Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers. There's a whole lot more stuff I don't own that's in here, and, well, all I've got to say about that is this. I don't want to spoil any scenes or surprises from this overly elaborate LONG fanfic that ate up a big chunk of my Christmas break and the month of January and apparently half of February. There are some things I have changed in the various worlds we visit to suit my own needs, so just wait until the end, and if my disclaimer/author's note doesn't clear it up, then you can flame me. I've tried to make it so that each world can be enjoyed, even if you aren't a fan or even knowledgeable in the particular world they happen to be in. But no promises. I'll include a very detailed LONG disclaimer at the end of this fanfic. You'll also notice that this story is very Hobbit-esque, in that the overall story is composed of numerous, smaller adventures. But for now, happy reading.

"That was fun!" Justin cried as he was deposited in a new dimension.

"That was kinda cool," Skull agreed.

"I thought you were dead," a vicious voice said. Trini looked up to see a Sword pointed not more than three inches from her face.

Suddenly, Putties began to surround them. They burbled to each other incoherently. Before anyone could react, Trini, Tommy, and Skull were bound, hand and feet, and Justin was thrown over the shoulder of a Putty in a fireman's carry.

"Let me go!" Justin shouted.

"Morph Justin!" Tommy shouted.

"MOUNTAIN BLASTER TURBO POWER --- SEAHORSE!!!" Justin cried frantically. The Putty collapsed under Justin's sudden increase in weight. He immediately launched himself at the Putties carrying his bound friends.

However, before he was close enough to inflict any damage, Rito blocked him. Justin took a severe hit to the midsection with Rito's sword. He "oomphed" and staggered back a few feet.

"Wait a minute!" Trini cried. "Rito! Don't you remember me! I'm the Trini from the dimension where we're good!"

Rito suddenly paused and turned to look at Trini. "You're from a different dimension?" Rito asked.

"Yes," Trini said. "Remember our five friends that came here after Zack and I left? They didn't come home, and we're on a search and rescue mission!"

"Put them down," Rito commanded. The Putties immediately did as they were told, while Rito proceeded to cut the ropes that bound them. "I'm sure Jenga would like to see you again."

Before any of them could say anything, they all teleported away.

Trini expected to be teleported to the Lunar Palace. Instead, she was teleported into the center of a small make-shift camp. Destruction was all around them, although the people they could see were not worried in the least.

"Jenga!" Rito cried. "I've got some people here you might want to meet!"

Jenga emerged from a large green tent. Her hair no longer trailed down h er back but instead was cut shorter than Justin's. Rather than have three luxurious blue strands that trailed down her back, she had three blue spots on the back of her head. A nasty cut was stitched shut across her forehead. Her clothing was tattered and torn, and she had a surprisingly dark tan, but it was undeniably Jenga Xett. Her face shifted slightly at seeing the three teens, but she then realized what had happened.

"Trini!" Jenga cried. "What are you doing back here?!" She hurried over to Trini and gave the teen a gentle hug.

"We're on a search and rescue mission for our five friends from earlier this summer," Trini said.

"They didn't go home?" Jenga asked sadly.

"No, but they're okay," Trini assured her. "Oh, you know these guys' names, but they're with me. They're good. Tommy and Skull, of course. And this is Justin. He's Blue Turbo Ranger on our world."

"Nice to meet you all," Jenga said warmly.

The other three didn't say anything, as Trini had warned them of what to expect in the Anti-Earth world, the first world in the slider's cache file. "What happened here?" Trini asked. "Where are we?"

"This pile of ruin is what's left of Angel Grove," Jenga said. "Zordon's Rangers attacked us at the Lunar Palace, and we fought back. They brought it to Earth, and we won, but barely."

"Survivors?" Trini asked warily.

"Everyone is here in Angel Grove, now," Jenga explained. "There aren't many people left. I suppose ten thousand. We're trying to rebuild a good society. We've only been at it for a week. Things are actually going pretty smoothly. What do you think of my new hair?"

"It sure is shorter," Trini said.

"Doesn't it look horrible?" Jenga asked. "Tommy did it with his Sword. Took nearly all of it off, and then gashed me across the forehead." Jenga unconsciously shuddered at the memory. "The Rangers killed as many people as they could. But we finally won. Our survivors, from the Dynasty, aren't as numerous. Myself, Rito, Scorpina, and Finster. The others were killed."

"I'm very sorry," Trini said.

"Thank you," Jenga sighed, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Is there anything we can help you with?" Trini asked.

"No, it's pretty dull around here now," Jenga said. "We have clean up crews working on the rubble and debris, but you need to save your strength for sliding."

Trini nodded in agreement and said, "If you don't, then we'll go ahead and go. You take care, okay?"

"Everything is going to be fine around here now," Jenga said. "Evil is dead."

Trini gave Jenga one final hug, and then pulled the slider from her pocket. "You guys ready?"

"It was nice meeting you," Justin said. "Let's hit it Trini. We've got seventy-eight worlds left."

She opened the slider and hit a button on it. A white beam of light shot from it, forming a whirling vortex of light. Justin took one look at his teammates, and then hurled himself into the light.

As soon as he emerged on the other side, he landed in deep mud and began to slide. A serious thunderstorm was raging, and thick mud lay everywhere. He was thoroughly covered in a matter of moments, but that thought didn't occur to him. He was more concerned with the fact that he was sliding down an extremely steep embankment that seemed to be leading him underground.

Suddenly, the embankment just disappeared, and he was airborne. Screaming, he fell into a dark abyss. Justin wasn't too sure of how far he fell, but suddenly, he was underwater. It couldn't have been too far, because it didn't take him more than a few seconds to resurface. He wiped the water and mud from his face just in time to see Trini and Tommy fall into their underwater pool as well.

"Justin, you okay?" Skull asked as soon as he resurfaced.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Justin told him.

Tommy and Trini swam up to Skull and Justin. "It looks like we're in some type of underground cavern," Trini said. Stone walls stretched up all about them. Light from an unseen source lit the area up. The four Rangers began to swim towards a nearby bank to haul themselves out. They saw no way to get out of the cavern as of yet, but getting out of the water would be no problem at all.

"The slider," Tommy panicked. "Is it okay to get wet?"

"It's virtually indestructible," Trini assured him. "We took every precaution we could to protect it."

"The food in our backpacks is ruined," Skull remarked. "Let's try and get out of here."

Tommy was the first to reach the bank. He latched onto the top of it and quickly hauled himself out. He then stretched a hand down to help Trini out.

Suddenly, screams of anger came from all about them. Tommy shot a "Stay down!" at Skull and Justin. Eight people in tattered clothing and masks that looked animal faces ran at Tommy and Trini, carrying crudely made shotguns and rifles. One woman with long chestnut colored hair and a mask that resembled some type of bird ran up to Trini. She took one look at her, and then rammed the butt of her rifle against Trini's ribs. The sudden move took Trini by surprise, and she bent over in pain.

Several men gathered around Tommy. Tommy slowly circled with them, ready to defend himself. Suddenly, one man with long blondish-brown hair, a beard of similar color, and the mask of a wolf kicked Tommy in the ribs. Tommy attempted to defend himself, but the man in the wolf mask was a split second faster. A few seconds later, Tommy lay at the four men's feet in a painful heap.

"Get them out of here!" one of the men shouted. "We save her death for last!"

Skull and Justin waited in terrified silence, pressed against the stone bank, until the only sound was that of water running into the pool. "Think it's safe?" Justin whispered.

"I'll check," Skull volunteered. He slowly raised himself up high enough to look over the bank. "It looks clear," Skull said softly, pulling himself out of the water. He then stretched a hand down to Justin to help him out.

"What are we gonna do, Skull?" Justin asked, picking up Tommy and Trini's discarded backpacks.

"I say we morph and go find them," Skull said. "They didn't look like they would have Ranger technology. It's Morphin Time?"

"It's Morphin Time," Justin agreed.

"What are you going to do to me?" Trini asked cautiously. The woman with the bird mask pulled it off, revealing a very familiar face. "Kimberly?" Trini asked.

"If you expect me to save you, you've got another thing coming," Kimberly snapped. "Tie her down to that table," Kimberly said to the two men who carried Trini into the room by her hands and feet. "I've got some things I'd like to say to her first."

"Kimberly, you don't understand," Trini pleaded. "I'm not even from this dimension."

"Aw geeze," Kimberly said. "If you're trying to save your ass you could at least come up with a better story than that, oh gracious Right Queen."

Dulcea, Master Warrior of Phaedos, teleported to the Earth. Project Genesis was well underway, as she expected it would be. The final Queen was dead, and she had to let the others know. However, she suddenly felt the Right Queen's presence. She quickly opened her satchel to make sure she had not been fooled. Once satisfied that the satchel's contents had not changed, she set out to determine what was putting off Right Queen's presence.

Just as she was about to teleport underground, she sensed Tommy as well. She knew that he was dead as well. Something was afoot that she didn't understand, and Dulcea didn't like that.

"Did you really think you were going to get the Great Power?" the man in the wolf mask asked Tommy, who was currently shackled and unable to move."We warned Dulcea. I just can't quite figure out why you are back. You should have either succeeded or died at Dulcea's hands."

"Your voice sounds so familiar," Tommy whispered thoughtfully, more to himself than the Wolf Man.

"Insult to injury, I see," Wolf Man said, obviously hurt. He yanked the mask off, revealing a set of eyes that Tommy would have recognized anywhere. The hair and beard had thrown Tommy off, but it was undeniably him.

"Billy?" Tommy asked in shock.

"Good call," Billy agreed. "Who on the Throne is still alive?"

"Billy, I'm from a different dimension," Tommy told him hurriedly. "I'm not from here."

Billy paused. "Can you prove it?"

"I don't suppose I can," Tommy admitted.

"I'll hold off on you," Billy said. "For now."

"Identify yourself!" Dulcea demanded.

Justin and Skull traded a glance, and then looked at Dulcea. "We aren't from this dimension," Justin said.

Dulcea looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, "Identify yourself anyway."

Justin removed his helmet and immediately morphed down to his shorter height. "Justin Cranston," he answered. "Blue Turbo Ranger from a different dimension."

"Eugene Skullovitch," Skull said, following Justin's lead. "We have two friends with us," Skull continued. "Trini Kwan and Tommy Oliver."

"Also from a different dimension?" Dulcea asked. Justin nodded yes. "Then we must hurry," Dulcea told them gravely. "Your friends, especially Trini, are in grave danger."

"Kimberly," Dulcea said sternly. "That is not the Right Queen."

"That's what I've been trying to tell her!" Trini protested.

"How can you be so sure?" Kimberly asked, testing a dagger's tip with her finger.

Dulcea sat a white satchel, the bottom of which was stained red, on a table in the room. "Look for yourself," Dulcea said.

Kimberly walked over to the table and opened the satchel. She looked at the satchel's contents, and then nodded her approval. "Who is this then?"

Dulcea closed the satchel and said, "That's a Trini from a different dimension. Let her go. Skull, come in here and explain to Kimberly what is going on." Kimberly's eyes widened as Skull, clad in the original Green Ranger armor, walked into the room. She proceeded to cut Trini free.

"Billy!" Kimberly snapped. "That's not our Tommy!"

"How can you be so sure?" Billy asked, frowning angrily.

"Look in Dulcea's satchel," Kimberly said. Dulcea walked toward Billy and opened it. He looked in and nodded in approval.

"I will tell Jason and Katherine," Billy told Kimberly. "They will be happy to know that the Throne is now officially dead."

"Dulcea and I will tell everyone else what has happened," Kimberly said. Her eyes fell on the blood stained satchel, and a smile crept across her face in spite of herself. "I can't believe it's really over."

"I'll go with you," Skull volunteered. "If that's okay."

"Yeah, fine," Kimberly said. She laughed happily and ran out of the room.

Skull watched in awe as Kimberly and Dulcea delivered a speech to the survivors of the Throne. They stood at a balcony, crudely painted in shades of blue, overlooking a gigantic throne room. The two women had the crowd of less then five hundred cheering and hollering in a just a few minutes

His eyes kept falling on Dulcea's satchel, however. He had a pretty good hunch what was inside, but he had to look for himself. He knew he was going to regret it as soon as he opened it, but he had to see it for himself. Skull slowly walked over to the dirty satchel. His hands paused on the handles, and he then opened it. He looked at the contents for all of about two seconds, and immediately turned away and expelled everything he had eaten that day.

"You looked in the satchel, didn't you?" Kimberly asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah," Skull groaned. "Sorry."

"I think you learned your lesson," Kimberly smiled. "I know its hard to just see something like that and not judge Dulcea harshly, but they were evil people."

"What exactly is going on around here?" Skull asked. "This is confusing."

"You sure aren't like the Skull we had here before the Take Over," Kimberly remarked. "Let's go someplace quiet and we'll talk."

"So the rumors of my doppelganger coming through here are true?" Kimberly asked.

"True," Skull told her. "She's my girlfriend back home."

"Yeah, you've mentioned that several times," Kimberly chuckled. She would never have dated the Skull of her world, but she had to admit that the Skull sitting before her was remarkably more mature. "Do you know what may have become of Aisha? She disappeared before we did, but we never found her."

"No, I've told you everything I know," Skull said, "which isn't much."

"Well, Jason left us about a year ago. He eventually made his way back on the Throne. Emily was carrying his child, by the way. That's how he got back on. Jason remembered why he left in the first place as soon as he saw how wicked they were, and rejoined us. We weren't too pleased, but Jason proved to be a valuable asset. He knew from his very brief stint on the Throne that the Zeo Crystal had disappeared. We have no idea where it went to, but it gave us the edge we needed. Their armies no longer had the Zeo Crystal to threaten us with."

"And war started?" Skull tried.

"Right. We fought back. And we killed nearly the entire Throne. Tommy, Trini, and Zack escaped to Phaedos to attempt to get the Great Power to destroy us. Dulcea killed them, instead.

"The planet Eltare then sent us Project Genesis. See, we live underground because the entire surface was desolated in the war that drove us all underground. There's nothing left. Project Genesis was launched, and the planet is currently reviving itself."

"That's why it was raining so hard," Skull said thoughtfully.

"Right," Kimberly said. "The oceans are filling back up. Within a month, the rains will be over and vegetation will return. A year from now, we will move to the top. Eltare and Triforia are going to give us some of their animals so that one day, we'll be a real planet again. It's a fresh start for us."

"Do you have a boyfriend here?" Skull asked, obviously interested.

"Well, Billy and I had a fling a while back," Kimberly murmured. "But he's with Kat now. In fact, they're getting pretty serious. Jason and I have been kinda sorta thinking about it lately, but nothing serious."

"Kimberly!" Katherine cried from the doorway.

"Have you heard the news?!" Kimberly shouted as well, jumping to her feet to give her friend a hug.

"Yeah, and that's not all of the good news!" Katherine laughed. "Billy and I are pregnant!"

"There's a lot to be said for short hair," Billy muttered to himself as he cut the long locks off.

"Don't forget the beard," Skull said. "Man, that looks so bizarre."

"What does?" Billy asked. He then proceeded to cut on his beard, also with the scissors, so as to make shaving with a razor later on easier.

"You with a beard," Skull told him. "It's just not what we're used to. At all."

"Billy thought it was a great disguise," Jason said, "so he's been growing it out for a pretty good while now. Hey, Kat told me the news, man. Congrats."

"What news?" Billy asked, trading the scissors for a razor.

"You haven't talked to her yet?" Jason asked.

"Good news?" Billy asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Gentlemen?" Katherine asked from the doorway. "Can I talk to Billy alone?"

"Let's go guys," Tommy said, placing his hands on Justin's shoulders as they left what had formerly been a prison cell's bathroom.

"Billy, I've got good news," Katherine said, rushing up to him. "Ooh, you've cut your hair."

"I know you liked it short," Billy told her as he hurriedly finished shaving. He splashed water on his face, wiped the shaving cream off, and stared at a totally different face in the mirror. "Much better."

"Remember that night about two weeks ago?" Katherine asked.

"The night our war officially ended with the destruction of the Throne?" Billy asked with a grin.

"Well, yeah, but I'm talking about ... later, in that night," Katherine said.

"Oh yeah. I certainly hadn't forgotten about that." He couldn't suppress the smile that followed.

"Well," Katherine said, a bit stunned that Billy still hadn't made the connection, "I think we're going to have a lasting effect from that night." Billy looked at Katherine questioningly. She finally took his hand and placed it against her flat stomach. "Billy, we're pregnant. I'm late, but not really late enough to be sure, but Dulcea told me she could sense a child within me," she told him.

"Pregnant?" Billy asked in disbelief.

"You aren't upset are you?" Katherine asked nervously.

"Oh no," Billy assured her, shaking his head frantically. "I'm just ... amazed. I mean, you got pregnant the first time we made love? This is amazing." He pulled Katherine into his arms and kissed her passionately. He laughed out loud as he said, "I'm gonna be a dad!"

"Oooh," Katherine sighed, "no more facial hair. I really like that."

"Let's get married," Billy said happily.

"How?" Kat asked. "There are only like seven hundred people on the planet. I don't know if we have any preachers or priests."

"Well, we'll look," Billy said, "and..."

"I'll take your name," Katherine told him, "and we'll go ahead and tell people that we're married."

"Good," Billy sighed. "Wanna go on a honeymoon tonight?" Katherine smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I'd like to get out of here as quickly as we can," Trini whispered to Skull. "Even though they know I'm not their Trini, I'm still not very popular here."

"Yeah, I don't suppose so," Skull agreed.

"We need to go to the surface to slide," Justin said. "How do we get up to the top?"

"There are severe storms raging across the entire planet," Kimberly told them. "It's not safe."

"We have no choice," Tommy said. "We have to go up top."

"You could take an old SpideRover," Katherine suggested.

"I'll show you how the controls work," Billy volunteered. "Follow me."

"It was nice meeting you all," Justin shouted as they followed Billy into the distance.

"We're at the top," Tommy announced. Skull opened the door to the SpideRover as Trini prepared the slider. "Get ready to jump," Tommy told them, "and jump fast. This water is flowing too fast to take long. The SpideRover's going to be pulled away as soon as I let go of the controls."

"Let's do it," Trini said. She pointed the slider at the ground and pressed the button. A split second later, a whirling vortex of light had grown on the ground. "Go Justin!" He leapt from the vehicle and dropped directly into the portal. Skull was close behind.

"Give me the timer!" Tommy shouted over the roar of the wind.

Trini put the timer in his shirt pocket, and then leapt into the portal. Tommy moved the SpideRover as close as he could, and then hurled himself into the portal.

Tommy was the last to emerge on the other side of the wormhole, bringing with him all of the rain that had poured in during the horrific storm. "This world looks normal," Trini said as she picked herself up from the street.

"This world looks empty," Skull said. "Nobody on the sidewalks."

"Is this Angel Grove?" Justin asked no one in particular.

"Maybe," Tommy muttered, "but I doubt it."

Suddenly, five colored figures on motorcycles flew up the street. The four sliders leaped to the sidewalk as the figures drove off. "Were those Rangers?" Skull asked.

"Looked like Zeo Rangers," Tommy commented.

"Look you guys," Trini said, "we've got a lot of worlds to visit and we're already behind schedule. Let's keep sliding."

"Not so fast," a menacing female voice taunted. They all turned in perfect unison to see a robotic woman, dressed entirely in red, standing on the street.

"Who are you?" Tommy asked.

"Jara," the robot said. "And yourself?"

"We're leaving," Trini told her. "Come on guys." Suddenly, the slider flew from her hands and into Jara's.

"Give it back!" Justin shouted.

"I'm sure that's going to happen!" Jara taunted. "Ta ta!" Before any of the quartet could react, they disappeared with the slider.

"What are we going to do?" Skull asked panicked.

"I suggest we morph and teleport to the Ranger's headquarters," Trini said. "They can help us get the slider back." Simultaneously, the four called on their Powers, and then teleported away.

"What happened to the Command Center?" Skull asked. They had teleported to a run down dilapidated mansion. There was a very elaborate computer console nearby, but otherwise, the room was in very bad shape.

A blue man, who looked eerily reminiscent of both Jay Leno and Elvis Presley, walked into the room. Upon seeing the four Rangers, he did an exaggerated comical double take, complete with bulging, flashing eyes.

"What the-?" Tommy asked in disbelief.

"Aisha?" the blue man asked. "What did you do to yourself?"

"We had better explain," Trini said, removing her helmet. "We're from a different dimension, and-"

"Oh, more of you guys," the blue man said, nodding. "My name is Flabber. And you are?" The four Rangers introduced themselves, and then Trini proceeded to give her tale.

Suddenly, blue, pink, green, red, and yellow light flooded the immediate area, producing five Zeo Rangers. "Flabber, what did those goons want?" Yellow Ranger asked while removing her helmet in a voice that was both youthful and old at the same time.

"Trini," Red Ranger, this one female, said coldly. Trini turned to look at Red Ranger, who had by then removed her helmet and revealed the face of Aisha Campbell.

"Aisha?" Trini asked. The Blue, Green, and Pink Zeo Rangers removed their own helmets as well, and immediately shrank into children Justin's age.

"I'm from a different dimension," Trini defended herself quickly.

"So am I," Aisha said coolly. "I'm from a dimension where you were a dictator."

"We just came from that dimension!" Justin cried.

"Not like THAT, though," Trini quickly defended herself. "We're on a search and rescue mission for five friends of ours."

"Billy, Kimberly, Katherine, Rocky, and Jason?" Aisha asked, slowly letting her guard down.

"Yes," Trini assured her. "We've got a slider that's taking us on the exact same route they went."

"They were the ones who saved me," Aisha said. "They brought me and the Zeo Crystal to this world."

"Thanks to you leaving with the Zeo Crystal," Tommy smiled warmly, "the Freedom Force had the ability to overthrow the Throne."

"The Throne is gone?" Aisha asked, awe struck.

"The Throne is gone," Trini promised her. "Billy, Kimberly, Jason, and Katherine are alive and well. They oversaw the destruction of the Throne.Oh, and Billy and Katherine are going to have a baby."

"Oh man," Aisha said, obviously thrilled. "I thought for sure I was the only survivor. Man, this is great!"

"Uhm, Aisha," the older woman in the Yellow Zeo Armor said, "we've got Chromite problems, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Aisha said hurriedly, "I forgot to introduce you to everybody. This old lady in yellow is Nano, my best friend on the entire planet."

"Old lady?" Nano asked, jokingly raising an eyebrow.

"That kid in green is Nano's grandson, Roland," Aisha continued. Roland acknowledge his presence with a slight wave. "Blue boy is Drew, and that girl in pink with all of the hair is Jo."

"Hi," Jo said sweetly, returning her attention to the computer console before her.

"Aisha," Roland interrupted her, "we've got a swarm of Chromites coming into Angel Grove, fast."

"What are Chromites?" Justin asked.

"They're strong, like Tengas, but stupid, like putties. In fact, they look like colored putties," Aisha said. "Look, we'll talk later, but right now, we have to go defend Charterville."

"We'll come with," Tommy volunteered.

"You sure?" Nano asked.

"Absolutely," Skull agreed.

"Back to action!" Aisha cried. Nine streaks of colored light left Hillhurst Mansion.

Trini punched a pink Chromite in the chest, sending it over the edge into self-destruction. Pink ooze splattered everywhere, some of it landing on her armor. "These things are really nasty," Trini said.

"Imagine what Kimberly would have to say about 'em," Skull commented as he went one-on-one with his Dragon Dagger.

Suddenly, the remaining Chromites disappeared, along with the gallons of multi-colored ooze coating the streets. Red light flashed before them, revealing the beast known as Jara. "All right!" Jara cried, throwing her hands up in the air. "How does that blasted device work!?!"

"What device is she talking about?" Drew asked Roland. The taller boy merely shrugged.

"She's talking about our slider," Tommy said, stepping forward. "You may as well give it back, ... you-"

"Jara," Jo told him.

"-'cause it is designed to only work for us."

"Then you'll work for me!" Jara threatened. "Or else!"

"Hah!" Justin cried. "Work for evil? Not a chance!"

"Bash! Flimsha!" Jara cried angrily. "Perhaps after you fight PigSkin you'll feel differently!" With a wave of her hand, she disappeared as a tall pig creature, eerily reminiscent of Pudgy Pig, materialized on the street.

"Aisha, we have to get that slider back!" Tommy told her.

"Go back to Hillhurst," Aisha told him. "All four of you. We'll take care of PigSkin, and you can have Flabber start scanning for the slider."

"Let's go," Trini agreed. They teleported away in a colored rainbow of sparks.

"I smell... hmm.... Type AB," Count Fangula said hungrily.

"AB what?" Skull asked as he removed his helmet. "Blood?"

"What else is there?" Count asked, smelling the air. "It's you, isn't it?"

"Just who are you?" Skull asked.

"I'm hungry," Count said.

"No!" Flabber snapped, running up to his supernatural friend. "No! I've told you before, you couldn't eat BeetleBorgs and you can't eat Rangers!Now get out of here!"

"Aw, you're no fun," Count complained as he walked away with his head hanging.

"Sheesh, these house monsters drive me nuts," Flabber complained. "What are you guys doing back so soon?"

"That red chick," Tommy said, "Jaba? Something, anyway, she sent down a monster."

"We need to get our slider back," Justin told Flabber. "We HAVE to get it back. Aisha said you can scan for it."

"I'll do my best," Flabber said as a white lab coat materialized on his body.

"What's that?" Skull asked panicked as the entire house began to rumble.

"Hey you guys!" an unfamiliar voice said. The four Rangers turned to look at a mummy, standing by the window, along with a werewolf, a vampire, a Frankenstein creature, and a short "thing" in a full-bodied brown shawl. The mummy shouted, "They're using the Super Zeo Zords!"

Skull and Justin hurried over to the window to look out with the paranormal quintet. The ground before the house opened up, and the five Super Zeo Zords leapt out and immediately ran off to the Zeo Rangers.

"Hey, how's it goin?" the short creature said to Justin. It was apparently female, and two red orbs glowed where her eyes should have been in the black pit that should have been her face. "My name's Little Ghoul. Who are you?"

"Justin," he told her. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," she said, shaking his hand. "These things are Count, Frankenbeans, (he's kinda slow,) Mums, and Wolfgang."

"Hi guys," Justin said warily.

Count sniffed the air and then looked at Justin. "What's your blood type?"

"COUNT!!!" Flabber yelled from somewhere in the house.

"Aw, come on Flabber!" Count yelled back as he walked away. "I was just playin'!"

Trini, meanwhile, looked intently at the readings that were coming from the large computer console. "Flabber, this is it," Trini told him. "Where is this signal coming from?"

"Hmmm," Flabber said thoughtfully, "that is coming from...Jara's headquarters."

"Where's that?" Tommy asked.

"We have no idea," Flabber told them.

Trini sighed heavily and ran her fingers through her hair. "Is there any way to get there?" Trini asked.

"I've never tried," Flabber admitted.

"Why did they want it in the first place?" Tommy asked.

"Jara's been itching to send Aisha and the Zeo Crystal back where they came from," Flabber told them, for once talking seriously. "She's probably got some way to scan for any type of unique energy reading, signifying a transdimensional traveler. Ever since the first five Rangers who brought Aisha and the Zeo Crystal through here defeated the Magnavores, she's been pretty ill. Some space demon, what was her name... Tetris? Rubiks Cube? Monopoly? Jeopardy? Man, what was her name?! Wheel of Fortune, no that's not it... Nintendo... Sega? Dang! Maybe it was Jane? Margaret Munger? Theodore!"

"Jenga?" Justin tried warily.

"Yeah! That's it! She came by here about three weeks ago and brought Jara back to life. Jara is going to destroy the Zeo Crystal while Jenga is taking care of things in the M-51 Galaxy. She killed this guy, Mister Vomit, or something, and she's taking over his whole empire. Anyway, as soon as Jara has gotten rid of the Zeo Crystal, they're going to merge dynasties and kill us all. Apparently, Jara plans to use your slider to get rid of the Zeo Rangers. She can't use it, can she?"

"No, we put a safe-guard feature in it," Trini said. "Only those with the Ninja Power can make it work, and that's just us. But she could certainly break it."

"Perhaps if I can isolate the exact energy readings of Jara's HQ, and create a tightly focused energy beam, then I can sneak one of you in without Jara noticing," Flabber said thoughtfully. "Getting you back will be tricky, but it MIGHT work."

"Do it," Trini said. "I'll go and-"

"No," Tommy told her. "I'll go. I have the best fighting ability if I lose my powers, I'm more used to these evil guys, and I don't know much about the slider, so we don't have to worry about sacrificing my intelligence."

"Okay," Trini relented. She hated it when Tommy gave her that look. He had a way of using his eyes to make his point. It was just as effective as Jason's leader voice and Billy's rapid-fire technobabble.

"I've got a lock," Flabber said, "but it'll take me at least twenty-four hours to get the beam exactly how I want it to break through Jara's dimensional barrier."

The Zeo Rangers teleported into Hillhurst and began removing their helmets. "Any luck?" Nano asked.

"Sort of," Flabber said. "It's just going to take time."

"Well, you all can spend your time at Nano's," she volunteered them. "Come on. You guys hungry?"

"I can always eat," Skull said truthfully.

"Eh, Jara's useless," Nano told Tommy as the two of them cooked lunch for the group of Rangers.

"Sounds about like Rita," Tommy murmured.

"But man, I love being a Ranger," Nano said. "I haven't had this much fun since I was a teenager."

Tommy chuckled as he shook his head. It seemed slightly odd to have a Ranger be a woman in her sixties, but he supposed it really wasn't any different than having kids on the team. Jo didn't look like she could be any older then ten or eleven, while Drew, Roland, and Justin all hovered around the age of twelve or thirteen. The Power put a person in their ideal fighting condition. It simply took forty years off of Nano's body and enhanced the fighting skills she already had.

The rest of the Rangers were scattered about Nano's living room having an assortment of conversations. "We're already way behind," Trini said. "I was hoping to be through at least ten worlds by now. We've wasted three hours, and we're just on our third world!"

"There's nothing we can do about it, Trini," Aisha assured her. "We'll get the slider back. It's just going to take a few hours."

"Hey Justin," Drew said, "after lunch you should come with us to Zoom Comics."

"Sure," Justin agreed. "Sounds like fun."

"How many Rangers are there on your world?" Jo asked in disbelief.

"Fourteen different people," Skull said, "and we've got a robot named Alpha, a hologram named Catalina, and a big floating head named Zordon."

"A big floating head?" Jo asked in disbelief. "That's weird."

"Not unlike having a vampire, mummy, werewolf, Frankenbeans, Flabber, and Little Ghoul?" Skull countered.

"Touché," Jo admitted.

"Lunch is on!" Nano called.

"Nano is the best cook there is," Roland promised as the potpourri of Rangers made their way into the kitchen.

Nano did prove to be one of the best, as some time later, everyone sat around with an overly full belly. "Man, if I never eat again it'll be too soon," Skull complained.

"Good thing Rocky wasn't here," Tommy commented.

"That boy could put food away," Nano remembered.

Suddenly, a unique tone, five beeps that slowly lowered in pitch, sounded from five of the communicators in the kitchen. "We're here, Flabber," Nano said into the yellow band on her wrist.

"Rangers, you guys better get your color-coded butts out here now!" Flabber shouted. "Tommy, I can send you to Jara's now!" Nano's dining room was lit up with a multitude of colorful lights as all nine Rangers teleported away.

With a bright red flash, Tommy morphed into the Ninja version of Zeo Ranger V. The only significant difference between his costume and his former Zeo costume was the red and white morpher on his belt and the coin in the golden triangle on his chest that carried the Falcon. "I'm ready, Flabber," he said.

"Get in, get the slider, and get out," Flabber told him. "Just return to the coordinates I send you to. As soon as you get the slider, hurry back there and I'll bring you home."

Tommy nodded in agreement. Flabber fired a white ball of light at him, and he promptly disappeared with a large crackle of electricity.

"You guys!" Drew shouted, running into the house with Justin and Roland in tow. "We've got Chromites out there!"

"Jara must know what we're doing," Nano said. "It's Morphin' Time!"

Justin found himself surrounded by a quartet of pink Chromites. "Aw man!" he cried. "HAND BLASTERS!!!" He held his hands out before him as his weapons materialized in his hands. He leveled them to fire twin blasts at the Chromites, only to realize that he hadn't called on his Hand Blasters. "What the?" Justin asked in disbelief. He was holding blue batons, and then realized what had happened. With his Ninja Power he had gotten new weapons. "Twin Batons!" Justin shouted happily. He immediately defended himself against the Chromites, beating the stupid Putty-like creatures senseless.

"I've got an idea!" Drew shouted. "You guys, herd 'em up! Aisha, let's form the Zeo Cannon!"

"Good idea, Drew!" Aisha agreed.

"We're on it!" Skull shouted. As the Zeo Rangers assembled the Zeo Cannon, Skull, Trini, and Justin quickly got the Chromites in a tight group. They leapt away just as the Zeo Cannon fired, obliterating the Chromites.

Tommy ran down the darkened corridors of Jara's headquarters. Chromites chased after him, but fortunately, he was a few steps faster. He clutched the slider against his chest, determined not to lose it again. He step on the section of ground he had teleported in on, and disappeared in a red line of light.

A split second later, he materialized in Hillhurst Mansion, still running. "We got it!" Tommy announced triumphantly, holding the slider up in the air.

The Rangers ran into Hillhurst a few minutes later. "We've got the slider," Trini said, "then let's go."

"Thanks for lunch, Nano," Skull said as Tommy held the slider out before him. He hit the button, and nothing happened.

"You're right, Trini," Flabber told her. "That's exactly what happened. The slider has been altered."

"The cache file is at least still there," Trini muttered for her own assurance.

"How has it been altered?" Skull asked.

"I think I've figured it out," Trini said. The slider was hooked up to Flabber's computer system. "Jara tried to take it apart. She messed up the energy capacitor."

"Energy what?" Jo asked.

"The energy capacitor is sort of like the slider's battery," Trini explained. "It's designed to draw energy from whatever dimension we are in to open the portal to the next. It was very powerful and allowed us to hop from one dimension to another instantaneously. But no more. It's much weaker, and it's going to have to take some time to charge up in each dimension."

"We can make a read-out that will tell you how long it will take until it's recharged," Flabber said. "According to this, you've got seventeen more hours."

"That's eight o'clock tomorrow morning," Tommy remarked.

"We're way off schedule, now," Trini sighed dejectedly. "It's gonna take us longer to get there than the first group."

"You know, the sky looks the same no matter where you are, doesn't it?" Justin asked.

"It sure does," Aisha agreed. The two virtual strangers sat on Nano's roof to look at the nighttime sky. A full moon hung high in the sky, providing a great deal of silvery light.

"The sky even looked a lot like this from Phaedos," Justin said. "Different stars, and a different moon, two of them in fact, but still... All of the universes are basically the same." The two sat in silence for a while, until Justin finally asked, "Do you consider this home?"

"Yes, I do," Aisha said. "I lost everything in the other dimension when Trini and Tanya took over. My parents, everything... This place was a fresh start. I'm technically an adult, but Nano is practically like a parent to me. I've got a new job here that pays very well. It's a good thing, too, because my Ranger responsibilities are keeping me in Charterville. How about you? How is your new family treating you?"

"Well, I've just recently started calling Becky Mom," Justin said. "My real mom wanted me to. And, well, I've always called Dad Dad. I guess because the only Dad I can remember is George Stewart, and he beat me."

"He beat you?" Aisha asked in horror.

"Yeah," Justin said sadly. "Actually, Jenga is the one who killed him. I don't know why she did it, but I can't help but be a little bit thankful. But then that makes me feel guilty."

"No," Aisha told him. "You shouldn't feel guilty. You have no reason to feel guilty."

"I know," Justin sighed. "I don't think about that much, anymore. And Billy is my brother, but except for when he came back for prom, I haven't seen much of him. He's not at the Peace Conference anymore, so I'm really looking forward to him coming home so I can get to know him. I mean, I have a brother now, and I don't really even know him, and I really want to. And Kimberly is sort of like a sister. She was staying with the Cranstons, when the whole sliding thing happened. I got to know Kimberly really well. I just - I miss everybody."

"You'll get there," Aisha assured him. "Everything almost always has a way of working out for the best."

"I hope you're right," Justin said, nodding.

Justin, Trini, Skull, and Tommy gave the Zeo Rangers, along with Flabber and the House Monsters, their goodbyes. "I know we'll probably never come through here again," Trini said, "but..."

"It was very nice meeting you all," Tommy finished for her.

The slider emitted a beep and the timer read 0000:00:00, indicating that it was fully charged and capable of opening a dimensional portal. "Let's go," Skull said solemnly.

Trini opened the slider and hit the button. A bright whirlpool of light appeared before them.

2349 A.D.M
On the spaceship "Christa", far from Earth

Catalina wandered down the corridors of the Christa through her dimensional double Suzee's projected mind. Suzee always let her consciousness roam free while she slept, so Catalina could have free access to the Christa. During Suzee's waking hours, Catalina could only see what Suzee saw and hear what Suzee heard. While Suzee slept, though, Catalina was on her own.

The only person she ever got to meet by herself, though, was Thelma. The rest of the crew was fast asleep. While Thelma could be fun, she also tended to be a bit repetitive. Ever since Harlan had broken her memory crystal, which occurred before any one else had even got to meet android Thelma, she had been a bit loopy. For that reason, Catalina spent most of her time reading in the Christa's on-line libraries.

Suddenly, a silent red alarm began to flash on a distant console. The purple visage, reminiscent of Suzee but currently carrying Catalina's consciousness, floated out of the chair and hurried over to the console. A single red light blinked on and off.

"What is this?" the young Saturnian asked herself. "This alarm has never gone off before."

She silently wished that she were in a flesh and blood body, but Suzee had taught her how to mentally work the controls. The glowing purple outline of Suzee's hands still moved across the controls, although Suzee's sleeping mind, manipulated by Catalina's active thoughts, actually caused them to move. A few moments later, the confusing results came back to her.An anomaly of both space and time had occurred somewhere in the past, and the energy signature it gave off was in some way affecting the Christa.

"Christa, notify Thelma," Catalina commanded. "Christa, give me the date and place of this disturbance."

"The date of this disturbance is June 24, 1997, 9:53 a.m. The place of this disturbance is the country-side of Stone County, California, United States of America, Earth, Tribeta System, Maxell Belt, Milky Way Galaxy, Goldwyn Cluster K. The cause is unknown."

The silver android hurried up to Suzee's project mental image and said, "Catalina?"

"It's me, Thelma," Catalina told her through Suzee's voice. "Something is happening to the Christa."

Thelma paused for a moment as the Christa relayed the information into Thelma's computer brain. "Oh," Thelma said in response to an unasked question posed by the ship. "It is nothing serious, Catalina."

"Well what's happening?" she asked.

"The Christa is merely being pulled through space and time to the device that caused the dimensional disturbance. The Christa is under the impression that it is being caused by an identical sister ship. As such, She is going to attempt to dock with the ship."

"Thelma!" Catalina cried. "Christa hadn't even been invented in 1997! We're going to Earth. They couldn't even get past their moon!"

"Perhaps the other Christa traveled back in time and crashed," Thelma theorized.

"Then we're going to crash, too!" Catalina shouted.

"Perhaps the other Christa can help save us," Thelma suggested.

"If there is another Christa back there, they are crashed too!"

"Perhaps we can help them."

"Thelma!" Catalina shouted frantically. Catalina immediately flew toward Suzee's body. Standing beside her sleeping friend's body, she opened her mouth and emitted a Sonic Scream, a scream all inhabitants of Titan were capable of producing.

Suzee screamed in pain and clamped her hands over her ears as she sat up "Cat?" she asked frantically.

"Sorry 'bout that," Catalina said from within Suzee's head. "But the Christa is about to travel through space and time and Thelma isn't going to stop it!"

"Where to?" Suzee asked as she hopped out of bed. The bed immediately retracted into a triangular cubicle on the wall. "Rosie, wake up."

"Earth, late twentieth century," Catalina told her.

"Suzee, what's wrong?" Rosie, her Mercurian roommate, asked groggily.

"The Christa is about to crash," Suzee told her as she put her gray suit on over her gleaming blue nightgown.

"Again?" Rosie asked in disbelief.

"Only this time it's worse," Suzee said frantically. She zipped up her jumpsuit and ran out of the room. Her shoulder length brown, red, purple, and blue hair bounced as she hurried off. "Go wake up the guys!"

"Thelma, make the Christa stop!" Suzee cried as she hurried over to her station.

"That is not an option," Thelma told her calmly.

"Why not?" Suzee demanded.

"Suzee, what's wrong?" Harlan asked as he ran into the main control room, wearing only a pair of gray sweatpants. Radu, Bova, and Commander Goddard were close behind.

"We're all going to die!" TJ Davenport cried as she ran into the room with Rosie behind her.

"Calm down, Miss Davenport," the ever-cheerful Rosie told her. "We aren't going to die."

"That is no longer an option because the Christa is making the sub-space/time leap," Thelma said, "now." White light overwhelmed the spaceship, and She disappeared.

Trini rolled into a kneeling position. It was already Monday morning, and they had told everyone they would have been home Sunday night. Only one world had passed since their encounter with Flabber, Nano, and the alternate Zeo Rangers. "Oh man," Trini complained. "We've got two days to spend on this world! It's gonna take us forever to get home!"

Suddenly, lightning flashed across the morning sky above them. "Storm?" Skull asked. He looked up, but the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. Lightning cracked again, and a sonic boom seemingly shook the entire planet. A gigantic silver and bronze space ship, reminiscent of both a fish and a bird, appeared in the sky. It arched toward the earth and immediately crashed into it. The ship came to a rest, not more than a mile from the Rangers. A gigantic wave of dust and dirt rose up from the collision and began to move toward the teens.

"You guys!" Justin cried.

"Morph!" Tommy commanded, immediately followed by, "ZEO RANGER V, RED --- FALCON!!!"

They had barely morphed into their armor when tons of debris pummeled them. Trini rolled up in a ball and placed the slider against the flat of her stomach. That was currently their only means to both rescue the Rangers and get home. It couldn't be damaged.

Eventually, the debris stopped raining down on them. Trini quickly dug her way out of the tons upon tons of dirt and rocks and was relieved to see that the slider had not been damaged.

"Is everybody okay?!" Tommy shouted.

"I'm okay," Justin called out.

"We're okay," Skull answered.

"Should we check out them?" Justin wondered outloud.

"That ship is awfully big," Skull commented. It seemingly took up most of the horizon.

"What if they're hostile?" Tommy asked.

"You guys," Trini said, "I think it might be our fault they crashed here. It's just too big of a coincidence for a spaceship to crash on Earth at the very same moment we slide through. The slider might have affected their navigational systems. I say we check it out, but stay morphed."

"Is everybody okay?" Cmdr. Goddard asked.

"We're not dead?" Miss Davenport asked in disbelief.

"What are the odds we would do this twice and survive both times?" Bova asked skeptically. "I say if we crash a third time, we're dead meat."

"Don't be silly, Bova," Rosie told him. "We're alive and well. Let's be thankful for that."

"I'll go check the Protomix," Suzee said nervously.

