drew his gun and started barking an order to keep walking, but Deron stopped him. Deron walked up beside Tommy and said, "Something wrong, Tommy?"

" . . . Nothing, I guess." Just that I think I know where we're going, thought Tommy. This looks exactly like the trail that leads to the Power Chamber. I wonder . . .

"Deron!" cried one of Deron's followers. Deron went over to the man's side, and the two started whispering. Tommy couldn't make out much of what they were saying. At one point, he saw the man point to him, and Tommy thought he heard him say something about being too friendly with the prisoner. Deron loudly responded that he was the leader, not the other man.

When it was over, Deron moved slowly to Tommy's side. "Tommy," he said. "Sorry about this, but you have to be gassed. Jerid doesn't think it's wise for you to see where the base is." Tommy slowly backed away. He had allowed himself to be taken instead of trying to escape because he thought Deron and the others were the good guys, but he had serious problems with falling unconscious.

Deron sighed. "Tommy, you don't really have a choice here." At that, Tommy felt something press against his neck, and he realized he had forgotten about the team members behind him. Slowly, Tommy felt his eyelids shut . . .

Once again, Tommy awoke. This time, he could feel that he was lying on something. It was not the bed in his room, but somehow he felt as if he had woken up on this many times. As his eyes opened, he realized that it was a Biobed, used whenever the rangers had sustained injury.

"Tommy." The familiar voice shocked Tommy off the bed. Tommy got to his feet and searched the room for the voice. He found it above him.

"Zordon!" Tommy couldn't get the words out fast enough. "What's going on? Where are the others? Who are-"

"Tommy, please," Zordon spoke, "Calm down. I will explain everything. First, do you notice where you are, Tommy?"

Tommy blinked. He had automatically assumed he was in the Power Chamber. The fact that Zordon's tube was in a different place did not seem to trouble him. Now, when he looked around, he saw that he was somewhere else. The room was incredibly spacious, and the general layout resembled the old Command Center much more than the newer Power Chamber.

"Tommy, listen to me. You were fighting a monster with the others. Tell me what you remember."

"The monster . . . Timetable. I was fighting with him, and then something happened. Something with lightning. Then I woke up, and I was in a town. And then something - a Green Senturion, I think - attacked me."

Zordon frowned. "You don't remember anything in between?"

"No. What happened?"

"Tommy, turn and observe the Viewing Globe."

Tommy turned, and sure enough, there was the Viewing Globe, exactly as it had been in the old Command Center. He saw the fight with Timetable. A lightning bolt hit the generators next to Timetable just as Tommy struck him. Tommy saw himself vanish immediately, and other rangers seemed astonished, then confused, and then angry.

"Tommy, you must listen carefully. Timetable claimed not to know what happened to you. Divatox spent the next few weeks searching for you and experimenting with Timetable, so I believe Timetable was telling the truth, and Divatox was searching for a way to duplicate the results. The other rangers, especially Kat, were devastated."

Tommy noticed something in how Zordon was speaking. "You say this as if it happened a long time ago."

Zordon seemed to be looking for the right way to speak. "Tommy, it was a long time ago. It has been fifty years since that happened." Zordon noted Tommy's reaction of shock, then continued. "Eventually, the other four rangers stormed the Baribarian and destroyed it."

"Without provocation? What about your rule about not escalating the battle?"

"They chose to break it. I did not stop them. You were lucky, Tommy, not to have seen what had happened to the others following your dea-" Zordon stopped. "Following what they perceived as your death."

Tommy shuddered at the thought of losing a ranger in battle. Adam, or Jason, or Billy. Or Kat or Kim, said a thought that Tommy pushed to the back of his mind. "I can imagine."

Zordon nodded. "Following Divatox's defeat, we experienced months of calm as the others and I tried to make peace with your death. Then, Erasmus came. There was no warning. Erasmus had previously had a record as being a small, twisted inventor. Nobody had expected him to become any sort of threat. Then, one day, Erasmus descended on the Earth with new technology. He called it Ultro Technology. With it, he took over most of the Earth."

