Title: War

Chapter 4 — One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Original Posting Date: September 6, 2010

Nearly an hour later, Tommy's black Jeep was moving through the streets of nearby Blue Bay Harbor, Kimberly riding in the passenger seat while reading directions on her iPhone from behind a pair of oversized Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses.

Jason had tried to pepper them with more questions as to where they were going on their way out of the house, but the pair had merely walked outside and kept going without stopping to answer a single one of his queries.

From the seat behind the wheel, Tommy's non-steering hand had remained interlocked with Kimberly's nearly the entire twenty minute drive to the county clerk's office. Every couple of minutes he would steal a quick look to his right and smile, his mind in a constant state of wonder at the process that they were about to begin.

In all honesty, he could hardly believe that marrying Kimberly — what had once merely been the stuff of his teenaged dreams — was going to become a reality in a matter of days or weeks or however long that it actually took to get a marriage certificate. He had no idea what the exact timeframe would ultimately be, only that it was going to be sooner rather than later, which was really all that he needed to know.

"Turn left up here at the light, Tommy," said Kimberly, gently running her thumb up and down the side of his hand. For his part, Tommy merely murmured his understanding and then merged over into the left turn lane, the Jeep coming to a stop behind three other cars waiting for the red light to become a green arrow. After a few moments of silence, Kimberly looked to him and quietly went on, "We're really doing this, aren't we?"

"Yeah," said Tommy, smiling and nodding, "We are."

Returning the smile, Kimberly laid her head against his arm and said, "I always dreamed this day would come, but for awhile there, I wasn't sure that it actually would. Two or three years ago, if someone had told me that you and I would get married, I would've laughed in their face."

"And now?" asked Tommy, wearing a teasing expression.

"Now it seems like it was always meant to be this way," she replied, nuzzling his arm as the light went green and the Jeep began rolling forward slowly.

"You think so?"

Kimberly shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe," she said softly. "Why else would we have gone through all those bad relationships, all that pain and heartbreak, only to end up right back where we started?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Tommy, nodding. "I've thought about that same thing dozens of times, and the only thing I came up with is that it doesn't really matter. Whether it was fate, or just pure coincidence, the only thing that truly matters is that we're together."

Kimberly smiled and gave his hand a firm squeeze, Tommy completely unaware that her eyes had begun to water slightly behind her sunglasses. Looking out the side window to hide her face, she announced, "It should be coming up here on the right pretty soon."

"Gotcha," murmured Tommy, looking up ahead for a sign of the building.

After another half-mile or so of driving in silence, Tommy found what he was looking for and quickly flipped his turn signal up. Less than a minute later and they were parked, Tommy in the midst of undoing his seatbelt when Kimberly finally spoke again.

"I honestly can't believe we're going to do this," she breathed, staring straight out the windshield at the two-story concrete building.

Tommy furrowed his brow. "Are you having second thoughts?" he asked quietly.

Instantly, Kimberly turned his way and shook her head. "No, not at all; I love you, Tommy," she said hastily, taking his face in her palm as she pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "I want to marry you; more than I've ever wanted anything else. It just — it seems surreal to me that we're really doing it. When we were kids, you were the first boy who made me want to marry someone other than Tom Cruise or Joey Lawrence. I mean, how many people can say that they ended up marrying the first boy or girl they ever truly fell in love with?"

Tommy did not give an immediate reply; at least not verbally, anyway. Instead, he leaned across the Jeep's center console and gave Kimberly a kiss that contained practically every ounce of passion and emotion he could muster with a piece of hard plastic digging into his hip.

Finally, when their lips broke, he whispered, "The only two that matter."

"Good answer," a smiling Kimberly murmured breathlessly.

Winking, Tommy said, "Come on," and proceeded to climb out of the Jeep as Kimberly did the same. Meeting at the hood of the car, they grasped hands once more and then started towards the office building.

Once inside, they found themselves standing in a modest-sized atrium with several rows of chairs — most of which were empty — and one row of individual windows at the end of the room, of which only two were being attended to. Fortunately, aside from the two people currently being helped at the windows, there was only one person ahead of them, and it only took about ten minutes of waiting in line before it was their turn.