"Harlan, get dressed," Cmdr. Goddard instructed. "When you get back, you, Radu, and I will go check the damage to the Christa from the outside."

"Good deal," Harlan said, running off.

"At least the main engine room is working," Suzee muttered to herself. "I'd hate to get stuck on this back-water planet without a good Protomix."

"Suzee, we've got a problem," Catalina said inside her head.

"Yeah, no joke," Suzee agreed. She realized, a moment later, that Catalina meant a different problem. "Cat? How did you end up in the past, too?"

"The Christa must have pulled me along," Catalina told her. "Yensid is totally empty! I don't see any people anywhere!"

"My colony didn't have any inhabitants at this date," Suzee said. "Catalina, this is bad. Even if we can get the Christa back to the future..."

"I know, the return trip will probably kill me," Catalina said grimly. "It about beat the Sonic Scream out of me carrying me into the past."

"Well, we'll just have to find some way to bring you here," Suzee said in a determined voice. "That's all there is to it."

Radu, Cmdr. Goddard, and Harlan Band walked out of the Christa. "You guys," Radu said, pointing to the four brightly colored figures walking toward the Christa.

"What are they saying, Radu?" Cmdr. Goddard asked.

"There are people," Justin said, pointing toward the trio that had just emerged from the fallen craft.

"I hope they're friendly," Tommy wished hopefully.

"That guy looks like Zack!" Trini cried in disbelief.

"They're friendly," Radu said. "Get Suzee out here. Maybe she knows what these ... are."

"Robots, maybe?" Harlan suggested.

Tommy slowly approached the ramp leading up to the ship. "Hi," he said, holding his hands up defensively. "We don't mean you any harm."

The black teen looked at the older white man, who slowly nodded. "Nor do we," the older man said. "I am Commander Goddard of Earth, and this is my ship, the Christa. This young man here is Earthling Harlan Band, and the other fellow is an Andromedan, Radu." Radu had long curly hair and very unique ears.

Tommy removed his helmet. "My name is Tommy Oliver." He nodded to his friends, who removed their helmets as well. "These are my teammates, Eugene Skullovitch, Trini Kwan, and Justin Cranston. We are from Earth, but not this Earth. We're dimensional travelers."

A shapely woman, probably not older than 18 or 19, emerged from the ship. She wore a silvered jumpsuit and had hair that reached just past her shoulders. It was mostly dark brown and curly, although occasional red, purple, and blue streaks highlighted it. She was actually quite attractive. "Dimensional travelers?" she asked. "My name is Suzee. I'm from a pocket dimension of this dimension, known as Yensid. Are you from a pocket dimension or a totally separate dimension?"

"Completely separate," Trini told her. "Can I ask what caused your ship to crash here?"

"A dimensional and temporal anomaly pulled us here," Suzee said.

"That was us, I believe," Trini said solemnly. "I'm very sorry. We had no idea that this could happen."

"Well, what's done is done," Suzee said, nodding. "Why don't you four come aboard the ship, and we'll introduce you to the rest of the crew."

Justin and Skull looked to Tommy for approval. He nodded, and the four Rangers walked up the ramp with their helmets under their arms.

"Are those Rangers?" Catalina asked Suzee.

"I believe so," Suzee answered her with her thoughts. "They have different helmets than we do in Yensid, and the basic armor design is slightly different, but otherwise..." Suzee felt a slight twinge of remorse. She had been the Lavender Ranger on Yensid before being yanked out of her pocket dimension into a completely foreign environment. Catalina had taken over for her as the Lavender Ranger, and in about every other aspect of her life.

Fortunately for Catalina, the Yensidians were very understanding of her problem. Unlike Catalina's friends who had always made fun of her for talking to her "imaginary" friend Suzee, Suzee had been believed. Suzee's parents had always believed in Catalina. The only person in Catalina's life who had even come close to accepting Suzee as real before meeting her was Rosie.

"They are dimensional travelers," Suzee told Catalina. "Perhaps I can use their device to bring you here with us."

"That would be great!" Catalina shouted.

"This place is amazing!" Justin thought to himself. The walls had a very unique 3-dimensional pattern and seemed to glow with their own unique light. Round silver consoles with a seat in the middle were everywhere.

"Who are your friends?" a pink bald female asked. She didn't look like she was any older than Justin, although she certainly wasn't an Earthling.

"You guys," Commander Goddard said, "these are some Earthlings we have just met. Tommy, Trini, Justin, and Eugene."

"Call me Skull," Skull said with a smile.

"My name is Rosie," the pink female said.

"Bova, over here," a tanned boy said. He looked human, but he had a golden wishbone antenna in the center of his forehead.

"He's from Uranus," Rosie giggled. "Oh yeah, I'm from Mercury."

"I hate being from Uranus," Bova groaned to himself, blushing slightly in the process.

"TJ Davenport," Miss Davenport introduced herself.

"I am Thelma," a voice that seemed both robotic and human said at the same time. A woman with maroon circles around her eyes and silver clothing, as well as a silver cap and silverish-maroon curls of hair hurried up to the Rangers. "I am a Techno-Human EmuLating MAchine."

"And you know everyone else," Cmdr. Goddard said.

"How bad is the damage to the outside of the ship?" Rosie asked.

"Very little," Cmdr. Goddard told the crew. "We'll be flight-worthy in a few days."

"We have a more pressing concern," Suzee said. "Catalina was pulled into the past with us. I believe I can get the Christa back into the future, but Catalina won't survive the leap through the future with us."

"We can't kill Catalina!" Rosie cried.

"Darn right," Catalina said, although only Suzee heard her.

"Actually, I have an idea," Suzee said. "Who among you four knows how the slider works?"

"Justin and I do," Trini told her.

"Come with me," Suzee said. "I've got an idea." Trini and Justin demorphed as they left the main control room with the alien.

"Why don't I take you two and explain a bit more about what's going on?" Harlan suggested. "Okay?"

"I'm game," Skull nodded.

"Let's do it," Tommy agreed. Cmdr. Goddard gave the rest of the crew their instructions, and everyone set to work.

"You are identical to a friend of our's," Tommy told Harlan. "His name is Zack Taylor."

"You know Zack Taylor?" Harlan asked in disbelief. "That's like my great great grandpa! He was one of the original Power Rangers on Earth. Was he one with you all?"

"Yeah, he still is," Skull said. "Black Ranger."

"Wow," Harlan said, shaking his head. "This is amazing. Well, did you know Tanya Sloan? She was his wife, and used to be the Yellow Ranger."

"She's on the team, too," Tommy told her. "Well, where we're from. I mean, you're talking about a different dimension, but still..."

"Why are you all sliding the dimensions?" Harlan asked.

"We're on a search and rescue mission," Tommy answered. "Five friends are lost, and we're trying to find them. Unfortunately, our slider has messed up. That's what caused you to crash, I guess. I'm really sorry about that."

"Eh, nothing can be done for it now," Harlan told him. "Suzee can get us back to the future."

"This might be a stupid question," Skull said, "but everybody except Miss Davenport and Cmdr. Goddard on this ship seem awfully young."

"We're not supposed to be here," Harlan said. "Bova, Rosie, Radu, Catalina, and I snuck aboard the Christa when it docked with the StarCademy. Miss Davenport and Cmdr. Goddard came on here to rescue us, we got pulled into a white hole, got tossed halfway across the universe, and we've been trying to come home since."

"Catalina?" Tommy asked. "We have a friend named Catalina. Who's your Cat?"

"She's from Titan, one of Saturn's moons. She's about our age and has multicolored hair. She was Suzee's dimensional double. The two of them can talk no matter where they are at. About a year ago, Catalina was in a ship explosion, and Suzee saved her life by pulling her into her pocket dimension, but that caused Suzee to get pulled here. They swapped places."

"Do you trust me to do this?" Suzee asked.

"I think we can trust you," Trini said. "You're not going to have to ruin it or anything are you?"

"No, of course not," Suzee assured her. "If anything, I might be able to increase the energy capacitor."

"That'd be great," Justin said.

Suzee stared at the slider's innards out before her. "I think this will work," she said. In her mind, she asked, "Cat? You ready?"

"I'm ready," Catalina said.

Suzee held two wires in her hands. "As soon as I touch these together, the energy capacitor will be overloaded, I'm going to channel the energy through my body, and blast Catalina here with us."

"Go for it," Trini said nervously. Suzee touched the wires together, and bright yellow light flashed. Suzee was thrown backwards, and a slender female body dropped from the air where she had been sitting.

"Ow," the new person said. "Oh man, am I dead?"

Justin looked at the figure sitting before her. She was absolutely gorgeous. She didn't have Suzee's curves, for lack of a better way to say it, but she had the most gorgeous smile. Her irises were a pleasing shade of teal, and her hair was the most unbelievable thing Justin had ever seen. It stretched halfway down her back in big curls and was filled with a multitude of colors. A red curl hung over her left shoulder, which was flanked with yellow tips. A green circle of hair rested at the top of her head, followed by varying shades of blue. When she tried to stand up, her hair fell forward over her shoulders, revealing brightly colored sections of orange, pink, lime green, and royal purple.

"Catalina?" Suzee asked hopefully. "Catalina?!"

"Suzee!" Catalina cried. The two girls leapt to their feet and hugged each other tightly, for the first time in both of their lives. While they knew more about each other than anyone else, as they were in each other's minds continually, they had never been physically close.

"You look beautiful," Suzee said. Catalina had been unbelievably self-conscious before, but she was now radiant. Her hair had been kept very trim and off of her shoulders, but it now flowed halfway down her back. Where as before, Catalina had kept the colors in a specific concentric circle pattern so as to keep attention off of her, the colors now ran completely random, a style often worn by models on Titan.

"I can't believe I'm here," Catalina said happily. "I want to see the guys. Oh, hi, nice to meet you both." With that, Catalina ran off, leaving a more than mildly confused Trini and Justin behind.

"I need to put the slider back together first," Suzee said.

"You can do that later," Trini told her.

"Thank you!" Laughing, Suzee ran after her friend.

"You guys!" Catalina shouted as she ran into the main Control Room. "Guess who's back!!!"

Rosie was the first to realize what had happened. "Cat!" Rosie cried happily. She jumped off of her chair and ran over to her Saturnian friend.

Catalina hugged her tightly, just before Radu, Miss Davenport, Cmdr. Goddard, and even Bova mobbed her. Harlan ran into the Control Room a moment later. "What's going on!?" he cried.

"Catalina's back!" Radu shouted, hugging her tightly.

"Cat," Harlan sighed heavily. Radu stepped aside, revealing the young alien that had grown up considerably since Harlan had last seen her.

"Hi Harlan," Catalina said firmly. She made her way over to him and gave him a hug, although he was too stunned to hug back. This new Catalina was certainly more confident than she had been.

"Thank you," Suzee said to Trini. "Thank you more than you'll ever know."

Cmdr. Goddard gave the four Rangers the invitation to stay on the Christa as long as they needed. The slider wouldn't be charged for another two days, even with Suzee's modifications, but since the Christa wouldn't be ready to fly for at least that long, no one was inconvenienced. As such, the Rangers spent their time getting to know the crew of the Christa.

"There aren't any people on Mercury in my dimension," Justin told Rosie.

"Yeah, I know," Rosie said. "I learned at the StarCademy that in virtually all dimensions, Earth is the only planet in our solar system with life."

"I have one question," Justin remarked. "Practically everybody here is from a different planet, but everybody speaks English and breathes oxygen."

"It's because of a UBT chip everybody has installed in their bodies at the StarCademy," Rosie told him. "Oxygen is the best gas for talking in, so it is the official gas used throughout the galaxy for space craft, et cetera. The crew of the Christa speaks English because we were training to be under Miss Davenport's wing, and she speaks English, so there you go. The UBT chip, Universal Breathing and Translator chip, is installed in my brain. It makes my body require oxygen, and translates what I say into English. That simple."

"Yeah, simple," Justin laughed.

"So this is Earth?" Catalina asked skeptically.

"This is Earth," Skull told her. "You have very pretty hair."

Catalina smiled warmly at his compliment and said, "Thank you, so do you." Skull raised his eyebrows at that, but didn't comment on it. "Mmm, I love the smell of the nitroxy mix of the Earth. Wonderful."

"Does not take much at all to make you happy, does it?" Skull asked with a smile.

"I've changed a lot," Catalina sighed. "I used to be very pessimistic and very self-conscious. My whole family died when I was young. I used to be really chipper, but that sort of ... messed me up, I guess you could say. Staying with Suzee's family really helped me out. A lot. I really separated myself from everybody around me. It was so hard to make friends, especially when Suzee was just a thought away."

"I sort of know what you mean," Skull remarked. "My best friend's name is Bulk. We used to be bullies. Neither one of us were very good at making friends, so we bullied people. That was our way of getting attention, and we didn't worry about it since we had each other. You know?"

"You changed?" Catalina asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Skull slowly nodded. "Yeah. I've got better friends now than I ever deserve having. I've got a gorgeous girlfriend who by all rights shouldn't even be expected to spit on me if I'm on fire."

Tommy and Suzee listened in silence at Skull and Catalina's conversation "I had no idea she felt like that," Suzee whispered, mainly to herself. "I mean... I knew she was..."

"I know what you mean," Tommy whispered to her. He suddenly felt slightly sick to his stomach. He had never known that Bulk and Skull were so lonely all throughout the majority of their high school life. He hadn't even really acknowledged their existence until they became policemen, and even then it had just been an acknowledgment. I was a Power Ranger, for crying out loud. Even if Bulk and Skull were jerks, I should have made the first move. They just wanted friends...

"Let's go talk to them," Suzee told Tommy. "We can watch the sun set."

"Sounds good," Tommy agreed with a smile.

Later that night, Trini and Suzee examined the slider. "This is amazing," Suzee told her. "We don't have technology like this in our dimension. Given extreme conditions, we can break pocket dimension barriers, but the actual barrier wall that separates completely separate dimensions... This is amazing. And it is so simple! I can't believe I had never thought of this! Do you mind if I incorporate this into the Christa? When we get back to the future, this will be of GREAT importance to all of society."

"Yeah, be my guest," Trini said. "So long as it's operational for us to leave tomorrow night, I have no problem with anything."

"Well, I'll do that tomorrow," Suzee told her. "Have you explored the rest of the ship yet?"

"Not really," Trini remarked.

"Let's go then," Suzee said with a smile.

"Harlan Band thinks he knows it all," Catalina told Tommy bluntly.

"Yeah, well Catalina's always talking to the wall," Harlan countered, reminding her of how she had talked outloud to Suzee in an attempt to get attention.

"He also leaps before he looks," Suzee said, flashing Harlan a mischievous grin as she and Trini entered the room.

"Suzee's smarter than a million books," Rosie whispered to Justin. "I mean that, too. The girl is like a super genius."

"And I'm going to guess that android Thelma functions wrong," Justin said, pointing to the robot in the background. She was singing to herself and dancing a jig at the time.

"Bova acts like nothing is funny," Radu whispered to Skull. "He's a good kid, but he is so depressing at times."

"That's better than being like Rosie, cheery, bright, and sunny," Bova commented, having overheard Radu's comment. "The girl can give an Andromedan diabetes."

"There's nothing wrong with being optimistic," Rosie said. "Pessimism can't be any fun. I certainly didn't have fun that time Miss Davenport turned me into a Uranian. Or the time Cmdr. Goddard punished me by making me not say anything cheerful for a whole day. That was so not fun, but I guess it was for my own good."

"Well, Davenport and Goddard do the best they can," Harlan remarked.

"This is the song that doesn't end, yes it goes on and on my friend, some people... started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll be singing it forever and ever just becuz this is the song that doesn't end..," Thelma sang as she danced past the round golden couch that teens of varying planets and dimension sat on.

"Why don't we go someplace else?" Bova suggested to Rosie and Justin. "Teenagers can be boring."

"What you got in mind?" Justin asked.

"You can always find new places on the Christa to look at," Rosie commented. "Let's just go exploring. See what we find..."

"You just jump in?" Justin asked.

"That's all you have to do," Bova said. "Here, I'll go through first." Bova walked up to the jump tube and slid in, feet first.

Shrugging, Justin followed Bova through the jump tube. As soon as his entire body was caught in it, he felt himself yanked through the tube, had. He couldn't have stopped himself if he tried.

Suddenly, he slid out of the exit jump tube and was dumped on a cushiony pad. "Wow!" he cried. "That was amazing!"

"Get out of the way!" Bova shouted. Before Justin could react, Rosie flew out of the jump tube and landed on top of him.

"Sorry," Rosie said, scrambling away.

"That's okay," Justin laughed.

"We're in the storage bay," Bova remarked.

"It's dark down here," Rosie said.

"I can take care of that," Justin told them. "MOUNTAIN BLASTER TURBO POWER --- SEAHORSE!!!" In a bright blue flash, Justin morphed. Seeing him turn into a Power Ranger didn't stun Bova and Rosie in the least, since they were both from a time when Rangers no longer had to keep their identities secret. "Turbo Headlights!" Justin cried. Bright halogen lights shone from the twin headlights above his visor. He stepped before Bova and Rosie and lit their way.

"I've never been down here, before," Rosie said. Her voice was immediately caught in the room and it echoed, loudly.

"What's kept down here?" Justin asked. Rows and rows of cabinets stretched out before them.

"Just different stuff," Bova said. "Weapons, parts for the engine, other stuff."

"Pretty boring," Rosie told him. However, a metallic "whish" sounded to their right. Justin turned to look down a long row of silver cabinets. One drawer stood open. A multicolored glow shone from it.

"What's that?" Justin asked, slowly walking toward the door. The three kids hurried up to the open drawer. Many marble sized beads were within it They were of many different colors and were glowing slightly.

"Bova," Rosie said, picking up a blue marble. "Do you know what I think this is?" Bova shrugged, so Rosie continued, "I think these are Thelma's crystals!"

"Why don't we get Thelma down here and ask her?" Justin suggested.

"That's great!" Bova cried, almost sounding happy.

Justin pulled his wrist up to his face and quickly found the right wavelength for Thelma. "Is someone there?" Thelma's voice asked from his wrist

"Thelma," Rosie told her, "come down to the Storage Bay. I think we've found some of your crystals!"

"I'll be there in just a moment, Rosie," Thelma promised. A few minutes later, Thelma walked up to the teens, joints squeaking.

"Are these your crystals, Thelma?" Bova asked, pointing to the open drawer.

"They do appear to be," Thelma said.

"Here," Rosie said hurriedly, plucking the cracked chip from the small holder on Thelma's right temple and replacing it with the blue marble. Thelma's irises changed into a pleasing shade of blue, and she slowly stood at full attention.

"Thelma?" Rosie asked.

"Yes," the android said in a very calm voice. "I am Thelma."

"Is your crystal functioning?" Bova tried.

"One hundred percent," Thelma said. "But I do have one question."

"What's that?" Rosie asked.

Thelma suddenly grabbed Rosie and Bova by their collars and slammed them against the row of cabinets. Their feet dangled several feet above the ground. "WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU BOARD THE CHRISTA?!" Thelma demanded in an angry bass voice.

Rosie and Bova screamed in unison. "Let 'em go!" Justin cried, kicking Thelma in the side. He didn't want to hurt her, but he could let her hurt Rosie and Bova either. The two aliens dropped to the ground as Thelma turned her attention toward Justin, still in morphed mode.

"Who are you?" Thelma asked. Her voice was still angry but no longer sounded male. She looked him up and down, and as soon as her memory banks identified him as a Power Ranger, she stepped back into a defensive position.

"Justin," he answered. "Thelma, we met this morning."

"I've never seen you before in my life!" Thelma retorted. She suddenly cried, "HIIIIIIII-YAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Justin was so startled at hearing her yell like a banshee he didn't move. She then high-kicked him, catching him in the chin with her boot, causing him to flip backwards.

"Justin!" Rosie cried, starting to move toward her.

"Get out of here!" Justin shouted. "I can take care of myself. Go get help!"

He scrambled to his knees just as Thelma took another defensive stance. She immediately began "hi-yaah"ing, launching into a quick display of her computer generated martial arts abilities that would have been hilarious to watch had Justin not been fearful of her strength. She then paused, cried, "Siek-yaaaaaahhhhh!", and ran at Justin.

"Thelma!" Justin shouted, running backwards as she ran toward him. "You don't know what you're doing!"

Her "yaaaaaahhh" stretched out and began to warble slightly as she was starting to get angry. Justin was suddenly backed into a wall. He looked up just as Thelma put all of her weight behind a hard punch. He ducked, narrowly missing her fist which broke through the twelve inches of reinforced steel that made up the wall.

Justin reached out to restrain Thelma, assuming that his Ranger powers would be enough to stop the android. He wrapped his arms around hers, holding her as tightly as he could. She stood still for a moment, and then her head turned one hundred and eighty degrees to stare at Justin behind her. "LET ME GO, YOU BLUE FREAK!" she growled. She wrenched out of his grip and flipped him over her head.

He was slammed into the ground so hard that his vision flashed white. Thelma looked down at him, and then cried out in an overly exaggerated samurai yell and began to beat the Blue Turbo Ranger senseless. Even though Justin was getting pummeled, one part of his mind couldn't stop laughing at the hilarity of Thelma's exaggerated moves and screams.

"You guys!" Rosie cried as she and Bova ran into the lounge.

"What's wrong?" Suzee asked.

"Thelma's gone nuts!" Bova shouted. "She's trying to kill Justin!"

"What happened to her?" Harlan asked, hopping over the back of the couch.

"We found some of her crystals and changed them," Rosie said hurriedly.

"Rosie!" Catalina protested. "You should have asked Cmdr. Goddard or Miss Davenport before you did that."

"Well, I know that now!" Rosie cried. "She doesn't know who we are and she's kicking Justin's butt all over the Storage Bay."

"Let's go stop her," Radu said.

"Radu, Suzee, and Cat," Harlan commanded, "come with me. Rosie and Bova, go get Cmdr. Goddard and Miss Davenport."

"Is Justin morphed?" Trini asked.

"Yeah, but Thelma is still way too strong!" Bova insisted.

"We'll come too," Tommy volunteered. "Which way?"

"Follow us," Catalina said as everyone ran off in different directions.

Justin finally gave up on trying to keep from hurting Thelma and started to defend himself. Much to his surprise, he was only able to keep himself from getting killed. Thelma was still strong enough that he couldn't incapacitate her.

"Thelma!" a loud voice shouted from somewhere in the Storage Bay. Thelma gave Justin one final kick and ran off.

"She just left!" Justin choked out.

"Justin," Trini cried, running up to his side. "Are you okay?"

"Define okay," Justin muttered, taking his helmet off. "She about beat the crap out of me."

"So we've got a homicidal android capable of beating up a Power Ranger loose on the Christa?" Suzee asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Let's go find the others," Harlan said.

"We'll have to form a strategy to make sure no one gets hurt," Radu said as they ran to the jump tubes.

"Oh, hi Thelma," Miss Davenport said as she walked past the android. Thelma jumped back and screamed at the top of her robotic lungs. "Thelma?" M iss Davenport asked. "Are you okay?"

Thelma looked at her for a second more and then screamed again. "Who are you?!" Thelma demanded.

"Thelma?" Miss Davenport asked. Thelma screamed yet again. "Thelma, what is your problem?" This prompted yet another scream from the android.

"There she is!" Suzee shouted, sliding out of the jump tube. The others were close behind.

"Miss Davenport!" Rosie cried as she and Bova ran in through a side door.

"All right," Thelma growled, "let's end this now." She pawed off on the ground and then took a defensive stance.

"Thelma?" Miss Davenport asked yet again, which in turn, prompted another ear-shattering scream.

"Everybody, cover your ears," Catalina said.

"Oh no," Radu complained, clamping his hands over his ears as tightly as he could.

Catalina opened her mouth wide and emitted a powerful scream. Ripples of reality distortion appeared in the air from the sonic scream, which temporarily deafened everyone present. Thelma began to shake, and during the scream, her homicidal blue crystal cracked.

When the last of Catalina's scream passed, Thelma stood in the center of the room, completely unmoving. "Did you break her?!" Tommy shouted.

"What?!" Trini shouted. "I think I'm deaf!"

"Thelma, stop!" Suzee cried as the android darted for the jump tubes. Thelma jumped in and disappeared. "We just want to help you!"

"All right," Harlan said, taking command of the situation. "Let's split into groups. We have to get that defective crystal out of her head. Let's go."

Catalina and Tommy crept through the storage bay. Tommy was morphed, although he had taken his helmet off. "I think I hear her," Catalina whispered. She brushed her multicolored hair over her shoulders to expose her ears.

"Me too," Tommy agreed. They quickly crept along a long row of cabinets and peered out into the open area of the storage bay. The android was having a very animated conversation with no one in particular, and she did not appear pleased. "I've got an idea," Tommy whispered. "If I restrain her, will you get the crystal out?"

Catalina nodded in agreement. "I'm going to sneak up closer to her," Catalina said. She pointed to a row of cabinets she could hide behind close to Thelma.

"I'll sneak around the other way," Tommy whispered. "Back to action." Red light enveloped his head, and his helmet immediately fitted into place. He quickly vanished into the shadows as Catalina darted over to the next row of cabinets.

Tommy ran, totally silent, down the length of cabinets. He quietly but quickly darted over to Thelma and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I've got her, Catalina!" Tommy cried. The Saturnian suddenly ran out of the shadows up to them. Before she could grab the crystal, Thelma kicked her in the stomach. Fortunately for Catalina, she knew how to fight from being the Lavender Ranger on Yensid. However, she no longer had her morphing abilities and Thelma was able to kick with a surprising ferocity.Catalina had the wind knocked out of her and she fell to her knees.

With a mighty heave, Tommy pulled Thelma in the opposite direction so she wouldn't continue to pummel the alien teen with kicks. Tommy let go of one of her shoulders in an attempt to remove her crystal, but she weaseled out of his arm and kicked him hard in the groin. Even with the armor and power protecting him, it still sent white hot needles of pain streaking through his entire body. He had accidentally bumped himself in the groin before , but that was the first time anyone had actually kicked him there. It was a pain he was not soon going to forget.

"Tommy," Catalina said, rushing up to his side. She took his hand in hers and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Tommy croaked, and realized had it happened to someone else, he would have had to laugh at the almost exaggerated falsetto pitch his voice had taken. "Thelma?"

"She got away," Catalina said. "C'mon. Jump tubes."

"Get back," Trini ordered in an angry whisper. She pushed Miss Davenport against the wall with one hand and unholstered her blade blaster with the other. She held it up before her, both hands wrapped around the yellow and silver handle of her gun. She didn't intend to kill Thelma, but she was willing to shoot the homicidal android off of her feet if she had to.

"Why?" Miss Davenport asked hurriedly.

"Thelma," Trini whispered, "and she looks pretty ill." The android was currently stomping around the main control room, carrying on an animated conversation with the Christa. "Do you have any idea why she would be acting like this? I mean, I know it's because of the other crystal, but what might she be thinking?"

"Perhaps she doesn't know us," Miss Davenport suggested. "Maybe the crystal also stores her immediate memory. I'm just theorizing though. Maybe that crystal is just simply a homicidal attitude crystal."

"I'm gonna try and ambush her," Trini whispered. Miss Davenport nodded, and Trini crept into the main control room. Thelma, however, had already disappeared.

Justin, Bova, Rosie, and Cmdr. Goddard ran down the corridors of the Christa. The commander held a hand-held scanning device, not all that different from the Turbo Navigators. "Where's she at, Commander?" Bova asked.

"Three levels down, heading east, and fast," Cmdr. Goddard said.

"There's a Com System," Rosie suggested, motioning toward it. "We can notify anybody close to her."

"That would be Suzee and Skull," Cmdr. Goddard told her quickly. Rosie ran over to the circular piece of silver on the wall and punched in the appropriate controls. "Suzee! Skull! Thelma's right behind you!"

"Get back!" Suzee ordered. She and Skull both ducked into a small alcove as Thelma ran past.

"How are we gonna stop her?" Skull asked. "She's beating up Power Rangers!"

"There's only one way," Suzee said. "I can put myself in her head. As soon as you see a purple outline of my body flow into her, well, don't let my body get hurt. I'll take care of the rest."

"Huh?" Skull asked. However, before he could ask anything else, Suzee's eyes began to glow purple. A shimmering purple cloud with a brighter purple nucleus floated out of Suzee's body. The cloud looked at Skull, gave him a nod, and then darted toward Thelma. The android's eyes glowed as well, and Suzee's body went completely limp. Skull caught the alien in his arms and picked her up as though she were a child.

"I'm in," Thelma said.

"Thelma?" Skull asked.

"No, it's Suzee," the android answered. "I've put my consciousness in here. The only problem is it's a real pain in the glebnatz getting back out. But we're okay for now. See that silver panel over there. Hit the blue rock, and when it glows pink, talk into it. That transmits over the entire ship. Tell everyone to get to the storage bay."

"Right," Skull said. "What do I do with your body?"

"When you go through the jump tubes, toss me through first," Suzee/Thelma answered. "Got it?"

"Got it."

A few minutes later, the entire crew plus four Rangers was gathered in the storage bay. "Here's Thelma's crystal," Radu said, picking up the rose colored piece of glass. "Doesn't seem to be any worse for the wear."

"Well let's pop the sucker back in," Harlan ordered.

"No," Suzee/Thelma said. "I'm stuck in here. This isn't exactly an organic brain I'm inhabiting right now. We have to get me out of here, and then switch the crystals in the split second of overlap time you have. If you pull this crystal out with me in here, I'll be killed."

"Okay," Catalina said, taking the crystal from Radu. "Suzee, how do you get out?"

"I have to be called back to my body," Suzee/Thelma said. "I'm trying to detach myself in here now. Skull, try and stand me on my feet."

Skull nodded in agreement and stood the attractive alien up on her feet. Her body was still limp, however, and she just hung from his hands like a rag doll. "Good enough," Suzee/Thelma sighed. "Okay. Catalina, you know what I've got planned."

"Yep," she said. "Everybody..."

"Oh God," Radu moaned, clamping his hands over his overly sensitive ears.

"...cover you ears," Catalina finished. She held her hands just a few centimeters from Thelma's crystals. She then opened her mouth and let a powerful sonic scream fly. As soon as the purple cloud flew from Thelma's body, she yanked the blue crystal out and slammed the rose one in.

"I'm back," Suzee said, patting her body all over.

"Where did you go?" Thelma queried.

"Thelma?" Rosie asked.

"Yes Rosie?" Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Suzee and Trini were working on the slider. "I think this should do it," Suzee said, making one final adjustment before putting it all within the casing.

"What exactly will your modifications do?" Trini asked.

"Your hang time in dimensions should be greatly reduced," Suzee said. "Maybe to a few minutes each. Now the further you travel, the slower it will get. But you should be able to go through fifty worlds in just a week or so. How many do you have to go?"

"Around seventy-five or so," Trini said, nodding.

"It might get you through them quickly long enough to get through all," Suzee tried. "I'm not sure. But it will certainly be faster going with the modifications."

"Thank you," Trini said, taking the slider into her hands.

"No, thank you," Suzee told her. "This will be of great important when we get home. This will virtually eliminate the self-imposed barrier by the pocket dimension. It's going to completely and totally revolutionize travel."

"Just make sure it doesn't fall into evil hands," Trini warned.

"I shudder to think of what might happen in the Spung were to get this," Suzee sighed. "But we'll just have to be careful. Come on, let's go find the others."

A thin metal slab slid out of a triangular cubbyhole on the wall. It already had a pillow and several blankets on it. "We sleep here?" Tommy asked.

"Unless you have a better idea," Harlan told him, clambering into his bunk. "I know it doesn't look sturdy, but it is. It'll hold you."

"So long as it doesn't retract into the wall," Skull muttered to himself as he clambered atop his wall cot, "this will be fine."

"What will we do tomorrow?" Bova asked as he pulled his covers up over his body.

"Try and get the Christa flight-worthy," Harlan explained. "Suzee thinks.. something that I couldn't follow will enable us to get off of the ground and into the future."

"We'll do what we can to help," Tommy murmured as the room darkened and he settled into his cot, which turned out to be surprisingly comfortable.

The next day dawned early. The crew and Rangers aboard the Christa were at work not long thereafter. Some worked on repairing the damage that occurred during the crash, while others worked on the daunting problem of getting into the future. Just as the timer reached zero hour, the Christa was ready for flight.

The Rangers said their goodbyes to the crew of the Christa. It was almost astonishing that such deep friendships could be forged over that short a period of time.

"If I can find anyway to get word back to you," Suzee promised.

"We'll be waiting," Trini finished.

"Our timer is at zero," Justin said. "We can leave now. Oh, thanks for all the extra clothes and cash."

"Not a problem," Radu assured him.

"Well, crew," Cmdr. Goddard said, "it's time to hit the skies."

"Can you hear me?" Rosie asked through Justin's communicator.

"Coming through loud and clear, Rosie," Justin answered her.

"Give us three minutes if we lose contact," Catalina told the Rangers. "That'll be enough time for us to be a safe distance away from the solar system."

"Mr. Oliver," Cmdr. Goddard acknowledged with a salute, "keep your Rangers in good shape."

"It's been a pleasure, sir," Tommy agreed, returning the salute. With that, the crew of the Christa walked into the ship which promptly sealed up behind them. The four Rangers ran off, and as soon as they were a safe distance away, the Christa lifted off of the ground.

"There they go," Skull whispered to himself as the Christa flew away.

"Can you still hear us?" Rosie asked.

"We gotcha Rosie," Justin assured her.

"We're almost there," Rosie answered.

"We can jump now, Rosie," Suzee told her. "Tell the sliders to go."

"You guys got that?" Rosie asked.

"We got it," Justin said. "You all take care."

"You too," Rosie said solemnly.

Justin added, "Sliding now," and closed the communications line. He opened the dimensional portal, which simultaneously pushed the Christa into the hyper leap that would hopefully carry them into the future.

"Let's go," Tommy said as he took the slider from Justin.

As Suzee had speculated, they flew through the next few worlds at an astonishing speed. During the sixteen hours until the following dawn, the sliders made it through twenty-two worlds. They reached a snag, however, around eight a.m. They arrived in a world that had a slightly different energy pattern than what they were expecting. That resulted in a thirty-five hour wait for the slider to charge.

"Where exactly is Kahva?" Billy asked.

"Out of town for a few days," Sheena sighed, slipping an arm into her husband's.

"So barring King Mondo and any other freak occurrences, it's just the two of us for a while?" Sheena smiled in reply.

Suddenly, a crackling of electricity came from behind them. Sheena gave a slight cry and turned around, as did Billy. "What on Earth-?" Billy asked in awe.

"Dear Goddess," Sheena muttered. Suddenly, a body came flying out of thin air with a sudden spark of yellow electricity. The body collided with Sheena, knocking her to the ground. Before Billy could say or do anything in reply, a red spark of electricity appeared before him and an even larger body collided with his midsection. With a heavy grunt, he collapsed to the ground. A blue spark followed, producing yet another body, and then a green spark, tossing one more person onto the pile.

For a moment, no one moved. Then, everyone began to scramble out of the way.

"What is going on?" Billy demanded. He then realized who had landed on him. "Tommy?"

"Billy?"

"Billy?" Trini asked in awe, casting a glance in the direction of the strangers they had just sent to the ground.

"Not to be rude," Sheena said, "but it would be really nice if somebody would fill us in on what happened."

"Do the words Power Rangers mean anything to you?" a young teen asked, dressed in tattered blue clothing.

"Why?" Billy asked cautiously.

"Because we're the Power Rangers," the fourth party said.

"Skull?" Sheena asked in awe.

"From a different dimension," Trini explained. She pulled a device out of her pocket that looked suspiciously like a flip phone. "We've got thirty-five hours before we can move on."

"Since I seem to be the only person you don't know," the youngest said, "I'll introduce myself. My name is Justin. I'm the Blue Turbo Ranger."

"Like Kahva told us about," Billy said with a smile. "My name is Billy, and this is my wife, Sheena."

"Hi-," Trini said, when her expression immediately dropped off of her face. "You're married?"

"Why don't we go someplace a little more private," Tommy suggested, "and if you're really interested, we can explain everything."

"I, for one, am very interested," Sheena said.

"This place is beautiful," Justin said as they were lead into Sheena and Billy's cabin.

"Home sweet home," Billy said. "If any of you all need to use the bathroom, or take a shower, or something, it's at the top of the stairs on the left."

Justin and Skull traded one glance, and then darted for the staircase. "Trini," Sheena said, motioning her closer. "Would it be safe to say that you and Billy have a relationship wherever you come from?"

"How'd you know?" Trini asked.

"Lucky guess," Sheena sighed. "I'm not from this dimension, either, but this is my home now."

"We're on a search and rescue mission," Trini said. "Five of our friends got lost in the dimensions a few months ago, and we're trying to find them."

"My friend knew about that," Sheena said. "Kahva. She's ... really sensitive to things like that, and was complaining of there being some kind of dimensional disturbance here a few weeks ago. Early June?"

"About that time," Trini nodded.

"Do you know where you're headed?" Sheena asked.

"Not really," Trini said. "This device is going to take us there, but we have to go through fifty-three more worlds first."

"Oh," Sheena said. "Never mind then." No use telling them about Kahva's ability if it won't work for them. "So, why don't you tell me about your home."

"Married, huh?" Tommy asked, looking out over Billy's balcony onto the gorgeous lake.

"For over a year now," Billy said. Tommy cast a glance at his best friend's double. This Billy looked more mature than the Billy he knew. He didn't look any older, just much more mature. Not that his Billy was immature, just ... different.

"What's it like?"

"I've never been happier," Billy said. "I've got new powers, a wife..."

"New powers?"

"I'm the Sapphire Ranger."

"We don't have a Sapphire Ranger," Tommy said.

"Silver Ranger?"

"Nope."

"More dimensions are different than they are similar," Tommy mused. "So far, we've been to a world where Tanya and Trini were dictators, a world with BeetleBorgs turned Zeo Rangers." Tommy paused and then asked, "Do you know anything about Turbo Rangers?"

"No. We don't have Turbo powers here. At least not yet anyhow."

"Oh?" Trini asked, raising her eyebrows. "I've never known a Dianic Wiccan before."

Sheena sighed heavily. She was more than used to the tone of voice people had when she told them her religion, and it never failed to annoy her. "That doesn't make me bad, Trini. It just makes me different. It's a different set of beliefs from yours. That's all."

Trini nodded in agreement. "I know, and I'm sorry. It just kind of shocked me, is all. I don't really know much about it though."

"I meet a lot of people who don't know much about it," Sheena smiled. "It works sort of like this. Dianic witches worship only a Goddess. My particular Goddess is Isis. Others worship Diana, Hera, Aphrodite, Kali, Hecate, I could go on. Some don't call Her by any name in particular. We celebrate the solstices and equinoxes as holy days, as well as full and new moons. We care for the Earth, it's considered the Mother of all life. We're not man-haters, by any means. Men are as important to the cycle of life as women are. We just don't choose to worship a male deity. We respect those who do, however. I can't speak for every witch out there, of course, but I acknowledge the existence of other deities, including the Christian God, I simply choose not to worship them. The prime law that every true witch lives by is "An it harm none, do as you will." We strive to keep a balance in life, in all that we do," she explained.

"Just different?"

"Right."

"What's Billy, here?"

"He's Christian here," Sheena told her.

"I'm sorry I acted ... off. I'm just used to the stereotypical view of witches with the big black pointed hats, crooked noses, and big black iron cauldrons."

"I can honestly say I have never owned a cauldron in my life," Sheena said with a laugh.

"Can I ask you another question?" Trini asked.

"Shoot."

"Well, you're married to Billy, and Billy and I are dating back home, and I was just kind of wondering," Trini began. Sheena smiled warmly, already anticipating the end of her question.

"This place has turned into a regular dimensional gateway," Tanya said thoughtfully.

"Why didn't we see the others when they came through here?" Katherine asked.

"The sliders always get dumped in totally random places," Trini explained. "They might have been a hundred miles from here."

"Sliders?" Sheena asked, taking a sip from Billy's smoothie.

"That's what we call ourselves," Justin explained. "Sliding."

"We say shifting," Billy told them.

"I am so thankful to be on a world where there are no crashing spaceships or even tyrannical Rangers or blue ghosts that look like Elvis," Skull sighed.

"We have to stay here at least one night," Tommy said, staring at the slider in his hand. "Can you guys recommend a good hotel?"

"A cheap hotel," Justin repeated.

"Forget hotels," Sheena said. "You can stay with us."

"Thank you," Trini spat out, taking Sheena's hand in hers. "Thank you soooooo much."

"We haven't been on the go for long, but we imagine we'll be sleeping in some pretty ungodly places before long," Skull told them.

"I like these normal worlds," Justin whispered over to Tommy.

"Definitely," Tommy agreed, shedding his shirt and pulling the thin sheet up over him. Even though the three male Rangers were currently sleeping on the hard wood floor of the living room, with Trini on the surprisingly uncomfortable couch, they still slept better than they had in several days.

The next day, the four interdimensional travelers slept late. Who knew when they would get the chance to actually sleep under a roof again. They spent the rest of the day resting as well.

"How much longer?" Sheena asked.

"Four seconds," Justin told them, ready to push the button that would open the portal to the next world.

"Stop by anytime," Sheena said with a grin. Justin pointed the portal out before them, and a glimmering white and blue portal of light appeared before them.

"Thanks for everything," Tommy said as he leapt into the portal. The others were close behind, and the portal closed in their wake.

"We're not quite back to normal," Trini muttered to herself as soon as she inspected the slider on the next world. "Closer, but not quite. Twenty-three hours, seventeen minutes."

"And it's almost dusk," Justin mumbled unhappily.

"Let's go find out where exactly we are," Tommy suggested. "If we're in Angel Grove, we'll see if they have a cheap motel we can stay in."

"Does anybody else feel kind of tingly?" Skull complained, shaking his hand.

"Tingly?" Justin asked skeptically.

"Yeah, like ... static electricity, or something?"

"Not me," Tommy said as the four teens began to look for the ever familiar Juice Bar.

"Me neither," Justin added.

"Hey, there's Ernie's," Tommy said happily as their beloved gym and juice bar came into view.

"I don't think we should go in," Trini objected. "There might be ... us, in there. It'd be okay if they're Rangers, but if they aren't..."

"You guys," Skull said nervously, "I think there's something wrong with me."

"Skull?" Justin asked, turning around. When he saw the condition Skull was in, he was unable to keep back a yell. Red and yellow tendrils of light were shooting off of Skull's fingertips. As soon as they lost contact with his flesh, they fizzled into non-existence.

"Skull!" Trini cried, rushing up to his side. Skull slumped to his knees, his body limp as a rag doll from the intense shock. Trini reached out to touch his hand. The tendrils of light snaked around her fingers and promptly disappeared. "It's like static electricity or something..."

"We have to hope that there are Power Rangers on this world," Tommy said

"Let's try and teleport to the Command Center," Justin said. "If there are Rangers, then it'll work."

"I'll go," Tommy said. "They might not have Turbo Rangers here yet. I'll be back with help... Zeo Ranger V, Red --- Falcon!" Tommy vanished in a red column of light, indicative that there was a Command Center or Power Chamber somewhere near Angel Grove.

