Sage Fender wasn't sure what he was getting into when he met his college roommate. Sure, Sage should have expected he would get a super genius as a roommate, it was MIT after all, he just didn't expect the guy he was randomly place with. He had gotten a letter saying the guy was from Angel Grove, California, which was strange in the first place. Sage had searched Angel Grove at his library, looking for anything he could get on the place, and all he could get was a blip on the map. It was as if the place didn't exist. He had asked around with some friends about the town, and they had given him some comic books about colorful superheroes in spandex known as Power Rangers. Sage had scoffed at his friends, saying something along the lines of nice try.

Then he met Justin Stewart. Justin had moved in a few days before he had after getting special permission from the school to do so. He hadn't been in their dorm when Sage got there, and he just continued on with unpacking from there on out.

Justin's side of the room was typical of what he thought most MIT kids would be. There were half finished projects everywhere, a few picture frames with a bunch of kids smiling in them, and a few notebooks scattered across the desk. Normal, it seemed normal.

Then the kid walked through the door.

He looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old, too young to be in college, barely old enough to be in high school. He had short hair, bright blue eyes, and was a bit shorter than Sage himself. He was wearing blue jeans, and a dark jacket, with a dark yellow shirt and matching high tops. It was a strange combination, and in most cases, it would be hard to look at, but somehow, he seemed to make it work.

"Hi, I'm Justin Stewart," he said. He wiped oil off his hand before offering it to Sage.

"Sage Fender," he replied. "It's good to meet you, Justin."

"You as well. Sorry about the oil. I was working on my jeep."

"You have a car?" Sage tried not to sound too surprised. Lots of students had cars, he just didn't expect this kid to have one.

"It's out of order right now. I shouldn't have driven it across the country," Justin said. "I do have a permit, if that is what you are thinking. My friends were very determined to help me move out here. But my jeep could not make the trip unscathed."

"Did you friends buy you the car, or did your parents?" Sage was making an honest attempt to make conversation with his roommate. The kid had kicked off his shoes, and was sitting at his desk, fiddling with the watch he had been wearing on his wrist.

"My friends did. About two years ago, actually. Tommy and Adam were going through a used, junk car phase. They got one for themselves, two of our friends and me," Justin said. "Turns out neither of them can fix or build anything all too great. I rebuilt theirs and modified them to make them run better. Mine still needs work every so often."

Sage just stared in shock. He hadn't been sure what to expect from this kid, and he was even more lost now.

"Well, that's cool. Um, what's you major?" Sage asked.

"Robotics and mechanical engineering. I'm double majoring. I've got time for it," Justin shrugged. Sage got the feeling Justin would graduate before him. "What about you?"

"Um, electrical engineering."

"Awesome. We should study together. I could use someone with a similar intellect to me. Billy doesn't have much time to talk when he can call. It would be fun!"

Sage wasn't sure who this Billy was, but he wouldn't pry. He just nodded, and Justin grinned. He wondered where this friendship would go, or if it even became a friendship. The kid was strange, but he should have expected that. How many people were prodigies on this level?

Justin was not in the dorm often. He got up early, and he got in late. Sage would get breakfast with him in the mornings, and they would chat over cereal, or other cafeteria foods. Most of it was typical. Justin never once mentioned his family, but he would talk about a Tommy and Adam all the time and make comments about a TJ and Andros when he was on the phone as he was entering their dorm when he got back at night.

Then there was one night when Sage got back to the dorm later than normal, he found Justin ranting into the phone.

"No. Not happening. I already told Tommy and the rest of my friends I would couch hop with them for the first week of break before leaving with Billy for my internship with him for the second two weeks. No. Dad please listen to me. No! You weren't there the last three Christmases, why should this one be any different? I'll end up alone, wondering why I even listened to you!" Justin yelled. Then he listened and was silent for a while. "Then maybe you shouldn't have left me in a fucking group home for two years. I'm not going to your house. Fine. Lunch one day. That's it."

Justin violently hung up his phone before dropping down onto his bed.

"I'm sure you have questions, Sage." Sage hadn't been aware Justin knew he came into the room.

"That was your Dad?"

"Mhm. He wants me to come home with him for the holidays. I told him no, but he keeps pushing me. Hell, he wants me to come and go to high school like a normal fifteen year old."

"What does your Mom say about all this?"

"Nothing. She's dead. Mom hasn't had any say in my life since she died when I was ten. Dad dropped me off at the group home a few weeks later. I have an amazing support group. I have an entire group of people who would drop anything for me in a heartbeat. But otherwise, I have been on my own for almost four years."

"Shit, man, I never knew."

"I never told you. I wanted a clean slate. I'm a prodigy in the first place, why make it worse by telling you and everyone at MIT I'm also from a broken home?"

"Justin, I would never think less of you."

"You say that now because you know me. Would you have said that under other circumstances?" Justin asked. Sage closed his mouth, he was right. "Have you thought anymore on getting an apartment next year?"

Justin was sly, and clearly wanted the conversation to stop. Sage indulged him. He wasn't sure what to say on the topic anyways. Justin was just more of enigma than he was before.

The next leg of the first semester fell back into routine. Sage went to classes, nearly got his but kicked by finals, and he watched Justin breeze through them like they were nothing. The kid would still vanish at different times, but he counted that as normal for the most part. Sage was enjoying college. He made new friends, his parents visited once before break to tell him they were going to Europe over the holidays to visit his grandparents.

By the end of finals, Justin was giddy, if not a bit annoyed as well. He'd packed a duffle bag, and had triple checked to make sure his car keys were on his person.

"Dude, you are going to wear out the floor."

"Don't diss me. One of my friends is picking me up and we are going to the airport together. We are flying to Angel Grove tonight, and she's late." Justin crossed his arms and stared at the window. 'Though I don't know why I need a chaperone to teleport back to the Power Chamber.' Justin thought to himself. He had rebuilt the chamber and the teleportation system himself in between his ranger powers.