"Wait. Why Earth?"

"Erasmus had been denied access into the United Alliance of Evil. He was considered too petty. After he designed his Ultro Technology equipment, he tried to take over the Earth in revenge, to smite the reputation of many of the UAOE's greatest members - Rita, Zedd, Vile, Divatox. The other rangers fought valiently. You would have been proud of them."

Tommy swallowed slowly. "Then . . . they're gone?"

"All of them. Not just the current rangers. Erasmus sook out the past rangers as well. When the Aquitians and Trey attempted to aid us, they were defeated as well."

"But this resistance group . . ."

"Erasmus took out all ranger groups, but he severely underestimated the natural human spirit. I organized what resistance groups I could. There are many that we have no control over. Erasmus has spent almost fifty years attempting to wipe them all out."

Tommy looked carefully at the Viewing Globe. The scenes were catastrophic. Not just Angel Grove, but the entire Earth was covered with red clouds. "Zordon, where do the red clouds come from?"

"Erasmus's Planet Cannon. His ultimate weapon. He used it to destroy entire cities with one blast. The cannon is in orbit around Earth. The blast has a side effect of interacting with the atmosphere to create the red clouds you see. Luckily, the blast radius is too big, and using it to destroy this Command Center would also destroy Erasmus's central control city in Angel Grove."

Tommy continued to watch the Viewing Globe in shock. He had almost lost the ability to speak. Meanwhile, Deron stepped to his side and said, "Sorry about the cuffs and the gassing thing. We'd only heard of the legendary Power Rangers through stories. And the whole bit with your uniform going into thin air - whew, we've only seen that with Senturions. That was one sweet trick, though." Tommy glanced at Deron. He appreciated Deron's obvious attempt to lighten the mood, but he was just too shocked to respond.

Tommy looked back up to Zordon. "Isn't there any way to send me back? Back to my own time? I can stop this from happening."

"No. Divatox's tests with Timetable yielded nothing. And there is no other way to consistently open time portals."

Deron spoke up. "Wait, what about the thing we heard from the grapevine? The whole Blue Senturion thing? Isn't that thing-"

"A piece of unsubstantiated rumor," interrupted Zordon quickly. But the damage had been done. Tommy had picked up enough of the conversation.

"What Blue Senturion? And what does it have to do with time portals?

Zordon replied, "Nothing. It is only a rumor, and one from a poor source as well."

Deron said, "But we're-" Zordon glared at him, and he shut up.

"Zordon!" Tommy yelled desperately. "If there's even a small chance we can send me back, we have to try. Don't you want to stop this . . . the destruction? The wars? The death?"

Zordon remained silent. After a time, he finally said, "There is a rumor that a prototype Blue Senturion is being constructed. At present, there are only three Senturion models. Red Senturions are strength-oriented, making them ideal for launching offensive attacks. Black Senturions are stealth-oriented, allowing them to sneak into enemy bases and camps. Green Senturions like the one you encountered are speed-oriented, and they are generally used for routine patrols of the area.

"The rumored Blue Senturion would combine all three of these characteristics into a single machine. However, our best scientists indicate that such a combination is impossible. The Blue Senturion project does not exist."

Tommy refused to give up. "What does that have to do with time portals?"

Zordon was visibly reluctant to keep up the current conversation, but ultimately he replied, "According to the rumor, the Blue Senturion would travel into the past and destroy Earth before the rebels could be given a chance to organize."

Tommy was shocked at first, then suddenly turned furious. "And you're just writing this off?! Just because your scientists say it can't be done?"

"Tommy, they are only rumors. Our network of spies has fallen; the only way to confirm this rumor would be to storm the headquarters of Erasmus and find the prototype ourselves. And Tommy, you simply do not realize what the current situation is like. Earth is falling. I cannot divert the soldiers you would need to power such an operation. I'm sorry, Tommy."