When the red aftermath of the teleport faded from Tommy's eyes, he found himself in the Power Chamber. Alpha was busy, as he usually was, just performing his normal rounds. Zordon was in his tube on the wall. It was almost like he had teleported into his past. "Tommy," Alpha said, "what are you doing he- Aye-yi-yi! Your suit, Tommy!"

Tommy removed his helmet and quickly explained, "I am Tommy, but I'm not from this dimension. I'm from a different dimension, and a friend of mine that is with me is having some kind of episode. He's a Power Ranger, too, but... Can you please help us?"

"Scan this young man, Alpha," Zordon instructed.

A few moments later, the results were back. "If he isn't telling the truth," Alpha said, "he at least believes he is."

"Your friend," Zordon continued, "what is his name?"

"Eugene Skullovitch," Tommy said. "He, Trini Kwan, and Justin Cranston were all with me. They're near Ernie's Youth Center."

"Teleporting now," Alpha said. With three columns of colored light, Skull, Trini, and Justin appeared in the Power Chamber.

Tommy paled when he turned to look at Skull. Purple balls of light were clustered around his hand. No matter how hard he and Trini tried, they couldn't get the lights to leave.

"Alpha, please contact Tommy," Zordon instructed. "But before you do, you, young man..."

"Me?" Justin asked.

"Yes, you," Zordon said. "I detect the Power within you. What type of Ranger are you?"

"Blue Turbo Ranger," Justin answered. "Well, I'm actually a Ninja Ranger, but I look like a Turbo."

"You should morph," Zordon told him. "As you are not yet a part of our team, it is possible that you never will be. It is best that none of my Rangers see you unmorphed."

Justin nodded in agreement and cried, "MOUNTAIN BLASTER TURBO POWER --- SEAHORSE!!!"

"Proceed Alpha," Zordon commanded. A few moments later, red light flooded the Power Chamber, coalescing into the form of Tommy.

"Hey Zordon, is there a prob-?" Tommy started. He stopped when he saw a bizarre quartet of teens and Rangers. "What's with the high-tech armor and the guy who looks like me?"

"I am you," Tommy said, "just the you from a different dimension."

"I thought, Tyler might... never mind," Tommy stammered. "Are you guys with the other five?"

"Sort of," Blue Turbo Ranger answered for Tommy. "We're on a search and rescue."

"Skull is the one with the problem," Zordon told Tommy.

Everyone turned their gaze to the Green Ranger. His hands were surrounded by an intense red aura of light. "Man," Tommy whispered to himself. He approached Skull and extended his own hand. A green tendril of light jumped the distance between them. "Magic?" Tommy asked, turning to Zordon for approval.

"That is what it appears to be," Zordon said.

"Magic?" Skull asked, shaking his hands in a desperate attempt to get the light off. Sparks began shooting off of his fingertips, which succeeded in only increasing the light.

"Zordon," Tommy said, "why don't I take these guys to my house. I think I can explain to Skull what's going on. I have a pretty good idea, actually."

Zordon smiled proudly at his student. "Very good, Tommy," Zordon agreed.

"I'm a magician?" Skull asked in disbelief. He and the other Tommy had finally gotten the light to stop flowing from his fingertips. In fact, it had disappeared nearly the instant Skull was told he was a natural born magic maker.

"That's one to say it," Tommy said. "Apparently, this world, for lack of a better way to say it, is just running over with magic."

"Every dimension has a different energy signature," Blue Turbo Ranger, who had yet to demorph, told them, "and every person of that dimension has the same type of energy but with minute differences. Maybe Skull has a unique energy pattern that amplifies the magic of this dimension."

"Not a bad thought," Tommy said.

His traveling double, who had remained silent throughout the entire conversation thus far, asked, "Can he do anything or is he just going to be a nightlight?"

Skull looked at his fingertips, which began to glow a bright blue. "That is so cool," Skull said happily. They slowly dimmed in reply.

"Maybe he can do stuff," Tommy said. "Try something."

The door suddenly swung open and Chelsea stepped in. "Tommy, would you keep it down in he-... Wait a minute."

"Friends," Tommy answered her unasked question. "Close the door." Chelsea, Tommy's sister, stepped into the room. "Dimensional travelers. Power Rangers. They need a place to stay for the night."

"You have short hair," Slider-Tommy asked in disbelief.

"So-?" Chelsea asked, running a hand over her hair.

"Well, it's just that - in my home, you have long hair," Slider-Tommy said. "Really long hair. Like down to your waist."

Chelsea shrugged and sat down. "Sounds like too much trouble," she muttered. "So... do you all know ... a me, or-?"

"Yeah," Trini answered for her. "We know you."

"Okay, now what's with Blue Boy over there? And why does his suit look weird?"

"It's made of a bizarre plastic metal alloy," Blue Ranger explained. "I can't reveal my identity to anyone here."

"Ooh," Chelsea laughed. "Let's get Bulk and Skull in here. They'll figure it out. No offense to you."

"None taken," Skull answered.

"Can we watch t.v.?" Blue Ranger asked, motioning toward the small set in Tommy's bedroom.

"Yeah, no prob," Tommy said. "Remote's by you, Skull."

Skull looked over at the remote control and reached for it. When he did, the remote leapt from its position on the ground to his hand. He screamed and tossed the remote aside. "Wow," Blue Ranger said in awe. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Skull said warily, "but I didn't like it."

"Telekinesis," Tommy told him. "Our Skull does stuff like that all the time. Think about moving something, Skull. Maybe that's the trick."

Skull swallowed, and then looked at the remote control in Blue Ranger's hand. It immediately leapt from his grip into Skull's. "Ohhh," Skull panicked, tossing the remote to the ground again and backing away. "That I do NOT like at all."

"Then don't do it," Chelsea smiled as she scooped up the remote.

The first thing Trini noticed when she opened her eyes was a soft green light. After she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she saw where the light was coming from. Skull was levitating four feet off of the ground and glowing green, all while asleep.

"Any idea how to get him down?" Slider-Tommy asked her.

"I don't think you're supposed to wake people up when they sleep walk," Tommy said, sitting up in bed at their conversations. "Wouldn't that apply to people that float in their sleep, too?"

"Dare you to wake him up," Slider-Tommy said with a wry grin.

"How did you sleep last night?" Trini asked Justin.

"Bathtubs are surprisingly comfortable," Justin answered. He couldn't sleep morphed, but he had to keep his identity secret, so Tommy suggested he lock the bathroom door and sleep on the floor. Justin opted for the bathtub.

"You guys ready?" Tommy asked.

"I am," Slider-Tommy answered.

Skull looked at his hand, which began to glow a soft white in reply. He hadn't been in a very good mood after waking up and falling four feet to the ground. He looked to Tommy and said, "Let's go do anything." The magic that was apparently churning in his body was starting to greatly bother him. He wanted something to get his mind off of it until they were able to slide to the next world.

"I'm gonna go to the Command Center," Blue Ranger said. "Er, Power Chamber. It'll look a little weird if you all are hanging out with a morphed Ranger. Just give me a call when you're ready."

"Bye Justin," Slider-Tommy said before realizing his faux pas.

Tommy quickly played dumb and pretended not to notice. In actuality, hearing that his name was Justin did nothing to clue him in on the Ranger's identity. He knew several Justins, actually.

The room was temporarily flooded with blue light as Blue Ranger teleport ed away. "Let's go," Tommy said. "Everybody's looking forward to meeting more of you guys."

Slider-Skull, Slider-Tommy, and Trini sat at a table in a far corner of the Youth Center with Tommy, Black Zeo Ranger Lillian O'Neill, Skull, Kimberly, Jason, Purple Ranger Jamie Zedden, Adam, and Tanya.

"I hope nobody notices us back here," Slider-Tommy said, pulling one of Tommy's caps farther down his forehead.

Slider-Skull nodded in agreement and reached for his smoothie. As he did, a pink spark of light leapt from his palm to the glass. It slid into his palm, prompting a slight cry of alarm.

"That is amazing," Tanya said.

"I don't like it," Slider-Skull complained. "I don't like it at all."

"I think it's pretty amazing myself," Jamie said with a grin. "To just be able to point your finger and ZAP! Wow."

"You'd be dangerous if you could do that," Jason teased.

"I'm dangerous anyhow," Jamie teased back.

"So, you all are on a search and rescue?" Adam asked.

"For the five guys earlier, right?" Lillian added.

"Right," Trini said with a nod. "They're lost someplace. We have seen some weird stuff, too, and we're not even halfway there."

"Like what?" Kimberly asked. The three sliders began to tell their tales.

For the rest of the day, the sliders, minus Justin, got to know the "extra" Rangers. When the timer reached zero hours at just after seven o'clock, they contacted the mysterious Blue Turbo Ranger who had spent a surprisingly dull day at the Power Chamber. He was more than ready to leave. The Rangers bid their goodbyes, and left.

"We've got six hours here," Trini said, closing the slider.

"We're getting back to normal," Justin sighed, already demorphed. "The slider is slowly recharging."

"Six hours," Tommy said, looking at his watch. "That puts us at one a.m. to leave. I say we wait until morning."

"Let's get out of here," Skull remarked, reshouldering his backpack. "This doesn't look like the best of neighborhoods."

As the four teens hurried off, two pair of eyes watched from the darkness.

"We'll be waiting out here," Trini said as Skull and Justin excused them selves into a small ice cream shop to use their bathrooms.

"Hey Trini, check this out," Tommy called. He pointed to a telephone booth.

"What about it?" Trini asked as she hurried over to him.

"Look who owns it," Tommy said, pointing to the emblem at the top.

"United States of Pangaea," Trini read, before realizing what she had just said. "Pangaea? I wonder if this planet has a super-continent?"

"Let's look in the phone book," Tommy suggested. "Maybe that'll tell us something."

"Hey," a friendly voice said.

"Hi," Skull answered back, washing his hands. He caught a glance of the man in the mirror. The man looked perfectly normal, and not much older than Skull. Just as Skull turned his attention away from the man, an intense pain radiated from the base of his skull. When he started to turn around in shock, his vision blurred black and he slumped to the ground.

"Skull!" Justin cried, running out of the stall. Just as he was about to kneel beside his friend, a powerful arm wrapped around his body. Before Justin could react, a rag was firmly clamped over his mouth and nose. Not more than two or three seconds later, Justin went fully limp in his assailant's arms.

"Tommy, go check on them," Trini said. "It's taking too long. Maybe one of them is sick or something."

"Yeah, okay," Tommy agreed, heading for the ice cream shop. "You be okay out here?"

"I'll be fine, Tommy," Trini said. "I'll be right here when you come out, and I promise I won't take candy from strangers."

"Don't be smart," Tommy warned good-naturedly as he entered the shop.

Trini took the phone book out and continued to flip through it. "I knew it wasn't a super-continent," she said to herself as she finally found a map. It's only purpose was to list the area codes of the entire country, but it still showed to her that this world had the same seven continents her world did. There was, however, one major difference between the dimensions. It seemed the entire planet was a part of the United States of Pangaea. Existing states and countries were further divided into smaller states. "Interesting," Trini muttered to herself as she began to scan the states.

"Trini!" Tommy suddenly cried for her.

"Tommy?!" she called back.

He ran out of the shop and shouted, "Call the police and an ambulance! Justin's missing and Skull's been hurt!"

"What are you going to do to us?" Gale Prescott asked.

"If you cooperate, you won't be hurt," Jada assured her. "Him neither."

"Can you at least untie us?" Justin asked.

Jada leaned over the back seat of the van to look at the tied-up Justin and Gale. "No."

"You do know that kidnapping the Prince is a crime punishable by death?" Gale asked.

"Yeah, but if I kill your ass I won't get much more than a slap on the wrists," Jada snarled. "Now shut the hell up and you won't have anything to worry about."

After things were silent for a while longer, Gale whispered to Justin, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Justin said with a nod. "Scared, but okay."

"I don't like this, Jada," Sydney said nervously. She kept her eyes plastered on the road before her as the van carrying their hostages drove farther and farther away.

"Everything is going to be fine," Jada assured her partner. "You'll be okay."

"I'm only doing this because Derek wants to," Sydney muttered to herself unhappily. She was having serious reservations about the whole kidnapping scheme.

"What the hell is this?" Randy asked as his partner, Derek, lifted an unconscious body into the back of their car.

"This is the Prince," Derek said, pulling the sheet he had wrapped around the body down to expose the face.

"I thought Sydney and Jada were going after the Prince," Randy quipped.

"I thought they were, too," Derek agreed, "but they must have missed. This is the Prince, we've got him, we'll call 'em when we get to the cabin. Now let's get the hell out of here."

"Cool deal."

"Name?"

"Justin Cranston," Tommy said. "But you have to understand, we're not from here. You won't have this Justin Cranston on any of your records or anything like that."

"Are you from a new state?" the police officer asked.

"What?"

"You don't look or sound like you are from one of the new states."

"Have you heard of the multiple dimensions theory?" Tommy asked. The police officer shook his head. "Then it's best to just say I'm not from here. But our friend is missing and we have to get him back."

"Tommy, we've got trouble," Trini said as she was lead toward him with another police officer.

"No kidding," Tommy agreed.

"Tommy, we're being arrested," Trini remarked. It was then that Tommy noticed Trini had both hands behind her back. "They think we kidnapped Prince Justin Stewart."

"What-?" Skull asked suddenly, yanking out of a deep slumber.

Skull sat up and looked around himself. He was wearing a hospital gown and lying in a hospital bed in a darkened hospital room. It took him a few moments to regather his thoughts. He then remembered being attacked in the restroom at the Ice Cream Shop. Skull considered paging the nurse, and then decided that it probably wouldn't be the best course of action. "I'll just find my clothes, and get out of here to find the others."

"Hi," a familiar voice said to Trini.

The frustrated teen slowly lifted her heads out of her hands and looked in the direction of the voice. The voice's source was one of the biggest shocks that Trini had received in her entire life. A call girl she was currently sharing a jail cell with was trying to start a conversation. What startled her most was who the prostitute was. "Kimberly?"

"Ginger," she said defensively. "What you in for?"

"They think I kidnapped the Prince," Trini answered. "Was your name ever Kimberly, because you look like a woman I know back home?"

"Maybe," Ginger said. "What's it your concern?"

"Sorry," Trini muttered, turning her attention away from the horrific alternate of her best friend.

"Uhm, my bad," Ginger apologize. "I didn't mean to get smart, or anything. I've just had a bad day."

"That's okay," Trini smiled. "It happens to the best of us."

"The name is Kimberly," Ginger said, "but I'm trying to leave that life behind. How do you know me? You said I look like a woman you know. Could it be me?"

"I don't think so," Trini lied. "I just know someone who looks a lot like you named Kimberly, and for a second, I thought she was you. So, uhm, what are you in for?" As soon as she said it, Trini realized what a stupid question it was.

"You don't really need an answer for that, do you?" Ginger asked, cocking her eyebrow.

"Sorry," Trini mumbled. "I wasn't thinking very clearly." The two sat in an awkward silence for a moment, before Trini finally asked, "Why do you do it?"

"Pardon?"

"Why do you prostitute yourself?" Trini asked.

"It's easy, honest money, honey," Ginger answered. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that you think prostitution should be illegal. But before you say anything, let me tell you a little something. I am nineteen years old. I can have sex with any man on this planet so long as he is of age. I can have sex with any of those men, provided they are willing, as often as I want. Even ten at a time for all the law cares. I can also have sex with strangers if I'm on the set of a adult movie, and get paid for it. But the second it's just me and one guy, and we're alone, and he gives me ANY amount of money, it's illegal. That doesn't make sense. It's not like I'm hurting anybody. The guy wants to be with me. The law should spend their time taking care of murderers and child molesters and leave prostitutes alone." Trini opened her mouth to protest, and realized that Ginger was making sense. "Lecture's over," Ginger said, giving Trini a true Kimberly Hart smile. "So what do you do?"

"Wh-?" Justin snorted as soon as consciousness returned to him.

"Hey, the kid's waking up," a husky male voice said.

"Where am I?" Justin asked, trying to sit up. As soon as he did, he realized his wrists were tied together, as were his ankles. He twisted his wrists in an attempt to summon his morpher, but it didn't work. It didn't take him more than a second to realize that they had just slid into a world with no magic.

"You're on your way to Old Vermont, Prince," the same voice replied.

"Prince?" Justin asked.

Skull didn't stop running until he reached the hospital parking lot. "Man, I hope Trini still has the slider," Skull breathed to himself. He quickly made sure his backpack was firmly across both shoulders, and then took the morphin stance and cried, "It's Morphin Time! GREEN DRAGON --- RABBIT!!!" When he pulled his hand out from behind his back, there was only a faint green outline of the morpher in his fist. "What the-?" He suddenly felt compelled to say something else, two words he had never said in his life. "Dino-buckler?" he asked himself in disbelief. Where did that come from?

Suddenly, green light crackled all about him. The morphing process was suddenly completed, but it hit him hard. His feet flew off of the sidewalk as the armor formed around his body with an explosive punch that would have killed him had he not already been morphing. However, the weirdness of that didn't even have time to sink in before he began to teleport.

Green light overwhelmed his body and he darted away in a barely formed teleport streak. Skull realized that somewhere in his half-formed teleport streak/body, he still had vocal chords, and he decided to use them. He screamed frantically as he flew away from the hospital. Without even realizing it, he turned over so that he was looking at the ground rushing by below him. The land suddenly ran out, and he was streaking high above the ocean. Once there, he began to scream even louder, and he began to move faster. The entire Pacific ocean passed beneath him in a few seconds, and he once again began to slow down, although he never stopped screaming. His teleport streak headed toward a large island that he quickly realized was Japan. He flew into the midst of a large city, which Skull assumed to be Tokyo. He darted toward a building, and flew through a confusing labyrinth of hallways and doors before finally plummeting down a long elevator shaft. The green light of his teleport was the only thing that lit up the dark tunnel that was seemingly leading him toward the center of the Earth. He then branched off hard to the right, and found himself teleporting high above a beautiful, glowing island that seemed to be from ancient Greece. He teleported straight to a building that was located in the center of the island, and them re-materialized.

"Oh gosh," Skull complained as he was dumped onto the floor in a painful heap. Still groaning, he slowly pulled himself to his feet. "As God is my witness, I will never teleport again."

Before he even had a chance to examine his surroundings, a Japanese man in a white and yellow outfit, complete with a pale yellow hat with white wings around his temples, ran up to him. "Brai?" the man asked hopefully.

"We're letting you go," Tommy was told around eleven p.m. "We have no reason to hold you. We just received word that Prince Stewart is with his tutor at this very moment."

"Thank you," Tommy said as politely as he could muster. He had been in a mode of double panic after realizing he couldn't morph. That also meant that Justin, wherever he was, couldn't morph either.

"Hey Trini," Ginger said, running up to the bars of the jail cell as Trini was being led away, "be careful out there."

"You too," Trini replied, smiling at her new-made friend.

"Let's go," the bailer said, flashing Ginger a dirty smirk, which she eagerly returned. He quickly lead Trini to Tommy. They were given their backpacks, and released.

"Eugene Skullovitch," Trini said. "The ambulance would have brought him here not more than four hours ago."

"I know that," the nurse snapped back, "I'm saying that he isn't here because he left."

"Don't get smart with me," Trini snarled, eyes flashing angrily. "I just spent four hours in jail for a crime I didn't commit, a thirteen year old I'm supposed to be taking care of is missing, and now you're giving me a hard time!"

"Calm down, Trini," Tommy said, pulling her away from the desk. "Thank you."

"Thank you," the nurse repeated in a flat voice.

"Tommy, what are we going to do?" Trini asked, running her fingers through her hair in frustration. "We've lost two whole people!"

"Well we can't go to the police, that's for sure," Tommy sighed. "They'll just arrest us for something else."

"Maybe there are Power Rangers on this planet," Trini said.

"We can't morph," Tommy told her.

"WE can't morph," Trini repeated. "There might be some type of magic here. Maybe even science based Rangers. Well... oh God, Tommy, I can't think straight!"

"Toy stores," Tommy said. "Toy stores would be where we could find out if there are Power Rangers."

"What?"

"Teddy has every single type of Power Ranger toy imaginable," Tommy said "I've got my Ranger toys, even. You don't have a Yellow Ranger toy?"

"I don't guess I do," Trini said. "Ashley was into Barbie dolls and all that girlie stuff. But yeah, I remember them now. But it's almost midnight. Nothing will be open."

"Wal-Mart," Tommy said hurriedly. "Let's go."

"What the hell-?" Randy asked in disbelief.

"Who are those people they've got with them?" Derek added.

Randy pulled his car up next to Sydney's van and shouted, "Who the hell are these people?"

"Gale Prescott, Justin's tutor," Sydney said, pointing to the attractive black haired woman who was currently tied up and on her knees.

"Justin Stewart," Jada added, pointing to the young prince who was also tied up and kneeling beside his tutor.

Derek jumped out of the car and pulled a struggling boy out of the backseat. "Justin Stewart," he said, motioning to the Prince's double.

"No way," Prince Stewart cried, looking at the other Justin.

"Uh oh," Justin mumbled.

"Well, which one is which?" Jada asked, yanking her ball cap off to beat Randy with.

"This isn't my fault, woman," Randy complained, yanking the cap from her hands.

"Let's take both of them," Derek said. "We need to get out of here before any suspicion is raised. The police already know that the Prince is missing. They said so on the radio."

"Okay, we all know the plan?" Randy asked.

"We'll take care of the van and be up in the cabin by tomorrow afternoon," Jada affirmed. "Let's go."

The four proceeded to force the two Justins and Gale Prescott into the small airplane. Sydney and Derek then flew their hostages to the mountains of Vermont, while Jada and Randy proceeded to cover up their trail.

"Rangers," Tommy and Trini said in unison to a woman working in the toy section of the first Wal-Mart they came across.

"How did you find out about our shipment?" the woman asked incredulously. Before Tommy or Trini could say anything, she shook her head and said, "It doesn't matter, anyhow. We're about to put them out on the shelves. Ever since Bandora and the ZyuRangers disappeared three weeks ago, there has been a run on toys and everything else. We even have the Mei figurines in right now. She leaves the shelves as soon as she gets put out. So if you want her, you better go look in those boxes at the ends of the aisle."

"Bandora? ZyuRangers?" Tommy asked himself. "Trini, I don't think she's talking about what we're looking for."

"We had better make sure," Trini said. "Just to be on the safe side." They walked to the end of the aisle until they found several dollies loaded with boxes. They were already opened, although none of the toys had been taken out. "Dear God, please let there be Power Rangers here." She opened the box and cried out happily. "Rangers!" she squealed.

"Yes!" Tommy cried, yanking a black box out. Inside was an armor-clad Red Ranger. On the top of the box was written, "Geki - TyrannoRanger." Tommy turned the box over. "Trini, they've got the actual Ranger on here."

"I know," she said, looking at another black box holding "Mei - PteraRanger. And a picture. Maybe Ranger's don't have secret identities here."

Tommy's eyes scanned the small paragraph telling about the Rangers. "Trini?" Tommy asked. "The Rangers are stationed in Japan. And worse than that, according to this they've been missing for three weeks."

"So just who are you exactly?" Gale whispered to Justin.

"My name is Justin Cranston," Justin answered. "I'm not from around here."

"I'm Justin Stewart," Prince Justin said. "This is my tutor, Gale."

"Nice to meet you both," Justin said. "Are you like the Prince of England, or something?"

Gale flashed Justin a strange look, but Prince Justin answered, "I'm Prince of the United States of Pangaea. My Mom and Dad are King and Queen. You haven't heard of us?"

"Well, I'm not from around here," Justin sighed.

"Just where would you be from that hasn't heard of the United States of Pangaea?" Gale asked incredulously. "As of last year, there isn't a single country left. They've all joined the Nation."

"You probably wouldn't believe me," Justin stated.

"Brai?" Skull asked. He reached up to unlatch his helmet. He suddenly found out that he couldn't unlatch his helmet, because it was sealed shut. In a panic, he demorphed. Upon seeing the man behind the armor, the man gasped. "My name is Skull," he said hurriedly, as it was obvious the man was expecting someone else.

The man immediately began speaking in frantic Japanese. Skull quickly interjected, "I can't speak whatever language it is you are speaking. Do you speak English?"

"English," the man said. He suddenly summoned a wooden staff and waved it in front of him. When he put it away, the man said, in perfect English, "Can you understand me now?"

"Yes sir," Skull said, and then realized that he was the one who had changed. He was no longer speaking English, but was instead speaking and understanding perfect Japanese.

"My name is Barza," the man said. "I have been praying for Brai to return for three weeks. Although you are not him, you wear his armor. God must have sent you in his place."

"Who is Brai?" Skull asked, horribly confused.

"Brai is Geki's brother," Barza explained, as though that was the ultimate explanation.

"Who is Geki?"

"Geki is TyrannoRanger," Barza said. "Leader of the force against Bandora, Grifforzer, Lammy, Tottpatt, Bukkbukk, and Priprican." Barza waited for a moment, and then said, "You truly are not from here, nor have you heard of our plight. Correct?"

"Correct," Skull said sadly. "But I am a protector of innocents. I will help you in anyway I can."

"If it is your will," Barza said eagerly, "then you can journey to the Land of Lost Beings, and bring my five Rangers back to me, before Bandora awakes."

"When does Bandora awake?" Skull asked.

"Twenty-four hours," Barza explained. "That will be exactly three weeks from the time she sent the Rangers away. Her spell backfired, and sent her away as well. However, Priprican had a back-up spell that will bring her back, whereas the ZyuRangers will be gone forever."

"Just tell me what to do," Skull said softly.

"Tokyo, Japan," Trini said. "The next, cheapest flight you've got."

"We have a flight leaving at 11:50 p.m. for Tokyo," the desk clerk said. "Three hundred, twenty seven dollars."

"YES!!!" Trini and Tommy cried in unison, hugging each other happily. They had been hoping beyond all hope that they could get to Tokyo for less than the standard one thousand plus in their own dimension.

"Happy?" the clerk asked, a smile spreading across her face at their enthusiasm.

"We didn't think we'd be able to afford it," Tommy said.

"Prices have been slashed by two thirds since 'The Core' opened," the clerk said. "So, you gonna take it?"

"If we have the money," Tommy said, putting his backpack on the counter. Trini did likewise, and they began to fumble for bills. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder, and once she realized that there was no one there, she calmed down. She didn't want to keep anyone waiting, despite the urgency of their situation.

"Here's a hundred," Tommy said, placing the bill on the counter. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. His money said "United States of America," and they were currently in "United States of Pangaea." "Uhm, will you take this kind of money?"

"Whoa, the old stuff," the clerk said, obviously surprised. "Yeah, I suppose. It's still good, but you don't see it very often." Tommy breathed out an audible sigh of relief as they continued digging for money.

"Here's another hundred," Trini said, "ooh, and a fifty."

"Seventy-seven more," the clerk told them, unable to keep herself from smiling at their desperation.

"I have another twenty-three dollars," Trini said. "That's it." She looked to Tommy in desperation.

"Fifty-four to go?" Tommy asked. "Here's a twenty for thirty-four, and a ten for twenty-four, and six quarters. Dammit."

"I'm sorry," the clerk said, truly sounding apologetic. "You're twenty-two and a half short."

"Trini, stay here with her," Tommy said, thinking as fast as he could. "I've got an idea."

"What's your friend going to do?" the clerk asked, leaning over the counter as he continued running.

"No telling," Trini sighed.

"Excuse me sir, can I borrow some money?" Tommy asked a well-dressed businessman.

"Pardon me?" the man asked.

"I need to borrow money," Tommy said. "Well, take money, actually, because I'll probably never see you again to return it. But I am very desperate, and the lives of two of my friends hang in the balance. I have to get to Tokyo, and I lack twenty-two dollars and fifty cents for a ticket."

"Give him the money, Ted," a well dressed woman beside him, presumably his wife, said. "It can be a tax write-off."

"Here's five," the man told him, handing him a bill with blue ink.

"God bless you," Tommy said sincerely, and then went after someone else.

"I got twenty-five dollars!" Tommy shouted happily, running back up to the clerk.

"Okay," the clerk said. "Here is your ticket, and here is your change, two dollars and fifty cents."

"Thank you so much," Trini said as the two got their backpacks and walked away from the counter.

"Now, who goes?" Tommy asked, motioning to the single ticket. "We could do a paper-rock-scissors thing," he suggested.

"You go," Trini said. "You're the better fighter, and we don't know what we'll be getting into over there."

"Are you sure?" Tommy asked.

"I'm sure," Trini said softly. She gave Tommy a tight hug and whispered, "Be careful."

Tommy nodded and looked at the ticket. "I'll call you, three days from now, at five o'clock in the afternoon, at the Wal-Mart we were at tonight."

"Okay," Trini agreed.

"Final boarding call for Flight 213, Pangaea Capital to Tokyo."

"That's you," Trini smiled. "Be careful, Tommy." The two shared one final hug before Tommy ran to catch his flight. He was going to Tokyo on a long shot, but it was their only hope.

The small airplane, of a technology which was currently nonexistent in the Rangers' home dimension, flew from California to the state of Old Vermont in just three hours. "Well, Justin, Justin, and Gale," Sydney said sweetly as she walked to the back of the plane to gather their hostages up, "we're here."

"Joy," Justin said sarcastically.

"You're a cute kid," Sydney told him. "Now get up."

"What do you want with all three of us?" Prince Justin asked. "I'm the only one you want."

"Shut up, Justin," Gale said angrily.

"Aw, such a valiant little Prince," Sydney said. "Now look. Here's how it's gonna work. I don't intend to hurt a single hair on any one of your heads. But, if anything funny happens, don't think... I won't hesitate to kill you. I would threaten you and say I'll kill you slowly and painfully, but I won't. I'll just freaking blow your head off. So don't try any hero stuff, and none of you will be hurt. All we want is some money. A ransom note has been delivered to Mom and Pop Stewart, with a request for ten billion dollars." I sure hope you all believe that.

"What if they don't pay?" Prince Justin asked.

Sydney smiled a sad smile and said, "You had all better hope they do."

"Trini!" a friendly voice said. With a snort, Trini sat up. Her head whipped in the direction of the voice.

"Ginger," Trini sighed with relief. "Oh man, you scared me."

"What are you doing sleeping in the park? Come on, get out of there."

Ginger helped Trini crawl out from under the wooden footbridge Trini had been sleeping under. "I don't really have any place to stay," Trini said truthfully. "And I don't have any more money to buy a motel room."

"It's the middle of the night, girl," Ginger snapped. "You can't be out here. This park isn't exactly safe for somebody like you."

"What are you doing here?" Trini asked, pulling her backpack on as the two girls slowly walked out of the park.

"There was a big gang fight that filled up the whole jail," Ginger said, smiling. "I was deemed unimportant, so they kicked my sorry butt out. Now come on, you can stay at my place as long as you need to."

"No, I can't impose," Trini rebutted.

"I insist," Ginger told her. "Come on."

"This is Bandora?" Skull asked in disbelief. Barza nodded. The woman on the page before him was a villain he was very familiar with. "Where I am from, her name is Rita Repulsa. Grifforzer is Goldar, Lammy is Scorpina, Tottpatt is Squatt, Bukkbukk is Baboo, and Priprican is Finster. These Golem Soldiers are called Putties, where I'm from. There are also different Rangers. Both the people behind the armor, and different types of armor." Skull closed the large book and took a deep breath. "I'm ready, now."

Barza led Skull into a room where the walls were seemingly composed of green and gold light. There was a silver pedestal in the center of the room which was shaped like a giant hand. A gargantuan glass orb, probably four feet in diameter, was held in the hand. Inside the orb was a lush, green island, complete with an ocean lapping at the edges. "The ZyuRangers are lost in there," Barza said. "That is the Land of Lost Souls. Their bodies are here, but the silver cord connecting their souls to their bodies was severed. Barza opened a door on the hand itself, and removed a silver sphere. The top half of the sphere opened, revealing a red velvet interior. Inside sat six small orbs, one for each color of the original five Rangers, and a sixth that was clear. Barza took the clear orb from the sphere, and handed it to Skull. When he did, it began to glow bright green. The radiance from the sphere was too bright to look at it. The other orbs were dull in comparison.

"What is this?" Skull asked.

"That," Barza said, pointing to the glow, "is your consciousness. You are connected to the orb now by a silver cord." Barza took the orb from Skull's palm and placed it back in the silver sphere. Indeed, a thin line of silver light stretched from the center of Skull's chest to the green orb of light.

"Oh wow," Skull breathed. He suddenly felt very light-headed and detached. "Something is happening, Barza."

"You are about to journey to the land of Lost Souls," Barza explained. He closed the silver sphere and put it back in the hand, closing the door behind it. "When you get there, you must find Mei, Boy, Dan, Goushi, and Geki. According to Legends, a Red Star will arrive to help me hold Bandora back before you six return. Please be careful, Skull, and may God protect you."

"Red Star?" Skull asked as he began to slip further and further away from the land of the conscious. "That could be Tommy." Barza never understood him, however, because by that time, Skull's body was already asleep.

"This is a very nice cabin," Justin said as warmly as he could.

"Shut up," Derek told him. Sydney and Derek marched their three hostages into the overly large cabin. "You got the ropes?" Derek asked Sydney.

"Yep," Sydney said, motioning to the bag she carried.

"You got food?" Justin asked. "I haven't eaten in hours. I'm hungry."

"I don't like that one," Derek said as they corralled the three into an out of the way bedroom.

"Isn't that a coincidence?" Justin remarked.

"Would you shut up?" Gale snapped. "You're gonna get us killed."

"Listen to the woman," Derek said. "All right. Tie 'em up. You can scream all you want, nobody for miles around to here you. No telephones, and not even any electric lines to follow back to civilization. We run off of a generator. Should you escape, you'll freeze to death before you get anywhere. So just save your strength and wait. Got it?"

Skull fell through time and space only to land on a sandy beach. "What a ride," Skull muttered to himself as he stood up. A soft breeze blew across the beach, although that was the only sound.

"Hellooooo?!" Skull shouted. His voice echoed for a few seconds, but then disappeared. "Is anyone here?!"

He started to walk away down the beach, but then saw a broken bow lying at the edge of a dense forest that stood right beside the beach. He ran up to the bow, which was made of wood and had split into two pieces. It was resting beside a trail that was hidden to him from the beach. "Hope I know what I'm getting into," he said to himself.

Skull honestly didn't know what to expect. He didn't know if he would have to fight monsters, or if he just had to find the missing five Rangers. He continued to walk along the trail, when it ended abruptly. Looking forward, he saw that a great deal of sunlight was streaming in through the trees, suggesting to him that the forest ended beyond them.

As he stepped through the trees, he realized he was right. A large sandy circle greeted him, complete with five palm trees. A teenager was tied to each one. "ZyuRangers?" Skull asked.

"Help us!" the sole girl, dressed in pink, cried.

Skull hurried to the closest Ranger, dressed in red, and quickly untied him. "Are you okay?" Skull asked.

"I am now," he said. "My name is Geki."

"Skull," Skull replied. In just a few moments, all five were freed.

"Just how did you find us here, Skull?" Black ZyuRanger, Goushi, asked.

"Barza sent me," Skull answered. "Bandora is about to awake from her hibernation, and Barza asked me to help you five find your way out to help fight her."

"Do you know how to get out of here?" yellow ZyuRanger, Boy, a male, asked.

"You don't know?" Skull asked.

"I am a Ninja," Justin muttered to himself, "Master of my Environment."

"You're tied to a bed, Ninja," Gale told him, who was tied to the bedpost opposite his. "Face it kid. We're not getting out of here. Let's just relax and hope that they're telling us the truth."

"Your name is really Justin?" Prince Justin asked, tied to a third bedpost on the headboard, "and you look just like me?"

"Small world, huh?" Justin laughed.

"Where are you from, really?" Gale asked, bending down to the bedpost so she could scratch a spot on her forehead. When she did bend down, Justin caught a glimpse straight down her blouse, and quickly turned away. He had certainly never had a teacher as attractive as Prince Justin's, and wondered how the Boy Prince got any schoolwork down at all.

"I'm from a different dimension," Justin said truthfully. "Me and three friends came to this dimension just a few hours ago with the intent of staying here only long enough for our slider to recharge. I got kidnapped, supposedly because they think I am you, and I don't know where my friends are at."

"Cool!" Prince Justin cried.

"Don't believe me, do you?" Justin asked Gale. The raven haired tutor said nothing in reply.

Skull and the five ZyuRangers reached the beach where Skull had arrived. "This is it," Skull told them. "This is where I landed."

"Perhaps Barza can see us from here," Dan, Blue ZyuRanger, hoped.

As if in an answer to their unspoken prayers, a blue bottle washed up on shore. Geki quickly hurried over to the bottle, uncorked it, and pulled a yellowed parchment out of the bottle.

"It is from Barza!" Geki cried happily. The others crowded around him to read over his shoulders.

As soon as Geki finished reading the parchment, six arrows appeared all about them. Red and black arrows pointed into the forest, blue and yellow pointed one direction down the beach, while green and pink pointed the other.

"I suppose this is it," Dan said.

"We may never see each other alive again," Goushi said solemnly.

"Don't talk like that," Mei snapped. "We will survive this. We have to. Bandora is still out there."

"She's right," Geki agreed. "We will survive. But we must go." The six said nothing, but turned away to go on their journeys.

"I'm eighteen," Mei said. "You?"

"Nineteen," Skull answered. The two continued to walk down the beach, following the green and pink arrows that appeared from time to time. So far, the two had seen nothing out of the ordinary.

"I really hate these robes," Mei complained. She was wearing a bizarre pink and purple skirt/robe/tunic outfit.

"Why are you wearing it?" Skull asked.

"This is Bandora's idea of a practical joke," Mei said. "Before she banished us, she told the entire state that we are one hundred and seventy million years old. Can you believe that? She made up this big elaborate tale about how we are warriors from civilization one hundred and seventy million years ago and were brought out of suspended animation to defeat her when she was recently released from her space dumpster on the moon."

"How did you really become Power Rangers?" Skull asked. "I mean ZyuRangers."

"Bandora was released, and Barza needed five teenagers to be the ZyuRangers," Mei said. "And we were picked. Then, Geki's brother, Brai, became the sixth ZyuRanger, but he was killed a while back."

"I wear his armor, now," Skull said sadly. "I'm Green Dragon."

"Really?" Mei asked, smiling a sincere smile. "You won't be staying with us, though, will you?"

"No," Skull answered. "I have other dimensions to go to. Will you find another person to be Green Ranger?"

"I suppose we'll have to," Mei said.

"Streeeeeeeettttccccchhhhhh," both Justin's urged. Gale whimpered in pain but didn't stop. Justin had his foot planted against her thigh, the only thing keeping her from toppling off of the bed and possibly breaking both arms in the process.

"Almost," Gale grunted. "Almost." Her bare foot continually brushed against the long nail on a table about five feet from the end of the bed. She suddenly grasped it between two toes. "I got it!" Justin helped push her back onto the bed with his foot.

"Are you okay, Ms. Prescott?" Prince Justin asked.

"I think so," she moaned. "Take the nail."

Justin reached for it, and discovered he couldn't. "Tied. Can you stretch?"

"Give me a second," Gale said, slumping against the wall. Every muscle in her body was screaming at her, and it was all she could do not to keep tears from streaming down her cheeks.

"Take all the time you need," Justin said. "We're probably the only ones awake. So long as we can get freed before morning, we'll be all right."

Mei and Skull continued to walk along the beach, getting to know each other. Skull was almost startled at how much she and Kimberly had in common. Much to both of their pleasure, they had yet to see a single monster or problem.

"Hey, wait a minute," Skull said, looking up the beach. "I don't see any more arrows." Green and pink arrows had been appearing about twenty feet in front of them for their entire journey.

"I think I see it," Mei remarked. "Look." She pointed into the ocean. It was almost as if she had caused it to happen, because as soon as she pointed, the entire sky darkened. The color changed from pale blue to a deep shade of royal blue. Numerous stars appeared, and though it wasn't exactly night, night was a better description than daytime. A glowing green arrow could be seen off shore.

"We have to swim?" Skull asked.

"Do you know how?" Mei asked.

"Yeah, I can swim," Skull said. The water was glowing green due to the supernatural arrow beneath the surface. Skull waded out into the water. "At least it's warm." He briefly considered taking off his shirt and shoes, but he had nothing to put them in, so he opted to keep them both on.

"I wonder where we're swimming to," Mei remarked as she waded out into the water. Once it reached her chest, she let her feet float off of the bottom and began to swim.

"There's probably an island or something," Skull said. "I hope."

As they swam over the glowing arrow, Skull put his face into the water. The water was crystal clear, and there wasn't an animal of any type anywhere in sight. The arrow was formed of small green pebbles at the ocean floor, some distance beneath them. As they reached the end of the green arrow, a pink one lit up to take its place.

"The arrows are keeping us on a straight course," Mei said.

"I sure hope we aren't attacked out here in the water," Skull commented. "There isn't any way we can fight in water hundreds of feet deep."

"Ready?" Gale asked.

"Ready," Justin said. Gale stretched her leg out, prompting another cramp to hit her hamstring, but she kept still. Justin's fingers quickly plucked the nail from her toes, allowing Gale to pull her leg back.

"You okay?" Prince Justin asked. Gale nodded that she was, the only reply she was capable of making.

"You better be a Ninja," Gale remarked.

"I'm a black belt in Tae Kune Do, and I'm specially trained in the field of Ninjetti Fighting," Justin told her.

"Then how'd you get captured?" Prince Justin asked.

"They put a rag over my mouth with some kind of chemical on it," Justin said. "Ether, I guess. It knocked me out cold. Next time I'm awake, I'm tied up. Now, let's just hope my plan works." By bending his right hand backwards, he was able to scrape at the rope with the sharp nail tip. It was just going to take a while.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Ginger said to Trini.

"Huh?" Trini groaned. "What?"

"It's nine o'clock," Ginger told her.

"Oh," Trini said, sitting up. It took her a moment to take in her surroundings, and then everything came flooding back to her. "Oh. Thanks for letting me stay here last night."

"No prob," Ginger told her. "Stay as long as you need to. Would you turn the tube on?"

"Huh? Oh, sure," Trini said. She reached over the end of the couch and hit the Power button on the television.

"-een have agreed to the hostages demands. They have ten billion dollars ready, and are waiting for another contact. We will do all we can to bring Prince Stewart and his tutor home safely."

"What?" Ginger asked, hurrying into the living room to focus her attention on the television.

"For those of you joining us late," the anchorman said, "Prince Justin Stewart has been kidnapped, along with his tutor Gale Prescott."

Trini's heart leapt into her throat when they flashed a picture of the prince on the screen. It was undeniably Justin's double. Gale Prescott's picture followed. She was an attractive young woman with dark black hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders. "Kidnapped?" Trini asked in horror.

"Skull!" Mei cried. Skull jerked his head around in time to see his companion get pulled beneath the water.

"Mei!" he cried as well. He looked down, and saw a gigantic white octopus beneath them. Mei was in one of its tentacles. "Please work," Skull prayed as he twisted his hand. His morpher appeared, and he cried, "GREEN DRAGON --- RABBIT!!!" Nothing happened.