"Justin, chill. Your friend will get here soon. I'm going to grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria, are you going to join me?" Sage asked.

Justin shook his head. Sage shrugged. His loss. He nearly ran into a girl in yellow walking out the door.

"Oh, sorry. Is this Justin's room?" she asked.

"Aisha!" Justin greeted, and jumped from his place by the window. "You are late!"

"You are impatient." she smiled back at him.

"Sage, this is my friend Aisha. Aisha, Sage. Now we are introduced. Now we can go!" Justin said. It wasn't normal to see Justin acting his age. Sage gave a hurried hello and rushed out of the room. He heard the door slam behind him.

He never saw the two of them leave the dorm. He figured he must have missed them somehow.

"Sage, would you mind if we had a third person stay with us in our apartment?" Justin asked a few weeks after winter break. Sage was still dreaming about Europe and wasn't too happy to be back at school. Justin, on the other hand, was floating on air at all times. Wherever he had spent his winter break was magical. He had never seen the kid so happy before.

"Depends. Who is it?" Sage wasn't opposed to having a third roommate, but he wouldn't be thrilled with it either.

"My friend Billy Cranston. MIT has been trying to get their hands on him for years. They weren't too pleased when he dropped off the map about three years ago, and they offered him a full ride earlier this week. He'll be twenty-two when he starts next semester and doesn't want to live with a bunch of eighteen and nineteen-year old's," Justin said.

"Is this the genius you've seen as your role model? The one you can't stop talking about?" Sage asked. Justin nodded eagerly. "He's never been to college?"

"He got offered an off-world job with NASADA. We grew up near their base of operations, and they took him not long after he graduated early from high school."

"An internship out of high school?"

"Career. He's bored, and there are places around that want to take him on but won't because he lacks a degree." Justin said. 'Though NASADA had nothing to do with it. They just agreed to be his cover as he returns from Aquitar.'

Sage looked at him for a moment.

"Sure."

"Really?"

"Why not? Cheaper rent for me," Sage shrugged. He had learned so much from Justin, he wondered what his old friend would bring with him. Sage could pick his brain, hopefully. "You are friends with a twenty-two-year-old?"

"He's twenty-one, actually. Most of my friends are older than me. They volunteered at the group home when I was living there. I started hanging out with them outside of the home not long after that. By the start of the next school year, I had skipped two grades, and was in my freshman year of high school."

"Did they help you get into MIT?"

"Nah. They were all in college by then, or busy with work in Billy's case. I only spent two years in high school. Dad moved me out of Angel Grove, and the group I became close with after my first real group of friends left were busy with obligations. They couldn't be there for me for a while."

Sage took note of the word obligations every time Justin said it. It was his go to when he was trying to avoid the subject. Justin used it a lot when he disappeared. Sage couldn't fathom what a fifteen-year-old could be obligated to do. He never asked. It was not any of his business. They were friends, but they weren't close. He honestly did not want to know what a fifteen-year old's obligations were.

"Justin? Am I your friend?" Sage asked. It made him feel childish, but he had to ask.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Dunno. I was just curious."

"Okay. Cool."

"Come on, Justin! It would be so much fun!" Rocky exclaimed. Sage had just been introduced to Rocky. The twenty-year-old had been laying on Justin's bed, pleading with him since Sage had arrived back at the dorm.

"No. I don't have any desire to go to that," Justin said. "I am trying to study for finals. Something you don't seem to understand, DeSantos."

Rocky pouted. "I understand the importance of finals. Billy, Adam and the girls drilled it into the heads of the rest of us."

"Prove it. I'll consider going next year."

"But it's a Power Rangers convention!" Rocky shouted. "Don't you want to go at all?"

This was over a convention? He really wasn't into comic books and was a bit shocked to find out Justin might be. Rocky seemed to be really enthusiastic about this convention. Justin seemed really annoyed, and he couldn't figure out why.

"No."

"Ashley and Zhane are going to be there!"

"And they are going to get mobbed. I'm not going. Maybe I'll go next year, but I have no desire to go this year."

"I'm dressing up as the original pink ranger, it is going to be awesome!" Rocky continued. "Don't you want to see that?"

Justin smirked. "I'll tell Kim. I know she's in town, and she'll put your head on a stick."

All the color in Rocky's face drained. "You wouldn't."

"I would. Stop bothering me. I'll be back in Angel Grove in a few weeks, we'll hang then, okay?"

"Who are you staying with?" Rocky asked.

"Adam and you, Rocky. I thought he told you? Only when I need it. Otherwise, I'm on KO-35 with the rest. I have to make an appearance every once in a while. They'll replace in if I don't."

"Right, government officials and all that crap. Cool. I guess I'll see you soon," Rocky said. "Are you sure you don't want to go with me?"

"Rocky, get out."

The kid rushed out of the room in a red and blue blur.

"Interesting friend you've got there. Is he always that oblivious?" Sage asked Justin.

"Nope. He's rather observant. Rocky's studying to become a social worker. He worked at the home in Angel Grove for a long time when he was in high school. It really called to him. He's probably my best friend."

"Oh." Sage didn't expect Justin to say Rocky was his best friend. "Should you have been so harsh on him?"

"He gets it. If I'm not harsh, they will still see me as an innocent twelve-year-old who needs to be protected. Rocky will get over it. Or forget about it when Kim beats his head into his skull."

Sage wasn't sure why Justin said that. He let it slide and went back to studying for his own finals. In the next few days, Justin was leaving to go back to California, and Sage would be going back to his parents' house. He'd see Justin in a few months and wait to see if he could solve the mystery that surrounded Justin Stewart.