"But . . ." Tommy was visibly struggling. "If we're right, then you won't even need soldiers to defend territory or whatever." Tommy took a deep breath. "THIS . . . WOULDN'T . . . HAVE . . . HAPPENED!"

Zordon shook his head. "The possibility that the Blue Senturion project exists despite our sceintists' predictions is too low. Such an assault would definitely destroy all of Earth's defenses in the likely event of failure." Zordon paused for a moment, seemingly considering Tommy's feelings for the first time. "I'm sorry, Tommy, but there is no way to send you back. You will have to adapt to life here."

Tommy simply stood there, breathing heavily but not making another sound, his eyes fixed on Zordon's. Finally, he broke his gaze and muttered, "Fine," and stormed out.

Tommy was sulking just outside the Command Center, sitting on the cliffs. He could clearly see the red skies from there, and if he looked further down, he could see where Erasmus City was heavily fortified in the area once known as Angel Grove. Tommy was furious. The instant he had found Zordon here, he had counted on his mentor's full assistance. In many ways, what had happened inside the Command Center felt as much a betrayal as when he had turned against the rangers. Only Tommy had Rita's influence to blame. Zordon had no such spell over him.

You will have to adapt to life here . . . Tommy couldn't even begin to imagine living in this time period. It would be like accepting failure - it wasn't something that the Power Rangers did easily. In the back of his mind, he had not even considered the possibility of staying here. He was fully convinced that things would work out in the end, that he would find a way back into his own time. It was simply that mindset which had dragged him through some very difficult times, especially lately.

More than anything else - more than Earth's condition, more than some villain taking over the planet, more than the human race being enslaved - the reason for Tommy's denial was his friends. He had been a bit of a loner in his earlier youth, which was the one of the reasons why he bonded so quickly and strongly with Jason and the others way back when. Over the years, some of his friends may have left, replaced by new ones, but those old bonds still stayed, reinforced by the new bonds. They were an integral part of him now. He could not begin to imagine a world where those friends were all dead. Where he would never again spar with Jason . . . or swap stories with Billy . . . or spend time with Kim . . .

Kat, reminded himself fiercely. His time with Kim had passed. But he could not deny that the idea of Kim's death had hurt him deeply. Neither could he deny that it hurt a lot to think of Kat dead as well. He sank his head deep into his lap as he realized that, even after months had passed since he and Kat began dating, he still was not fully sure which one he loved more.

"Hey, Tommy", Deron called out. Tommy raised his head quickly and spun around to find the new voice. Deron, walking up to where Tommy was sitting by the cliff, continued, "Something on your mind?"

Tommy turned back towards the edge of the cliff, lost in thought. He knew Deron had probably lost quite a few loved ones, too, but for some reason, he rather selfishly thought that Deron would never understand what he felt at the moment. Finally, he asked, "Deron, how long have you known Zordon?"

"The head guy? Couple of years. I spent most of my life in the camps, 'til his troops came and freed a bunch of us."

"The camps?"

"Yeah - that's where Erasmus stuffs all us human types he can get his hands on, for hard labor." Deron stopped. "Why'd you ask, Tommy? About the head guy, I mean?"

Tommy frowned. "He's changed. The Zordon I knew wouldn't have hesitated to help me change the past and stop this. He wouldn't have just blew off a rumor just because somebody said it was impossible. He . . ." Here Tommy struggled to find the words to convey his emotions. "He just cut me off; he wouldn't even hear me out. It's like Zordon's more concerned with just beating Erasmus at his own game. It's like it doesn't even occur to him that there's a way to stop this from ever happening."

Deron whistled. "That's some mighty strong words you got against the head guy, fella. But you know, it wouldn't surprise me if that's true. I mean, he's been fighting the guy for the last 50 years; you could figure it'd get personal by then."