He looked at his morpher, and realized that it wasn't his morpher. It was a morpher, but not his. The Power Coin in its center was the original green coin. "Green Dragon?" Skull tried hopefully.

Suddenly, the tentacle that held Mei was lifted out of the water. She pushed her hands out before her and summoned her morpher. "DINO-BUCKLER!!!" she screamed. In a pink flash, she was clad in the Pink Armor of the Pterodactyl.

"Dino-buckler?" Skull asked in disbelief for the second time. When he said it, green light flared up all about him, and he was morphed. Glancing down at his chest, he saw that he wasn't a Ninja Ranger. His Rabbit Power Coin wasn't in his chest plate. He suddenly understood why he had felt compelled to use a different Morph Call the first time. He had received the Power from a different dimension. His own Ninja Power still resided somewhere deep inside him, but for a reason he didn't understand, it was pushed deeper so he could hold the other Power. Rather than waste valuable seconds continuing to think about it, however, he turned down into the water and began to swim toward Mei.

"So this is Tokyo?" Tommy muttered to himself as he slowly walked through the airport with his sole backpack over his shoulder. He had expected it to be more like a foreign country, but it wasn't. There were more Asian people around, but that was the only difference. English was splattered all over the walls in advertisements and signs, and many conversations in English were going on all around him. There was also a great deal of Japanese writing and talking about, but a considerable portion of the language was English. "Must be an effect of being part of the United States of Pangaea."

He walked out of the airport, and was pleased to find that the time of day was middle of the morning. He had gotten a good nights sleep on the plane, and was well-rested for a journey to find the Rangers. Or ZyuRangers, as the flight attendant had told him. He had also eaten a good meal for breakfast not too long before, so he would at least have a few more hours before hunger claimed him.

"Red Star!" a voice shouted. "That's him."

Tommy turned, merely out of curiosity, to the voice's source. "Scorpina?" he asked in disbelief. Goldar appeared beside her a few seconds later. Tommy looked all about himself, not sure if he was who they were after.

"Lammy!" a frantic voice suddenly screamed.

"Grifforzer!"

Chaos reigned after that point. People were running everywhere, desperate to get way from the two evil warriors.

Tommy lost sight of the two gold-clad henchmen in the resulting melee. He started to slowly back away, when a strong hand grabbed his upper arm. He spun out of the grip and found himself face to face with Scorpina, or Lammy, as it were.

"You are the Red Star," Lammy threatened, pushing the tip of her scimitar against his chin. "You are to die."

"LAMMY!" a male voice cried from behind them. Lammy spun around in horror, giving Tommy the opportunity to knock her away. With a well-placed kick, he knocked her curved sword out of her grip.

A male voice shouted something in Japanese. Tommy looked up to see a man wearing a cap with wings on it. He pointed a wooden staff at Tommy, and red light began to emanate from Tommy's skin. "Morph!" the man cried. The word "morph" wasn't from the man, but was a translation that Tommy's mind immediately produced. Nodding, he took the morphin stance and cried, "ZEO RANGER V, RED --- FALCON!!!" With a faded red flash, Tommy morphed. The process was slower than usual, and seemed to be strained, but once the process was completed, Tommy felt fully in control of his Ninja Powers.

Tommy immediately began to battle with the angered Lammy and Grifforzer. The pair were identical in both form and fighting style to the Scorpina and Goldar that Tommy knew. "Zeo V Power Sword!" Tommy summoned, evening the odds.

The trio of warriors began fighting in earnest, thrusting, parrying, and effectively blocking any well-aimed hit. After they had fought for no more than thirty seconds, the sky darkened and a giant image of Rita Repulsa, known in that dimension as Bandora, appeared in the sky.

"Lammy! Grifforzer! Return at once!" Bandora shrieked. Her two henchmen disappeared in unison at the order. "This is not over, Red Star," Bandora threatened before she disappeared and the sky returned to its normal shade of blue.

"We must leave," the man with the wings on his hat said to Tommy. "The press will be here soon." Before Tommy could protest, the two disappeared.

"How's it coming, Justin?" Gale asked softly.

"Slowly," he answered, continuing his slow scraping of the nail tip across the rope. "I'm almost through."

"Can you spread your hands apart any, now?" Gale asked.

"About six inches," Justin said. "Not enough to get over the bed post."

"I've got an idea," Gale told him. "Stretch your hands as far as you can," Justin did as she ordered him to. She then placed the heel of her foot against the worn rope, and pressed down hard. The rope strained, pinching Justin's wrists, and then broke. "Ha!" Gale shouted happily.

"Yes," Justin said, pushing the remnants of the rope off of his wrists. Justin removed his arms from around the bedpost, weaseled out of the remainder of the rope, and collapsed on the bed with a happy sigh.

"The rest of us?" Prince Justin suggested, tugging at his own ropes.

"Yeah," Justin agreed. "Man, we're gonna get out of here, now."

Skull silently summoned his Dragon Dagger as he swam with powerful strokes to meet Mei and the octopus. She struggled vainly to escape from its tentacle, but her arms were locked at her sides and she had no way out. Skull finally reached the octopus and hooked one arm around the tentacle. He was, for just a brief moment, overwhelmed by the size of the beast. The tentacle he currently clung to was as wide around as a full-grown tree. He only hoped it wasn't as hard as a tree, and with that, he plunged the Dagger deep into the pale flesh of the beast.

Skull cut downward as quickly as he could, and then realized he was horribly disoriented. It took him a few minutes to realize that the octopus had squirted black ink everywhere. Just as he was about to plunge his dagger back in, the octopus darted deeper within ocean. Skull held on tight as he was drug into deeper and darker waters.

Suddenly, pink light flashed before his eyes. Bubbles surrounded him, and he felt the octopus fall from beneath him. Mei was suddenly right before him. She had her Power Bow in her hands. She motioned for him to swim to the top, before swimming up herself.

"What happened down there?" Skull asked as soon as they resurfaced.

"When you cut the octopus," Mei said, "its grip lessened. I was able to get free, and I shot it in the eye."

"Let's keep on swimming," Skull told her. However, as soon as he said it, he felt ground beneath his feet.

"Huh?" Mei cried, looking down.

"The island is coming up beneath us!" Skull shouted in disbelief.

"Jada and Randy are here," Gale whispered.

Justin turned the butcher knife upside down and tucked the blade against the flesh of his wrist. In doing so, he caught a glimpse of the now-scarred flesh from his struggles with Jenga. "Wish she were here to protect me," he muttered, although it seemed a bit bizarre to say so since she would kill him if he was in her way. His relationship with Jenga was remarkably bizarre, and he had yet to even come up with a decent theory to explain their bond.

"What are you waiting for?" Prince Justin whispered.

"Just thinking," Justin whispered back. The three hostages crept up to a balcony that overlooked a huge living room.

"They must be couples," Gale mused, very quietly. Sydney was sleeping against Derek on the couch, while Jada and Randy were nuzzled together on yet another couch on the other side of the room.

"Who are you going for?" Gale asked.

"Derek," Justin whispered. "He's the one on that couch, right?"

"Yeah, the cute one," Gale said. Both Justins turned to Gale in disbelief. "Well, he is cute, even if he is a freaking psychopath."

"Do you know what I've got planned?"

"Yes," Gale and Prince Justin said in unison. "Now be careful," Gale added.

Justin quickly crept along the back stairwell, relying on his Ninja skills to remain totally unnoticed. Justin reached the back of the couch, still unnoticed. He quickly switched the knife to his left hand, and with lightning quick reflexes, pressed the flat of the blade against Derek's exposed throat. With his right hand, he grabbed a handful of hair, which succeeded in waking his kidnapper up.

"What the-?" Derek grunted.

"You're being held hostage, mister," Justin answered. "Hey! Over here, dirt bag!"

Jada and Randy removed themselves from their lovers' embrace and turned their attention toward Derek and Justin.

"Derek!" Sydney cried, jumping off of the couch.

"Calm down, Syd," Derek assured her. "Everything is gonna be okay."

"What the hell are you doing, Prince?" Randy asked, perfectly calm.

"Turning the tables," Justin answered, not bothering to mention that hewasn't the Prince. "Now here's what we're gonna do. Gale and the other Justin are going to tie each of you up, or Derek-boy here gets his throat cut wide open. After we tie you up, we're going to get out of here, somehow, and we'll send someone back for you."

"Wow," Randy said, not moving. "It sure does seem like you've got a well-thought out plan. And it's all gonna work because you have a hostage. Right?"

"Yep," Justin answered, pushing the blade closer against Derek's throat.

"Well," Randy said, reaching into the couch cushions, "I think I'll even up the odds." He pulled out a .45 and pointed it at Derek.

"What the -?" Derek asked in disbelief, but that was all he had time to say. The bullet hit the center of his face, completely obliterating his facial features. Justin dropped the knife in disbelief as Derek's body toppled forward, on top of the screaming Sydney.

Justin's breath caught in his throat as he slowly stepped backwards. "YOU BASTARD!!!" Sydney screeched, tears flowing down her face. "HOW COULD YOU KILL YOUR OWN BROTHER?!!!!"

Jada, who looked only mildly stunned, looked at Sydney with compassion as Randy stood up. "We had talked about this, Sydney," Randy told her. "You knew that this was a possibility. It's not like it was personal. Come on, Jada, we got these three little dip-shits to take care of."

"Ow," Prince Justin whimpered as Jada and Randy tied him even tighter to the bedposts.

"I'd like to see you get out of that," Randy told him. "See you at noon for lunch."

"So much for that plan," Gale sighed after Jada and Randy left.

"I'm sorry, guys," Justin said sadly.

"It's not your fault," Prince Justin said. "At least you tried something."

"Well, I'm off to work," Ginger said. "Feel free to stay here as long as you need. I'll be home around five."

"Work?" Trini asked skeptically.

"I have a real job, too," Ginger told her. "I'm a ticket girl at the Teleporter. It just doesn't pay real well."

"Teleporter?" Trini asked. "What's that?"

"Funny, Trini," Ginger said warily.

"All right, look," Trini told her, hurrying over to her new-found friend. "I'm not even going to pretend anymore. You know that there is something weird with me, so I'll just tell you. I'm from a different dimension."

"Oh?" Ginger asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

"See look," Trini said, running back to the couch to scrounge through her backpack, "this is what me and my friends call a timer. It opens a portal between the dimensions and allows us to slide through. One of my friends is named Justin Cranston. Where I'm from, he's just an ordinary kid. But here, Justin is a prince. The Prince, I presume."

"So you are just totally nuts, huh?"

"What is the Teleporter?" Trini asked. "Just pretend I'm totally ignorant and please tell me what the Teleporter is."

"Well, I don't know how it works, but it's instantaneous travel. Only the rich and stuck-up can afford it, but it has affected the entire planet in other ways. Airplane travel is dirt-cheap now," Ginger said. "Now can I go?"

"I'm coming with you," Trini said, stuffing the slider back in her backpack. "I've got an idea."

"Whatever," Ginger remarked, shutting the door behind them.

Instantly, the night-time sky turned into day. A mysterious breeze blew past Skull and Mei, instantly drying them. "Man, this place is weird," Skull commented.

"That's Bandora for you," Mei said. "I wonder where we go now?"

Suddenly, a large hourglass appeared on the beach before them. The sand at the top was white and glowing, while the sand that collected in the bottom half was black. It magically changed colors in switching sides.

"What's this?" Skull asked. "The Test of Patience?"

"Hey, here's another bottle," Mei said, bending down to pick up a bottle which washed up against her foot.

"I hate being a Power Ranger," Skull groaned.

"On three," Gale grunted.

"You guys," Prince Justin said, "you aren't doing any good."

"Gotta try," Justin rebutted. Looking at Gale, he said, "One... two... three." Both Justin and Gale put their feet against the footboard of the bed and pushed. The bed creaked horribly, but the footboard didn't give.

"Again," Gale said. "One... two... three." Justin pushed as hard as he could, while Gale did likewise at her end of the bed. Suddenly, with a splintering crack, the footboard split on Gale's side. "Yes," she whispered happily. "We've almost got it, Justin."

"Gale," Prince Justin said.

"In a minute, Justin," Gale said. "Again, Justin. One... two.. three."

Straining hard, both pushed their feet against the footboard again. "Gale," Prince Justin said again, a bit more urgently.

With a 'ungh,' Gale and Justin stopped pushing. "What is it, Justin?" Gale asked hotly.

"You can just thread your ropes through the splintered part," Prince Justin told her. "Then you can just lift the rope off of the bedpost."

Shaking her head slowly, Gale did as Prince Justin recommended. "Thanks, kid," Gale sighed as she hobbled off the bed. "Man, my muscles ache."

"Untie us," Prince Justin urged.

"All right, all right," Gale relented. "Impatient."

Trini laughed happily as soon as she and Ginger got off of the HoverBus, which actually did hover a good six inches off of the ground. The Teleporter Core was before them, and white lights were streaking out of the roof. "Teleportation!" Trini cried happily.

"Doesn't take much to impress you, does it?" Ginger laughed.

"I can find my friends now!" Trini said, hopping off of the ground with excitement. "See this yellow watch thing I'm wearing. Well, it has a unique signal in it that we use to teleport in our home dimension. If this teleportation system works any way at all like the system I'm familiar with does, I can lock in one my friend's teleportation signals and find out where they are."

"That went so far over my head," Ginger admitted plainly.

"Let's go," Trini said hurriedly, grabbing Ginger's arm and running for the Teleporter Core.

"All right, kiddies," Jada said, walking into the room. "We've got lunch he-... What's this?"

"What's what?" Gale asked. She and Prince Justin were still sitting on the bed, apparently tied up.

"Where's the other one?" Jada asked. Suddenly, a foot connected with the back of her head, sending her to the ground in an unconscious slump.

"Yes!" Gale cried happily. She pulled the ropes off of her wrists and knelt beside Jada. "She's out cold."

"I don't think Sydney will give us any trouble," Prince Justin said. "She seemed pretty freaked out after Randy killed Derek."

"So all we've got to deal with is Psycho Boy?" Gale asked, brushing her short hair back with her fingers. "Easier said than done."

"Not for a Ninjetti Warrior," Justin whispered to himself. He crept up to the door, listened for a moment, and then crept out into the hallway. "You all stay here."

"Good luck," Prince Justin whispered to him. Justin smiled his thanks and disappeared down the dark hallway.

Justin made his way to a back stairwell without being noticed. He continued his silent trek down the stairs, emerging in the kitchen.

"Justin," Sydney said. Before Justin could react, she said, "What are you doing here? Randy is gonna do something if you don't stay put."

"Sydney, don't make me hurt you," Justin warned.

That didn't phase her in the least, as she continued, "Look, just go back up to your room and wait there, okay? Let me handle Randy in my own way."

"I'm a trained Ninja, Sydney," Justin admitted warily.

"I did not see you," Sydney told him.

Nodding, Justin asked, "Where is Randy?"

"Living room," she answered. "He's got a gun." Justin said nothing, but left the kitchen and headed for the living room. Just as he reached a small dark hallway that connected the two rooms, he saw that Randy was heading for the kitchen. Fortunately for Justin, he saw Randy before Randy saw him. With a loud hi-yaah, Justin knocked Randy off of his feet and high-kicked him in the chin before his body hit the floor.

Randy shouted angrily, but Justin already had the upper hand. Sydney darted out in the hallway with a length of rope in her hand. "Hold him!" she urged.

"No need," Justin said, helping her tie his hands together behind his back. Randy lay in a stunned heap on the hall floor. "Now let's get him up."

"Jada," Sydney told him. "Jada is still around someplace."

"Knocked out upstairs," Justin said with a smile.

"You're pretty tough for royalty," Sydney smiled. "Come on. Let's get him to his feet."

"I'm not the Prince," Justin said. "I'm just an eerie look-alike who was cursed with the name Justin." Sydney and Justin stood Randy to his feet and walked him into the living room.

"Let him go," an angry female voice said.

"Don't listen, Justin!" Gale cried. "Do what you have to do!"

"Shut up!" Jada screamed, hitting Gale in the back of the gun with the barrel of a .38. Jada had Gale in a kneeling position, a handful of Gale's hair in one hand and a gun in the other. Gale looked terrified, and winced as Jada tightened her grip on her raven locks.

"Jada, don't be a fool," Sydney said calmly.

"Bitch," Jada spat. She pulled the gun away from Gale and pointed it at Sydney. "I'll shoot your ass, too."

"Let Gale go, or I will kill him," Justin said. "I took you and him out with my bare hands. Imagine what I can do if I take my time."

"I'm the one with the gun," Jada threatened, hitting Gale with the barrel again to make her point. "I can fucking kill her and still take you out before you can blink twice. Now let Randy go." Justin and Sydney both made no movement. "Perhaps I'm not making myself clear," Jada said. "This is how serious I am." She raised the gun to shoulder level and fired it at Sydney. Sydney screamed as red ribbons of blood burst from the upper left of her chest, causing her to slump to the floor. Randy fell in the process, leaving Justin, horrified, standing alone. He suddenly found his voice and began screaming.

"Do you have enough magic to sustain my Powers?" Tommy asked, looking at the red helmet in his hands.

"For short periods of time," Barza assured him. "It will be at least twenty-four more hours before the ZyuRangers return. I can make your Powers last that long."

The elevator suddenly dinged, and stopped moving. "Where is this place?" Tommy asked. Barza said nothing as the elevator doors opened, revealing a beautiful island beneath the city of Tokyo.

"Oh man," Tommy breathed in disbelief. "This is your headquarters?"

"In a manner of speaking," Barza told him. He hurried out of the elevator, taking short, quick steps. Tommy followed him, all the while trying to take in his surroundings. "I am able to monitor Bandora's actions from here." He and Tommy walked along a stone walkway that led to a white marble pagoda.

Tommy walked up to a large table in the building. Its surface was solid black. As soon as he looked at it, however, images began to play across its surface. "Putties," Tommy whispered to himself in horror.

"Bandora," Barza said angrily, looking at the images. "Red Star?"

"I'll go," Tommy said. "Back to action."

"Trini, you're going to get me fired!" Ginger cried. "I can't stay here and watch this."

"Then go," Trini told her. "I don't want to get you in trouble. Now just point me in the right direction and I promise, if I'm caught, your name will never come up."

Ginger groaned and locked the door. "I must be an idiot," she said. "Come on. This is the main control. You have fifteen minutes before the controllers will be back."

"Very similar," Trini said, removing her communicator. "I can do this. Fifteen minutes, huh? I can do this."

"No, please!" Gale cried as she was thrown head-first into the cold shed.

"Not a chance," Jada grunted as she drug Sydney into the shed as well. "Sorry, Syd. Nothing personal."

"You're leaving me out here with a dead body?" Gale asked, rolling over. She was already tied up, virtually unable to move. "It's freezing out here."

"Not my problem," Jada told her. "Hasta luego, bitch."

"So you're really from another dimension?" Prince Justin asked.

"Yep," Justin answered.

"And a superhero?"

"Pretty weird, huh?"

"You are now the coolest person I've ever met," Prince Justin said, "and I've met a lot of people."

"I think being Prince of the world would be pretty cool myself," Justin remarked.

"No, it sucks."

"It couldn't."

"It does," Prince Justin said. "This is the first time in months I've been on my own. No matter where I want to go or what I want to do, I've got bodyguards all around me."

"Your parents," Justin said softly. "Alicia and Chris?"

"Rick. Why?"

"My parents are dead," Justin told him. "My dad died a real long time ago. I don't even remember him. Then my mom married this dipstick named George, I hate him. Well, I hated him. He's dead now. Jenga killed him for me."

"The bad guy?"

"Yep. We have some kind of weird supernatural bond that only my dead mom understands."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when I was on Phaedos, that's a different planet where I got my Ninja Powers, I had a dream, kinda sorta, about her. She told me she knew what the bond was, but that I would find out for myself, or something. I dunno."

"You have lived such an interesting life," Prince Justin sighed.

"Real interesting," Justin moaned. "I save my planet, and then I end up on a different planet without enough magic to sustain my Ranger powers and I get kidnapped. Woo-hoo." Suddenly, white light began to dance across the edge of his vision. "What the-?"

"Justin!" Prince Justin cried, just before their room was flooded with white light.

"What's going on?!" Justin cried as soon as he reformed.

"Justin!" Trini shouted happily, hurrying over to her young friend who was still tied up.

"Shit, kid," Ginger cursed, running over to Justin. "Where have you been?"

"Kimberly?" Shaking his head, he pleaded, "You have to send me back! Prince Justin and Gale are still up there!"

"Prince Justin?" Ginger asked in disbelief.

"Yes!" Justin shouted as the two women untied him. "You have to send me back."

"I'm coming with you," Trini said.

"Fine," Justin snapped hurriedly. "But we have to go."

"Well, I'm coming, too," Ginger told them. "I'm gonna be in trouble up to my eyeballs for letting you all do this. If I help bring the Prince home, maybe they won't be so strict. By the way, kid, my name is Ginger. Don't forget to set a return beam for us."

"Got it," Trini said as she reactivated the controls that would send them back to Old Vermont.

"Give it up, Bandora!" Tommy shouted, holding his Sword out before him like a samurai warrior. "You'll never defeat good!"

A doorway suddenly rose up from the street. The door swung open, and Bandora stepped out. "You talk brave, Red Star," she said. "Let's see how you handle Cyclopsis!" She laughed wickedly and thrust her wand at the sky. Pink light flooded from its tip, coalescing into the MegaZord sized Cyclopsis.

"Bandora!" Tommy shouted angrily, leaping for her. She just disappeared from sight. "I don't have Zords! What am I going to do?"

"Red Star," Barza called as he appeared behind Tommy, "take Dragon Caesar." He pushed the Dragon Dagger into Tommy's hands.

"DragonZord," Tommy whispered happily. Despite the fact that he hadn't worn the Green Armor in over three years, he lifted the dagger to the lips on his helmet and played the hauntingly familiar melody that summoned the massive Dragon Assault Vehicle from the sea.

"You're back," Prince Justin said as Trini, Ginger, and Justin teleported into their room.

"We're here to rescue you, your majesty," Ginger said, kneeling before him.

"Come on," Trini said, hurrying over to the young prince. "We don't have time for all of these formalities."

"We have to rescue Gale," Prince Justin said.

"I'll take care of it," Trini volunteered.

"We'll take care of it," Justin clarified. "Ginger, you take Prince Justin back home and get some help up here as soon as you can."

"You've got it," Ginger said. Ginger led Prince Justin over to a white circle of light on the floor.

"Be careful, Justin," the Prince called out as the two of them disappeared.

"All right, Justin," Trini said once the two of them were alone. "What's the situation?"

"There are two insane people in this house who kidnapped me, the Prince, and his tutor, Gale. So far, I've caused two people to get killed. Gale is somewhere in this house, no doubt tied up. We have to get to her before the two insane people realize we're gone." Justin paused, and then asked, "Are Tommy and Skull okay?"

"I have no idea," Trini answered truthfully.

"Shhhh," Trini shushed as they slowly crept along the front hallway.

"They're asleep?" Justin asked.

"Not quite," Trini answered, "but they'll be busy for a while." She shuddered once in an attempt to get the memory of the two romantically tangled on the floor of the kitchen out of her head.

"Oh-kay," Justin drawled. "Now let's find Gale and get out of here."

"We'll split up," Trini said. "They've gotta be around here someplace, but this is a big house."

"I just remembered something," Justin said hurriedly. "I heard Randy mention a shed."

"That would be outside," Trini remarked. "Come on, we'll go together." The two hurried to the front door.

"Snowing," Justin said simply.

"We aren't exactly dressed for it, are we," Trini said.

"Do you have anything worth wearing in your backpack?" Justin asked.

"Nope. C'mon, let's hurry."

"Come with us, ma'am," Lt. Silverstone said to Ginger.

"I swear, I didn't have anything to do with this," Ginger swore.

"We know that," Silverstone said. "We're going to take you into protective custody for now. Besides, I'm sure the King and Queen will want to thank you personally."

Ginger said nothing as she led across the roof of the Teleport Core to a helicopter with the Royal Seal emblazoned across the door.

"Here's the shed!" Trini yelled over the roar of the wind. The two Rangers ran up to the wooden shed that was a good hundred yards from the cabin.

Justin reached it first and quickly unchained the door. "Gale?"

"Justin!" Gale cried. "I'm in here!"

"Gale," Justin sighed, hurrying over to her side. "The Prince is back... home."

"How?"

"Teleport," Trini said as she shut and chained the door behind her. "I was able to lock onto Justin's communicator and teleport up here."

"Communicator?" Gale asked.

"I told you I was from a different dimension." Justin pulled hard on the knot at the small of Gale's back, finally undoing it. Together, they shrugged her ropes off.

"HEY!" Randy's voice boomed from the other side of the door.

"Oh God," Gale sobbed. "He's gonna kill us for sure this time!"

"The slider," Justin said quickly, thankful that Trini had rechained the door from the inside. "The slider can get us out of here."

"What?" Trini asked, her voice thick with exasperation.

"The slider!" Justin cried. "We've got a back button on it! We can slide out of here, go into the other world where we'll be safe, travel to someplace safe in that world, and then hit the back button to make us slide back here."

"Are you sure it will work?" Trini asked as she began to dig in her backpack for the slider.

Gale, meanwhile, hurried over to the still body of Sydney. "I knew she wasn't dead!"

"She's not dead?!" Justin cried happily. "C'mon, we'll take her with us."

"Where are we going?" Gale asked.

"I sure do hope it doesn't dump us in the middle of nowhere," Trini sighed as she activated the slider. A glimmering white whirlpool of light and wind appeared in the small shed, lighting it up.

"Oh my God," Gale breathed in disbelief. "We're going to another dimension."

The door suddenly shook violently. "Unless you've got a better idea," Justin said, sliding his arms behind Sydney's shoulders.

"Let's hit the road," Gale said nervously.

"We have to get her help fast. She's bleeding to death," Justin remarked, glancing at the bleeding wound on Sydney's left shoulder.

"You take the slider," Trini told him. To Gale, she said, "Help me with her."

"How does this work?" Gale asked as she picked Sydney up by the feet.

"Just jump in," Trini said. "Help me stand Sydney up, and just jump in." Gale helped balance Sydney against the full height of Trini's body and then looked nervously at the portal. "Fine, I'll go first," Trini said. She hobbled over to the swirling vortex, and then leapt into it sideways, taking Sydney with her.

The door splintered a fraction open, causing both Gale and Justin to scream simultaneously.

"I just jump in?" Gale asked nervously.

"It'll be okay, Gale," Justin said. "Want me to jump with you." Justin closed the slider and put it in his front pocket.

"Yeah," Gale nodded. Justin took her hand, and the two ran toward the vortex and leapt in at the same time. A bright bluish-white flash filled the shed as Randy finally made it inside.

Trini kept her arms wrapped tightly around the unconscious Sydney as they flew through the portal connecting the dimensions. Lights and a warm wind whipped all about them, and then, the ride ended. Yellow electricity crackled, and the two women fell out of sub-space. Gale and Justin were close behind, appearing with Justin's standard crackle of blue electricity.

"Oh man, what a trip," Gale moaned, holding her head.

"We're in the exact same shed," Trini remarked. However, before anyone had a chance to say anything else, another wormhole opened. Unlike the original slider-induced portal, this one was much larger, much brighter, and much louder. A deep roaring came from the portal, and wind began to whip about them. An unseen force flew out of the portal and pulled them into it before anyone had a chance to say or do anything.

A few seconds later, their trip through the second wormhole ended. The first thing Justin noticed was warmth and sunlight. The next thing he noticed was a voice.

"Well, let's see here, Sabrina," the male voice said. "You were trying to zap Valerie here. Instead, you zapped up two Power Rangers, a bleeding Neve Campbell, and a royal tutor."

"Sabrina?" another male voice asked. "You REALLY need to practice more."

Justin forced his head up and saw a black man, a black cat, and a beautiful blonde who was shockingly familiar. "Clarissa?" Justin grunted.

"Sabrina," the blonde answered. She turned to the black man and whined, "Quizmaster, what happened?!"

"Well, for starters, you failed."

"Way to go, Sabrina," the cat said.

"Did that cat just talk?" Gale asked.

"All right, look," Trini interrupted. "This woman here is bleeding to death. We have to get her help."

"Chance to make it an A, Sabrina," Quizmaster said.

"Am I ready?" The man, who was apparently named Quizmaster, shrugged in reply. "All right." Sabrina knelt beside Sydney, and said, "Make this good and make this last, make this woman as ... good as glass?" She pointed her hand with a flourish at Sydney's wound.

"That was truly horrible," Quizmaster remarked. "Try again."

Sabrina looked at the three very confused strangers around her. "I'll try and explain after this, I promise." Clearing her throat, she incanted, "I think this'll work, but I cannot say, let this woman be healed, this very day." She pointed her hand at the wound again. A sparkling trail of light burst from each fingertip and spiraled down into her wound. White light shone from inside Sydney's body, and magically, her flesh knit itself together. When the light subsided, there was still blood on her shirt, but the horrific wound was gone and a single bullet lay on her chest. "It worked!" Sabrina cried happily, leaping to her feet.

"C plus," Quizmaster graded.

"Will you please take that incantation curse off of me now!" Sabrina pleaded.

"You got it, girl," Quizmaster said before disappearing in a burst of fog and lightning.

"So," the cat said, walking over to the still unconscious Sydney, "you're probably wondering what's going on."

"Is this cat talking?" Gale asked.

"Boy, nothing gets by you, does it?" the cat asked. "Name's Salem, by the way." Gale's only response was a dead faint.

"Oh man," Justin complained, covering his face with his hands.

"Sabrina," yet another strange voice said. Two attractive blondes with short hair ran out into the yard. "What on earth happened?"

"Aunt Zelda," Sabrina whined, "I think I've screwed up again."

"By the way," Salem remarked, "what's a Power Ranger?"

"Witches?" Trini asked, looking yet again at the timer. They were going to be on the "Witch" world for thirty-seven hours. "Like... Wiccan witches... or?"

"Wiccan?" one of the women, Zelda, said. "We're not religious witches. Well, we're religious, we're just not Wiccans. We're witches because we were born that way. We're actually Methodist."

"See, Wiccan witches are different than us," the other woman, Hilda, explained. "We're witches because we have magic. Like this." To illustrate her point, Hilda pointed her hand and produced a blue bowling ball which hovered above the table.

"Spelled with a C," Sabrina added, reaching out to take the bowling ball As soon as she touched it, it turned into a pineapple. "Man, I'm starting to pineapple again."

"I think she's waking up," Valerie said, staring at the sleeping form of Sydney.

"Is she a ... Wiccan?" Justin asked Sabrina.

"No, she's not a witch, but yes, she knows about me," Sabrina smiled.

"I would give anything if I could be a witch," Valerie sighed. "I can't imagine anything cooler than having magical powers."

"Being a Power Ranger is pretty cool," Justin said, very nonchalant.

"What-?" Sydney moaned as she woke up.

"Sydney," Trini said, kneeling by her side. "Are you okay?"

"I feel weak," Sydney complained, trying to sit up.

"Don't sit," Sabrina told her. "You've lost a lot of blood."

"Where am I? Who are you people?"

"Do you remember me?" Justin asked, taking her hand.

"Prince?"

"I'm the other one," Justin told her.

"Yeah, I remember you," Sydney said, forcing a smile. "Where's the Prince?"

"He's safe now," Trini assured her. "So are you, and Gale."

"Good," Sydney sighed, finally allowing her body to relax. "Now where am I?"

"Well," Justin said, "that's a bit harder to answer."

The collected darkness crept from shadow to shadow, never quite gathering enough darkness to form. However, it was close.

It was very close.

It was very mad.

And it was going after the embodiment of light. That would raise the darkness up in the Dark One's eyes. Of course, the darkness had to find the most perfect embodiment of light. A virtuous warrior, or one willing to sacrifice all for the benefit of others. Two perfect specimens had just arrived.

Gale woke up, moaning. "What a dream," she moaned to herself. However, as soon as she saw two blonde strangers standing above her, she realized it wasn't a dream. "Who are you and where am I?"

"I'm Zelda," one of the women said, "this is my sister, Hilda, and you are in another dimension."

"Justin was telling the truth," Gale sighed as she sat up. "Justin. Where is he?"

"He and Salem are downstairs," Hilda told Zelda. "Want me to go get him?"

"Please," Gale said.

"Not a problem." Hilda pointed her finger, and with a spiraling line of white light, Justin and Salem materialized beside the bed.

"Hilda, warn us before you do that," Salem complained, jumping up on the bed.

"Justin?" Gale whined. "What-?"

"We're in a different dimension," Justin said. "We're currently staying in a house with some Methodist witches who were nice enough to let us stay here for the forty-three more hours it's going to take for our slider to recharge so we can slide back to your home dimension. Prince Justin is safe in his home dimension. Oh, and Sydney is here with us, and she's doing fine. She's also apologized for kidnapping all of us, if you're concerned about that."

"It has been nothing but trouble since I started tutoring the Prince," Gale complained. "I hate to impose, but... can I get something to eat or drink."

"Absolutely," Zelda told her. "Come downstairs."

"Just remember," Hilda said, "if it glows, talks, and changes shape, then don't eat it."

"I thought that was the meatloaf," Salem said regretfully.

"It was," Hilda added as they left the room.

"So, you fight crime in armor?" Valerie asked.

"Yellow armor," Trini corrected, "with a Saber-Tooth Tiger on the helmet. When we get back to the house, I can show you."

"And you're a witch," Valerie sighed, nodding in Sabrina's direction. "I feel so ordinary."

"Sometimes, I'd give anything to be ordinary," Trini said.

"Me too," Sabrina agreed. The three girls were at an outdoor mall in Riverdale, California. She suddenly paused, and said, "Did you all feel that ?"

"Feel what?" Valerie and Trini asked in unison.

"I'm not sure," Sabrina said, looking about herself.

Valerie's eyes suddenly went wide. "You guys," she said, panicked.

"Valerie?" Sabrina asked.

"Sabrina, get back!" Trini cried when she saw the source of Valerie's fear.

"Oh my God," Sabrina sighed. A black form was rising up from beneath a table. It was quickly taking shape, growing sharp claws, a long tail, and bulging out with tight muscle.

"What is it?" Trini asked.

"I don't know," Sabrina said. The three girls were slowly backing away, Trini and Sabrina standing protectively in front of Valerie.

"You," the black form said, pointing a finger at the girls.

"Who are you?" Sabrina asked.

The black form's only reply was an angry scream. It seemingly ran for them, but as soon as it left the shadow of the table, it disappeared.

"Where'd it go?" Valerie asked.

Suddenly, the black form reappeared beneath another table farther away. "It can only travel in darkness," Trini realized. "Man, I just invite danger."

"Did that come with you?" Sabrina asked.

"I don't know," Trini said honestly.

The black form leapt out from underneath the table, knocking it over in the process. As soon as the sunlight hit it, the black form disappeared. It rematerialized seconds later in the shade of a tent. A young Hispanic woman who was leaning against the tent realized she had a visitor. However, before she could scream, the black form leapt onto her, and disappeared.

"What happened to it?" Valerie asked.

The Hispanic woman looked at the three teens, and smiled. She walked out into the sunlight cautiously. Once she realized she was safe, she hurried over to the three girls. "Hi," she said.

"Who are you?" Trini asked.

"I'm your worst nightmare, Trini," the woman said. "Justin's too. And I may kill the little white witch as well. Valerie isn't good enough for my purposes, but I'm not going to back myself into a corner. I may kill her as well."

"Sabrina? Trini?" Valerie asked nervously.

"Can you get us out of here?" Trini asked.

"Afraid?" the woman asked.

"Cautious," Trini spat, her face set like a stone.

"We're out of here," Sabrina said, pointing her hands with a flourish. Pink sparks of light flew from her ten fingers and spiraled around the group until they were curtained in the pink light. When the light subsided, they were gone.

The dark didn't care. It could always find them later. It began to walk down the boardwalk. It passed a black man, and in doing so, jumped into the black man. The Hispanic woman resumed her normal business, never aware that her body had been a vessel for a source of pure evil.

"Sabrina?" Zelda asked as the three girls rematerialized in the kitchen. "What are you doing back so soon?"

"We've got trouble," Sabrina cried.

"What kind of trouble?"

"This black... thing was jumping around in the shadows," Trini answered, "and then it jumped inside this woman."

Zelda suddenly paused, and then said in a voice that sent chills through everyone's spine, "Like it was made of the dark?" Valerie nodded her head frantically. "The Dark is back," Zelda sighed. "Oh God. Hilda?!"

"What's the Dark?" Valerie asked as Zelda ran from the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Hilda?!"

"Zelda, what's wrong?" Hilda asked, meeting her sister in the hallway.

"The Dark is back," Zelda answered.

"What IS the Dark?" Trini asked.

"Pure, unadulterated evil," Zelda said.

"Somehow, I knew she was going to say that," Valerie remarked, although she was ignored.

"Where did it come from?" Sabrina asked.

"The other realm," Hilda answered. "Drell was supposed to be guarding it. It must have escaped."

"Go check on him," Zelda ordered. Hilda said nothing but walked into the linen closet, where she disappeared in a bright flash of light.

"What's going on?" Gale asked as she and Justin walked up to the group that had coalesced at the top of the stairs.

"Why don't me and Trini go try to find this thing?" Sabrina suggested. "We can both defend ourselves."

"I'm coming with you," Valerie announced.

"You don't have any kind of powers, Valerie," Sabrina said. "You would be in danger."

"The thing already threatened me," Valerie rebutted. "I'd rather be with a witch and a warrior than home by myself."

"If the Dark threatened you, then you're right, it's best you be with them," Zelda said. "Salem, go with them."

"You got it," Salem announced, leaping into Sabrina's arms.

Zelda opened her left palm and pointed her right index finger at it. With the standard Spielbergian special effect, a canister of salt appeared. "Salt," Zelda said. "It repels evil. So does circles. Circles of salt are invincible. If you are inside a circle of salt, the Dark can't get to you."

"Let's go track this thing," Sabrina announced as they disappeared in a shower of sparks.

"Justin and Gale, stay with Sydney," Zelda told them. "We're the only witches on this side of town. The Dark may come back here."

"There's the woman," Sabrina said, running up to the tent she was selling out of.

"She doesn't look evil," Valerie noted. "Last time she looked really ticked."

A little girl walked past the three girls, giggled, and said, "I'm not in her, anymore."

"What did you say?" Trini asked, spinning around.

"Her eyes," Valerie said excitedly. "Her irises are black."

"Come back here," Sabrina said. Sabrina ran up to the girl, put her hands on the girl's shoulders, and spun her around.

"What do you want?!" the girl cried. Her voice was childlike again, and her eyes hazel.

"Feel my wrath," a business man chuckled as he walked past them.

"It's jumping from person to person," Salem said, horrified.

"What does it want?" Valerie asked. A second later, Valerie answered, "I want Trini."

"It's in Valerie," Sabrina said as she and Trini hurried away from their friend. Valerie looked at the three of them through black eyes, her face frozen in a bizarre grimace of contempt and amusement. Then, her eyes returned to their lively shade of brown, and the Dark moved on.

"What's wrong?" Valerie asked.

"I bet it's in that man," Salem said, pointing with his gaze to a man hurriedly walking away from the boardwalk. "He looks awful shifty if you ask me."

"I think he's right," Trini agreed, running in the man's direction. Salem leapt from Sabrina's arms and followed her.

"Wait up!" Sabrina cried.

Trini and Salem ran down the stairwell and beneath the boardwalk. The sand was cool beneath it, due to the shadow produced from the boardwalk itself. "Hey!" Trini shouted, running after the man.

"Can I help you?" he asked, turning in her direction.

"Sorry," Trini stammered. "I thought you were someone else."

"His eyes were normal," Salem whispered to her. A realization suddenly hit Salem, and he cried, "Trini! We're in the dark!"

Trini scooped Salem up and ran for the steps. However, Valerie and Sabrina had already stepped off of the bottom step.

"Turn back!" Salem cried. Unfortunately, they were too late. The shadows across the steps became darker, and the steps were suddenly ripped apart by unseen hands. Valerie screamed and back away from the steps.

"Circle of salt, circle of salt!" Salem cried.

"Right!" Sabrina agreed, opening the canister. "Huddle up!" Valerie and Trini stood next to Sabrina, as frantically poured the salt out in a circle around them.

"Such a clever little white witch," the Dark taunted. Four giant paw-prints suddenly appeared in the sand. A darker shadow of a giant cat appeared before them.

"What do you want?" Trini asked.

"I've already answered that," the Dark said. "I want you. And Justin."

"Then why do you want us?" Trini tried.

The Dark laughed and answered, "Embodiment of light, I'm the Dark. Surely you can figure out the rest."

"Then you can let Valerie, Sabrina, and Salem go, and deal with me," Trini snarled.

"Oh I'll deal with you," the Dark said, "just on my own terms." The Dark paused for a moment, and then chanted, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes..."

"What does that mean?" Sabrina asked.

Valerie cried out, and looked down at her hands. "My thumbs!" she cried. She moved herself over a bit to position her hands under a sliver of sunlight streaming down through the wooden planks of the boardwalk above. A large cross had been cut in each of her thumbs. An abnormally large amount of blood was starting to stream down her palms.

"Don't let it drip on the ground!" Salem cried. "It might obliterate the safety of the circle!"

"I can't stop it!" Valerie shouted. She pulled her hands against her abdomen in an attempt to stop the flow of blood.

"Hold me," Salem ordered, leaping into Sabrina's arms. "Hand me to Valerie. My fur will soak up some of her blood."

Sabrina placed Salem in Valerie's hands, who placed her thumbs against Salem's back. The blood continue to flow out of her body.

"Sabrina, can you zap us home?" Trini asked.

"I've already tried," Sabrina said. "My magic isn't working."

"It's because we're in the dark," Salem told her. "Where in the Dark's world. He makes the rules here."

"I've got an idea," Trini said. "SABER-TOOTH TIGER --- DOVE!!!" With a bright yellow flash, she morphed into her yellow armor. The Dark screamed and backed away, although once it saw that the light was only momentary, it crawled back. "POWER BEAMS!!!" Trini cried. When she did, two bright halogenated lights shone out of the tiger's eyes on her helmet. She pointed it in the Dark's direction, who disappeared with a scream when she did so.

"We have to get out of here," Sabrina said.

"We can't risk running across the dark," Salem told them. "We won't stand a chance."

"TURBO HEADLIGHTS!!!" a loud voice cried.

"Justin!" Trini cried happily.

"Justin, don't come down here!" Sabrina shouted.

"Zelda told me she thought you were in trouble," Justin said.

"Don't step out of the light," Trini told him.

"Justin," Sabrina said, "we have to make circles to get out of here."

"What?"

"The circles are our only way out," Sabrina said. "They're safe."

"Your power blaster!" Trini suggested. "Fuse the sand into circles of glass!"

Justin said nothing, but unholstered his Power Blaster. Pointing it at the ground not far from them, he pulled back on the trigger and guided the blue laser's path in a broad circle.

"My blood!" Valerie cried.

"Jump now!" Salem shouted. Valerie ran to the edge of the circle of salt and leapt into the circle of glass. Just as she did, a single drop of blood hit the circle of sand. Sabrina and Trini hopped to the next circle, just as the circle of salt fell into the Earth, leaving a gaping black maw in its place.