As it turned out, getting married wasn't nearly as complicated as either of them had thought it would be. When Tommy told the older woman named Myrtle sitting on the other side of the window that they wanted to apply for a marriage certificate, she practically gushed over them as she handed over the paperwork. All that was really needed from them was some personal information, their signatures and those of two witnesses — Aisha and Jason, they decided — and someone to solemnize the marriage.

Aside from filling out the paperwork, which Tommy reasoned would take no more than five or ten minutes, the only other thing that they needed to do was make an appointment to see a judge, whom Myrtle said they could hand the completed paperwork to in person on the day of the ceremony. Myrtle also explained that getting a judge could take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, but with no access to the judge's schedules she could not, unfortunately, give them any additional information on how long it might take them specifically.

This was perfectly fine with Tommy and Kimberly though. Two days, two weeks…what did it really matter? For them, the only thing that was truly important was that they were indeed getting married; and sooner, rather than later.

Their trip to the county clerk's office was not, however, the last stop that Tommy had planned, although Kimberly did not know this. She was so excited when they left the place that it took her almost ten minutes of driving before she realized that they were not heading back the way that they had come.

"Where are we going?" asked Kimberly, curiosity evident in her tone.

"I'm hungry," said Tommy casually. "I don't usually come out this way and there's a cheesesteak place in the mall up here that has the best sandwich I've ever had outside of Philly."

"Oh, okay," said Kimberly agreeably, since truthfully she was quite hungry as well.

The prospect of lunch kept her mind occupied as they pulled into the mall parking lot, driving around for a few minutes until they found an open spot near Macy's. As they made their way towards the entrance, Tommy reached for Kimberly's hand; it seemed like they never walked anywhere together for more than a few seconds without their fingers interlocked.

Passing by row after row of products in Macy's en route to the escalator, Kimberly continuously pointed out garments and accessories that she wanted to buy, Tommy just smirking and shaking his head the entire time. He had the distinct feeling that Kimberly would not even be thinking about clothes in a few minutes.

Soon they were on the second story, and from there they made their way through the rest of the department store and out into the main area of the mall. This particular mall was arranged in a cross-shape, so that one of the four flagship stores sat at each end and each side, the other stores all running in between them on either side.

The food court was located in the very center of the top level, and that was the way they headed for most of their walk. They were still several stores away from the food court when Tommy got the reaction he had been anticipating. One of the very last stores before they reached the food court was Tiffany & Co., one of the most recognizable jewelers in the country, primarily for their high-quality diamonds.

Kimberly's entire presence appeared to perk up slightly when she saw the hanging sign, but as they grew closer to the store, the opposite seemed to happen, almost as if she was disappointed that she could not go inside and buy something.

Tommy, however, simply looked away to hide his smile, stopping suddenly once they were standing outside the door.

"You know, my mom's birthday is coming up in a few weeks," said Tommy conversationally. "Why don't we go inside and see if there's anything that looks like it would fit her?"

Kimberly nodded eagerly, if only so that she could try on a bracelet or necklace far beyond anything that she could reasonably afford.

Inside, almost the entire store was done up in a shiny dark hardwood: the walls, floor, counters, and the bases on all of the display cases were made up of the same exact cut.

Almost at once, a blonde salesman in his early twenties came to greet them and offer assistance, but Tommy politely declined the help, saying that they were just looking for now and would let him know if they needed anything.

With a firm plan of attack in his mind, Tommy took Kimberly's hand once more and began walking amongst the store, casually browsing the assortment of bracelets and brooches; earrings and necklaces; pendants and watches. Occasionally, Tommy would ask Kimberly's opinion of an item that he knew his mother would never wear, watching her carefully to gauge her reactions.

Some she was moderately fond of; some she loved; and others she downright hated, so that after some ten or so minutes of walking around Tommy felt like he had a pretty fair idea of what she liked and disliked.

He had just finished asking her about a necklace — one he could practically hear his mother calling gaudy, amongst other things — when Kimberly said, "I want to go back and look at something. You keep looking around for your mom, and I'll catch back up with you in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay," said Tommy, smiling briefly before pecking a quick kiss to her lips.