Tommy shook his head slowly. "Do you have any idea how old Zordon is? He's gotta be more than 10,000 years old!" Deron raised his eyebrows in surprise. Tommy continued, "He's had to fight other people for tens of thousands of years, but he never made it personal, if that's what you want to call it. He never became like this." Tommy turned back towards the cliff, a pained look in his eyes. "He's changed. He's not the Zordon I knew."

Deron cautiously said, "You don't think . . . it's 'cause of your friends, do you?"

"What?"

"You don't suppose, it could be because your friends were killed, that the head guy won't give up, do you?"

Tommy thought, for a moment wondering how Zordon would have taken his friends' deaths. And Zordon didn't even get the luxury of being told that it had happend 50 years ago, like he had. "I don't know . . . I don't think it really matters anymore. Zordon's not going to help me anymore."

Deron nodded, then tried to gracefully leave Tommy to his own troubles. Suddenly, Tommy spun and said, "Deron, what's the headquarters like? The place we'd have to get into to find out whether this is true?"

Deron pointed to a gigantic tower in Erasmus City. "That's it right there. Or rather, the main compartment. It's surrounded by 20 meters of bases on each side, and Senturions patrol the thing day and night; they don't need to feast, you know."

"Has anyone tried to break in there before?"

"Sure. I think some of your ranger friends led the first raid."

Tommy cringed. "Then I guess I know what happened to the raids." It still hadn't fully dawned on Tommy that all his friends were dead, and at the moment, that was all that kept him from crumbling right there and then. "Did any of my friends . . . have ranger powers?"

Deron paused for a moment, before replying, "You know, Tommy, I really don't know. I haven't been too big on history lessons." Deron pondered the question a bit further. "What's that power you have right now? Turbo? I think I heard something like your friends used all that up when they fought away Divatox."

"Then nobody had ranger powers when Erasmus struck. Turbo is - was our last line of powers."

"Yeah, that's probably right."

Tommy felt a sense of awe, that his friends had the courage to lead raids on Erasmus' fortress, without any form of ranger protection. They were probably legends in the eyes of Erasmus and the others.

Finally, Tommy stood up and brushed himself off. He asked Deron, "What about the Senturions? Are they about the same as the one I fought?"

"You fought a Green, right? Uh . . . just about. Blacks are probably a bit weaker; Reds a bit stronger. Not a big difference if you got powers like yours."

Tommy nodded. "Thanks, man. You've helped quite a bit." Tommy looked at the sky, where the moon was somewhat visible through the red clouds. "Is it time to sleep now, or do you guys pull 24 hour shifts?"

Deron smiled - a reaction that Deron did so often that Tommy had come to expect it. "Nope, we still gotta rest." Deron shrugged. "I guess it is kinda late. C'mon, I'll show you our 'guest' accomodations. They're a tad, how shall we say, uncomfortable. Painful, even. In fact, you could even call it a slab of rock." And he laughed.

Deron wasn't kidding at all. Tommy was looking at a slab of rock inside a room the size of a closet. The floor was dirt, which meant that this area was not a high priority for whoever built it. The walls were incredibly thin - Tommy wouldn't have broken a sweat punching through them. And other than a makeshift door, that was where Tommy would be spending the night.

Deron laughed again. "If I was in charge, I'd give you some special treatment, with you being a Power Ranger and all. But that's the way life works."

Tommy looked again at the slab of rock. Apparently, its only purpose was to separate the inhabitant from the dirt. "I . . . I guess it's fine. It's probably a lot more than a lot of people on Earth are getting right now."

"That's the spirit, Tommy. By the way, here's a hint: if your back starts hurting, just scoot the rock out of the way and sleep on the dirt, it's a lot softer."

"Thanks."

"All right, Tommy, see ya. I gotta go check on little Synapsis before I go."

Tommy knew he should get to sleep, and soon, but that last sentence caught him off guard. "Synapsis?"

