"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 her 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 friend 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.
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.

June 24, 1997
9:53 a.m.
Countryside in Stone County, California

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. Whereas 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, hard. 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?" Miss 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.

Just a few hours later at ten o'clock, everyone had all but forgotten that Thelma had tried to kill everyone. She was once again her normal, brain addled self. Meanwhile, the Rangers and crew of the Christa were scattered about the ship, all of them doing different things.

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 Justin’s, actually.

The room was temporarily flooded with blue light as Blue Ranger teleported 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 themselves 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 away," 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 Justin’s 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 Pangee examined the slider. "This is amazing," Suz

"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 friend 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.

ZyuRangers,
I am sorry to say that you must go on a difficult journey to escape the land of the Lost Souls. There are three ways out. You must pair up to make the journey.
Dan and Boy, you shall journey together through the desert.
Goushi and Geki, you must travel through the forest.
Skull and Mei, you will go through the tropical waters.
There will be many dangers on your paths. You will have only thirty-six hours to escape. At that time, the land of Lost Souls will cease to exist, and you will be lost forever.
- Barza

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 Justin’s 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 he wasn'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.

Mei and Skull,
You have successfully passed the tests to leave the Land of the Lost. However, you must wait for your four companions to join you. When the hourglass has run empty, the portal to Earth will open, but for only one minute. You can leave only if all six ZyuRangers are present, as it will take the six Dino-bucklers combined to open the portal. Good luck.
- Barza

"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.

8:37 p.m.

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 White 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.

Go read conclusion!