"Hurry Justin!" Valerie pleaded. "I'm bleeding faster."

Justin quickly fused another circle of glass from the sand, and then a fourth circle at the foot of the stairs. He then ran to the top of the stairwell and let his Turbo Headlights cast light down the full length. Trini lifted Valerie and Salem up to Justin as Sabrina climbed out by herself. Trini quickly hopped up into the sunlight, and turned to face her friends.

"It's almost stopped bleeding already," Valerie said, looking at her thumbs.

"The Dark was doing it," Sabrina mused to herself before she zapped them away.

"Are you okay, Valerie?" Sydney asked, trying to make herself useful.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Valerie answered. "Just... shook up a little is all. Salem, how you doin'?"

"I'm fine," he answered from the kitchen sink. He moaned and sighed, "Oh, that feels good."

Gale smiled as she continued to work the shampoo into Salem's fur. "I still can't get over a talking cat," Gale sighed to herself.

"Must not take much to amuse you," Salem sighed. "Oh man, that feels good."

Hilda was suddenly staggering down the stairs with a large box in her hands. "Okay, I've got Drell's advice," she said. She walked over to the table and sat the box down with a thump.

"What did he say?" Zelda asked.

"It's definitely the Dark," Hilda explained. "It escaped this morning when a dimensional disturbance came through, which messed some things up in the other realm."

"That would be us," Trini theorized.

"Right," Hilda agreed. "The bottle that was storing the Dark broke, and it hopped into our world. We've got some bottles here, and we have to go find and trap it again."

"How do the bottles work?" Justin asked, pulling one from the box. It looked like any ordinary bottle, and it was corked shut.

"When you see the Dark, just open the bottle," Hilda explained. "The magic should just suck the Dark right inside."

"We need to split up into teams to go do this," Zelda said. "I'll go with Sydney and Justin. Trini and Sabrina can go, and then Hilda, Gale, and Valerie go together. Now let's hurry and get this thing back in the bottle before anybody gets hurt."

"Get back," Hilda whispered. Gale and Valerie dropped out of sight behind the scorekeeper's table. The Dark was currently leaping in the shadows beneath the bleachers of Riverdale High's outdoor gymnasium.

"Did it see us?" Valerie whispered.

"I don't think so," Gale answered.

"How do we lure it out?" Valerie asked.

"I've got an idea," Hilda said. "Are you two willing to distract it while I go under there to get it?"

"Are you willing to do that?" Gale asked.

"Somebody has to," Hilda sighed. "Just run straight up the bleachers, make as much noise as possible, and head it in away from me. I'm sneaking in over there, and I'm going to try and come up behind it."

"Be careful," Valerie said as Hilda began to creep toward the end of the bleachers.

"Let's go!" Gale shouted, purposely making as much noise as she could.

"Hey! Dark Boy!" Valerie screamed, jumping up on the bleachers. "Come and get us!"

"Nyah nyah nyah!" Gale teased, running to the far end of the bleachers. "Betcha can't catch me!"

A horrific growling came from beneath the bleachers. Valerie jumped from one seat to the next, stomping her heels on occasion to make noise. The aluminum bleachers greatly amplified the sound, no doubt enraging the Dark beneath them.

Valerie and Gale ran and screamed the full length of the bleachers. When they reached the end, Hilda was standing there waiting for them. "I never could catch it!" Hilda cried, climbing up to them. "It's already disappeared!"

Valerie turned around and looked down at the bleachers. She pulled a pair of sunglasses from her front pocket and put them on over a pair of black eyes. "Too bad," the Dark said in its best imitation of a sincere voice.

Late Afternoon

"Geki! Goushi!" Mei cried.

The red and black ZyuRangers saw Mei and Skull, waving their arms frantically, and changed their course of direction.

"Hey Mei," Boy said from directly behind them.

Skull and Mei cried in alarm and spun around. "Boy, you scared me," Mei laughed, punching him in the arm.

"How'd you guys do?" Skull asked Dan.

"It was a rough trip," Dan answered. "You?"

"Almost got eaten by an octopus and had to swim across the ocean," Skull said.

"Nothing major," Mei added.

Tommy walked down the streets of Tokyo, fully morphed. Bandora had stopped attacking about five hours prior, when it was apparent that he was successfully defeating her Golem Soldiers. It was so late in the night that Tommy didn't have to deal with many people. However, the few that were out weren't too shocked to see a Power Ranger walking around. A few had asked for an autograph, which he had happily given. Each time, he had written the name Red Star.

He wasn't worried about Bandora or the other ZyuRangers, anymore. He knew where Skull was at. However, Tommy had a very sinking feeling that Trini and Justin were in extreme danger. The knowledge that he couldn't do anything to help them left him very unsettled.

The Dark didn't stay in Valerie for very long. It only stayed until she was near other people, and then leapt into varying people all throughout Riverdale. As soon as night fell, the group regathered at the Spellman house.

"Well, it's certainly not safe out there," Gale mused, looking out of the window.

"But we can't just stay inside and wait until morning," Sabrina said. "People aren't safe with the Dark out there."

"Well, let's get a bunch of good strong flashlights and go look for it," Sydney said, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Has anyone ever told you you look just like Neve Campbell?" Salem asked.

"Hush Salem," Hilda said. "Someone should stay here. A witch should stay here, just in case. Sabrina, you'll stay here tonight."

"Let's split up in two groups," Zelda suggested. "Me, Valerie, and Justin. And Zelda, Trini, and Gale. How does that sound?"

"We'll get some real flashlights and head out," Zelda said.

BRRRRIIIINNNGGGG.

"Telephone," Salem announced from the back of the couch.

"Thank you, Salem," Sabrina said as she reached for the cordless. "I never would have been able to figure out where that noise was coming from. Hello?"

"Hi."

"Uhm, Hi," Sabrina said. The voice was deep but friendly, and it didn't seem familiar. "Can I help you?"

"Perhaps. Who is this?"

"Who were you trying to reach?"

"What number is this?"

"Well, what number were you trying to reach?"

"478-6932."

"That's me."

"So, you are...?"

"Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine," Sabrina said.

"Sabrina?" Salem asked.

Covering the mouthpiece, Sabrina whispered, "I think it's Harvey trying to scare me."

"You know me."

"I thought so," Sabrina said with a smile. "So, been up to much? How do you make your voice sound like that, Harvey?"

"I'm not Harvey."

"Oh," Sabrina sighed. "I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"That's okay. I am."

"Uhm, well, can I help you?"

"Not directly."

"What's this about?"

"I think you know... Sabrina." Sabrina's only reply was to hang up the phone.

"Sabrina?" Salem asked.

"Nothing, Salem." She set the phone down on the couch and turned her attention back to the television.

BRRRRIIIINNNGGGG.

"Telephone."

"Yeah, I got it," Sabrina muttered. "Hello?"

"Why don't you want to talk to me?"

"I don't even know who you are. Now tell me who you are."

"I'd rather not."

"Then I'm hanging up," Sabrina said.

"You hang up on me and I'll gut your boyfriend Harvey like a fish, understand?"

Sabrina tensed up as an angry grimace crossed her face. "How do you know Harvey?"

"Look out in your side yard."

"Salem," Sabrina whispered, putting her hand over the phone. "We've got trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Salem asked.

Sabrina walked to the window that looked out over the wide side yard, and pulled the curtains back. "I don't see anything."

"Then let me remove the darkness." Magically, the darkness rolled away in the center of the yard, revealing Harvey, Sabrina's boyfriend, tied to a chair and gagged. The spot he was sitting in was as light as day, although the edge separating the darkness and light was very well-defined.

"Harvey!" Sabrina cried. "Let him go!"

"Well, that all depends on you."

"Hang up the phone," Salem urged.

"What do you want?"

"Come outside, with the cat in your arms." Sabrina raised her hand and was about to zap Harvey in the house, when the voice said, "I wouldn't do that. I've got my own circle around him. You zap him and he'll be fried. Got it?"

"Come outside?" Sabrina asked fearfully. "In the dark?"

"Ah good, you know who I am now."

"Didn't exactly take a genius to figure it out," Sabrina snarled.

"Come outside, or he dies."

"We're coming," Sabrina said, pulling Salem into her arms. As she headed toward the front door, she slipped a small pen light from the side table behind Salem.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Salem moaned.

"Me too," Sabrina agreed, opening the door. She turned on the porch light, and walked out into the yard. She walked to the corner of the house, where the porch light still shed light. "Okay, Dark. I'm here."

"Come closer," came from the phone.

Sabrina cautiously stepped further into the side yard. Suddenly, the large black cat appeared before her. It was almost impossible for her to see, but she could vaguely make out its outline.

"I'm out here," Sabrina said in her bravest voice, "let Harvey go."

"Not yet."

"You promised."

"I did no such thing."

Black liquid suddenly began to pour from the receiver on the phone. Sabrina let it tumble from her hands, as Salem slithered out of Sabrina's grip, which she made no move to stop. She had a hunch he had a plan of his own.

"What do you want with me?" Sabrina asked, sliding the pen flashlight into her hand.

Suddenly, Harvey was plunged into darkness again. "Harvey!" Sabrina cried.

"Stay back, Sabrina!" Salem shouted. "Harvey's okay!"

Glass suddenly shattered. Sabrina spun around and saw that the porch light had just been broken, casting the yard in darkness. "SABRINA!!!" Salem shrieked. "He's coming for you!!!"

Sabrina felt a physical body slam into her. She rolled to the ground, losing the pen flashlight in the process. However, she made no move to reach for it and instead crawled to her feet. She had to get in the light. The light of the moon wasn't enough; she had to reach the streetlamp in front of her house. Before she was even standing upright, she was already running toward it. She spared only a split second to look behind her. In doing so, she saw a gigantic black shroud of darkness running toward her. Sabrina reached the front gate and shoved it open, just as the streetlamp exploded in a shower of sparks, darkening the street. Before Sabrina could scream her frustrations, the shroud reached her and wrapped a powerful arm around her shoulders. She caught a glimpse of a blade, forged from the darkness, appear before her. A long scream burst from her as the blade darted toward her chest.

"And I can just stay here?" Ginger asked.

"Anyone who brings my baby back to me can have anything she wants," Queen Alicia said. "But I never caught your name."

"Ging-," Ginger began, and then she paused. "Kimberly. Kimberly Hart." Queen Alicia smiled, Kimberly curtsied, and the Queen left her in the most expensive room Kimberly had ever seen. And Kimberly had prostituted herself to a lot of high-brow celebrities. "Stop it," she said to herself. "Stop thinking about your past. You made some mistakes, but that's gone now."

She walked over to her bed and sat down on it. Everything from her apartment had already been brought there, including one thing she hadn't seen or thought about in years. "Mama's rosary," Kimberly said in awe as she slid off the bed to her knees. She pulled the rose-colored beads into her hand, and began to pray for the first time since her mother died.

Sabrina started screaming as soon as white light filled her vision. Her first thought was death. Her second thought was pain. "Ow," she complained. She had fallen to her knees. She forced her eyes open, and realized that bright white light was everywhere. It was lighter than daytime. Sabrina patted her chest, and despite the fact that her shirt was slashed, she hadn't been stabbed. The light had appeared just in time. A split second later and she would have been killed.

"Are you okay, miss?" a powerful voice said. Sabrina looked up to see a professional in a red suit.

"I am now," Sabrina said as he helped her to her feet. "What's going on?"

He held his hand up, producing a holographic image of a silver badge in the process. "O.R.D.D.," he said. "Drell sent us."

"O.R.D.D.?"

"Other Realm Dark Department," he explained.

"We got him, Cap'n," another man in a red suit said. He walked by with a bottle filled with a black liquid.

"Will you be okay, ma'am?"

"I'll be fine," she said.

"All right, boys," the man said. "Let's hit the road." The overly bright white light disappeared, leaving Sabrina standing alone in her yard.

"Sabrina?" Harvey asked, stepping around the corner of the house. Salem was in his arms.

"He knows something's up, Sabrina," Salem told her.

"Uh, come on in the house," Sabrina said. "I've got a big secret to tell you."

"Man, I have never had such a wild twenty-four hours in my life," Gale said.

"Gale, I'm really sorry," Sydney sighed.

"I know," Gale said softly. "I know you were forced along with it. I don't... feel badly, toward you, or anything like that."

"Thank you," Sydney said. "That means a lot more to me than you'll ever know."

"Justin told me how you tried to help him," Gale said.

"Uhm, do you think that... Justin and Trini would let me come with them?" Sydney asked.

"What?" Gale asked, sitting up on her cot and looked toward Sydney.

"Do you think they would let me go sliding with them?" Sydney asked.

"Why?" Gale asked, horrified. "Why don't you want to go home?"

"I have nothing to go home to," Sydney said. "I have no family, I don't really have many friends, and my boyfriend was murdered. If I do go home, Randy and Jada are probably going to try and kill me. Even if they don't, the King and Queen will probably have me killed. I'm not going back."

"I'm sure they would let you," Gale said with a slow nod of her head. "Is that really what you want to do? Because I can probably put a good word in for you with the king and queen."

"I don't think I want to," Sydney said. "I'd like to live on a world without Neve Campbell. I'm tired of people telling me I look like her."

"Tyrannosaurus!" Geki cried.

"Mastodon!" Goushi shouted.

"Saber-Tooth Tiger!" Boy yelled.

"Triceratops!" Dan invoked.

"Pterodactyl!" Mei added.

"Dragon Caesar!" Skull bellowed. Simultaneously, all six ZyuRangers thrust their Dino-Buckler's forward. White light flashed all about them, and a white portal opened beneath them.

"Let's go!" Geki shouted, jumping into the portal feet first. The other ZyuRangers were close behind.

Skull woke up with a shout. "Skull!" Tommy cried, running over to his side.

"ZyuRangers!" Barza shouted happily.

"We're back!" Mei yelled.

"I've never been more grateful to see Rangers in my life," Tommy complained. "I've been protecting the world by myself for the past twenty-four hours."

"And you are back just in time," Barza said. "Bandora has just attacked with DoraSphinx."

"Again?" Boy asked.

"We can handle it, guys," Geki said. "Skull?"

"Yeah," Skull agreed, standing up beside the five ZyuRangers. "I'm with you."

"DINO-BUCKLER!!!"

The next twelve hours was a busy time for people in both dimensions. Kimberly made her peace with God, Harvey adjusted to the realization that his girlfriend was a witch, and Sydney was invited to journey with the Rangers across the dimensions.

"We'll be back very soon," Justin said.

"We don't really know that," Trini corrected. "We might be back soon, we might not. But we will be back."

"I'll be here waiting," Sydney said. "Thanks for letting me stay again."

"No problem," Hilda smiled.

"We're ready to go," Trini said. "The slider's at zero."

"I guess this is goodbye," Gale sighed.

"This is so weird," Sydney said. "You make friends, and then... you leave them. You'll never see them again."

Gale and Sydney stared at each other for a moment, and then hugged each other tightly. Gale quickly moved on to the Spellmans and Valerie. After Gale said her goodbyes, Zelda zapped the three sliders to Tokyo.

"Ready?" Trini asked, opening the slider and activating it.

"Let's go home," Gale said.

"I'll call the Kingdom," Gale said as soon as they arrived, heading for a pay phone.

"We need to start looking for Tommy and Skull," Justin told Trini. "Are you sure Tommy is in Tokyo?"

"He should be," Trini said, glancing at the slider. "Hmm... little more than one day here. Twenty-seven hours."

"Not too bad. We'll be leaving Sunday."

Gale, meanwhile, ran up to a payphone. She began to punch in a seemingly nondescript series of numbers, occasionally pushing two at a time. After she dialed what had to have been the most complex phone number imaginable, the connection was made. "Hi," she said to the operator on the line. "This is Gale Prescott. I'm home."

"Tommy, that's them!" Skull cried.

Skull and Tommy, who were currently staying with Geki and his parents, spotted Trini and Justin on the television.

"Are you sure?" Tommy asked.

"I'm positive!"

"They're with Gale Prescott," Geki said in awe. "She's practically part of the Royal Family. Barza. Barza can get you there."

"Let's go," Skull said.

"I have to leave tomorrow," Skull told Dan on the phone. "We'll need to find someone to transfer the powers to by then."

"Barza is looking," Dan said.

"I'll do the same," Skull said with a nod. "I gotta go man, talk to ya' later?"

"Later," Dan agreed.

As Skull hung up the phone, he said, "It's good to speak English again."

"It's good to be back together again," Justin smiled.

"And me," Kimberly added.

"Dragon Caesar," Skull said suddenly.

"Pardon?" Kimberly asked. She was letting the four sliders stay with her until the time was up. She had more than enough bedrooms in her spacious manor on the Royal Property, all as a reward for helping bring Justin home safely.

"Trini said she liked you," Skull remarked, "and I'd trust Trini's judgment of people over the Pope's... so..."

"What are you talking about?" Trini asked.

"You can be the new Green Ranger! Green ZyuRanger," Skull said.

"Skull, I used to be a hooker," Kimberly said. "I may be trying to turn my life around, but I don't think I'm ZyuRanger material."

"Mary Magdalene was a hooker," Justin said.

"Besides, Green ZyuRanger is a guy."

"Was a guy," Skull said.

"I just don't think I'm worthy to follow in Brai's footsteps."

"I'll ask Barza," was Skull's only reply.

"You all are sure about this?" Kimberly asked.

"Don't zap her, though," Geki said to Barza. "She can get by just speaking English."

"I'll make her speak both English and Japanese," Barza said in Japanese. He absolutely refused to speak English.

"Kimberly Hart," she said softly, taking the Dino-Buckler from Skull. "I need a new job. I need a place to live."

"Stay at the Kingdom here in Tokyo," Goushi suggested. "Barza can get you here any time we need you."

"If I stay at the Kingdom, I won't need to work," Kimberly said thoughtfully. "I wonder if they would let me stay at the Tokyo Extension?"

"We gotta go in fifteen minutes," Justin said. "I'd like to say goodbye to the Prince."

"Why don't we go back?" Trini suggested. "It's best we slide in America."

"I'm gonna miss you, Skull," Mei said with a smile. "You were cool."

"So were you," Skull acknowledged, pulling her into a tight hug. Skull said his goodbyes to the rest of the ZyuRangers, while Trini hugged Kimberly for one last time. Barza then sent them back to North America, and they never saw the ZyuRangers again.

"Take it easy, Prince," Justin said.

Prince Justin smiled warmly. "I'm glad you came," Prince Justin said. "Thanks to you, I've had more fun in the past three days than I've had in my entire life."

"Gale, I'm really going to miss you," Justin said as he turned to her.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Ninja," Gale sighed as she bent down to hug him.

"There we are," Tommy said. "We're safe to leave now."

"Let's just go and get it over with," Justin muttered.

"You got it," Tommy answered, activating the slider.

Gale slid her arm around the Prince's shoulder as the slider's prepared to leave. "Give my love to everyone!" Gale cried over the roar of the wind.

"If you ever need a place to say, don't be afraid to come here," Prince Justin said.

"You got it," Justin said with a smile. He ran at the portal and dove into it, leaving his two fellow hostages behind him forever.

"Oh good!" Zelda cried happily. "My recall spell worked!"

"Ow," Skull moaned as he slid down the stairs on his back. "That really hurt."

"Boy, you just flung 'em all over the place, didn't ya?" Hilda remarked, making a nod toward Justin who was lying on his back on the piano.

"Four days," Tommy said as he regathered himself and looked at the timer. "We're here for four days."

"Welcome back," Salem called from his position on the couch.

"That must be Salem," Skull said.

"One and only," Salem answered.

"Are they back?!" Sydney cried, appearing on the balcony.

"Sydney!" Justin shouted.

"So, has anything weird happened since we were gone?" Trini asked, stretching. "Oh, my manners. This is Tommy, that's Skull. Tommy, Skull, that's Salem, Hilda, Zelda, and Sydney."

"Sabrina's out with Harvey and Valerie," Hilda said. "Nothing weirder than usual. Salem ate the rest of the meatloaf."

"So, I figure if we're going to be together for a pretty good while," Tommy began, "we should get to know each other."

"Okay," Sydney said, taking a long sip from milkshake. "I'll go first. My full name is Sydney Seven Weathers. I'm twenty-one this Halloween. I'm an agnostic with no concrete beliefs but I take great offense at being called an atheist, and if you hadn't noticed, I'm a dead ringer for Neve Campbell. Add to that the fact that the movie Scream just came out, my life was made much more interesting. My mother were killed when I was fifteen, and I've been living by myself ever since then. I had no other family, so the courts agreed that I could be my own guardian. That means I had to grow up a lot in a pretty short length of time.

"Before my parents died, I was an army brat. I'm named after the city of Sydney, Australia, but we moved when I was three months old. I lived in Fort Knox for a long time, and then I ended up in California. That's when I decided to go back to school to become a surgical tech. I also got to work in a hospital, but not for long. When the world merged into Pangaea, there were a lot of lay-offs, and I was one of them.

"My boyfriend was Derek; he's dead now. Derek's brother was Randy. Randy and his girlfriend made plans to kidnap Prince Justin, and somehow, Derek got involved. Against my better judgment, I did as well. I regretted from the split second I agreed to help. But, I did what I did, and that's why I left. I would never be forgiven for that back home. I hope you won't hold it against me."

"Justin told me how you helped him," Tommy told her. "I won't."

"Thank you," Sydney said, smiling. "My pet peeves are ignorance and I'm prejudiced against all minorities."

"What?!" Tommy stammered, choking on his milkshake.

"I'm kidding," Sydney smiled. "I also like to do that. My actual pet peeves are people putting clothing on animals, mean people, and people who think they know everything but actually don't. Would you believe I once got in an argument with someone over video tapes? Some doofball I went to school with tried to tell me that it was illegal to record things off of television for your own personal library."

"Weren't video tapes invented for that very reason?" Tommy asked slowly.

"My point exactly!" Sydney cried, emphasizing her point with a flourish of her hand. "But he was really stubborn about it, so I proved it. I actually called my friend's mom, she was a lawyer, the mom not the friend, and she looked it up for me. She said it was only illegal to claim ownership to something that is copyrighted, or to copy a copyrighted tape. Otherwise, no prob.

"Oh, and I don't like people who brag about martial arts. You?"

"Well," Tommy began, "people who brag about being in the martial arts probably aren't in the martial arts. Here's a good rule of thumb my sen...- teacher taught me. If a person painfully forces their practicing of martial arts into the conversation, then they more than likely have never set foot in a dojo."

"Your sen-teacher?" Sydney asked with a grin. "You're into martial arts, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Tommy admitted almost shyly.

"What type?"

"Fourth degree black belt in Toso Kune Do, 1st in a few others, pretty varied. It's ... just ... what I do," Tommy answered, a red flush coming to his cheeks.

"Don't worry Tommy," Sydney said. "I know you aren't bragging. So, tell me about your family."

"Well, my full name is Thomas Tyler Oliver, but I go by Tommy. My birthday is in November, and I also have a sister, Chelsea, who was born on the same day. We call each other twins, but we're not actually. I'm adopted. I was adopted when I was a year old. I actually have an older brother from my biological parents, or at least my biological mother, we aren't sure, named David Trueheart. Then, I have a younger brother who just turned eleven named Teddy. My parents are Daniel and Sarah. My best friend is the smartest person alive since Albert Einstein. He's Billy Cranston. My girlfriend is named Katherine Hillard, we call her Kat. Uhm, I started out as an evil Green Ranger, then I became the good Green Ranger, to the Whit e Ranger, to the White Ninja Ranger, to Zeo Ranger V, Red, and I was Red Turbo Ranger for a while. Now, I'm Ninja Zeo Ranger V, Red, with the power of the Falcon. I'm about a quarter Native American, Cherokee to be specific. My only real pet peeve is drunk drivers. I hate drunk drivers, and when our school had Congress Day, I effectively lobbied and passed a law that gave state troopers the right to assassinate anyone pulled over for drunk driving on the spot."

Sydney lifted her eyebrows at that and smiled. "I take it you feel pretty strongly about drinking and driving."

"I could care less if someone drinks," Tommy said, "but when someone drives drunk, well, that makes it my business. You see, my mother were killed by a drunk driver. My biological mother. Now I have no idea if she was a good person or not, and I'm sure I've turned out better with my mom and dad, but still... it's kind of a sore spot, you know?"

"I guess it is," Sydney agreed, nodding slowly. "Katherine, huh? You close?"

"Pretty close," Tommy said. "If we weren't close, I wouldn't have gone sliding across the dimensions to rescue her. I'd give my life for her."

"I'm happy for you, Tommy, I really am," Sydney said. "I just - I don't know. I wish Derek were still alive, of course, but... he kind of scared me at times, you know? Like he was walking this thin line between normal and abnormal, and I never knew when I would cause him to tip over into the wrong side. And then I have a serious guilt-trip because he just died, he died at the hands of his own brother, and all I can think about is the bad stuff."

"You have no reason to feel guilty," Tommy told her.

"Yeah, right," Sydney muttered, fiddling with her milkshake glass just to have something to do with her hands. "I should be mourning Derek, not somewhat relieved that we've broken up without me pushing him into the realm of the insane."

"That doesn't make you bad," Tommy said. "It makes you normal." The two paused, and then Tommy added, "So does that sum up both of our lives?"

"Well, there is one more thing about myself that I think is pretty ordinary, but most people who believe me find it fascinating," Sydney said flippantly.

"What's that?"

"I'm a synesthete," she answered.

"I have no idea what that is," Tommy said truthfully.

"Just as anesthesia is the removal of sensation, synesthesia is the overabundance of sensation. It's a very real condition that about one person in two hundred and fifty thousand have. Some of the neurons in my brain fire wrong, and it enables me to taste colors, or hear colors, and shapes, I can taste words, and I can see colors in words."

"You're kidding?" Tommy asked.

"Serious as a heart attack," Sydney told him. "I've had it my whole life, so I don't think it as abnormal, but people who aren't synesthetes can't even begin to understand it. It's the way I live. Your name is yellow. My name is purple. This round table tastes sweet. The blue sky hums. Yellow light bulbs whistle. The concept of murder has a distinct blue color around it. Weird, huh?"

"Fascinating," Tommy said.

"You actually believe me."

"Yeah, I do."

"I know," Sydney answered. "I'm a very good judge of reading emotions. I can tell just by the way people talk to me. When people lie or disbelieve, their words have an overlying yellow cast. Your words are white on top, Tommy."

"That's good?"

"That's good," Sydney smiled. She absent-mindedly ran her hands through her hair, and then paused. A realization seemed to hit her, and her face dropped slightly.

"Sydney?" Tommy asked.

"Purple with red," she told him, smiling at the time. "Purple for my name, red highlights for concern. I'm fine. I just remember something. No biggie."

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure," Sydney said. She looked in the shiny table top as a mirror. As nonchalantly as she could, she checked her reflection. Satisfied that she hadn't let the time run out on her again and almost give away one of her biggest secrets, she pushed the concern into a corner of her mind with a vow to take care of it again later that afternoon.

"Hey guys," Valerie called as she and Sabrina walked up to them. Trini, Justin, Skull, and Harvey were close behind.

"We're going to the movies, wanna come?" Sabrina asked.

"Colors?" Tommy asked.

"Valerie, black. Sabrina, very pale purplish-pink. Pretty color. Trini, brown. Justin, red. Skull, orange, and Harvey, explosively bright blue."

"What are you all talking about?" Skull asked.

"My freakish tendencies," Sydney told him.

"Do we like, glow, or what?" Tommy asked.

"Oh no, it's just the names that give off those colors," Sydney said. "It's entirely mental. I see it in my mind's eye. When I look at your faces, I might taste something, or perhaps hear something, but not a color. Sounds are usually the only thing that produces colors for me. Now that t-shirt Sabrina is wearing, it sounds like a subdued police siren. Not entirely unpleasant, actually."

"What on earth?" Valerie asked, looking at Sydney skeptically.

"Now those words are silver," Sydney said. "Complete and total disbelief."

"Amazing," Tommy sighed. "That sounds so cool."

"It's just who I am. And sometimes the colors change on me. What is red today might be purple tomorrow," Sydney remarked. "So, what movie you gonna see?"

"Scream 2 just came out," Justin said, expressing an interest to see the sequel of a movie that didn't even exist in his home dimension.

"I look and sound like Neve Campbell," Sydney complained. "I'll get noticed."

Sabrina held out her hand, and with a slight spark of light, produced a ball cap. It was blue with green tiger stripes all over it, complete with the name Sydney written on the front in bright red cursive script. "Oh cool," Sydney said happily, taking the hat from her hand. "Thank you so much."

"Sabrina?" Harvey asked. "Can I have a cap?"

Smiling, Sabrina made Harvey an Orioles ballcap. He expressed his thanks with a kiss on the cheek. "And my sunglasses," Valerie said, removing them from her breast pocket as Sydney put the cap on her head. "You might not be noticed now."

"Then let's go," Sydney and Tommy said in unison.

"Excuse me," the ticket-taker said to Sydney.

"Yes?" Sydney asked in a gruff voice.

"Are you... who I think you are?"

"I hope not," Sydney remarked.

"Neve Campbell?" he asked in disbelief. "I can't believe it's you. I love you to death. I love Party of Five, and I love Scream. Can I have your autograph?"

"Yeah, why not," Sydney said, scribbling 'Lotsa Love, Neve Campbell' on the back of a ticket. "Nice meeting you."

"Thank you so much," he called after her as the crowd of teenagers made their way into the theater.

"That was pretty cool," Justin said. "Maybe we can sell your autographs on the road. You can be a valuable asset."

"If you say so, kid," Sydney remarked, wrapping one arm around Justin's shoulders and giving him a noogie with her free hand.

The next four days at the Spellman house were full of excitement. The Rangers, plus their new addition Sydney, were trying to regather their spent supplies from the previous world. "Here are some new backpacks," Hilda said, producing them on the kitchen table.

"Have you taken care... of what ... we ... talked about?" Sydney stammered nervously.

"It's in there," Hilda said.

"Thanks," Sydney said, smiling nervously. "Can I keep the cap?"

"It's yours," Sabrina told her.

"We've got water, we've got food, and we've got some counterfeit money," Tommy announced.

"And extra clothes," Justin added.

"Is all of this stuff magic independent?" Trini asked. "If we go to a world without magic, will it disappear?"

"Nope, once it's made, it's made for good," Zelda assured.

"We can hit the road at any time, guys," Trini said. "Timer just reached zero."

After some emotional goodbyes, the dimensional travelers went into the Spellman backyard, and slid away.

One week later

The past week had been a rough time for the sliders. Sydney, without even realizing it, had completely and totally integrated herself into the group. They had been through several worlds, and on quite a few of them, she was accused of being Neve Campbell. She had signed more than a few autographs, although she never charged for them as Justin suggested. "I'm not Neve Campbell," was her excuse.

On one world, they had ended up in New York City. They had to spend three days on that world, which was fortunately their longest lay-over, and Sydney had suggested they hop a train to take them across the country. For lack of a better thing to do, the other Rangers had agreed. Trini had hoped that by going away from Angel Grove, they might be able to stay out of trouble.

They were wrong.

"I said we should wait until morning," Sydney said. "I said we should wait on that nice, safe world until dawn. But no, we decided to go sliding, and where do we end up? In a cemetery during a fierce wind storm."

"Somebody is just a wee bit bitchy tonight," Tommy remarked.

"I'm sorry," Sydney apologized. "I just... I don't like cemeteries."

"Nobody likes cemeteries," Skull said as the group made their way out. Although the sky was clear and there was no danger of a sudden rain storm or even lightning, fierce winds blew all about them. The cemetery was huge. No exit was visible.

"Uhm, you guys," Justin said warily. "What is that?"

Trini paused by Justin and looked in the direction he was pointing. "It looks like a body," Trini said, looking at Tommy and Skull for support.

"I'll go check it out," Sydney volunteered. They had long since assessed that Sydney had the strongest stomach among them. She had already investigated one potentially dead body. It had been a drunk. Pulling the same cap Sabrina had made for her down tighter, she crept beside the black form which was definitely a body. "Hey buddy," Sydney said, reaching out to shake his shoulder. "Wake up." However, as soon as she shook him once, she realized he was not well. In a brave move she doubted she would be able to reproduce, she rolled the body over onto its back. "Oh my God," she grunted, scrambling away in a frantic crab walk.

"Sydney?" Tommy asked.

"It's a priest," she answered in horror. "Definitely dead. Looks like a suicide."

"Suicide?" Skull asked, creeping closer.

"Unless somebody else slit his wrists, and it doesn't look like he put up a fight. His face looks calm. Happy even."

"I'm gonna regret this," Justin remarked as he began to move toward the body.

"Don't, Justin," Trini said, swiping absently at his backpack. Sydney rejoined him beside the body.

"What do you think?" Sydney asked him.

"His wrists are slit," Justin agreed, "but his face... He looks..."

"Content," Sydney said simply.

"Syd, I just realized something," Justin said. "My knees are wet." Stumbling away, he found that his knees were slick with blood.

Sydney pushed her hand against the ground and found it spongy with the blood that had leaked from the holy man's body. "He hasn't been dead long," she said, for the most part unfazed by kneeling in a literal pool of blood. "I'll look for ID. We need to get to the police." Sydney began to rummage through the inner pockets of his robe.

"Do you think he'll have a wallet?" Skull asked.

"I don't know," Sydney said. Suddenly, in a move faster than her eye could follow, the dead priest lashed out at her and grabbed her forearm with his hand.

"Where ya goin', Sydney?" he asked in a deep growl, opening his eyes to reveal two milky orbs.

Screaming, she jumped away, pulling him into a seated position in the process.

A bright red flash came from behind her as Tommy, already morphed, ran up beside her. He summoned his Sword in one fluid motion and pointed it at the dead body. "Who are you?" Tommy demanded.

Graves all around them burst open and spewed forth flames. "Sydney!" Trini cried. Trini, already morphed, ran to her side and guided her away from the reanimated corpse.

"We gotta get out of here!" Skull shouted. The fire that was roaring around them was almost deafening. Just when they thought things couldn't possibly get worse, the ground began to crack beneath their feet. Sydney looked down as a schism opened up between her feet. Red light shone from within it. She sidestepped it as it opened wider, although cracks branched off from it and surrounded her again.

"Come on!" Justin urged, tugging at her arm. "Run!"

Sydney didn't have to be told twice and ran through the cemetery with Trini, Skull, and eventually Tommy behind her. The ground was uneven, as cracks continued to split through it. Every grave in the cemetery was on fire, producing torrents of black smoke and heat. Sweat streamed down Sydney's exposed skin and dampened her shirt. Her heart was pounding painfully in her chest, and she wished not for the first time that she was capable of morphing into the climate controlled armor of a Power Ranger.

Just as they thought safety was in eyeshot, they were proven wrong. The very ground itself separated, and a tall barrier of dirt was pushed from the ground. The ground rumbled as though they were experiencing an earthquake as a slab of dirt lifted out of the ground to block their exit. A few caskets were disrupted due to the moving earth, and those that were trapped in the rising slab didn't rise higher than fifteen or twenty feet before breaking free and tumbling to the ground. When they shattered, the corpses that were suddenly freed from their earthly prison began to move.

After an interminable length of time, the slab of earth had risen to its full height of at least fifty feet and stopped. "Let's go the other way," Sydney suggested as the ground began to crack beneath her feet again.

"Let's jump," Justin said. He wrapped his arms around the five foot seven woman and leapt off of the ground. She said nothing but clutched at his forearms frightfully as the two of them sailed into the air. Skull, Trini, and Tommy were close behind. When Justin landed on top of the slab of earth, Sydney was jarred in his arms so forcefully that she was sure bruises would appear all along her sides the next day.

"We're awfully high," Sydney said warily.

"Wrap your arms around my neck," Justin told her. "It'll make the landing less rough." He scooped her into his arms, and as soon as she had both arms securely around his neck, he jumped off. A few seconds later when Justin touched the ground, Sydney was jarred, although not nearly as painfully as the first time. She was suddenly aware of her condition, and intense pain radiated all throughout her chest. It was painfully obvious that she had bruised her ribs. It also wasn't the first time, and she knew that despite the pain, there was nothing that could be done for it, provided she even had the leisure of doing so.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay," Sydney said, gingerly touching her ribs. "I feel like hell on toast but I'm okay."

"Has anybody else noticed we have a tendency to slide into trouble?" Tommy asked, turning to look at the towering slab of dirt at the cemetery's gate.

"It may be a glitch in the slider's sentient safety program," Trini suggested. "Rather than keeping us safe, it might be trying to kill us."

"Doing a damn good job," Sydney muttered, lifting her cap off of her head for just long enough to run her hands through her now wet with sweat hair.

"Let's get out of here," Skull said. "How much longer we got?"

"I didn't even look," Trini said as she demorphed. Her backpack, which had disappeared along with the rest of her clothing in the morphing process, reappeared. She got the slider out of the pocket where she had placed it, and flipped it open. "Thirty-eight hours, seven minutes."

"Let's get as far away from here as we can," Sydney said. "I'd rather spend the rest of my life not knowing what just happened than try to find the answer."

"Look," Tommy said woodenly. His friends turned around to see that the cemetery was no longer a blazing inferno. It was as calm as it had been when they slid into it.

"Let's get out of here!" Sydney insisted. "You all might be invincible superheroes but I'm not!"

"So you are superheroes," a calm, floating female voice said.

"Who said that?" Trini asked, turning around.

"That would be me," the voice said as she stepped forward.

"Whoa," Justin said simply.

"Are you a turtle?" Sydney asked.

"Are you a hairless primate?" the human-sized turtle asked. She had a feminine body, and a pale blue eyeband with a braided end.

"I suppose I am," Sydney said.

"Then I suppose I am a turtle. The name is Venus de Milo. Please come with me. I can explain all."

"I'm twenty-one," Sydney told Venus. "I'm not really a teenager."

"Oh," Venus said, nodding. "I'm not really a Ninja, just a Teenage Mutant Turtle. I'm a shaman of shenobi magic."

"Cool," Justin smiled.

"Where are exactly are you taking us?" Skull asked. He, Trini, and Justin all had their Ranger headlights on, providing light as the group of six made their way deeper into the sewer system of New York City. "To my home," Venus answered. "It's right up ahead."

"Whoa, human-dudes and dudettes!" a male turtle, wearing an orange eye-band, cried.

"Whoa, a giant turtle!" Sydney mocked good-naturedly.

"Boys, I met these superheroes at the cemetery," Venus said. "And I have bad news. The gates of hell have been opened. Rangers, and Sydney, these are the Ninja Turtles. Raphael in red, Leonardo in blue, Michelangelo in orange, and Donatello in purple. And the rodent is Splinter."

"The gates of hell have been opened?" Donatello asked, pushing his way to the forefront of the conversation.

"Apparently so," Venus said, nodding. "I knew I sensed a supreme surge of evil magic."

"The gates of hell?" Skull asked in disbelief. "Man, we can't ever catch a break."

"Whoa, it's like sensory overload," Michelangelo said. "Superheroes, gates of hell, new humans... Too much info."

"Guys, I don't mean to be rude here," Raphael said in his thick New Yorker accent, "but we gotta take care of this before an army of the undead take over the city."

"Too late," Venus remarked.

"Stop the dimension," Sydney said, putting her hands up defensively. "I'm new to this. I've only been around superheroes for about three weeks, I'm not even sure I believe in hell, yet know the doorway to hell is open. It's just too much to absorb. What the hell is going on?"

"A priest, or holy man, committed suicide on sacred ground," Venus said. "According to shenobi legends, the sacred ground will become the gateway to hell. We just have to close it."

"We?" Sydney asked.

"I have to close it," Venus said. "I'm the only one with the training."

"There will undoubtedly be various demons and spirits spewing forth from this gateway, will there not?" Splinter asked.

"I would presume so," Venus answered.

"I'll help," Raphael and Tommy volunteered at the same time.

"Me too"'s sprung up around the group.

"I'll do what I can," Sydney said nervously.

"You have no special powers?" Venus asked.

"None," Sydney admitted.

"Then you cannot help," Venus said. "To help with no abilities would be to commit suicide."

"Maybe you can stay with April until this all blows over," Leonardo suggested.

"And Splinter, too!" Michelangelo suggested eagerly.

"Then we best get out there, asap," Raphael said. "Venus, you know how to close this thing?"

"I just have to make sure that the body that committed suicide receives a proper burial according with his religious beliefs," she said. "That will close the gate."

"Then let's go and get it shut," Donatello said eagerly. "We'll take the bikes."

"I'll take the Splint-man and the Party of Five chick to April's," Michelangelo volunteered.

"They can stay here, of course," April said, trying to catch Michelangelo before he left, "but why?"

"Old rat, defenseless human, off to close the gates of hell. Talk to ya' later, babe," Michelangelo said as he hurried off.

Forcing a chuckle, April O'Neill, reporter and friend of the Ninja Turtles, turned to Sydney and Splinter. "So... Anyone ever tell you you look like Neve Campbell?"

"Not so much, now that I'm older," Splinter remarked humorously as he made his way to April's balcony.

Laughing, Sydney said, "I like that one. Name's Sydney, and yes, I hear it everyday of my life."

"This doesn't look good," Leonardo said simply as they approaching the cemetery. Although the outside was peaceful, the cemetery itself was a churning cube of smoke and fire. The screams, moans, and pleading of damned souls within could be heard, as well as the angry screeches and curses of demons and fallen angels.

"You guys!" Justin screamed, spinning around. "We've got dead guys out here!"

"Hoo boy," Donatello said, pulling his Bo from his back.

"I need two good Warriors to come with me," Venus said valiantly. "I must find the body."

"I'll go," Leonardo volunteered.

"Me too," Trini said. "I think I remember where the body was."

"The rest of us will stay out here and keep these creeps from getting into the city," Michelangelo affirmed.

"The damn news choppers are already here," Raphael griped.

"Power Beams!" Trini cried. "I'm ready."

Leonardo unsheathed his katana blades in one fluid motion. "Let's go," he agreed. The two turtles and Power Ranger looked at each other, and then ran into the gate of hell.

"Some unknown beings are helping the Ninja Turtles fight these unholy menaces," an off-screen voice said. The scene was that from a helicopter hovering near the cemetery. "The fight appears to be fairly well-matched at the moment, but with the rate that these things are coming out of this block of hellish fire that was once Wilker Heights Cemetery, the fight could change sides at any moment."

"My God," April sighed in disbelief.

"It's like the end of the world or something," Sydney said.

"It may very well be," Splinter remarked. "Venus has been predicting that the evil energy beneath this city would culminate in a disaster of this magnitude for some time."

"I feel so useless cooped up in here," Sydney said.

"Well you can't go outside," April told her. "That'd be like committing suicide. Some of those things they're fighting look like they're on fire."

"I know," Sydney said, getting off of the couch. "I'm gonna go out on the balcony."

"I wish I could see the stars," Sydney said thoughtfully.

"How about the fire?" a lilting voice said.

With a gasp, Sydney jerked her head toward the voice and scrambled away. "Who are you?" she asked. A bipedal reptile stood between her and the window. His skin was black, although a few red flames licked along his scales.

"No matter," he said. "I'm here for you. You die tonight, Sydney."