"Yeah, he's a little guy," Deron said, apparently eager to talk about him. "He's the only little one who lives here. Actually, he should be living in the Trudges with the others, but the poor fella can't get to sleep without me. I pulled him out of a few tight spots when we were together in the camps. I kept him safe at night, since he had nowhere else to go. Then, when the resistance came to free us, he just hung on my leg the whole time."

"So he's kind of like your brother, huh?"

"Probably. Closest thing to one I ever had, anyway. You got a brother, Tommy?"

"Yeah, his name's David. We don't know each other well, though. I only found him last year. And he's about the same age I am, so it wouldn't be the same like with you and Synapsis." Tommy had to laugh, just a little, the first time his mind had wandered away from the destruction that surrounded him. "Where did you guys pick up these names, anyway, man? Deron, Synapsis . . . they're kind of weird."

Deron laughed again. "Ha! I guess so. Blame the camps on that one. They just assign us a code, and that's the only name we ever got in life. Mine was DER-N641. So they just pulled the numbers off. I say it like it's spelled, that's all. And my 'brother' had the code SYN-P515. And, well, who knows why they kept the numbers on that one. 515 . . . 'S' 'I' 'S', get it?" Deron started chuckling.

Tommy put on a smile as well. "Well, better get moving, Deron."

Suddenly, a small figure popped out from behind the corner and ran straight to Deron's side. He was very young, and looked like he came up to about Deron's waist, if not a little below.

Tommy grinned. "Looks like you're a little late, man."

Deron replied, "I guess so." He looked down to his new guest and said, "Syn, you're supposed to be in bed!" Synapsis replied by burying his head deep into Deron's leg. Deron picked him up and pointed him at Tommy. "Syn, this is a Power Ranger. Just like the ones in the stories. Wave to the big hero, Syn." Deron picked up Synapsis' hand and waved for him. Then, Deron turned to Tommy and said, "You'll have to forgive him if he doesn't say hi. He doesn't talk too much - the camps don't allow you to talk a lot. I've been trying to get him to shake the habit, but the boys say it'll probably take another couple of years."

Tommy said, "Okay Deron, looks like it's time for us to go to sleep."

"Yeah, see you around, Tommy." Deron set Synapsis down and the two of them walked away, and turned the corner. Tommy closed what was supposed to be a door, and promptly fell asleep.

Tommy woke up. Inside, he felt that he had gotten some rest, but not a lot. Tommy was glad; this meant that he had not overslept. If he was going to do this, he would have to do it when everybody was still asleep.

Tommy opened the small door and sneaked out. He put his ear to a couple of doors and heard the sounds of people sleeping. Convinced that he was on schedule, he quietly made his way to the door exiting the guest quarters.

"Well, Tommy, I was wondering when you were gonna show up."

Tommy jumped in surprise, fearful that he had been caught. When he turned, though, he saw Deron's smiling face.

Deron stepped up and said, "I was almost thinking you weren't gonna go through with it."

Tommy forced a weak smile and asked, "How'd you know?"

"How couldn't I know! All you did last night was ask about the Erasmus fortress. And when you started asking about the defenses, the Senturions, about people using Ranger powers to break in, I just thought, 'This guy is really going to try to break in.' And here you are."

Tommy looked slightly uneasy. "So what's going to happen now?"

"What's going to happen now is I'm going to go with you." Seeing Tommy's shocked expression, Deron added, "And don't even think about leaving me here. I got a lot riding on whether or not you can change all this, so I sure am gonna go make sure you do it right."

"But you don't even have any powers! Deron, I don't even know if I can do this, and I can morph."

"Don't matter. I got my own skills." Deron pulled out a small, silver box, which resembled a suitcase in many ways. "Inside here is everything you'll need to get in. Radar jammer, command override codes, everything. If there's a Blue Senturion and a time portal in there, we're sure as heck gonna find out about it."

Tommy reluctantly nodded in agreement. "Welcome aboard, Deron."