Title: Return of the Mastodon

Series: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder

Pairing: Tommy Oliver/Adam Park

Characters: Tommy Oliver, Adam Park, Conner McKnight, Ethan James, Kira Ford

Tags: Romance, Angst, Drama, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Fixed Power Coins, Break Up, Getting Back Together

Summary: Adam has long since come to terms with the loss of his powers, and content to leave the fight against evil to the new Dino Thunder ranger team. However, when Adam stumbles upon a mysterious grey gemstone, it fixes his power coin, giving the mastodon new life. With no idea what to do, Adam knows the only person who can answer his questions is his ex-lover, Tommy Oliver.

Notes: Adam's original power coin/morpher was never 'fixed' via the "Once a Ranger" crossover special (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, then don't worry about it). Just know his power coin/morpher is broken at the start of this FF.

BETA: TheSupernova

Chapter 1: The Lost Gemstone

It was no secret that Adam had held onto his power coin from his days as the original black ranger—the mastodon. He had even tried to use it after it had been destroyed, which worked for all of a few minutes before the power was drained completely.

Adam wasn't sure what the rest of the rangers had done with their old morphers, with the exception of Tommy, who kept his cracked coin and morpher in a display case in his house.

Adam remained in Angel Grove, keeping an eye on news stories about the current power rangers. Right now, the Power Rangers Dino Thunder team kept the Earth safe. As always, the rangers' identities were kept secret.

Except, something unexpected happened around the time the Dino Thunder rangers had first appeared.

Adam had been hiking just outside the city of Angel Grove when he accidently came across a group of some sort of dinosaur-insectoid mutants. If Adam was correct, these new 'foot soldiers' belonged to the current mystery villain (though so far as Adam knew, it could have been a group of villains). It wasn't exactly unprecedented.

Regardless, foot soldiers were never a good sign and Angel Grove was Adam's city. Not that he was a ranger anymore, but that didn't matter.

Adam slung his backpack off, hiding it inside a hollow at the base of a nearby tree.

He crept up quietly, giving the mutants a wide range. Adam needed to see what they were doing before rushing in. At least, that was the plan. Then he was spotted.

Fighting these guys made Adam wish for the days when foot soldiers wore giant targets on their chest— "aim here to destroy me!"

There were five of them at first, which put him at a disadvantage, but to Adam's extreme luck he managed to get two of the soldiers to destroy each other. Adam wasn't quite sure how he managed to defeat the remaining three, but he did know he walked away with a broken left wrist and bruises that would, no doubt, last for weeks.

After doing a quick perimeter check for any lingering soldiers, he eventually walked back to where he'd first spotted the soldiers. It looked like they had been digging for something, judging by the dozen or so three-foot deep holes in the ground.

He looked over each one, careful about his arm (which hurt, but Adam wasn't going to leave until he knew what those soldiers had been looking for).

After almost an hour of looking, he caught something black glinting in the corner of his eye. He jumped into the offending hole, digging around until he found a grey gemstone. Surely this couldn't be it?

It felt warm in his hand and emitted a soft glow. He pocketed it.

Adam spent a further half hour searching the rest of the holes, but no more gems (or other foreign objects) were to be found.

After getting his bearings, Adam quickly found the spot where he had hidden his backpack. The gem in his hand had definitely gotten warmer, and the glow was brighter, though not by much. Well, Adam would have to figure it out later. If anything, he could come back to this spot (which was only a few minutes off the main trail) if the gem refused to glow later.

Of course, his plans were immediately shot down when he placed the gem in the same inner pocket as his original morpher.

The glow quickly become so bright he had to shield his eyes and look away.

Finally, when the glow began to die down, he could have sworn he heard the familiar trumpet noise of the original mastodon zord. Which was crazy, even for him, because that zord had long since been destroyed.

Funny though, because the sound seemed to have come from inside his bag.

Slowly, carefully, he reached back into his bag to pull out the gemstone. Whatever powers it had contained were gone, because now it looked and felt like a normal, grey gemstone. It didn't take long for Adam to figure out where that power had gone.

His morpher had been fixed; no cracks, and the power coin that was as warm and golden as the day he first received it. If Adam had any doubts about what those creatures were after before, he didn't now.

The sudden cracking of branches behind him froze him in place.

"This way, it's close," a female voice said. "At least, it was."

"What do you mean, 'was'?" a male voice responded. "Are we too late?"

"I don't know, maybe?" she said. "But I swear, the thing was just on the radar plain as day."

The voices moved closer. It sounded like they were after the same gemstone those soldiers were, but without knowing who the players were, good versus evil, Adam wasn't about to chance this gemstone—and his fixed morpher—falling into someone else's hands.

Adam decided to take the long way home, and made sure to backtrack a few times, just in case those people found his trail and decided to try and follow him.

After checking in at the hospital, the good news was that he hadn't actually broken his wrist, just gotten a really, really bad sprain.

"How did this happen?" the doctor had asked him.

Adam had made up some really lame excuse about training in the forest and tripping over something (there may have been a short roll down a hill involved, Adam couldn't remember).

He wasn't entirely sure the doctor believed him, but seeing as it wasn't anything overly suspicious, Adam was treated, told to keep his wrist in a splint for 7 to 10 days, and to come back in for a follow up.

That he could do.

Adam took a week off to let his wrist heal. While he was also eager to check out his morpher, no way was Adam going to chance morphing with a sprained wrist. Plus, what if it didn't work? What if the gemstone was evil, and by possessing his morpher would turn Adam into an evil ranger like Tommy had once been?

Either way, it was a good idea to lay low for now. Let the heat die off.

While Adam's wrist was given a clean bill of health, the same couldn't be said for the rest of the bruises across his body (which made him look like a sickly Dalmatian). It was… disturbing. Because the bruises were turning all sorts of nasty colors.

Not that he was worried; bruises were all too familiar territory, being both a power ranger and a dedicated martial artist.

Though just because Adam was used to them didn't mean he had to like looking at them.

When he was again attacked by foot soldiers on the way home, Adam knew he needed help.

They had to be searching for him and the gemstone, which Adam was assuming had somehow 'bonded' to his morpher.

There was only one person Adam could possibly turn to if he wanted any of his questions answered regarding strange gemstones, foot soldiers and all things power rangers: Tommy Oliver.

But Tommy was also the last person Adam wanted to see.

End Notes: Let's all pretend that Reefside, CA and Angel Grove, CA are about 40 miles apart, so roughly a 40-50-min drive. Or about 11 hours if you insist on walking (thanks Google maps for the 40 miles walking estimate). xD