Sydney looked to her left, spied the fire escape, and darted for it. Without even looking beneath her, she hopped onto the metal rung ladder. Her weight unlatched it, and the ladder, with her still on it, slid to the street. By the time her feet touched the pavement, the fire demon had leapt from the balcony to the alley below. "Ah ah ah," he taunted, shaking his head no.

"You stay away from me," Sydney said, trying to back away. Flames suddenly appeared at the ground by his feet, and they raced toward her. Sydney didn't scream, but she exhaled an audible sigh of relief when they diverged at her feet and formed a circle of flames around her.

"You have NO power over me, Sydney," the demon threatened. "You have no religion, what god will take care of you?"

"Stop it," Sydney snapped, looking around her for an escape route.

The demon, meanwhile, began to walk closer, stepping through the flames unharmed. "Stop it," Sydney said again, trying her best to keep a brave voice although she was quickly losing her nerve.

You are a purple belt in White Crane Kung Fu, she told herself. You are a good person. You haven't dismissed God.

"But you haven't claimed him, either," the demon said, obviously picking up on her thoughts. "Prepare to spend eternity in hell."

"No!" Sydney screamed. She was suddenly unable to defend herself, and merely crumpled to her knees as the demon placed his hands on the sides of her face. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as true fear ravaged her body. "Pl-ee-ee-eease," she sobbed.

"Begging is beneath you, Sydney," the demon said. "Accept your damnation with dignity."

Sydney didn't know where the spark came from, but she was suddenly empowered. With an angry yell, Sydney pulled her arms against her chest and rolled. She rolled past the demon and through the flames. The flames licked up her sleeves, but she continued rolling until she was both a safe distance away and the flames were extinguishing. She spared only a second to see where the demon was, and then bolted away.

She didn't know where she was running to, but it suddenly didn't matter. The street collapsed beneath her. With a scream, she tried to backpedal, but it was too late. She caught one arm on the sidewalk as the rest plummeted deep into the earth. Red flames belched out of the sudden chasm where the street had been. Screaming with both anger and fear, Sydney clung to the remaining piece of asphalt for dear life.

"Think you'll escape the grasp of evil intentions, Sydney?" the demon snarled. He spit on the fingers of her right hand. Flames burst across her skin, prompting a painful scream. Sydney snatched her hand away and beat it against her chest, trying to extinguish the flames. That left her hanging above certain doom by only one hand.

The demon unfurled his left hand, revealing several thick, long black claws. "You can join your friends and everyone else, Sydney," the demon said. "Because they're doing it wrong. They're burying the wrong body. A Satanist in a Priest's robe is about to receive a Christian burial. The suicide priest isn't where he should be, and the gate will be forced open. Save me some when you get to hell." Both Sydney and the demon screamed at the same time as he scraped his black claws along the length of the fingers of her left hand. Her grip slipped, and screaming a mournful scream, Sydney fell backwards into the flames of hell.

"Sydney!" April cried, shaking her awake.

Still screaming, Sydney leapt over the end of the couch, taking several seconds to realize she was safe. However, as soon as she ran her hand through her hair, she realized it hadn't been a dream. Blood dripped from her hand as each finger had been sliced through to the bone. In addition to that, her right hand was burned.

"Your hair," April sighed in a horrified tone. She touched a strand of Sydney's hair. Sydney, using her right hand, pulled the strand, beside her right ear, in front of her eyes. It had turned gray.

"They're going to bury the wrong body!" Sydney cried, oblivious to the intense pain in both her ribs and her left hand. "I have to go to the cemetery!"

"Sydney, no!" April cried as Sydney ran out of the apartment.

"I have to!"

"Wait for me then!" April insisted, grabbing a dishtowel for Sydney to wrap around her bleeding hand before running after her.

"Oh my God, Sydney," April said as soon as they came in sight of the cemetery. It was still encased in a smokescreen, although the most horrific aspect was the many demons that the Rangers and turtles were fighting.

"I have to go inside," Sydney told her. Wincing only slightly as she mopped her damp forehead off with the dishcloth tightly wound around her left hand, she took off running for the cemetery.

"NO!" Justin screamed as he tackled her. The two hit the ground with a thump just as Sydney was about to enter the cemetery.

"Let me go!" Sydney screeched, thrashing herself about in his arms.

"You can't go in there!" Justin protested, trying his best to hold her without injuring her.

"LET ME GO!!!" Sydney screeched. "DAMMIT JUSTIN, LET ME GO!!!" She planted her knee firmly in his stomach and stumbled over his chest, pitching herself head-first into the cemetery.

The sound intensified greatly as soon as she broke the metaphysical barrier of smoke separating the Gate of Hell from the rest of the world. Inside, the screams and moans were so loud, she couldn't even hear her own voice as she shrieked in terror. Each and every gravesite was burning wildly, and the few trees that were dotted about the cemetery were raging infernos. Demons and fallen angels were everywhere. Some were physical entities, others were just misty shrouds of black light, but all were evil. Putting her own terror out of her mind, Sydney leapt to her feet and ran through the cemetery.

Fortunately, the demons didn't have a personal vendetta against Sydney. However, if she got too close, they certainly took the time to try and injure her. She spun around with a cry as a clawed hand raked across her right bicep, shredding through her shirt and causing sticky blood to trickle down her arm.

"TRINI!!!!" Sydney screamed. Dodging fire and demons, she continued to run through the cemetery.

"Christian burial," Venus said to herself. Trini and Leonardo stood arou nd her and the dead body protectively, fending off any demons that ventured too close. She pulled a small vial of holy water from a velvet pouch she had brought with her. They didn't need their shovel to dig a grave, as a convenient human-sized chasm was by his body. Venus scooted his body into the ditch, and opened the vial of holy water. "In the name of the holy spirit, God the Father, and..."

"NO!!!" Sydney screamed, leaping at Venus. She snatched the vial from her hands just as half of it poured onto the man's chest.

"Sydney!" Trini cried.

"This is the wrong man!" Sydney protested. "I had a dream about being attacked by a demon, but it was real! He told me that you were about to give a Christian burial to a Satanist in a priest's robe!"

"That would have kept the gates open for eternity," Venus said in horror.

"I know," Sydney said. "We have to find the right body."

"You fucking bitch," the dead man said, leaping from his grave and wrapping his arms around Sydney's throat. She tried to emit a cry, but his grip around her windpipe was so tight no sound came out.

"Sydney!" Leonardo cried.

"Let her go!" Trini shouted. The dead man stood up to his full height, lifting Sydney completely off of the ground. Although her left hand was injured too badly to grip, her right hand, despite being burned, was clamped around one of the man's wrists in a futile attempt to pull him off. When the dead man didn't respond, Trini unholstered her Blade Blaster and fired a shot at his torso. Rather than hurting him, the yellow laser ignited him, causing his entire body to burst into flames.

Leonardo flipped into the air and landed beside them. Before his momentum was stopped, he swung his katana blades in a sharp down stroke, cleaving the dead man's arms off at the elbow. He then anchored his left foot and spun around in a spin kick, knocking the dead man over with a well-placed foot to the torso. Leonardo quickly pried the dead hands from Sydney's throat and threw them to the ground. "Are you okay?"

Coughing, Sydney tried to answer, but when she realized her voice was gone, only nodded. "...the...body," she croaked, instantly regretting it as sharp pain shot through her throat. Doubling over at the waist, she threw up violently, causing even more pain to radiate through her chest and throat.

"Do you remember where the right body was at?" Trini asked Sydney.

Sydney nodded and began to stumble forward, no longer having the energy to run. Trini kept a hand on her back as they made their way through the living hell that had just a few hours prior been a peaceful cemetery. Sydney, with her right hand around her throat in an attempt to massage her vocal chords, pointing down a line of rows. A dead priest lay there.

"I'll take care of the grave," Trini said. She pointed her Blade Blaster out and quickly used it to shoot up a section of the earth. As soon as it was loose, she began to dig the large clumps out. Sydney knelt beside her and helped, despite Trini's protests otherwise. Leonardo and Venus moved the dead man over to the soon hollowed out shallow grave.

"I lost my cross," Venus said, digging through her bag.

"We can make one," Trini said. Sydney sat down on the ground and quickly pulled one of her shoestrings out.

"I've got two twigs," Leonardo announced as he took the shoestring from Sydney. He quickly lashed the two twigs together, make a crude but effective cross.

"...and the Father, rest in peace," Venus finished. She sprinkled the last of the holy water on his body as Leonardo pressed the cross against his chest. Trini pushed the dirt back onto his body, and after he was successfully buried,

Everything was still. The entire world changed. The fire disappeared, the trees and grass were once again healthy, the demons had vanished, and not a single grave was disturbed. The only real sign that indicated hell had been released in a small section of the Earth was Sydney. She was filthy, a strand of now-dirty hair was permanently scared gray, her right hand was burned, her left hand was cut bad enough to need stitches, and her vocal chords had been temporarily crushed.

"Come on, Sydney," Leonardo said, scooping her form into his arms. Although she could have walked out, she made no move to stop him.

"No interviews," April snapped as she slammed the phone down for the third time that night.

"There," Venus said, snipping the last of the thread off. She had tried to use magic to fix Sydney's injuries, but the magic that Sabrina had used to save her life had given Sydney a distinctive magic overlay pattern, which repulsed any magic that didn't come directly from Sabrina. Venus was, however, with Donatello's help, able to stitch the wounds on Sydney's left hand shut. It didn't turn out to be as bad as they had thought, as it only took eight stitches, one for pinkie, three for middle, and two for index and ring fingers. It was obvious that she would have horrible scarring along her fingers later in life, but she wasn't too terribly concerned about it. Her right hand ached, although the burns were just barely second degree. April bandaged them up with some aloe salve, giving her enough room to use her hand. Her ribs ached something terrible, but there was absolutely nothing that could be done except give them time to heal. Her vocal chords ached, although she had been drinking several liquids of extreme temperatures that was making them feel much better. Within a day or two, her vocal chords would be perfectly healed.

"I like the gray streak," Sydney said softly for fear of straining her currently cooperating vocal chords.

"I do, too," Justin said. Once she had gotten cleaned up, the gray streak, which was perhaps more aptly described as silver, made her look elegant. With her hair all the same length and hanging free down past her shoulders, the silver really set itself apart from the rest of the dark brown. "I think you're very brave, Sydney."

"Thank you."

"Sorry about tackling you," Justin said sheepishly. "I ...didn't know what you were doing."

"No prob."

"Justin, let Sydney get her rest," Trini said.

"It's okay. I need to talk. I'm too nervous to sit still."

"That really was a brave thing you did," Tommy agreed.

"Totally awesome, babe," Michelangelo added.

"Nothing you wouldn't or didn't do."

Justin was smiling at Sydney warmly when he came to a shocking realization. I'm in love!

3 a.m.
St. Michael's Chapel

Sydney slowly walked down the aisle of the near-darkened church. She had long-since given up on sleep, as her mind kept returning to the demon's taunts. What scared her was how close they hit to home.

Sniffling, Sydney removed her cap, smoothed her hair down, and then placed the cap on, backwards. She finally made it to the altar, and knelt before it. Propping her elbows up on the polished wooden surface, she folded her hands in prayer and looked up. A large bronze crucifix hung from the wall, although at the moment, she found no solace in the image. "Help me," she said softly before breaking into tears.

"My child," a soft voice said. Sydney gasped and began to wipe at her cheeks furiously. She turned to the voice's direction to see a nun approaching her.

"I'm sorry," Sydney said, gasping for breath as she continued to blot her cheeks. "Am I not supposed to be here?"

"God's church is always open," she said as she knelt beside her. "What has happened to you? You look as if you've had a rough night."

"Have you heard about the gate of hell being opened?" Sydney asked, chuckling as she continued to cry softly.

"I think everyone has," the nun said, smiling sadly. "Such a sad, sad story, but this place will be packed next mass. Something good comes from everything."

"Well, that's why I'm here," Sydney answered. "I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but ... one of the demons came after me. He cut my left hand, burned my right, scared me horribly. But that isn't what bothered me. I can take pain or fear. He taunted me. He threw my beliefs back in my face."

"What are your beliefs?"

"I don't have any."

"And that is what scares you?"

"It does now," Sydney sighed. "I'm not an atheist, but... I don't... I don't claim, either. I celebrate Christmas, and sometimes I even go to church on Easter, but that's it." Sighing dejectedly, she slumped back onto her heels. Tears began to well up again. "I'm so confused."

"Have you tried talking to God?"

"I don't know how," Sydney said softly.

"You just have to say what's in your heart," the nun assured her.

"It doesn't matter what the words are?"

"I think God will know what you're trying to say, no matter what the words are," the nun said with a bright smile. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Please," Sydney said. She sniffled again, and then said, or sang, the first thing that came to mind.

Sydney began to sing, "So many nights, I'd sit by my window, waiting for someone, to sing me His song...

"So many dreams, I'd kept deep inside me. Alone in the dark... Now You've come along." Her voice was beautiful and deep, a rich tone that literally filled the church to the very top of the roof. Beside her, the nun smiled and began to sing along in her own beautiful voice.

"And You... light up my life, You give me hope, to carry on...

"You light up my days, and fill my nights, with song...

"Rolling at sea, adrift on the waters, could it be finally, I've turning for home?

"Finally, a chance, to say, Hey, I love you, never again, to be all alone...

"And You... light up my life, You give me hope, to carry on...

"You light up my days, and fill my nights, with song...

"Cause You, You light up my life... You give me hope, to carry on...

"You light up my days, and fill my nights, with song...

"It can't be wrong, when it feels so right, cause You... You light up my life...."

The two women's accapella rendition of "You Light Up My Life" ended, leaving the church seemingly empty.

"Thank you," Sydney said, crying openly now.

"Thank you," the nun said, crying as well. "That was truly beautiful. I'd never thought about the song like that, but... it fit. It fit perfectly. You have quite a voice, young lady."

Sydney smiled and laughed. "I never caught your name."

"Sister Mary Grace," the nun said. "Yours?"

"Sydney. Thank you Sister."

"Thank you," Sister Mary Grace said sincerely. "Do you want me to stay here, or would you like to be alone for a while?"

"You don't have to leave," Sydney answered, already feeling much better. A heaviness that she had never known existed was lifted from her heart, and she was filled with an intense inner peace unlike any she had ever known.

Five Days Later

April had graciously offered to let the Rangers stay with her until Sydney was well enough to go sliding. In the week that followed the adventure with hell, the Rangers got to know the turtles, as well as Splinter and April. However, as soon as Sydney was able, they made plans to leave. Just like on every previous world where they had made emotional attachments with some good friends, the goodbyes were hard to make. For Sydney, however, the hardest goodbye was with Sister Mary Grace, whom she had gotten to know rather well during their hiatus in that dimension.

They all knew fully well that they would never see any of the Ninja Turtles, or their friends, again. But, after saying their goodbyes, they did the inevitable, and left.

Two Days Later

"Sydney, are you okay in there?" Trini called.

"Fine!" Sydney answered, turning her attention back to the box in her hands. Ever since she had received a permanent streak of gray, she was having a much more difficult time dying her hair. It was bad enough that she had to sneak and buy hair dye with their scarce funds. But as she saw it, she had no choice. They certainly wouldn't understand why she had to dye her hair; she barely understood it herself, and she had lived with it her entire life. If they were to find out that she did dye her hair, it would have resulted in a major fight between her and Tommy that would have culminated in them finding out a secret that only her dead mother knew.

She took extra special care to keep the gray strand securely out of the way. She followed the directions on the box in the dying of the rest of her hair, and fifteen minutes later, she was able to wash her hair. For at least another week, her secret was concealed again. With that, she turned on the shower and began to tear the box into tiny pieces to flush down the toilet. When her hair was dry, she put on her trusted cap and left the bathroom.

"All yours," she said to Tommy as she lounged out on the bed beside Trini.

"You sure are attached to that cap," Trini remarked. "Have you always worn a cap?"

"Not really," Sydney said. "Not at all, in fact, until Sabrina gave me this one. But I like it."

"I can't believe we got this hotel room so cheap," Skull remarked as he counted through their money. "But we don't have much left. We have forty-seven dollars left. We're paid for night, and we leave tomorrow, but after that..."

"Not to mention the fact that we have no food," Justin complained as his stomach gave a vocal protest.

"I saw a flyer on the bulletin board downstairs," Sydney said. "I'll be right back."

"Joe's Bar and Grill's Annual Talent Competition," Sydney read. "First prize is five hundred dollars."

"I can juggle," Skull suggested.

"Maybe we should just mug 'em," Trini said in a tone that didn't entirely indicate if she was serious or joking.

"I can sing," Sydney said. "I really can."

"Do you think you're good enough to win?" Justin asked.

"I don't know," Sydney said, shrugging. "Maybe. Even if I don't win, we'll only lose twenty bucks. We can afford that just for the chance. Even if I just win sixth place, we'll still get fifty bucks."

"I say we do it," Trini said. "Maybe we'll get lucky. It's tomorrow night, and we can slide after the contest."

"Oh my God," Sydney complained, turning her back to the stage as soon as they entered the bar. "I look totally out of place here. All these other people are dressed up!"

"Sydney, you look beautiful," Tommy told her.

"Here," Justin said as he and Skull ran up to her. "We bought you this in the gift shop here for six bucks." He took Sydney's cap off of her head and planted a cowboy hat in its place.

"That looks good with your denim shirt and jeans," Skull said. They had gone through everyone's clothing and managed to come up with an outfit that at least looked presentable. She was wearing a pair of her own jeans, Trini's blue denim button-up shirt, and three pairs of Tommy's socks so Justin's surprisingly large black hiking boots, recently polished, would stay on her feet.

"The hat?" Sydney asked. "Does it look okay?"

"Hold on a second," Justin said. "Bend down here." He pulled the hat off of her head and took her gray strand of hair and repositioned it so that her hat didn't hide it. "Perfect."

"I shouldn't hide it?"

"It looks good on you," Justin said. "A streak of stately silver for the sensational singer, Sydney."

"Cute," Sydney said, smiling sincerely. "Now I just need to pick out a song."

"I haven't even heard of half of these!" Sydney cried. In a lower growl, she muttered to Trini, "I don't think these exist in my dimension." To the D.J., she asked, "Do you have anything by Lila McCann?"

"Uhm, yes, as a matter of fact, I do. 'Down Came a Blackbird' and 'I Wanna Fall in Love.'"

"That one," Sydney said. "'I Wanna Fall in Love.' I'll sing that."

"These people are too good," Sydney complained, shaking her head.

"You'll do fine," Tommy said.

At that particular moment, a deep voice announced, "And now, singing the hit country song 'I Wanna Fall in Love,' popularized by Lila McCann, is Ms. Sydney Seven Weathers!"

"Wish me luck," Sydney whispered as she got up from the table. She quickly made her way through the many round tables until she reached the stairs to the stage. Swallowing hard, she ran up onto the stage amid applause. As soon as she reached the stage, though, she realized her nervousness had fled. Though she had never actually performed before a crowd, she was suddenly filled with an intense adrenaline rush. She pulled the microphone from its stand and stood center stage as the music began.

Sydney cast a quick glance out into the audience, and much to her delight, saw that they were all enthralled with her performance.

In a move inspired by the video of the song with the same name, Sydney stomped her feet and gyrated her entire body, completely losing herself in the music.

Sydney bowed as soon as the song ended. When she looked up, she realized that the entire room had suddenly exploded in cacophonous applause. Smiling proudly, she replaced the microphone in its stand and ran down the steps. The people standing at the tables she passed offered her congratulations and turned to see her walk past. She heard a few "Neve Campbell?"'s pop up amidst the thundering applause, but she paid them no mind. She was far too elated to think about anything but her performance.

"Sydney, you were amazing," Tommy said in awe as she sat down.

"You think I stand a chance in at least getting our entry money back?" she asked hopefully.

"You were without a doubt the best person so far," Skull said sincerely. "You've got it."

There was a surprisingly large number of people in the talent competition. The winners weren't announced until late into the night.

"That other girl was better," Tommy admitted to the others.

"Second place isn't something to be ashamed of," Skull announced. "We've got three hundred bucks. That's a heckuva whole lot more than we started with."

"I think Sydney should have gotten first place," Justin complained, crossing his arms across his chest defiantly.

Tommy and Trini's eyes locked, confirming a hunch that they both had regarding Justin and their gray-haired traveling companion.

"Can you guys believe I won?!" Sydney squealed happily as she rejoined them at the table.

"I think you should have gotten first," Justin announced.

Sydney smiled sincerely and then said, "I've got the money. Cash, too. We ready to go?"

The Rangers got their overstuffed backpacks from beneath the table and quickly made their way outside. "It looks clear to me," Tommy said.

"We're outta here," Trini said, opening the portal.

3:18 a.m.
July 30

Vivica Washington stood atop the firetruck which currently lay on its side. God help us all. "All right gentlemen and ladies!" she bellowed into a bullhorn. "The D.E.S. has just informed us that this is definitely a lava flow. Whether we like it or not, Saint Albans City has a volcano coming up underneath us, and it is our job to protect all eight million citizens! We have an estimated two and a half hours before this lava flow reaches the very congested residential area of the Lower East Side. We have to get this lava diverted before the sun comes up. Understand? Now let's get to work!"

"Good job, General," a voice said as soon as she reached the ground.

"Thank you sir," General Washington said, not even recognizing to who the voice belonged. As soon as the formalities were out of the way, Vivica Washington began to run down the street. Ash was raining down on them like snow, and her normally dark brown skin was already taking on a shade of gray. Bits of ash clung to her hair and clothing. Her clothing was also becoming a serious problem. She had worn, of all things, an ordinary t-shirt and shorts. She was expecting nothing even remotely close to the severity of the situation they were currently embroiled in. She had long since traded her tennis shoes for thick-soled hiking boots, as the street was as hot in the middle of the night as it would be at noon.

Before Vivica made it to her destination, however, a crackling of light caught her attention. She spun around at a flash of red, fully expecting to see lava spurting up from a manhole cover. Instead, she saw a teenager appear out of thin air. White light followed, producing a woman in a cowboy hat, and in close succession came blue, green, and yellow flashes, each producing another human.

"What on God's green Earth?" Vivica asked in disbelief as she hurried over to them.

"What is going on here?" Tommy asked, quickly standing up to get off of the hot street.

"Is this snow?" Sydney asked, holding out her hands to catch the powder falling from the sky.

"I think it's ash," Justin said.

"Volcanic ash," a female voice said. The five sliders turned to see a Vivica Fox look-alike standing before them.

"Are you Vivica Fox?" Sydney asked, committing the very faux pas that had annoyed her so greatly for the past several years of her life.

"Before I was married," Vivica answered. "Are you Neve Campbell?"

"No, I'm Sydney Weathers," she answered.

"What...?" Vivica tried, unsuccessfully asking the question she so wanted to ask.

"What is going on here?" Trini asked.

"A volcano is coming up underneath the city," Vivica answered. "We're trying to divert it into the harbor to keep it from the residential areas, but we aren't having much luck. I've answered your question, you answer mine."

"We're superheroes from another dimension," Tommy said, assuming leader mode. "We're called Power Rangers. We can help."

"Superheroes?" Vivica asked skeptically.

"I'm not a superhero," Sydney said, "just them."

"We can slide in fourteen minutes," Trini announced, closing the slider and placing it back in her backpack. "What should we do?"

"We protect the innocents," Justin said.

"I say we stay," Skull chimed in.

"Let's do it," Trini agreed.

"We can help."

"You all are just children!" Vivica cried. "We're trying to stop a lava flow in a city. Do you understand that?"

"IT'S MORPHIN TIME!!!" Tommy bellowed.

"GREEN DRAGON --- RABBIT!!!"

"SABER-TOOTH TIGER --- DOVE!!!"

"ZEO RANGER V, RED --- FALCON!!!"

"MOUNTAIN BLASTER TURBO POWER --- SEAHORSE!!!"

The disbelief was very apparent on Vivica's face. "You really are superheroes," she said in complete and total awe.

"I'll help any way I can, too," Sydney volunteered.

"Uhm, yeah, okay," Vivica said. "If you're up for it, hell... Bring Superman in here, too."

"What can we do?" Tommy asked.

"Tell me your names for starters," Vivica said. "And if you are wondering about my place out here, I'm a three-star General in the Marines who happens to also be cursed with a Ph.D. in geology."

The Rangers quickly introduced themselves, and Vivica reintroduced herself. "You're a movie star in our dimension," Justin said as they ran through the streets to locate a higher official. The General Vivica Washington was identical to the actress Vivica Fox.

"Really?" Vivica asked, apparently not all that interested. "You all wait here."

"Tommy, I sure hope you know what you're doing," Trini said.

"I'd never be able to live with myself if I didn't try to help," Tommy answered simply.

It had taken a quick demonstration of their powers for the Rangers to be believed. However, once it was confirmed that they did have powers greater than that of ordinary men, the vast majority of the people present on the scene were glad to have the help.

"Here's the situation," Vivica explained to the Rangers and a few others. She unfurled a schematic map of Saint Albans City, the dimensional equivalent of an expanded New York City. "The lava, nearest we can guess, is coming from here." She marked a big red X on the map, and then drew a red line down the map. "We're here. It's coming straight down this street. It's got a nice twelve degree slope and nothing to stop it. Unfortunately, we've got nothing but residences down here, and not nearly enough time to evacuate them. We want the lava to go this way, into the harbor. That'll take it through the business district, which should mean more structural damage but far less loss of life. We're in the process of evacuating it, right now. We need to form a barricade between here and up there to s top it. Any suggestions?"

"Knock a building over in the path?" Sydney suggested.

"Not an alternative," Vivica said. "We're going to need buildings on the east side to stop it from going down into the residential area."

"Maybe we can use the lava against itself," Justin said thoughtfully.

"Explain," Vivica demanded.

"We'll set up some kind of barricade against one intersection. Something, anything, tractor trailers, school buses, and as soon as the lava piles up a bit, we'll dump something cold on it. Like liquid nitrogen. Or even just water. That'll make it harden, and then it can act as our barricade."

"That could work," Vivica said, drawing a circle on the map at the closest intersection. "We'll have to reproduce it here, here, and here, but it could work."

"Is that a bridge here?" Tommy asked, pointing to the last circle. "We can turn it on its side to stop the lava."

"We have a plan!" Vivica cried happily.

"General Washington, VanGuard Industries has liquid nitrogen," someone said.

"At least one tanker at each," Justin said. "As soon as we start to pour it out, it'll evaporate. Two would be better."

"Get six," Vivica said. "All right men! We've got a plan now! Let's put it in action!"

Sydney waved her right arm above her head in a circular motion. "Keep it comin'!" she shouted. "You got plenty of room!" Despite the fact that there were hundreds of firemen and policemen running everywhere, few could be detained to do simple jobs such as helping someone back a truck into position. Sydney took that job upon herself in an attempt to make herself useful.

"I found a school bus!" Justin announced as he drove it into the intersection.

"Can you parallel park?!" Vivica cried. "If you can, get it in that spot over there between the tractor trailer and the street sign! I'll have the firetrucks tip it over!"

Justin gave her a thumbs up sign and put the bus in reverse.

"I think we're ready to go," Trini said as she ran up to Vivica. "Only one tanker?"

"They could only get four ready on short notice," Vivica told her. "This is the best we could do."

Tommy suddenly hopped over the eight-foot tall barricade of various mach ines. "The lava's getting close," he announced. "We gotta hurry."

"The nitrogen is here!" Sydney cried. The truck driver drove off, leaving the tanker standing alone. "How are we supposed to get it up on top of the barricade."

"DAMMIT!" Vivica suddenly screamed.

"Chinook helicopter," Tommy suggested. "That can lift it up high enough for us to control it from the top of the barricade. Can you get one here?"

"I'm in the Marines, boy," Vivica said with a smile. "Not a problem."

"Can you get one here in five minutes?" Skull shouted from the barricade. "The lava's already reached the barricade. It'll be up eight feet in no time."

"That'll be harder," Vivica admitted.

"How exactly are we going to do this?" Sydney asked. The gargantuan green helicopter was approaching, sending even more ash flying through the air as well as heinous winds.

"We aren't," Tommy told her. "You and Vivica stay clear of this. The four of us are going to pick the tanker up, run the chopper's harnesses beneath it, and they're going to pull it up to the barricade where we'll take it back."

"The four of you are going to do all that?" Vivica asked. "Uh uh. There's no way. If you four can just hold it, I'll take care of getting the harness on."

"But Vi-," Tommy began.

"Tommy, trust me," Vivica said.

"I can help," Sydney insisted.

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

"I'm going to climb atop the tanker," Vivica said. "Are you willing to run the harness beneath the tanker when the helicopter drops it for us?"

"Absolutely," Sydney said with a nod.

"All right," Vivica said. Picking up her bullhorn, Vivica announced, "All military, police, and firemen stay back. We have the situation under control at the moment. Just stay back for a moment!" She then ran up to the tanker and using the ladder on one side, climbed to the top. "Do it guys!"

"On three!" Tommy shouted. He position himself at the rear right, with Skull in front of him, and Trini and Justin on the opposite corners. "Sydney is going to be underneath this thing! DO NOT LET IT SLIP FOR ANY REASON!!! ONE!!! TWO!!! THREE!!!!!" With that, all four Rangers grabbed onto their predesignated hand holds and lifted.

Even with the benefit of being morphed, the strain was incredible. The tanker weighed a good twenty-five thousand pounds, but the worst part was the awkwardness. The round corners did not make it easy to get a grip on. However, despite trembling knees and thighs, the Rangers got the tanker up to their chest level.

"You okay up there?!" Sydney cried to Vivica.

"I'm fine!" she shouted, slowly standing to her feet. She motioned the helicopter closer. A uniformed Marine in the door tossed a wide green harness out. "It's your's, Sydney!"

"Got it!" Sydney cried. She ran to the opposite side of the tanker and picked up the would-be harness. Sparing only a single glance to make sure the Rangers had a firm grip, she darted toward the underbelly of the tanker. She stooped down and duck-walked beneath it, emerging safely on the other side. "Almost got it guys!" she encouraged. Leaning back, she tossed the harness up to Vivica. The general easily caught it and fed it back to the man in the helicopter.

A second harness dropped down, and Sydney once again darted for the underbelly of the tanker. Suddenly though, the unthinkable happened. The ground gave a single, hard tremor. Screaming, Sydney tumbled to her knees. One of the Rangers, she wasn't sure who, lost their grip. Fortunately, that same Ranger was quick to react and got their knees beneath the tumbling tanker. A loud male groan of pain followed, eliminating Trini. "Are you all right?" Justin cried.

"Is Sydney all right?!" Skull bellowed in the same tone of pain, pointing him out as the culprit, though it wasn't his fault.

"Yeah," Sydney said, panicked. The underbelly of the tanker had cracked against her skull, knocking her flat onto her backside beneath the tanker

"I'm okay!" Swallowing her panic, she retrieved the harness and scrambled out the other side. "I'm okay," she exhaled in relief. She hurled the harness at Vivica, and then waited impatiently as she handed it to the man in the helicopter. She then looked down, and at Sydney's nod, jumped off of the tanker.

"Take it up!" Vivica screamed, as the helicopter slowly lifted into the air, taking the weight off of the Rangers.

"Are you okay?" Trini asked, running up to Skull.

"Yeah," he said, absently massaging his thigh. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Could've happened to any of us," Tommy assured him. "Come on, they're ready for us."

"How are we going to orchestrate this?" Trini asked as they easily hopped to the top of the eight foot barricade. The lava was already six feet high, and if given a few more moments, would make quick work of the barricade.

"Trini and Skull should cut it," Justin said. "They have daggers."

"And me and Just can anchor it," Tommy agreed.

"Let's do this," Skull affirmed as the Chinook lowered the tanker down to them. Trini and Skull easily flipped up to the top of the tanker, and as soon as the Rangers had it in their grasp.

"Fire trucks, ready!" Vivica cried.

"NOW!!!" Trini cried. She and Skull immediately plunged their daggers into the metal of the tanker. It took them a few seconds, but they quickly cut a gaping chasm in the tanker. Skull and Trini cut the harnesses away, and then simultaneously leapt up to the helicopter. "Go!" Trini shouted as soon as she had her arm hooked into the helicopter's open door. The helicopter quickly pulled away with Skull and Trini literally hanging from it.

"FIRE TRUCKS!!!" Vivica cried. The fire trucks lined up around the barricade immediately turned on their water hoses, as Justin and Tommy tipped the tanker full of liquid nitrogen over. "Dump the air tankers now!" she shouted into her radio. On cue, dozens of helicopters flew from behind them. Upon reaching the lava, they dropped their cargo load of water onto it.

An incredible amount of steam billowed up from the lava. Tommy and Justin ran away from the barricade and quickly rejoined with Vivica and Sydney. Skull and Trini ran up a few seconds later.

"IT'S WORKING!!!" one of the firemen shouted back.

"The lava is diverted!"

"We better hurry and get to the next intersection," Tommy said.

"General Washington!" a loud voice shouted. Vivica turned around to see a man, covered in gray ash as everyone was, run up to her. "Blocking the intersection isn't going to work."

"Why won't it work?" she asked.

"According to the schematics of the Saint Albans City subway system, the lava could very well melt through this third intersection and enter the subway tunnels," the man explained.

"And you are?"

"I work with the Saint Albans City Subway," he told her. "Rudolph Wade. If it does burn through, it's going to go backwards. The subway tunnel that it would enter has a very slight downhill slope that will take it straight back to the residential area. It will come back out here, at this subway entrance, and once that happens, the lava will melt through all of Sixth and Horseshoe, right back in the residential areas. All you will miss is two streets of residences. The rest are toast."

"Are you sure?" Vivica asked.

"According to these schematics," he said. "The only way to be one hundred percent sure, though, is to go down into the subway and check it out first hand."

"Okay," Vivica said. "I'll go check it out with a Ranger, if any can be spared."

Before she could give any orders, a policemen ran up to her. "What hospitals do we take the injured to, General Washington?"

"They're understaffed as it is," Vivica said. "Uhm, I guess... Upper West Rivendale Memorial."

"Do you have any men you can spare?" the policemen asked. "They don't even have to have first aid training. They just need bodies to help them out."

"I used to be a surgical tech," Sydney volunteered.

"We can handle it, and if you're going in the subway," Tommy said, ignoring the discussion regarding the hospital, "you don't need to be alone."

"I'll go with her," Justin volunteered. "I'm the fastest runner."

"You can't go down in the subway in shorts," Mr. Wade told her. "Even if the lava isn't down there, the ceramic tiles are going to be conducting the heat. It'll burn your legs up."

"You're my size," Sydney said to Vivica, already unbuttoning her pants. "We can switch."

"Good deal," Vivica agreed as they began to undress in the middle of the street. "Then you're going to the hospital?"

"Right," Sydney volunteered. "Is Upper West safe?"

"The only safe place to be right now," Vivica said, stepping out of her shorts.

"Uhm, you guys?" Justin asked, thankful that they couldn't see his blood-red cheeks.

"Natural disasters aren't a time for modesty, Justin," Sydney said as she pushed her jeans down.

"You could at least turn your heads," Trini snapped. As the male Rangers, policeman, and Mr. Wade nervously looked elsewhere, Sydney and Vivica swapped their clothing.

"Let's go Justin," Vivica announced, grabbing his hand as they ran off.

"You come with me," the policemen said to Sydney, taking her to his car.

"So, you all are the superheroes they're talking about on the news?" Mr. Wade asked, running with the Rangers as they headed to the next intersection to repeat the damming process.

"Yep," Trini answered plainly.

He stopped running with them as they continued their trek to the next intersection. "Power Rangers," he said in disbelief.

"I'm still waiting for Batman and Robin to show up," a near-by fireman said sarcastically.

Justin pulled the manhole cover aside. "Turbo Headlights," he called before dropping into the hole. He looked all about him before calling up, "It's safe down here, now."

"On my way down," Vivica told him, climbing down the ladder. As soon as she was under the street, she commented, "It's hotter than hell down here."

"Yes it is," Justin agreed. "Now what is it we what to see?"

"We need to see if the lava is burning down through the street at the third intersection," Vivica answered as they began to walk through the underground tunnels.

"We've made it to the fourth intersection," Tommy said happily. "I don't think it's going to melt through. The bridge has already been brought down to take it into the harbor."

"No," Mr. Wade said, shaking his head sadly. "You're wrong."

"Which part?"

"Look," Mr. Wade said, pointing out into the third intersection. The two were standing atop a fire truck to get a good vantage point of the entire lava flow. "See that indentation near the center. The street is starting to melt out from beneath it. In just a few minutes, that whole intersection will be a gaping hole."

"We have to warn Vivica and Justin!" Tommy cried, leaping from the fire truck.

"Tommy, what's wrong?" Trini shouted. "We're in the clear!"

"No we're not!" he shouted. "We have to warn Justin and Vivica. The lava is coming down on top of them!"

"Oh my God," Trini said in horror, absent-mindedly rubbing one gloved hand across her helmet in an attempt to run her fingers through her hair.

"Trini, we have to take the barricades down," Skull announced, running up to her through the midst of the ash continually raining down on them. "We can't let them get killed."

"There's no way to get those barricades down," Trini said sadly. "The lava is stone. There's like six feet of solid stone merged with each barricade. It's not coming down."

"Then what the hell do we do?" Skull asked.

"Pray."

"Where do I go?" Sydney asked as the policeman dropped her off at the hospital. The emergency room was currently extended into the parking lot. Several very involved surgeries were taking place on gurneys.

"Over to her," he said. "That's Dr. Nichols."

"Got it," Sydney said, running up to see what her errands would be.

"It's getting hotter," Vivica exhaled, wiping the greasy sweat from her face. "We gotta get out of here. I think we've got our answer."

"Uh oh," Justin said, sweeping his headlights to the left. "It's already down here."

Vivica stepped up to his side and looked to the service tunnel to their right. A slow flow of glowing red lava was dripping down from the street above. "Let's get out of here," Vivica insisted, pulling his arm. Justin numbly agreed.

Suddenly, an ear drum shattering roar came from their left. Vivica and Justin simultaneously whipped their heads in that direction. The thin wall separating the subway tunnel from the sewer systems had just exploded open with a fast-moving flow of lava. Intense heat hit them like a force, and Justin shoved Vivica out of the way. He jumped after her, narrowly avoiding the fast-moving wall of lava. He hit the ground in a somersault and promptly leapt to his feet. "Come on!" he cried, although his voice was lost in the roar of the lava.

Vivica jumped to her feet and began to run down the service tunnel. The lava had reached another obstruction and was forced to move after them. Justin, realizing Vivica would not be able to outrun it, picked her up in his arms and ran with his Turbo speed. She buried her face against his shoulder and wrapped her arms tightly around him as he ran down the tunnel at speeds exceeding eighty miles an hour. He reached the extension tunnel that had taken them away from the subway and darted down it.

Though the lava flow was moving very fast, it was not moving as fast as he was capable of running. That bought them several precious seconds. "Which way?" Justin asked, sweeping his headlight in broad arcs in both directions.

"Right," Vivica announced as Justin hurried in that direction with Vivica still in his arms. However, before they could make it to the ladder that would take them to the street above, a wave of lava darted out of a service tunnel far ahead of them.

Justin skidded to a halt and turned to run in the other direction. They weren't more than ten feet past the service tunnel they had just emerged from when the lava shot out of it with an explosive force, slamming into the opposite wall and filling the subway tunnel to the ceiling. The wall of lava rumbled toward them.

The Blue Ranger ran down the tunnel, looking desperately for a service tunnel that would lead them to safety. "There!" Vivica cried, pointing to their right. Justin ran up to it and leapt inside as the lava shot past them. The tunnel, though still hot, was cooler than the others, indicating lava wasn't ahead of them. Justin ran to the end of the tunnel and found a ladder leading to a manhole. "You go first to open it," Vivica told him as she hopped out of his arms.

"You got it," Justin said, quickly climbing up the ladder. "Auto Blaster!" Pulling his laser pistol from his holster, he fired the bolts out of the manhole cover and pushed it out of the way. He then climbed up onto the street with Vivica close behind.

"We got a big problem," Justin told her as soon as she reached the street. She gasped when she saw their problem. Lava was slowly creeping toward them in all directions. They had come out of an intersection behind the original street, and the lava was coming from all directions. "But I can jump us out of he- AAAAHHHHH!" Justin collapsed to his knees as lava bubbled up and landed on his foot.

"Justin!" Vivica cried, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the approaching lava on his right. "What's wrong!?!"

"My foot!" he cried, his voice trembling with pain. "My foot is burned!"

She knelt beside him and saw that the red lava had flowed over his toes and already solidified into a black, heavy mass. "I don't think I can jump us out of here," he said, sitting down on his behind with a thump. "It hurts too much."

Vivica pulled her radio from her belt and said, "This is General Washington. I repeat, General Washington. Blue Ranger and I are trapped at the intersection of what looks like Fifth and Divine. Get a chopper in her for us, now. I repeat, we need a helicopter, NOW."

"What are you qualified to do?" Dr. Nichols asked.

"I haven't worked in a hospital for well over six months now, but I can set broken bones, anything at all that is general first aid like burns, so forth, and when I did work, I worked with an orthopedic surgeon."

"So you're stout?"

"You could say that," Sydney said with a smile.

"You can set broken bones, huh?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then that's what you'll be doing," she said. "I'm gonna give you kids, cause they're simpler, and you don't look as intimidating as some of the other people around here. Come with me."

Sydney felt a rush of exhilaration. She had long since wished that she had done better in school so she could have stood a chance to going to medical school, but she hadn't. As such, she chose surgical tech, the closest field in medicine to being a doctor that interested her.

"Yo, Dr. Suthers," Dr. Nichols said, patting a young Asian man on the back. "I've got a surgical tech here to help you with the kids. She can set bones, she's got my approval, put her to work. Don't turn her into a gopher, got it?"

"You got it, chief," Dr. Suthers acknowledge, sliding a needle into the wrist of a young woman who looked to be in great pain. As Dr. Nichols left, Dr. Suthers said, "There are some scrubs on that card table over there. Suit up, clean your hands as best as you can, and go help that little girl over there."

"Yes sir," Sydney said eagerly.

"We have to stop it," Tommy said to Mr. Wade. "We can't let it come out of the subway tunnels."

"Can't we block the tunnels?" Trini asked. "There has to be some way."

"What are these three squares here?" Skull asked, pointing at the map.

"The Triplet Towers," Mr. Wade answered. "What are you thinking?"

"The Business district is here," Skull theorized, "and the Triplet Towers are at the very border, right?"

"No," Mr. Wade corrected. "The Triplet Towers are actually in the residential area. They're apartment buildings. What are you thinking?"

"Subway runs here?" Skull asked, tracing the path with his finger.

"Right."

"And the lava comes out here?"

"Yes. What are you getting at?"

"We bring the Triplet Towers down and make sure they fall towards the residential areas," Skull said. "I would imagine if they all fell at once, they would go straight through the street and into the subways. That won't stop the lava, but it'll certainly buy us more time."

Mr. Wade traced his finger along the map, trying Skull's suggestion out in his head. "You might be right," he agreed, nodding.

"This might even be enough to make the lava slope into the harbor," Tommy said, tracing the slope with her finger. "It looks to me like it's got a decline, here."

"If we keep the firetrucks all through here and use their waterhoses, and the water tankers," Mr. Wade said, "you're right. We can make it go in the harbor. We'll have to sacrifice the Triplet Towers, and three entire streets of residences, but still..."

"Sounds like a pretty good sacrifice to me," Tommy said. "We'll run it by General Washington. Have she and Justin come back yet?"

"Can you stand up, Justin?" Vivica asked, trying to pull the Ranger to his feet.

"Yeah, I think so," Justin grunted, trying to keep all of his weight on his left foot.

"Here comes the chopper," Vivica said.

Her radio squawked, and the helicopter pilot said, "General Washington, we're going to lower a ladder."

"Just get us out of here, quick," she told him. "We've only got about a ten foot square left, and not that much in fifteen seconds."

A few precious seconds later, the helicopter flew in amidst the falling ash. It hovered above Justin and Vivica, and a rope ladder descended.

"Okay, Justin," Vivica said. "Put your left foot on the bottom rung."

Justin wrapped both hands around one side of the ladder and hopped his left foot up onto the rung. As soon as she saw that he was secure, she stepped on the bottom rung as well and said into her radio, "We're on! Get us out of here!"

"You got it, General." The helicopter immediately lifted off. They hadn't gotten more than twenty feet off of the ground when the lava completed covered up their isle of refuge. Suddenly and unexpectedly, a lava bomb burst from one of the chasms that had opened up somewhere in the city streets. The ball of lava arched toward them. Vivica's eyes opened wide when she realized it was going to hit them. "LAVA BOMB!!!" she screamed into the radio. The helicopter jerked, and the ball of lava only skimmed the ladder. However, as soon as it touched her side of the ladder, it immediately burned through and dropped her a good two feet. With a scream, she dropped the radio, and her feet flew from the rung, leaving her hanging only by her hands.

"VIVICA!!!" Justin screamed, letting one hand go of the ladder to grab hers. A tiny, minuscule trace of lava remained on the other side of the ladder. Justin saw this just in time, and with the only hand hanging onto the ladder, he let go for a brief second and shot it up above the lava spot. The ladder burned through and fell away, leaving Vivica clinging only to Justin's hand.

The helicopter lifted them higher and higher into the sky. "Don't let go, Justin!" Vivica cried.

"I won't!" he shouted. "I promise!" The helicopter, flying at a height of about two hundred feet, flew away from the flow of lava. A few frantic seconds later, the helicopter reached the clear streets. As soon as it lowered to a height of about twenty feet, Vivica let go of Justin's hand and dropped to the pavement. Justin let go as well, opting to fall flat on his back rather than try to land on his feet.

"Trini!" Vivica cried, waving her thanks to the helicopter pilot as he flew off. "Trini! Justin's hurt!"

The Yellow Ranger ran up to them amidst the crowd of various emergency workers. "What's wrong?" she asked, kneeling beside him.

"My foot," Justin said, sitting up. "I stepped in lava."

"Ooh," Trini remarked. "I take it it hurts?"

"You take it correctly. What do we do about it?"

Trini pulled her Power Blaster from her holster. Flipping it effortlessly, she made it unfurl a sharp, silver blade. She whipped the blade at the stone on Justin's foot, which immediately shattered. She plucked the final pieces of stone away, and looked up at Justin. "It still hurts," Justin said. "It feels like it's on fire."

"Then you've got a Power Overlay," Trini told him. "Sometimes, when you get an excessive damage down to the armor, even though the armor fixes itself, it keeps the pain that caused it to happen locked in the armor. You have to de-morph and re-morph. You'll be fine."

"Turbo Down," Justin said. Blue light gathered around his body and he shrank back down to his juvenile height. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that the pain was, in fact, gone. "It's Morphin Time!"

"I'm sorry, hon," Sydney said sympathetically.

"It's okay," the little girl said as silent tears streamed down her cheeks.

"How did this happen?" Sydney asked, trying to calm her down. She nervously moved the bone in place as she began to surround the girl's arm with the gauze.

"My mama had a car wreck," she said. "But she's okay. The policeman told me so."

"I'm sure she is," Sydney smiled. "What's your name?"

"Ow," the little girl said. "It's burning me."

"It'll just burn for a second," Sydney assured her.

"My name is Michelle. What's your name?"

"That's a beautiful name, Michelle," Sydney said. The thick wet gauze was heating up Michelle's arm, causing her to grimace in pain. "My name is Sydney."

"Like the city?"

"Just like the city," Sydney said, checking one final time to make sure the bone was in place before wrapping the tougher outer-gauze around her arm. "In fact, I was named AFTER the city. That's where I was born."

"Why don't you have an accent?"

"You are a very smart little girl, do you know that?" Sydney asked.

"Thank you. You are talking about the one in Australia, right?"

"That's the one. I used to be an army brat. Do you know what that is?"

"Uhn uh."

"An army brat is a kid who's mom or dad is the military, and they have to move around a lot. And we just happened to be stationed in Sydney when I was born. But we moved to Fort Knox in Kentucky when I was about three months old."

"Is your mom or dad still in the army?"

"No, my dad was killed in combat when I was just four. I never really knew him."

"Where does your mom live?"

"She died when I was almost sixteen," Sydney said, too engrossed in her job of putting a splint on the girl's arm to let the sadness seep into her voice.

"That means she lives in heaven, now," Michelle told her simply.

Sydney paused and locked eyes with her new, very young friend. "That's exactly what it means."

"That means she's in heaven with my daddy," Michelle said. "He died in a car wreck a long, long time ago. Before I was even born."

"I bet they're up there, watching us right now," Sydney told Michelle.

Michelle giggled, and then waved with her left hand and said, "Hi Daddy." Sydney smiled, and then paused again.

"It's getting hot," Sydney said, looking around her. No one else seemed to notice.

"It is," Michelle agreed.

Suddenly, a very faint whistling came from beneath her feet. She started to step back, and felt resistance. Glancing down, she saw steam rising up from around the manhole cover in the street that they were coincidentally working above. The soles of her boots were beginning to melt, leaving sticky black sole-prints on the street. "Somethin' wrong?" Michelle asked

"Something is very wrong," Sydney said, taking the small girl in her arms. "Something is horribly wrong."

"It's snowing!" Michelle cried happily, reaching out with her left hand to catch some of the powder falling from the sky.

"Oh my God," Sydney said in horror, slowly backing away from the steaming manhole cover. It suddenly burst out of the ground, knocking the gurney Michelle had been sitting on seconds before out of the way. A thick swath of steam burst from the manhole as the cover sailed high in the air. "WATCH OUT!!!" Sydney screamed to anyone who was listening. She watched in horror as the thick slab of metal in the midst of a doctor who was splinting a fireman's shattered leg. They were both killed on impact, completely oblivious to what had hit them.

Sydney ran up to Dr. Nichols and cried, "The lava is underneath us, right now."

"What?" Dr. Nichols asked.

"See this ash?" Sydney insisted, "the lava is going to burst through the street any second now."

"How do you kn-?"

"Just trust me!" Sydney interrupted. Placing Michelle in Dr. Nichols' arms, she said, "I HAVE to get in touch with General Washington." To Michelle, she touched the side of her face and said, "You take care, sweetheart."

"She's coordinating the collapse of the Triplet Towers," Dr. Nichols told her.

"How far is that from here?" Sydney asked, taking her scrubs off.

"Three miles, bare minimum."

"I have to go warn them!" Sydney called over her shoulder as she ran off.

"Bye Sydney!" Michelle shouted.

"Alpha 3, 6, 7, 3, Niner!" Vivica shouted into the radio. Suddenly, a multitude of deafening rumbles filled the air. Vivica watched as the streets all around the Triplet Towers collapsed. Then, slowly, the three identical buildings began to lean forward.

Sydney suddenly pulled up beside her on a "borrowed" motorcycle. "Vivica, we've got trouble!"

"What kind of trouble?" Vivica asked.

"I was helping at the hospital, and the street got so hot it melted the soles of my boots. There was steam... it blew a manhole cover off. I think the lava is over there too! On the Upper West side!"

"Upper West?" Vivica asked. "That's impossible."

"You know, I bet this time yesterday you thought it would be impossible that you'd be fighting lava before the sun rose again," Sydney challenged.

"Good point," Vivica said, climbing onto the back of the motorcycle. "Let's get over there."

"See, ash," Sydney said as they pulled into the still crowded parking lot of the hospital.

"This means there is a chasm around here someplace," Vivica surmised. Pulling her radio from her belt, she said, "I need all military personnel, local law enforcements, fire fighters, and Power Rangers to report to Rivendale Memorial, immediately. We are about to have an eruption. I repeat, we are about to have an eruption. Get over here now."

"What do you mean?" Tommy's voice asked through the radio. "We've diverted the lava to the harbor."

"We've diverted the first lava flow to the harbor," Vivica told him. "We just found another one waiting to erupt here at the hospital. It's those damn man-made tunnels. It's got lava flowing around everywhere."

"We're on our way," Tommy said.

"What do we do until they get here?" Sydney asked.

"We try to figure out where the lava is going to come out at," Vivica said, abandoning the motorcycle to run down the street.

"What side of the hospital do you think it is on?" Sydney asked her, kneeling down in the parking lot to press her palm against the ash-covered asphalt. Much to her relief, it wasn't as warm as the street. It was certainly warm, perhaps even hot, but it wasn't hot enough to melt the soles of her boots. She quickly hurried over to the street, to find that it was dangerously hot. "The lava flow is under this street!" Sydney shouted to Vivica.

"It's possible that there aren't any tunnels under the hospital," Vivica said. "Or at least not as many as in the streets. If that's the case, then the lava will flow one of two directions. To the west, and into the residential areas, or to the east, into the existing lava flow and out into the harbor."

"So we make it go east?" Sydney asked.

"I wish we could have known about this yesterday," Vivica groaned, pressing her fists against both eyes. "You don't fight volcanoes. You get out of their way."

"There's no way we could evacuate?"

"Not eight million people in what would now be under an hour," Vivica sighed, shaking her head. "But you're right. We have to make it go east. We could..."

"Blow up something," Sydney suggested, brushing the ash out of her hair, a motion which was quickly becoming habitual. "We make it extremely easy for the lava to flow to the east, rather than the west."

Just then, Rudolph Wade pulled up in an open jeep. "Do you have the schematics for this area?" Vivica asked.

"Yes ma'am, I do," Wade told her. He pulled a rolled-up map from the back of his jeep and spread it out on the hood. "The lava is flowing right under this street, isn't it?"

Suddenly, the intense heat from the street melted through one of his tires, causing it to explode with a loud boom. Sydney screamed, purely as a reflex, and then suggested, "Let's get in the parking lot."

"We need the lava to go east," Vivica explained when they were at a safer position. "There is lava underneath this street," she traced her finger along it on the map, "and no doubt through here, here, and here as well, and must be converging at this point." Vivica looked at the point, and then said, "This is Robin Park."

"This point here isn't where it converges," Wade said. "That's the highest point. This is where it's coming up at."

"Is there any way we can get it to go to the east before it builds up so much pressure beneath us that it breaks through?" Sydney asked.

"Theoretically," Wade began, "I guess we could set up dynamite charges all along through the park on the east side. The tunnels aren't real close to the surface through there, so we'll have to go hard and heavy. You see, there is twelve feet of concrete right here, in addition to about twenty-five feet of an incline. After that, it declines the rest of the way."

"So we have thirty-seven feet to turn into a downhill slope?" Vivica asked.

"Exactly," Wade said. "Do we have the manpower to pull that off?"

"We blow the twenty-five feet first," Sydney suggested, "and then the twelve foot wall at once. It'll be like destroying a dam. It'll take it straight through here, and it will eventually meet up with the old lava flow."

"You'll lose a good three miles of the business district, not to mention several museums," Wade said. "Not good, but looks like our best option."

"It's our only option," Vivica said, "unless we can get Moses in here."

Sydney clamped both hands over her ears as several tons of dynamite exploded, simultaneously. Dirt and debris rose up in the air. As soon as the coast was clear, Tommy and Skull ran into the park to see how close they had gotten.

"It looks good!" Tommy shouted into his hand-held radio. "Let's blow the wall!"

"As soon as Red and Green are clear gentlemen," Vivica said.

"This thing is liable to blow sky-high," Justin said. A thunderous boom suddenly followed, and in its aftermath, a tall spray of lava shot forth from the ground.

"Oh my God," Vivica said in awe. The fiery red substance shot straight up into the air and then fell back to the ground, forming a river of fire in Robin Park that obliterated everything it touched. Park benches melted into nothingness on impact, and trees began to fall as the lava burned through their trunks.

"Let's get out of here," Justin encouraged. "We can track the lava from someplace safer." Vivica nodded in agreement, and the six of them quickly rejoined the others at a more safe distance.

"Have you heard anything from the air?" Vivica shouted to officers close to her in rank.

"Not yet," someone answered.

However, just then, a radio squawked and a triumphant voice announced, "The lava's going downhill! It'll hit the harbor!"

"YES!" Vivica shouted, pumping a fist into the air victoriously as the others began their own impromptu celebration.

"According to our infrareds, all other lava pockets have been tapped. We're in the clear, General Washington."

"You did it, Vivica," Tommy told her over the roar of the crowd. "You saved... whatever this city is called."

"Saint Albans City," she said. "And no, we all saved his city. We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you. How can I repay you?"

"Let us spend the day and night at your house so we can get rested up before we go sliding," Sydney suggested.

"Done," Vivica promised, still smiling.

"She's a wonderful actress," Skull said with a nod. "She looks like you and she has your name."

"She obviously is you," Justin theorized. "She's your dimensional double. You say you were a Fox before you were married?"

"Vivica Fox, the movie star?" Vivica asked. "Will Smith's love interest in Independence Day? It was Halle Berry, here."

"At least you are the only Vivica Fox," Sydney said. "Everywhere I go, I'm accused of being Neve Campbell. It gets old suprisingly quickly."

"Are you guys coming or what?!" Tommy shouted from outside. The Rangers and Vivica had slept the day away. Now that the sun had set, Tommy and Trini were swimming in her huge pool and trying to get the others to join them.

"Come on, Syd," Vivica said. "I've got an extra swimsuit that should fit you."

"Looks like it's just the two of us, Justin," Sydney remarked, swimming up next to him.

"It is late," Justin mused, looking at the position of the moon in the sky. The others, still in their trunks and swimsuits, were on the other side of Vivica's large patio, talking quietly.

"It is really pretty out here," Justin said softly, looking at the bright stars above them. Vivica lived in a rural area outside the large metropolis of Saint Albans, so there was no light pollution to hide the stars.

"Yes, it is," Sydney agreed, resting on the side of the pool beside one of the underwater lights. It cast a bluish hue all about her. "The sky is very pretty." She paused, and then asked, "Is the sky pretty at your home?"

"It's very pretty there," Justin told her. He paused as well, and then added, "It'll be even prettier when you get there."

Sydney said nothing, but her brow furrowed in confusion as a frown crossed her face. She glanced over at him, and found that he was hanging from the side of the pool as she was, just a few feet down.

"Sydney?"

"Yeah?"

"Other than Derek, have you had any boyfriends?"

"A couple, I suppose," she answered noncommittally. "How about you? You had many girlfriends?"

"Nope," Justin said. "There've been a lot of girls I've had crushes on, if that counts for anything. A lot of actresses, too."

Sydney smiled and glanced over in Justin's direction. "Any actresses in particular?"

"Well, Alicia Silverstone... that girl with the red hair from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4..."

"You mean Alice?" Sydney asked.

"Yeah, Alice," Justin nodded. "Courtney Cox, that blonde girl from Jurassic Park, that blonde girl in Hocus Pocus, Kyra Sedgwick after I watched Heart and Souls, Heather Langenkamp, Jamie Luner from 'Just the Ten of Us,' remember that girl Hallie from Scream 2, the one we saw on Sabrina's world? I really liked her. And speaking of Scream, Neve Campbell, I always thought she was really pretty."

"I'm sure Ms. Campbell would appreciate hearing that," Sydney muttered.

"How about you?" Justin asked, swimming over to her. Sydney's only response was to raise her eyebrows and cast a skeptical glance in his direction.

"How 'bout me whut?" Sydney asked in a perturbed voice, crinkling her nose.

"Would you like hearing that I think you're very pretty," Justin asked.

It was suddenly painfully obvious to Sydney what Justin was implying, and she was going to every possible effort to block him at every turn. "I guess it would depend on who said it," she said, tensing up.

"What if the person who said it was someone who thought you were a really, really great, brave person?"

Sydney only swallowed as she tried to think of an appropriate reply. "I guess it would then depend on how old that person was." Perfect!

Suddenly, Sydney felt Justin's hand touch the side of her face. Every muscle across her back and abdomen tensed rock hard as he touched her face with a gentleness she wouldn't have suspected he would have known to use. However, the surprise at that touch was nothing compared to the surprise that followed. There was a minuscule splashing of water that sounded totally foreign and external as Justin stretched up to Sydney and kissed her.

Sydney, much to her true, literal horror, felt a symphony of conflicting emotions tear through her entire being. At the forefront was the expected emotions, the ones telling her that the boy kissing her was only thirteen years old, and that by not doing anything to stop him, she may have been committing a felony. Behind those, however, were the horrifying emotions. She felt something within her stir. It wasn't related to sex, but it was very powerful. There was just a tiny flame inside the core of her very essence, and Justin's unexpected, uninvited kiss had brought it to life. Fortunately for her, she quickly came to her senses and pushed him away as well as floundering back a few feet herself. "Justin," she said ste rnly, in her most mature, adult voice.

"Oh God," he suddenly groaned, and from the look in his eyes, she though t he was going to be sick. "I'm sorry. I didn't -"

"It's okay, Justin," Sydney interrupted. "Just... don't do it again. I mean, I'm not just eight years older than you are, Justin. I'm a grown woman. And even though I really think a lot of you, I don't think about you like this. You're like a little brother." She immediately clamped her mouth shut when she realized she was only saying the deluge of consternations to make her feel better. She had made her point just by telling him no; all further accusations were only making him feel worse.

Justin mumbled yet another embarrassed apology as he planted his hands on the side and hauled himself out of the water. Sydney said nothing, but cast her wide eyes back up at the sky and then completely physically relaxed and slipped beneath the water. She didn't know what to do. Justin's kiss had produced emotions she had never felt before. He's just thirteen years old, you deviant! Sydney screamed at herself from the safety of her own mind. Yet the fact was undeniable. She hadn't just been kissed by Justin; she had kissed back. That terrified her worse than anything she had yet to face during her sliding adventure.

Sydney hurried across the patio, the slight chill in the air causing goosebumps to pop out all across her wet body. She grabbed a towel draped over a chair back and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Trini," Sydney said, pulling the taller girl aside. "We need to talk."

"Oh-kay," Trini stammered warily. She followed Sydney off the patio and into the front yard. "What's the problem?"

"Justin," Sydney answered.

"I don't follow."

"Justin just tried to kiss me," Sydney said. Her voice wavered slightly as the conflicting emotions threatened to resurge.

"Oh," Trini acknowledged. She knew he had a crush on the older girl, but she certainly hadn't expected him to act on it. "Well, do you want me or Tommy to talk to him?"

"No, it's worse than that," Sydney continued. She suddenly found herself unable to continue. In fact, she had a hard time looking at Trini. It was as if she was guilty of a crime. She shivered suddenly and began to use the towel to roughly dry her hair, no doubt an avenue for her nervous energy.

"Sydney?" Trini asked. "I can imagine that it's probably pretty embarrassing that a kid tried to kiss you, but it's no doubt much worse for him."

"You don't understand!" Sydney suddenly cried out loud. Anger and fear simultaneously flashed in her eyes. "You don't understand, Trini! I liked it!"

Trini slowly turned to look back at Sydney and asked, "You what?"

"I liked it, Trini! God help me, I liked it! What the hell is wrong with me?!"

"Justin is only thirteen years old, Sydney," Trini said, starting to wonder if she knew her gray-haired friend as well as she thought she did.

"Don't you think I know that?" Sydney very nearly snarled. "I didn't want him to do that! I really, really wish he hadn't! But the fact remains, it wasn't just a kiss. It was... I don't know what it was, but I don't like it. At all."

"What exactly happened?" Trini tried, calming down. "Tell me exactly what happened."

"We were floating in the pool, looking up at the stars," Sydney began. "We weren't really talking about anything in particular, when he started asking me about my past boyfriends. I didn't realize what he was doing until later, though. I tried to dodge his questions, because I just didn't want to embarrass him by having him announce that he had a crush on me. But then..."

"He kissed you?" Trini asked.

"Not yet," Sydney said. "He reached up and he touched my face. My God, it's hard to believe that kid is just thirteen."

"He's very mature for his age," Trini murmured, still in disbelief at the entire scenario.

"I suppose," Sydney sighed. "Trini, what am I going to do?"

"What do you mean?" Trini asked. "You can tell Justin not to ever do it again-."

"Already have," Sydney told her.

"You can have me or Tommy talk to him, or you can just pretend it never happened. You certainly can't act on it."

"Don't you think I know that?" Sydney growled. Sighing loudly, she continued, "I'm sorry. I didn't me to snap, but this scares me, Trini. A grown woman should not feel things when a thirteen year old boy kisses her."

"I don't know what to tell you," Trini said. "I honestly don't."

"Let me know if you do," Sydney murmured as they slowly walked back to the deck. "Should I go talk to Justin?"

"I don't think so," Trini said, shaking her head. "I'm sure he's embarrassed. Let him cool off, first."

"Thanks Trini," Sydney acknowledged in a sad voice.

After the Rangers and Vivica had retired to the house for the night, she had been forced to take her phone off of the hook. Countless news reporters had been pestering her for a comment all night long. She had gotten tired of telling them that the Marine's official statement would be released the next day.

Trini noticed that Sydney and Justin were both sitting as far apart from each other as possible. Before, Justin would have been sitting right beside her. He currently looked afraid of her.

"My Betrothed, My Beloved?" Tommy asked in disbelief. "What is this piece of crap?"

"It's a romance, Tommy," Trini told him, "but this is ridiculous."

"I have The Sands of Iwo Jima," Vivica suggested, also bored by the current movie the channel was resting on.

"This sentence here is the first time I have ever used or will ever use the word beloved as a noun," Sydney remarked, shaking her head. "Beloved? This is messed up."

"Oh, my love," one of the characters on the screen droned melodically.

"Change the channel, or kill me," Skull said flatly.

"My idea of romance is the romantic subplot of a movie like... Twister," Vivica said. "I do not like this all vocalized crap. Subdued romance is the only way to go."

"Amen," Trini agreed as she changed the channel. "Hey look, it's Neve Campbell!"

"Change it," Sydney said hurriedly.

"Hey, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5," Justin said, breaking his night-long silence. "The Dream Child."

"Any 'beloveds' in sight?" Vivica asked.

"Eew, that girl just got disemboweled," Tommy remarked.

"And now he's making her eat it!" Skull cried, covering his face with his hands. "That's disgusting!" He paused, and then added, "Let's watch this."

"You know," Vivica commented, "me and my husband are gushy romantics. We love each other, but I would slap the boy silly if he ever called me love or beloved."

"Do you have a picture of your husband?" Trini asked.

"Yeah, I sure do," Vivica said, getting out of her chair.

"Where is he?" Justin asked.

"With the U.S. Marines in Okinawa," Vivica said. "Nothing serious. He should be back in a few weeks." She reappeared behind the couch and handed Trini the photograph.

"Oh my goodness!" Trini laughed. "Sydney, check this out!"

"What is it?" Vivica asked.

"That's Denzel Washington!" Sydney and Trini cried in unison before laughing as well.

"You know him?" Vivica asked.

"Also a movie star in our dimension," Tommy told her. "One of the best."

"I think I may just go to this dimension of your's when I retire," Vivica said with a chuckle. "I wouldn't mind being rich and famous."

"After today, you will be famous anyhow," Sydney remarked. "You saved eight million people today. That's gotta be some kind of record."

"We couldn't have done it without you," Vivica acknowledge. The Rangers would have rebutted her, but they all knew that it was true.

"You know," Justin said, "I thought maybe our slider was malfunctioning and causing us to slide into disaster because of something Jara did to it, but maybe, just maybe... Well, maybe it was sending us places where it knew we would be needed. Practically every world we've been in, no matter how hard and dangerous it was, we managed to help."

"That's just what we do," Tommy said. "We protect innocent lives. It's our job; it doesn't matter where we are or what dimension we're in."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Trini cried happily. "I forgot all about it with everything that's been going on today." She cast a quick glance at Sydney, who promptly turned away. "We've only got one more world to go. After that world, we'll be with our Rangers. We could be home very, very soon."

"Do you think it's possible that the next world will only take fourteen minutes?" Tommy asked hopefully.

"Entirely possible," Trini told him. "Do we have everything."

"I think you left your cowboy hat in the other room," Vivica told Sydney

"Gotta have that," Sydney announced as she went to retrieve it.

"Justin, you doin' okay?" Vivica asked.

"Fine," he said woodenly, rechecking the contents of his backpack.

"Come on, kid," Vivica tried, "something's eating you up."

"I'm just... nothing, really."

"Well, I would say that you could talk to me anytime, but you can't. It just seems so hard for me to believe that you leave a dimension, and never return," Vivica sighed. "We'll never see each other again."

Sydney returned to Vivica's back porch, holding her hat in both hands. "Here," she said, handing to to Vivica. "You keep it. To remember us by."

"Aw, girl," Vivica said, pulling Sydney into a tight hug. After hugging Sydney for a few moments, she turned to the rest of the team in turn, finally stopping on Justin. "It sure was wild in that tunnel, wasn't it Blue Turbo Ranger?"

"It certainly was," Justin agreed, finally breaking a smile.

"Remember me fondly," Vivica told him.

"Always," Justin promised.

"Let's go, you guys," Tommy said. "Who knows? We might be back home in another few hours."

Vivica walked to the edge of the porch as the five sliders walked into her backyard. Trini held the slider out before her and pushed the button. A beam of light shone from the tip, traveling about ten feet before stopping to form a gargantuan swirling white portal of light. "Wow," Vivica breathed in awe. "I love you guys! Thanks for everything!"

Sydney took a second for one final smile, and then leapt into the portal head first. Tommy was close behind, followed immediately by Skull. Trini pressed the slider into Justin's palm and jumped in, temporarily coloring the portal. "Goodbye Vivica!" Justin said. Before he leapt in, he shouted, "What should I do if I think I'm in love with an older woman?!"

"Sydney?!" Vivica asked.

"Yeah!" Justin shouted back. The portal produced such a roaring wind they had to shout to be heard.

"Wait until you're eighteen, and then make your move!"

Justin chuckled, shaking his head. "I was hoping you'd tell me to go for it now!"

"Unless you can find a way to make her thirteen years old again, you're gonna have to wait!"

"A boy can dream!" Justin shouted. He waved at Vivica one final time, and clutching the slider tight against his chest, jumped into the portal.

Vivica had to shield her eyes as the portal faded into nonexistence. It was stained blue, and the outer perimeter curled in, much like a flower in a reverse bloom. Streaks of red, green, yellow, and white flowed through the blue as it closed into nonexistence. Vivica sighed. "God be with you all," she whispered to herself.

Justin hit the ground with a grunt. "Before I look up, any dead priests, crashing spaceships, erupting volcanoes, or kidnappers? No offense, Sydney."

"None taken," Sydney answered, glad that Justin was finally started to return to his normal self.

"And none of the above," Trini said.

"It looks like we are in a nice, beautiful garden," Tommy mused thoughtfully.

"You are," a pleasant male voice said. "You're in my garden actually, on my estates."

As one being, the five sliders turned to the voice's source. They saw a muscular man in black jeans and a black t-shirt, leaning against the corner of a brick building. "Are you George Clooney?" Skull asked in disbelief.

"Actually, I want to ask you all just what is going on?" the man said. "I saw you appear out of thin air, and... well, even in Gotham City, that's pretty unusual."

"You're Bruce Wayne," Justin said in awe.

"Yes, I am," Bruce said.

"You're BatMan," Justin added, causing Bruce to narrow his eyes in shock.

"Way to go, Dick," Barbara said sarcastically.

"I got 'em stopped, didn't I?" Dick Grayson asked as he hobbled toward the closest piece of furniture.

"You sure did," Barbara said, "and all you had to do was sprain your ankle. You could have just waited the 1.5 seconds it would have taken me to run to you for help, but nope... Not Robin... He's a real man. He has to stop those big mean ScoutMasters all by himself."

"Cut the crap, BatGirl," Dick growled as she helped him sit down.

"I say we just be thankful that the Scout is in Arkham where he belongs," Alfred said thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Robin said. "Besides, what are the odds we'll be attacked in the two weeks it will take me to be back in tip top shape."

"This is Gotham City," Bruce Wayne said as he entered the room with the five sliders. "Are things ever simple?"

"Who are your friends?" Barbara asked.

"Oh my God," Justin drawled, his mouth quite literally open in shock. "That's Alicia Silverstone and Chris O'Donnell. And the guy who plays Alfred!"

"Dimensional travelers," Bruce answered his housemates unasked question. "These are four superheroes plus an extra that they picked up along the way. They have a brief lay-over here. I thought we could be kind enough to accommodate them. Alfred?"

"Not a problem, Master Wayne," Alfred said. "I will prepare five bedrooms at once."

"This is unbelievable," Justin continued. "You guys are BatMan, Robin, and BatGirl."

"Bruce?" Dick asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"I didn't tell them," Bruce said. "They already knew. Apparently, get this, we're a movie in their dimension."

"A movie?" Barbara asked. "We're a movie?"

"Hard to believe, huh?" Tommy asked, forcing a smile. Just then, the telephone rang, causing Alfred to leave the room.

"So you guys are superheroes, huh?" Dick asked. "What kind?"

"Just show 'em guys," Bruce encouraged. "They won't believe you otherwise."

"It's Morphin Time!" Tommy shouted.

"GREEN DRAGON --- RABBIT!!!"

"SABER-TOOTH TIGER --- DOVE!!!"

"ZEO RANGER V, RED --- FALCON!!!"

"MOUNTAIN BLASTER TURBO POWER --- SEAHORSE!!!"

"My special power is that I get to look like Neve Campbell, twenty-four seven," Sydney said sarcastically.

"Unreal," Dick said.

"Very impressive," Barbara agreed, nodding in approval.

"If anybody can pull a trick like that, they are more than welcome to stay here with us for a while," Bruce said. "Besides, just last night we locked the Scout and his ScoutMasters up. We really aren't likely to have any trouble for a while."

"Oh, that reminds me," Trini said, demorphing in a yellow flash. "I never did check the slider."

"Master Wayne," Alfred said, entering the room with a cordless phone in his hand. "I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news."

"What's that?" Bruce asked.

"Poison Ivy has escaped Arkham."

"You just get out there and fight?" Tommy asked in disbelief. "No special powers, nothing?"

"Just armor," Barbara told him. She dropped into a split as he delivered a well-placed kick that should have hit her.

"Am I good enough for your standards?" Tommy asked, flipping over her as she tried to hit him.

"You seem to be," Barbara grunted. "Poison Ivy is one tough cookie, but I think you can handle her. Well, at least until she sprays you with her pheromones."

"Pheromones?"

"Yeah," Barbara said. "She can make any man do whatever she wants them to. She must have evolved or something, but they did have an antidote. She got out by pheromoning up the guards."

"And you're a man down for two weeks?"

"Yep."

"And I was thinking," Tommy said as they continued to spar, "that because of our slider, I'm going to be here for thirteen days. Maybe I could take Robin's place."

"That's why I'm testing you," Barbara said. The two finally reached a stop, and bowed to each other. "And I think you would be an excellent Robin. You have Dick's build, his height, and sort of even the same general facial features, in a stretch. There's just one problem."

"What?"

"You'll have to have a haircut."

"Welcome to the BatCave," Bruce said to everyone but Tommy, who was currently off with Barbara, also known as BatGirl.

"Man, I hate this," Dick complained, hobbling on his crutches. "Poison Ivy is coming back to Gotham and I've got a bum foot."

"There is nothing that can be done for that, Master Grayson," Alfred told him. "We just have to find another Robin."

"Maybe someone from the police department?" Justin suggested.

"Actually, if Tommy is the fighter you say he is," Bruce said, "we're hoping he'll do it."

"Tommy would love to," Trini spoke for him. "I can guarantee that."

"There's only one small problem," Dick said. "He'll be posing as me, and I have short hair."

"Tommy with short hair?" Skull asked. "I doubt he'll do it."

"Are you sure you're willing to do this?" Barbara asked, scissors in hand.

Tommy ran his fingers through his long hair one last time. "I haven't cut my hair since I was in seventh grade," he said, "and only then because I lost a bet to my sister. But... since it's for the greater good, yeah. . . cut it."

"You're sure?" Barbara asked, pulling his hair into a ponytail.

"Very sure," Tommy gulped nervously.

"Okay," Barbara said, making a quick cut above his ponytail. Tommy gave a pitiful moan and was starting to seriously reconsider the entire prospect. "Well, here's your ponytail. I assume you'll want to keep it."

"Oh my goodness," Tommy groaned, taking the thick nine inch bundle of brown hair. "Oh, I hope I don't regret this."

"Little late for that, don't you think?" Barbara asked as she began to continue with his haircut now that the majority of it was gone.

"This is Poison Ivy," Bruce explained as the image of the botanical beast came up on a large screen. "She used to be human but now she's a plant. She has chlorophyll in her skin, aloe in her veins, and venom in her lips. She can control plant life, and she's basically a lot to handle. She can control any man's mind with her pheromones. In fact, that's how she escaped. They did have her under control, but she evolved, and her pheromones are much, much stronger. She made Mr. Freeze obey her, and he and a guard helped her escape. She's back in Gotham, and she no doubts has a personal vendetta against us."

"Uncle Alfred?" Barbara asked as she entered the BatCave. "Everyone else, I have a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" Dick asked.

"Tommy is going to be Robin," she said.

"He agreed to have his hair cut?" Trini asked.

"Actually, I already have had my hair cut," Tommy said as he entered the room. Justin's eyes widened as he took in the sight of his leader. Tommy's hair was as short as Rocky's and styled in much the same manner.

"You look really good with short hair," Sydney said truthfully.

"I'm growing it out as soon as we get home," Tommy insisted. "My head feels naked."

"Come on, Dick," Barbara said. "Let's show him how to suit up."

Later That Night

"You gotta be quicker than this, Tommy," BatGirl said.

"I'm not used to having to dress myself for battle," Tommy protested as the Bat Team hurriedly got Tommy in his BatArmor. He glanced down at his chest and asked, "What's with the nipples? I have nipples."

"We all have nipples, Tommy," BatMan said.

"I don't," BatGirl announced with a grin. "There," she said. "We're ready. You know how to drive a motorcycle?"

"Absolutely," Tommy said as he hurried over to the waiting Red Bird. Red neon lights glowed all along it. BatGirl hopped on the black BatCycle beside him, while BatMan got in his BatMobile.

"Remember everything we taught you?" BatGirl asked over the roar of the BatMobile pulling out of the BatCave.

"Yes ma'am," Tommy said with a nod. BatGirl gave him a quick smile as she pulled out behind BatMan. "Here goes everything," Tommy muttered.

"Where's Bruce?" Tommy shouted to BatGirl as they stopped beside the abandoned BatMobile.

"BatMan," BatGirl insisted. "We don't have Power Ranger magic to protect our identities."

"Sorry. Where's BatMan?"

"I don't know," BatGirl said, leaving her bike. "This is Ivy's old HQ. We're going inside."

"No argument from me," Tommy agreed as they ran up the steps. The foreign weight of his cape occasionally caught his attention, but he had to admit that it was an interesting addition.

BatGirl pushed a heavy veil of vines aside as she entered the building. "Wow," Tommy muttered to himself. "She made all of these plants grow indoors?"

"Ah, the little lady Bat and the boy Bird have returned," a sensual voice said from above them.

"Poison Ivy," BatGirl said contemptuously. "I see you escaped Arkham."

"Why of course I have," Poison Ivy said as she began to walk toward them. She was wearing a full-body suit of green spandex. A wide dark green belt was at her waist with a light green leaf buckle. Her gloves were green leather with red tips on the fingers, and she had ornamental leaves glued on her face in place of eyebrows. Her hair was long and a vibrant shade of red.

"Where's BatMan?" Tommy demanded. Poison Ivy walked up to him, opened her right palm, and blew. A brightly colored cloud of pheromones entered Tommy's nostrils, causing his pupils to constrict as a bizarre smile stretched across his face.

"Right here!" BatMan suddenly yelled. He lashed out with a high kick that caught BatGirl in the face. She landed on her back, temporarily stunned.

"KILL HER!!!" Poison Ivy screeched at Tommy.

BatGirl rolled away as his foot came down where her chest had been a split second earlier. She rolled into a standing position, and pulled a silver bat from her utility bat. "Bat-a-rang!" she announced, throwing it at Tommy and BatMan. It lashed around them both, effectively tying them together with a black cord. "Into the water!" she cried as she kicked them into Poison Ivy's deep, clear pool, covered with water lilies. She hoped that the cold water would shorten the pheromones' effect.

She turned around just as Poison Ivy lashed out at her with a green whip. She narrowly missed it, and in reply, spun around to deliver a well-placed kick to her stomach. Poison Ivy pulled a green knife from her hip and lashed it at BatGirl. The blonde superhero jumped back and immediately kicked up, knocking the blade from the villain's hand. "Real woman fight in stiletto heels," BatGirl announced, before taking a backflip into the water.

She quickly found her two drugged and sinking comrades, and swam away with them in her grip, heading for the tunnel she knew would take her to the sewers.

"Barbara, you're soaking wet," Alfred said in disbelief as she ran up to him.

"The only way out that I saw," Barbara complained, shaking her head.

"BatMobile and the Red Bird just returned with two drugged superheroes on it not too long ago," Alfred said. "Pheromones?"

"Pheromones," Barbara said with a nod. "How are they now?"

"They've worn off."

Barbara sighed as she took her black eyepiece off. "We took her invitation seriously, and showed up at her lair. She attacked us, but she didn't make any indication of a plan. Should I go back?"

"We should wait until Bruce awakens," Alfred said. "I will contact the Commissioner and see if he knows anything we don't. You should undress and rest."

"You got it, Uncle Alf-," Barbara said, interrupted in mid-sentence by a ringing telephone.

"It's the Red Line," Alfred told her.

"I'll take care of it," Barbara said to her uncle, putting her eyepiece back on as she walked in front of a large screen. She pushed a sequence of buttons on the keyboard before her, and then looked up as the Commissioner's face filled the screen.

"BatGirl, Poison Ivy and an unknown foe is attacking downtown Gotham," Commissioner Gordon said.

"Unknown foe?"

"She seems to have the same dress as Poison Ivy, only red. And long black hair."

"Where are they at? Downtown?"

"The lady in red is on a bike, her destination unknown. Poison Ivy is breaking into and robbing jewelry stores."

"I'm on my way, Commissioner," BatGirl said, turning to run out of the BatCave as the screen darkened.

"Your BatCycle awaits, milady," Alfred told her with a smile.

"Thank you uncle," BatGirl smiled as she pulled on her bike helmet which gave her an appearance not unlike that of BatMan, complete with bat ears and hooked nose. She then gunned her bike and roared out of the BatCave, blue and red sensors playing across her black armor as she did so. In a matter of seconds, she was out of the BatCave and speeding across Gotham Bridge, her cape and hair blowing out behind her.

"You sent her out by herself?" Tommy asked as he hurried into the BatCave.

"The other Bats were incapacitated," Alfred sighed. This new Robin is just like old Robin, Alfred thought to himself with a mental sigh.

"Where is she headed?" Tommy asked, swinging his cape out of the way as he mounted Red Bird.

"Downtown, Master Oliver. The Red Bird is programmed to take you there."

"Then I'm out," Tommy announced, starting the Red Bird and speeding from the BatCave.

"What is it about superheroes being so bloody stubborn?" Alfred mumbled to himself.

"Ah ha!" the mysterious villainess cackled as BatGirl pulled up beside her. The other bike was decorated entirely in shades of green, along with leaf-like designs all along its surface.

"Who are you?!" BatGirl demanded.

"Poison Sumac!" she shouted simply. Her voice was eerily familiar to Poison Ivy's, as it had the same sultry, sensual lilt applied to each and every word.

"What?!" BatGirl protested as the two of them continued to drive through the city. As much as she hated it, she was sworn to her own personal code of honor in battle, which meant she couldn't attack Poison Sumac unless she was provoked or had to protect someone else.

"Poison Ivy is my big sister," Poison Sumac said. "Or my mother, however you care to look at it. It's amazing what one can produce in such a short length of time. A little nutrient rich soil, a spare thumb from dear sister, a black wig, red spandex, and lo and behold, another botanical nightmare for the big, black bats. Well guess what, sister Fauna. Your time as a mammal is over." With that, she suddenly crashed her bike into BatGirl's. Even though BatGirl had far more motorcycle experience than Poison Sumac, who had only been alive for a few hours, the sudden move took her by surprise. Her bike tipped over, and BatGirl was airborne. However, rather than fall to the ground, she fell over the edge of one of the many gargantuan bridges that ran through Gotham City. With a cry of alarm, she began a long freefall to the pavement below.

However, BatGirl had experience with falls. She pulled her Bat-a-rang from her belt and threw it straight up. The silver bat sped through the air with the greatest of ease, finally reaching the top of the bridge's support system. It wrapped around a steel girder, and BatGirl immediately gave it a solid yank, making it retract. Her fall was reversed, and she was pulled up into the air. Her momentum made her move out as well as up, and she got the idea for a particularly striking move. A few quick seconds later, her momentum had her carried high above the bridge. The sensation of being completely and totally free from gravity, even if it was for just a second, was exhilarating. She used that spare second to look out at Gotham City, which shone in the night in all its glory. Then, her weightless second was over, and she was falling back to the Earth. Rather than retract the Bat-a-rang, she used it as an anchor and leveled our her body, headed for a certain villainess on a motorcycle.

BatGirl used the strength in her arms to keep her body straight as she flew near the pavement. She leveled out a height of about four feet, and suddenly, Poison Sumac was before her. The villainess looked up just in time to see BatGirl's booted feet slam into her chest. She gave a cry of anger as she flew backwards off of her bike. BatGirl let go of the rope from the Bat-a-rang, which immediately retracted to the top of the bridge. There were Bat-a-rang's and Throwing Birds all over the city, as the trio of superheroes were continually losing them everywhere. As BatGirl touched down on the street, she yanked her protective helmet off and took a defensive stance.

"That really hurt!" Poison Sumac complained as she clambered to her feet. BatGirl saw Poison Sumac plainly for the first time, and saw that she was, in fact, Poison Ivy's double. She was wearing a red body suit instead of Poison Ivy's green, as well as a black wig, but it was undeniably her. Poison Sumac found a length of steel bar and brandishing it like a samurai warrior, ran at BatGirl.

With a heavy grunt, BatGirl cartwheeled away. She narrowly missed getting hit in the head. However, Poison Sumac countered by sweeping her feet beneath BatGirl's legs as soon as she turned out of her cartwheel. BatGirl landed flat on her back, glancing up just in time to see the steel bar coming down on her chest. "Whoa!" BatGirl cried, rolling out of the way. She planted her hands on the ground and kicked Poison Sumac away before jumping to her feet.

Suddenly, a familiar roaring filled her ears. She looked up in time to see the BatMobile roaring across the bridge, headed for them. The BatMobile skidded to a halt beside her, the neon lights in the undercarriage casting an eerie blue glow across the bridge. "Hang on!" BatMan shouted. "We have to get back to the BatCave and plan this out."

"Deal," BatGirl said, leaping onto the large fin just over the vehicle's "cockpit." "See ya, Sumac." With that, the BatMobile drove off, with BatGirl hanging on for dear life.

Poison Ivy gasped in alarm as a booted foot kicked the black velvet bag of jewels from her hands. She spun around, her hair forming a flying curtain of red. "Oh, it's you," she said contemptuously. "Robin."

"You should really learn that the bad guys never win, Ivy," Tommy snarled. He was having more fun than he knew he should be having. He just couldn't take being a superhero very seriously without powers of any type. It was like when he played BatMan as a kid with Chelsea.

"Oh, I disagree," Poison Ivy said as she strutted over to him, one hip at a time. She unfurled her hand and blew a pinkish-purple cloud of dust at him. Tommy's eyes narrowed as he saw the cloud, but as soon as it entered his nostrils, a different look crossed his face. He suddenly realized that he was incredibly aroused and the woman of his dreams was Poison Ivy.

"Come on, Robin," she said, grabbing the spikes on his gloves and pulling him closer. "How about... just a little bitty kiss."

"But, I have a girlfriend," Tommy protested weakly.

"She doesn't have to ever know," Poison Ivy insisted in a husky voice. She nuzzled her forehead against Tommy's cheek. One hand trailed down the ridges of his armored suit. "Just one... little... kiss..."

"Okay," Tommy relented, all good sense gone. He leaned forward, as a wicked smile crossed Poison Ivy's face.

"NO!" a loud voice suddenly cried. Poison Ivy whipped herself away from the black and red superhero to stare at her newest disturbance. The BatMobile was parked in front of the jewelry store. BatGirl leapt at Poison Ivy, giving BatMan a chance to bring Tommy to the BatMobile.

"You don't understand," Tommy protested, pointing at Poison Ivy fighting with BatGirl as BatMan led him away. "She..."

"She's got you under a spell," BatMan insisted, forcefully pushing the teen into the BatMobile.

"No, she doesn't," Tommy said, trying to get back out. "She wants me. You're jealous, aren't you?"

"Not this again," BatMan grumbled. He quickly tied Tommy's arms to his side and pushed him back into the black vehicle. "BatGirl?"

"I'll bring the Red Bird back!" she shouted, her mind temporarily on her battle with Poison Ivy. BatMan nodded in approval and drove back to the BatCave.

"You know, you always interrupt my plans," Poison Ivy announced, lashing out at BatGirl with a high kick.

BatGirl caught her foot and flipped Poison Ivy onto her back. "I do my best," BatGirl announced. That gave her the opportunity to jump on the Red Bird. She left a wide strip of black rubber as she turned the red motorcycle towards the BatCave.

When Barbara pulled into the BatCave, she found the Rangers and Dick there. Tommy was sitting on a table, clad only in the lower part of his armor. His armored chest piece was missing, as was the undergarment he wore beneath. Sydney was currently holding a plastic mouthpiece over his mouth. "What's going on?" Barbara asked, removing her eyepiece.

"We're trying to get the pheromones from Tommy's lungs to see if we can make an antidote," Justin explained.

"I think we've got something here," Sydney said, looking intently at the plastic tubing connected to the mouthpiece. "It looks kind of purple."

"That's it," Alfred said, helping her transfer the sample to a capped test tube.

"We have a new villainess," Barbara began. "Poison Ivy cut off her thumb and grew another Poison Ivy from it. Only this one is named Poison Sumac. She's not as strong as her sister, but she's pretty rough. And since it seems her pheromones are stronger than before, and she nearly made Tommy kill me, I'm guessing the lone woman has to fight again."

"Perhaps not," Alfred said. "Tommy and Master Bruce can back you up in a fight, BatGirl."

"Regardless, I'm still the only ones on the front lines," Barbara repeated. "I don't like that."

"I was also thinking," Alfred continued, looking at Trini and Sydney, "that perhaps these two ladies here could assist us."

"Yes!" Sydney cried happily. "Yes yes yes! Any day of the week!"

"Can you fight Sydney?" Tommy asked.

"Purple belt, White Crane Kung Fu," Sydney told him. "And I can be really mean when I need to be."

"I'll help, too," Trini volunteered. "I can fight."

"It will take me some time to have armor prepared for you," Alfred said. "Perhaps by tomorrow morning."

"Poison Ivy and her twisted sister have already left," Dick told them, motioning to the BatScreen. "They totally wiped the jewelry store out, but they're gone."

"That means we wait," Bruce said.

"And try to figure out what they want with jewelry," Barbara sighed. "I'd almost guarantee it isn't to look pretty."

"Tommy?" Justin asked, entering his room.

"Huh?" Tommy grunted, spinning around in alarm. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I'm not used to sleeping in warm, soft beds," Justin said. "I couldn't sleep. Any reason why you were staring at yourself in a mirror."

Tommy's eyes landed on the hand mirror at his side. "You saw that, huh?"

"You miss your hair?" Justin asked, not sounding the least bit sarcastic.

"Don't be silly, Justin," Tommy told him. "Besides, my hair will grow back. Although it does feel different. Try and get some sleep, bud."

"If you will," Justin said as he left the room. He didn't have to turn around after he left to know that Tommy had picked the mirror back up again.

"Skull," Justin said, walking into the Green Ranger's bedroom, "I had an idea."

"What about?" Skull asked, rummaging through his worn backpack.

"Tommy and his hair," Justin said. "He's not real pleased with the short hair."

"I'm gonna get a haircut as soon as I get home, myself," Skull remarked.

"Well, that's kind of what I'm here about," Justin said. "Wanna hear my idea?"

The Next Morning

"Damn paparazzi," Barbara muttered to herself as she walked back into Wayne Manor. A picture of BatGirl fighting Poison Sumac and Poison Ivy in front of one of the robbed jewelry stores was emblazoned across the front page. The headline "Have BatMan and Robin Flown the Coop?" was at the top of the page. Beneath it was the sub-headline, "BatGirl - The Lone Warrior."

"You look perturbed," Dick said as he met her in the front hallway.

"I am perturbed," Barbara complained, showing him the paper. "They're liable to have a field day with two more Bats. Do you know what they'll look like?"

"Alfred has their suits made and the girls in the Simulator," Justin said with a smile. Barbara and Dick simultaneously opened their eyes wide and stared at Justin.

"What did you do to yourself?" Dick asked.

"It was Justin's idea," Skull added, walking down the master staircase as well. "But... you have to admit, it should give Tommy a chuckle."

Barbara couldn't believe the sight before her, but she finally managed to stammer out, "You shaved your heads?"

Before anyone had a chance to say another word, Alfred entered the room and announced, "The ladies have already been suited up, and they request your attendance in the BatCave."

"This is too cool," Sydney remarked as she looked at herself in a mirror. Her outfit was mostly black, but with a dark blue outline of a stylized sparrow on her chest. Her eyepiece was also dark blue and in the same shape. "Sydney, the Sparrow."

Trini had an outfit that was more similar to BatMan's than any other. She had a full-head mask, the only difference from Bruce's in that it allowed her shiny black hair to hang down her back. A large black bat was across her chest, in the same fashion as BatGirl's. "Does this make me BatWoman?" Trini asked.

"If you like," Bruce told her. He had just recently gotten used to having Robin and BatGirl on board. It was definitely going to be bizarre with two more fighters. He did, however, remind himself that they would only be there for the next two weeks. That thought put his mind at ease.

Trini glanced at herself in the mirror, and then caught sight of Justin and Skull. "What did you do to yourselves?!"

"We shaved our heads!" Justin shouted, running his head over his gleaming head. "Whaddya think?"

"You shaved your head?" Trini asked again. "Your mother is going to kill me."

"It will be longer in two weeks," Skull countered, "assuming we get home that soon."

"It was really nice of you guys to do that for me," Tommy said, shaking his head, "but it really wasn't necessary."

"Well, I wanted to try something different," Justin told him. "Although I think we did get a bit carried away."

"It is astonishing at how easy it is to walk in these stiletto heeled boots," Sydney remarked, changing the subject. She pulled her cape aside to look down at her feet.

"They're balanced, to make walking easier," Barbara explained. "You don't really think I'd run around in stiletto heels if they weren't easy to walk in, do you? It's bad enough trying to keep my balance with this cape."

"I like the cape myself," Trini said. "I wouldn't mind if our Power Ranger suits had capes. Although that wouldn't be very practical."

"The capes help you control your falling," Dick said. "You just stretch your hands out at both sides, cup the cape, and it acts like a parachute."

"We don't have time to make up new vehicles for you," Alfred explained, "but you can use any of the extras we have. BatCycles, Red Birds. We have several dozen of each. They're constantly losing them."

"There are no telling how many BatCycles there are at the bottom of Gotham River," Barbara remarked.

"Two BatMobiles," Bruce said with a shrug.

"You know, we really should try to get those back for spare parts," Alfred suggested. "We've spent nearly ninety-seven million this year alone."

9 p.m.

"How can you possibly keep from losing your minds when you have to spend this much time waiting?" Sydney complained yet again.

"You don't have to wait anymore," Bruce said as he ran through the large living area. "They just flashed the BatSignal."

"I forgot all about the BatSignal!" Justin cried, running with everyone else to the BatCave.

"Yes!" Sydney cried happily, jumping over the back of the couch and running after the others.

The BatCave was literally filled with pandemonium. However, it didn't take more than a few moments to get everyone suited up. Tommy was the first to leave on the Red Bird, although BatMan was close behind in the BatMobile.

"How does it work?" Sydney asked, sitting on the back of a large hovercraft.

"Similar to a motorcycle," Dick told her. "Floats on a three inch cushion of air, and it is easy to lose control. Be careful."

"You got it," Sydney said, carefully turning out of the BatCave.

Trini, who had limited experience with motorcycles, opted to ride with BatGirl on her BatCycle. The two BatPeople tore out of the BatCave and sped off into the night.

I could get used to this superhero stuff, Sydney thought to herself. She was gliding across Gotham City on her HoverCraft, close behind the Red Bird and BatMobile. The BatCycle pulled up alongside her carrying BatGirl and BatWoman, better known to her as Trini. Just then, the small monitor on each and every BatVehicle flashed on, revealing the Commissioner.

"BatMan," he said, "Poison Ivy and the woman you identified as Poison Sumac are leaving Gotham City. We have reason to believe they are leaving to pawn the millions of dollars in jewels they stole."

"All right, people," BatMan said. "This is our plan. Robin and I will go to Poison Ivy's lair and see if we can find out just what she is up to. Those of you without Y chromosomes, follow the Twisted Sisters."

"Sparrow, follow me," BatGirl said as she veered away from the Male Bats.

BatMan and Tommy ran into Poison Ivy's lair. The vines and multitude of plants still stretched everywhere, although Poison Ivy was gone. "What exactly are we looking for?" Tommy asked.

"Truthfully, I don't know, Robin," BatMan said. "Just something out of the ordinary."

"Like a folder?" Tommy asked, picking it up and rifling through it. "I think we just hit the jackpot."

BatMan hurried over to him and looked over Tommy's shoulder. "Let's get that back to Alfred."

"Sparrow?" BatGirl asked.

"This is her bike, isn't it?" Sydney asked, pointing to the dark green motorcycle lying on its side.

"You're right," BatGirl realized, hurrying over the bike. She touched it and announced, "It's still warm."

"Which means that Poison Ivy or Sumac is still around here, right?" Trini asked.

Suddenly, a red whip lashed around Trini's forearm. Before she could cry in alarm, she was airborne. "BatWoman!" Sydney cried. Poison Sumac stepped out of the shadows after Trini was flat on her back. Trini snapped her forearm, flipping Poison Sumac over her shoulder.

Sydney and BatGirl simultaneously took a defensive stance as Poison Sumac and Trini carried their fight onto the bridge. "Where is Poison Ivy?" Sydney cried.

Suddenly, Trini cartwheeled away as Poison Sumac lashed out with her whip. BatGirl reached out and caught it in her hand. "Wha?" Poison Sumac grunted, her black hair flying off of her shoulders as she turned her head.

"You are goin' down, Sumac," BatGirl threatened. She yanked on the whip, pulling Poison Sumac off-balance. "Take 'er, Sparrow!"

Sydney caught Poison Sumac in the stomach with her boot. However, the red-clad villainess responded by grabbing Sydney's foot and flipping her backwards. Sydney, fortunately, was prepared for such an occurrence as she had spent the entire day training in the BatSimulator. She used her momentum to carry her over and guided herself with her hands. She landed on the balls of her feet, and then jump-kicked Poison Sumac, catching her under the chin with her heel. Poison Sumac screamed as she flew backwards and into a heavy wire stretched along the roadside. With a sickening splat, she was cleaved neatly in half, her upper body separate from her lower body. Sydney cried out in alarm. "I killed her?"

"She was just a plant," BatGirl muttered, walking over to the fallen villainess.

"Let's get back to Gotham," Trini said, "and find Poison Ivy."

After the three Bats left, one of them very shaken up, Poison Sumac pulled herself upper body into an upright position with her hands. "Well, now this isn't good," she complained, seeing her lower torso and legs several feet away. "What would Big Sis do?"

"She was going to use the money from the stolen jewelry to... this can't be right," Bruce said.

"What was she going to do?" Justin asked, looking at the green papers from the folder.

"She was going to reopen a lab and try to reverse her condition."

"Condition?"

"Poison Ivy used to be human, and as we understand it, she was bombarded with a bizarre chemical called 'Venom' that turned her into the plant/animal hybrid she is today. Apparently, she wants to be human again."

"I guess life as a plant just didn't cut it for her," Dick said dryly.

"She already has a hypothesis," Bruce said, looking at her elaborate proposal for the re-engineering of 'Venom.'

"You dropped something," Justin said, bending down to retrieve a sheet of mint green paper that slipped from the folder. Before he handed it back to BatMan, he saw in cursive writing, 'Forget Mother Earth. I want to be a woman again.'

A few hours later...

"We can't seem to find Poison Ivy," Trini announced as she pulled her BatHood off. She shook her hair free and immediately sought out a sink to wash her eye makeup off.

"We, on the other hand, had some good luck tonight," Bruce announced. "We know what Ivy's up to."

"And that is?" Barbara asked as she began to take off her armor.

"She's robbing jewelry stores to pawn the jewels," Bruce explained. "She's pawning the jewels to get the money to reverse engineer the 'Venom' so she can become human again."

"Really?" Barbara asked, raising her eyebrows.

"That's her plan," Tommy said.

"Well, I accidentally killed Poison Sumac," Sydney said sheepishly. "I mean, it really was an accident, but she's dead now. I kinda sorta got her cut in half."

"What happened to you?" Poison Ivy asked her sister.

"That new chick, Sparrow, she did," Poison Sumac explained. "But rather than let the organic material go to waste, I made another Poison Girl. Meet my little sister, Poison Oak." She pointed to the doorway. At her cue, another clone of Pamela Isley, this one wearing a blue bodysuit and a wig of blonde hair, entered the room.

"Another one, huh?" Poison Ivy asked. "You know, for every cutting we grow, that's yet another jewelry store we're going to have to rob to get more money."

"We can start a new life after we've started our new life," Poison Oak said, dismissing the subject with a wave of her hand.

"Well welcome aboard," Poison Ivy said. "I've got three men ready to take out the BatMen, and the three of us can surely handle the new BatChicks."

"The two of you can hang out here," Poison Oak announced. "I'm going to go get Sparrow. I have something to say to that girl."

Poison Ivy's eyes narrowed as Poison Oak left their headquarters. "What did you make that one for?" she asked Poison Sumac.

"My lower body was chopped off," Poison Sumac explained. "I didn't want it to go to waste, so... well, there we are."

"You are a reflection of me," Poison Ivy said. "You aren't me. You don't have a single drop of original genetic material in you. All you have are the minor flaws that occurred with the cutting that made you. She was minor flaws in addition to your minor flaws. She isn't as good as us, and she may be trouble. You should have asked. Were our memories transferred into her as well?"

"I'm sorry," Poison Sumac said, "and yes, they were." Poison Ivy said nothing as she walked away.

After midnight

Poison Oak crept through the quiet hallways of Wayne Manor. Going solely by her natural instinct, she sought out Sparrow's bedroom. She opened the door, and her eyes, capable of seeing in pitch black, quickly recognized the sleeping form. She walked over to the bed, and carefully rolled Sydney onto her back.

"The gray is natural," Poison Oak said, brushing her long blonde hair over her shoulders, "but this isn't. Why not hide the gray as well, Sparrow?" Poison Ivy put her index finger into her mouth and gently bit into it. She opened a vein, making the aloe that flowed through her veins to trickle down her hand. Why the secret, Sparrow? Afraid that they will see who you truly are. She carefully took the few dyed strands of Sydney's hair into her left hand. She then rubbed her aloe-soaked right hand across the hair. A few moments later, the aloe had removed all of the dye, leaving behind Sydney's true colors.

"I knew you were different," Poison Oak whispered, "but I certainly didn't expect you to be THIS different." After her dirty deed was done, she left Wayne Manor as easily as she arrived.

The Next Morning

Sydney woke up, rubbing the back of her hand across her eyes. She felt something sticky and pulled her hand away to see what it was. Across her flash was a faint brown smear. No... She hurried out of bed and ran over to the dresser in her room. Before she could stop it, an angry, panicked scream burst from her mouth. Along the right side of her scalp, her hair grew in four different colors. The color closest to her face was vibrant blue, the strand of hair next to that was teal green, followed immediately by royal purple, and the fourth and final strand was glimmering metallic bronze. She had never actually seen her hair grown out that much before, as she had been dying those three strands her entire life. She had never seen more than the roots, and now, her secret was out. Her hands immediately went to her hair, which was still shining from Poison Oak's aloe. She brought her hand to her nose and inhaled, smelling the very faint smell of aloe and seeing in her mind's eye a pale mint green, the same color that her mind produced for Poison Sumac. "Poison Ivy," Sydney growled angrily.

"Sydney, are you okay?" Tommy's concerned voice asked from the doorway. She spun around, immediately wishing he hadn't. "Sydney?" Tommy asked in shock. "What have you done to your hair?"

Panicked tears began to gather in the corner of her eyes. She hurried to him, pulled Tommy into the room, and slammed the door. "Please don't tell," she begged, tears now flowing down her cheeks.

"What's going on?" Tommy asked as she led him over to the bed.

"Poison Ivy, I guess, took the dye out of my hair," Sydney said, fingering her multi-colored locks.

"Took dye out?" Tommy asked.

"This is my natural hair color," Sydney sighed dejectedly. "My hair in this spot has always been this color. My entire life. I don't know why, but it has. My mother dyed it, and it's always been dyed." With a heavy sigh, she continued, "She never knew why it was that color either. My mother was adopted, and... we don't really know what her roots are. Her hair did the same thing, although she had her colors on the other side of her head. Every few days, while we've been sliding, I had to get hair dye so you all wouldn't find out. I didn't want you to think I was part-alien or something."

"You didn't have to hide this from us," Tommy told her. "We would have understood. One of our mentors has blue hair."

"Is she from Earth?"

"Well, no."

"Then you surely understand my concern. Tommy, I very well may be an alien. My hair is naturally blue, green, purple, and bronze. I don't like anyone to know." Sighing, she flopped onto her back on the bed.

"You really should tell the other Rangers," Tommy said. "Justin might even have an answer for you."

"I'm gonna wash my hair before I come downstairs," Sydney muttered. "But don't tell, please?"

"I won't," Tommy promised.

Sydney looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair, freshly washed, hung straight down. The vast majority was still brown, but the colored strands were so bright they were glaringly obvious. The gray strand merged perfectly with the bronze, which looked remarkably like metal, leaving not a single hair of brown between the two colors.

"So," she said to herself, "do I tell them or not?" Tommy was the one you were worried about. He took it okay. Besides, you may very well be spending the rest of your life with these people. With her decision made, Sydney left the bathroom.

"Why'd you dye your hair?" Skull asked as Sydney appeared in the kitchen.

"You look even better now that's it washed," Tommy told her. Some remnants of the dye had remained behind, but Sydney had washed it until she had gotten all of it out.

"Actually, my hair isn't dyed," Sydney said sheepishly. "My hair has been this color my entire life, and until last when Poison Ivy snuck into my room and took the brown hair dye out, my secret was safe. It obviously isn't, anymore. And Tommy felt that I should just tell you all the truth, so... there it is."

"You have colored hair?" Trini asked.

"Yeah," Sydney said. "My hair is naturally blue, teal, and bronze."

"Do you know why?" Justin asked.

Sydney shook her head. "My mom used to joke that maybe she was an alien." Sydney laughed, and then said, "She actually made up this really detailed storyline about it, but she didn't expect me to believe it." Chuckling wryly, Sydney continued, "She told me she would tell me that the story was true when I least expected it."

"Maybe you just have a freak gene, or something," Justin theorized. "Like how Drosophila melanogaster can develop white eyes."

"What?" Skull and Sydney asked in unison.

"Fruit flies," Trini told them. "They normally have red or brown eyes, but occasionally, a white eye gene just... produces itself. Maybe blue, green, purple, and bronze hair is the same kind of thing."

"I believe the BatComputers have replicated Poison Ivy's Anti-Venom," Alfred said, holding up a test tube of pink liquid.

"Does she drink that, or take a shot of it?" Barbara asked.

"Neither. She must be submerged in it," Alfred explained. "This vial is superconcentrated. It must be mixed in with a great amount of water."

"Like the pool on Ivy's lair," Bruce suggested eagerly.

"Precisely," Alfred said.

"Let's go now," Tommy said.

"Even if Poison Ivy really doesn't want to change, then it would still be to our benefit," Barbara said. "If she's just an ordinary woman, she's useless."

"Is there any chance that she's just pulling us into another of her evil plans?" Dick asked. "Maybe we're just making this chemical here for her for free, and it's actually for her own evil gains."

"She could certainly fool us, Master Grayson," Alfred said, "but not the BatComputers."

"Well, I say we suit up and go lace her pool," Barbara suggested.

"Let's go," Tommy agreed.

"It's creepy in here," Sydney muttered to herself. The room was very well-lit, and plants grew everywhere, but it was undeniably spooky.

"You all keep a watch out," BatMan said. Pulling a Bat-a-rang from his Utility Belt, he threw it to the rafters. Once it was secured, he ran to the pool and leapt off of the ground. His momentum carried him in an arc above the pool. In the air, he uncapped the vial of pink liquid and poured it into the water. He landed neatly on the other side and with a flick of his wrist, brought his Bat-a-rang back to him.

"Hey, it's working," Trini said, looking at the pool of water. A deep pink color was quickly spreading through it.

"Now how are we going to get the Poison Twins into the pool?" BatGirl asked.

Suddenly, a blue whip lashed around Sydney's arm. Reacting swiftly, she yanked hard, pulling Poison Oak off of her feet. "Who are you?" she demanded. Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac leapt from their hiding spots as well, taking on the other Bats.

"Poison Oak, or the lower half of the body you cut in half," the blonde plant said, kicking at Sydney. She blocked the move with her forearms, causing a brief but intense burst of pain to flow through the fingers of her right hand which still had stitches in them. "But you know me from last night," Poison Oak taunted.

"You bitch!" Sydney suddenly screamed, executing a sudden round kick. With a cry of alarm, Poison Oak flew backwards and into the pool.

Poison Ivy grunted as BatGirl high-kicked her into the pool of water. BatWoman made swift work of Poison Sumac, and the three botanical nightmares were in the chemical pool.

"Let's go home," BatMan said. "It'll take them several hours to change."

Justin's eyes followed Barbara from an upstairs balcony. He had his orders. Looking at the dagger in his hand, he nodded slowly. Poison Ivy had told him what to do. He wouldn't betray her. But he would wait until nightfall. That was the time to do it.

Dick looked at Trini, smiling warmly when her gaze met his. Poison Ivy had given him orders. BatWoman was to die as well as BatGirl. And BatWoman was his job. She would be dead very soon. Very soon indeed.

Sydney was oblivious to Skull's penetrating glare. His eyes were filled with loathing for the young woman. If she made Poison Ivy mad, then she made him mad. Her death would be slow and painful. Sparrow was going to fall.

8:30 p.m.

Barbara was near the back of Wayne Manor when she heard it. It was just a faint scuffling sound, and anyone else probably would have missed it. However, she had gotten used to hearing anything the least bit out of the ordinary. She set down her sports bottle, currently filled with a blue-raspberry sports drink, and cautiously headed toward the noise.

Suddenly, Justin leapt from the shadows with a sharp dagger in his hand. Barbara cried in alarm and leapt out of the way, hitting her shoulder hard against the floor. "Justin!" Barbara protested. "What are you doing!"

Rather than answer, Justin just screamed and came at her again with the dagger. Before he was close enough to stab her, she grabbed his free hand and planted a foot into his stomach. She flipped him over her head and slammed him against the wall. She grabbed the dagger from his hand and darted away. "Poison Ivy got to you, didn't she?" Barbara asked. Justin didn't answer, but his hate-filled glare as he clambered to his feet was answer enough. Barbara threw the dagger out the window, afraid that she would be tempted to use it in a fight. She then ran down one of the many hallways.

"Dick!" she cried, seeing her fellow Bat down the hallway. He paused, and then turned to look at her.

"They're coming to get you, Barbara," he drawled. He then pulled his hand out from behind his back, revealing a .38. Barbara didn't waste the time on a scream, and dove into another passageway as a bullet whizzed past her. She ran to the end of the dark passageway and into one of the dozens of unused rooms in Wayne Manor. She closed the door behind her and locked it. She hurried over to the only window in the room and looked out. She was on the third floor, and it would be a pretty good jump to the ground.

Suddenly, the door shook hard, and she was barely able to quelch a scream. "Barbara!" Justin shouted angrily from the other side.

"Stand back, Justin," Dick's voice said calmly.

Barbara then realized that the window was her only choice. Opening it, she hooked one hand around the windowsill and slid out. The roof was sharply slanted, but she quickly found a ledge to brace one foot against. Letting go of the windowsill, she pressed her weight against the house and edged her away along the small ledge. A gunshot sounded, and Dick and Justin burst into the room.

She held her breath as she heard Justin and Dick searching the room for her. "She must have gone into a different room," Dick insisted.

"I saw her come in here," Justin protested.

"You were wrong. Now come on, help me take care of Trini, and then we'll get Barbara."

Trini, Barbara whispered in the safe confines of her mind. Throwing a quick prayer upwards, she leapt from the ledge.

"Trini!" Barbara cried in a hushed whisper. She shut the door behind her and pressed her back to it, breathing harder.

"Barbara?" Trini asked. "What's wrong?"

"Poison Ivy pheromoned Justin and Dick," Barbara explained hurriedly. "They're trying to kill me, and I heard them say they're coming after you."

"Of course," Trini said, stopping what she was doing. "Things are never simple for us."

"We have to get out of here," Barbara told Trini. "Come on. I would imagine that Sydney is in trouble as well."

"Come on, Weathers," Sydney said to herself. "You need to make up your mind." She held in her hands a box of her hair color, Playful Fox, but she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to cover up her new colors. She had to admit that the hair really set herself out from any crowd she might happen to be in, but it was so beautiful, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to cover it back up. She ran her fingers through her hair, allowing the colored regions to fall in front of the right half of her face. She worked her mouth and eyes into a sensual stare, and then laughed at herself.

"Maybe I could leave the bronze," Sydney thought to herself, pushing the blue, green, and purple out of the way. "Nah, that doesn't look the least bit real either. I may as well go ahead and dye it. I can't walk around with colored hair."

That thought in mind, she began to open the box as she headed toward the bathroom attached to her room. Several knocks suddenly sounded at her door. "Who's there?" Sydney asked.

"Skull."

"Come on in. It's not locked."

Skull entered the room with a dagger in his hand. Sydney was already walking into her bathroom, oblivious to his intentions. "I've decided to go ahead and dye my hair, Skull," Sydney said, turning on her sink. "I don't want to, but I may as well. Think I should dye the gray while I'm at it?"

"I don't really think that matters much," he muttered as he walked toward her bathroom.

"I suppose not," she said, bending over into the sink to wet her hair. Skull quietly slipped into the bathroom behind her. "I think I am going to leave it though. I like the way it looks." When she raised up, she saw his reflection directly behind her in the mirror. She gave a slight cry of alarm, and then cried, "Skull! You scared me."

"I'm sorry," he answered in a monotone.

"Skull?" Sydney asked, turning around. She barely had time to register the fact that he was holding a knife before the blade lashed out at her. With a scream, she narrowly dodged his thrust, the blade glancing off of the porcelain sink. "Skull!"

Sydney scrambled out of the bathroom with Skull close behind her, intent on performing his task with the least amount of noise possible. She could imagine why he was attacking her, but the fact remained that he was coming after her with a knife. She ran out into the hallway, slamming the door in Skull's face.

She pressed her back against the door, breathing hard. Suddenly, Skull's dagger stabbed through the door right beside her face. With a scream, Sydney tore away from the door and ran down the long hallway. The door to her bedroom was kicked open. By the time Skull burst into the hall, Sydney had a fifty foot advantage on him.

Skull still said nothing, but he began to run for her. Sydney spotted an intersection where another hall joined hers. Two chairs and a coffee table sat at the wall opposite the intersection. As soon as she reached the closest chair, she picked it up and hurled it backwards. The chair collided with Skull, knocking him to the ground. Sydney stopped running and turned to look at her fallen fellow slider.

"Skull?" she asked nervously. She slowly crept toward him. She had no idea what the problem might be, but she knew that it had to be something external. Even though they had just been friends for about three weeks, Sydney thought she knew Skull well enough to know he wouldn't attack her. "Skull?" she asked again.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang in the hallway behind her. Sydney cried out and immediately realized she had just given away her location. "Poison Ivy," she whispered. Rather than help the currently unconscious Skull, she jumped over him and ran down the hallway.

"Just how big is this house?" Trini complained as Barbara hurriedly led her down passage after passage.

"Three square miles," Barbara answered. "I'm taking you to the BatCave. That's the only safe place we can figure out a decent plan of action."

"Trini!" Sydney cried. The two girls turned to see Sydney running toward them. "I think Poison Ivy has gotten to Skull!"

"Dick and Justin, too," Barbara told her. "It must be a lasting effect from pheromones Poison Ivy administered before we tried to change her."

"What will snap them out of this spell?" Trini asked as the three women hurried through Wayne Manor.

"Cold water might," Barbara theorized. "But I'll need to ask Uncle Alfred."

Barbara pushed the heavy door shut and typed in the security code. The red light above the door lit up, indicating they were temporarily safe. "Barbara?" Alfred asked.

"Uncle Alfred," Barbara began, "we've got a serious problem here. Poison Ivy must have pheromoned Dick, Justin, and Skull. They're trying to kill us."

"You just can't seem to catch a break, my dear," Alfred sighed. "BatComputer, seal the BatCave off. All right, Barbara. There is no way we can find an antidote for the pheromone anytime soon. However, there must be ways to nullify it."

"Would cold water work?" Sydney asked.

"Ice cold water, perhaps," Alfred said. "Why yes, that should work. It could very well shock the sense back into them."

Sydney walked down the hallway with a bucket of ice water. Trini and Barbara had both already gotten in contact with her, and they had successfully gotten Justin and Dick back to normal. The only one remaining was Skull, and according to the cameras set up all over the Manor, he was still unconscious.

She stood beside him for a moment with the bucket. Shaking her head, she turned the bucket to dump the water on him. In a lighting flash movie, his foot darted out and kicked the bucket from her hand. She said nothing as the bucket of ice water flew from her hand, not a drop of it hitting Skull. He retrieved his dagger with his left hand and yanked her to the ground with the right. Sydney suddenly found herself at Skull's mercy with the dagger pressed against her throat.

"Skull, don't do this," Sydney pleaded.

"Shut up," he said simply. "Barbara and Trini. Are they alive?"

"Yes," Sydney answered through clenched teeth.

"Come on," Skull ordered, walking away with her, the dagger still pressed tightly against her throat.

"Her name is Kimberly Hart," Trini said. "Angel Grove, California. Cross reference, Gunther Schmidt. Pan Global Games."

"Is this her?" Dick asked, bringing up the front page of a newspaper on the BatScreen. Kimberly Hart, from the current dimension, was the topic of interest, posing with Gunther Schmidt after being accepted to train with him.

"That's her," Tommy said. "Can you manipulate the image?"

"It's just a head shot," Alfred said, "it will be tough. We will need a body to project it on."

"How about me?" Barbara asked.

"Your breasts are bigger than Kimberly's," Trini said thoughtfully.

"She's perfect," Dick, Tommy, and Bruce said in perfect unison.

"I believe Skull is bringing her here," Justin announced, trying to track their movements on the BatComputer. "She hasn't been hurt, yet. Do you really think him seeing Kimberly will be enough to stop him?"

"It will," Tommy said. "It'll at least slow him down long enough to shock the pheromone-influenced behavior out of him."

"I believe I have the device ready," Alfred announced.

"That was quick," Trini said. "Try it." A projected image of Kimberly's head appeared on Barbara's.

"Your hair is in the way," Tommy told her. She took her blonde hair and tucked it inside her shirt.

"Better?" Barbara asked. The BatComputer quickly scanned her lip movements and made Kimberly's lips repeat them. There was a delay of only about one second.

"I'm project your image, now," Justin said.

"Kimberly?" Skull asked, stopping with Sydney.

"Skull, please don't hurt her," Barbara said.

"But, Poison Ivy told me too," Skull said.

"Who do you love, Skull. Me or Poison Ivy?"

"You, of course," Skull said, relaxing his grip on Sydney. "I love you, Kimberly. I miss you."

"I miss you too, Skull. But if you kill Sydney, we'll never be able to see each other again."

"How come?" Skull asked, letting the dagger tumble from his grip. Sydney quickly squirreled away from him, retrieving the dagger in the process.

"Because in this dimension, if you kill anyone, you get the death penalty, automatically," Barbara lied.

Suddenly, Tommy stepped out of a side room and tossed a bucket of ice water on Skull, liberally soaking Sydney in the process. "Sorry Syd," Tommy said with a shrug.

"S'okay," Sydney muttered, shaking the excess water from her. "You know, gunplay would have been more exciting."

"What's going on?" Skull asked, looking about himself in confusion.

Following Morning
8 a.m.

"Master Wayne," Alfred said properly, entering the dining hall where everyone was eating breakfast. "We have some visitors."

"Visitors?" Bruce asked. "Who?"

"Three sisters. Pamela Isley, Rachel Isley, and Tracey Isley."

Bruce immediately stood to his feet as three identical women entered the room. "Poison Ivy," Bruce said.

"I used to be Poison Ivy," Pamela told him. "I came here for two things. To apologize, and to thank you."

"You are certainly welcome," Bruce said.

"Oh, my manners," Pamela said. "This is Rachel, my sister, formerly Poison Sumac, and this is Tracey, formerly Poison Oak. I don't suppose you've met her."

"Well, Ms. Isley," Bruce continued, "there is still the matter of the jewels you stole."

"I have them right here," Tracey said, placing a large black velvet bag. "And Sparrow..."

"I'm just Sydney now," Sydney said. "My superhero days are long behind me."

"Well, I need to apologize to you as well. I was the one who took the dye out of your hair." Sydney's only response was to raise her eyebrows.

"We should probably be leaving now," Pamela said sheepishly. "Uhm, thank you again."

"Ms. Isley, wait," Bruce interrupted. "I have a proposal for you."

"Proposal?" Dick and Pamela asked in unison.

"And please call me Pamela," Pamela continued.

"Certainly, Pamela," Bruce said with a smile. "I don't know what your plans for the future are, but I must say this. You are quite the botanical genius. Were I to open a laboratory, here in Gotham, with the interests of increasing agricultural knowledge, would you be willing to work for me?"

"We aren't sure what our plans are," Pamela answered. "Can I contact you if I decided to take you up on your offer."

"Certainly," Bruce said warmly. "Anytime. Good day, Pamela."

"Good day, Mr. Way-"

"Bruce."

"Good day, Bruce," Pamela said with a smile. She and her sisters turned to leave, but she stopped at the doorway. "Your secret is safe with me. And... yes, we will take you up on your offer."

It didn't take Bruce Wayne long at all to get the newest division of Wayne Enterprises up and running. Pamela and her new sisters truly had turned over a new leaf and were leaving behind their days of crime. Tommy did have to go back out on duty as Robin a few more times, but it wasn't for anything at all serious. Sparrow and BatWoman also weren't seen again, although their costumes are still in the BatCave.

Finally, the fateful morning of August 18, a Monday, arrived. It was nearly two full months since the sliders had left home, fully intending to be back with five rescued Rangers by the following Monday. The next world would be the final world. After that, they could take their friends back home.

The group had changed a lot during their sliding adventure. All were more mature, and they had grown by one. Sydney was as much a part of their group as any other, although she did not have any type of Ranger powers. She had entered their group as a serious threat to Justin, and she was now a trusted ally and teammate.

The physical changes were just as numerous. All were probably more muscular and had greater endurance. The longest strand of Tommy's hair was two inches long, while Justin and Skull's hair was just starting to grow back. Sydney never did get around to dying her hair, as she found that once her secret was out, she was very proud of her colored locks. She knew that when she settled in a single dimension to live, her hair would have to be dyed. Until then, however, she was enjoying living life with a bit of color.

The mental changes were the most apparent. All were more mature, and the group of five had formed an intense friendship that would never be destroyed. Of the original four, while all had been friends, none had been that close. Now, they knew that the five of them would be inseparable.

They also had many, many friends across the dimensions. The list was staggering. Flabber, Nano, Drew, Jo, Roland, Suzee, Catalina, Cmdr. Goddard, Ms. Davenport, Harlan, Radu, Bova, Rosie, Thelma, Sheena Deveraux Cranston, Jamie Zedden, Lillian O'Neill, several alternate forms of themselves and their friends, Gale,Ginger/Kimberly, Barza, Mei, Dan, Boy, Goushi, Geki, Prince Justin, Sabrina, Valerie, Salem, Hilda, Zelda, Harvey, Venus De Milo, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Splinter, April, Sister Mary Grace, Vivica, and most recently, Alfred, Bruce, Dick, and Barbara. A lifetime's worth of memories had forced themselves into the slider's lives in just two short months. And it was all about to be over.

"Let's go, Trini," Tommy said simply.

"Thanks for taking my place on the team, man," Dick called out to him. The portal opened a split second later with a bright blue flash of light.

"It was great meeting you all!" Bruce shouted. Alfred, standing proper beside him, nodded in agreement.

"We'll never forget any of you," Barbara cried.

"We're almost home, guys," Tommy said to the sliders. "Let's go." In rapid fire order, the first four sliders jumped into the portal. Trini stood behind for an extra second. Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked at her friends.

"Goodbye," she mouthed. She ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face. She then spared one last glance at Wayne Manor, and then turned to the portal. She held the slider tightly in her hand and ran for the portal. Yellow light flashed through the portal's white. It closed behind her, taking her to the last leg of their journey.

Disclaimer: Whew. Okay. Here we go. First off, _Big Bad BeetleBorgs_ and their respective characters are owned by Saban. _Space Cases_ is courtesy of Cinar Entertainment, I think. I'm not gonna swear to that one. The world with Sheena belongs to Cynthia Harrell, courtesy of her fanfic series "Silver Flame." The next Power Ranger world is thanks to Ellen Brand, better known as Personality Conflicts. _Zyurangers_ is owned by Toei, I think. I'm not gonna swear to that one, either. There's probably something more complicated than that, so I'm just going to say Toei. The _Sabrina : The Teenage Witch_ world is owned by ABC, Finishing the Hat, Broken Heart Productions, I dunno, maybe all three. _Ninja Turtles : The Next Mutation_ is owned by Saban, although I don't believe April is. I think New Line Cinema owns her, or if not them, then the creators of TMNT. Also, the song "You Light Up My Life" is owned by Joe Brooks. The song "I Wanna Fall in Love" is owned by, not really sure but just because it's easy to say this, Lila McCann. All references to the movies _Scream_, _Scream 2_, and _Nightmare on Elm Street_ are thanks to New Line Cinema. _Heart and Souls_ is owned by MCA Universal. "Just the Ten of Us" is owned, for simplicity's sake, by ABC. _Jurassic Park_ is owned by MCA Universal and Michael Crichton, while _Hocus Pocus_ is straight from Walt Disney Home video. Lastly, I have no idea who actually owns _Batman and Robin,_ so I'll just credit Warner Brothers since they produced the movie that inspired me to include this. I suppose the characters of Poison Sumac and Poison Oak "kinda-sorta" belong to me, but since I only got the idea from the pre-established Poison Ivy, I doubt I can claim ownership. I suppose I CAN claim ownership to Sydney. Cool thought, huh? So if you wanna use Sydney, please ask me first.

Author's Note : Now, the fun part. First off, thank you for reading this long fanfic, rivaled in my series only by "The Earth Crystals." I had a LOT of fun writing this, and I hope you had as much fun reading it. Thank you to everyone who will never read this who created the characters I used. Thank you to everyone who is reading this, just because. Special thanks to Ellen Brand and Cynthia Harrell, for letting me let my characters traipse through their worlds. Sorry for any messes we might have left behind. 8^) Neve Campbell, if you should be reading this, though nothing would make me happier for you to send me an e-mail, it would probably be best if you didn't. I'm sure I would get on your nerves very quickly, and I really don't want a restraining order placed on me. Vivica Fox, the same applies to you. Thanks also go to big sister Julia and her husband Dan for helping me out with the "Volcano" world.

Interesting Things to Note : In the "Justin Got Kidnapped" world, you'll notice that the four kidnappers names bear homage to the movies _Scream_ or _Scream 2._ Sydney Weathers is in direct reference to Neve Campbell's character of Sidney Prescott, Weathers comes from Gale Weathers, played by Courtney Cox. Randy is from Randy, by Jamie Kennedy, Jada is in reference to the actress Jada Pinckett who played Maureen Evans in _Scream 2,_ and Derek is also from _Scream 2,_ played by Jerry O'Connell. Gale Prescott, Prince Justin's tutor, is from the merging of the names Gale Weathers and Sidney Prescott. I must also say that I do, in fact, know that it is spelled Batman and BatGirl, but I prefer BatMan and BatGirl, so... That's also why I put the Sabrina world in Riverdale. Riverdale was used in Archies Comics, so since the show is based on characters from Archie Comics... Many of these worlds appeared completely out of the blue and just appeared when I got in a typing frenzy. Some worlds ended up completely and totally different from the way they were planned, as I just let my fingers do the typing. This story essentially wrote itself.

Final Author's Note : Once again, I thank you for reading this fanfic, and as always, you can expect more in this saga. Also, a very sincere thank you to EVERYONE who wrote to me and inspired me to keep on writing. Seta del mirtillo and God Bless.