For a few more minutes, Tommy continued to walk about the store, watching Kimberly discreetly as she moved from case to case. Eventually, she settled on one particular case that seemed to have captured her attention more so than the others, and that was where she stood for nearly ten minutes, until Tommy came up from behind and put his hands on her shoulders, looking down at the case to see what she had been admiring.

They were rings; just as he had been expecting.

"Find anything you like?" he asked, feigning obliviousness as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Oh, you know," said Kimberly with a shrug, sounding almost defeated.

Tommy smirked to himself and said, "That's not really an answer, Beautiful. Do you see anything you like or not?"

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Tommy, I'm a woman at Tiffany's; I like pretty much everything here. But I can't —"

"Then pick something," he interrupted.

"What?" blurted Kimberly, spinning around to face him.

"I said, 'pick something,'" Tommy repeated, his grin growing bigger as Kimberly's eyes grew wider. "Look," he went on, taking one of her hands, "If we were getting married under normal circumstances, I would have bought you an engagement ring and made a big deal out of proposing to you and all that stuff. But we're not. So instead of buying you an engagement ring that you'd only wear for a couple of weeks at most, I want you to pick something else out that you like; a necklace, earrings, whatever."

"Tommy, I can't —" Kimberly began.

"Yes, you can," he said over the top of her. "I know what you're going to say; that I don't have to do this, that it's too expensive…blah, blah, blah. But I want to do this for you, Beautiful. So if you don't pick out something that you like then I'm going to have to pick out something for you, and I think we both know how disastrous that could turn out to be."

The pair shared a laugh at that, Kimberly nodding her agreement. Moments later, she let out a sigh and said, "So what you're saying is that I can pick out anything I want in the entire store?"

"Anything except a wedding ring," answered Tommy with a nod of his own.

"Why not a wedding ring?"

"Because this is for our engagement, like I said," replied Tommy. "When it gets closer to the wedding, then we can pick out our rings together."

Smiling brightly, Kimberly wrapped her arms around Tommy's neck, pulling him down as she rose onto her tiptoes. Bringing her lips just centimeters away from his ear, she put on her best seductive voice and whispered, "The 'thank you' sex that we're having tonight is going to blow your mind."

Tommy could do little more than grin stupidly as Kimberly gave him a wink and then walked off to look at another case. Eventually, he was able to regain enough of his composure to return his attention to the rings that Kimberly had previously been looking at while she continued to browse for her engagement present.

Every ring in the case contained at least a full carat's worth of flawless diamonds, and none of them had a price tag. Tommy had bought enough jewelry over the years for his mom, Kimberly, and other old girlfriends to know that the lack of a price tag on a piece usually meant that it was because no price tag was big enough to hold the necessary amount of digits.

In other words, he was extremely thankful that his investments in Mercer Industries and Bio-Lab — the company owned by Alan Collins, father of Wes, the former Red Time Force Ranger — had netted him more money than he would ever be able to spend in his own lifetime.

While a couple of the rings caught his eye, one seemed to stand out more against the rest. The band itself was made of platinum, and at the center was a large cushion-cut diamond, surrounded by many smaller versions of itself that ran along the upper half of the band on either side. But what truly made him look twice was the color of the smaller diamonds, which alternated between pink and white, the latter of which were incredibly rare.

Had it not been for his discovery of a real white diamond while on a dig with Anton several years back, he probably would not have even been able to differentiate between it and the typical stone. But as Anton had shown him, there was a true milky-white inherent color, as well as a translucent milky-white apparent color. The lack of a secondary color was what truly made the diamonds so rare and valuable.

Knowing that Kimberly would love the ring, he made a mental note to bring her back to look at it another day, and then set a reminder on his phone for the end of the week, just in case he forgot. With that, he walked over to where she was standing on the opposite end of the store and found her looking at a collection of necklaces.

Approaching her from the side, he said, "Have you decided on anything yet?"

Kimberly sighed. "It's so hard," she answered with a laugh. "Ninety-five percent of the stuff here I want to buy."

Smiling, Tommy said, "Well why don't you pick one thing out for now, and then we can worry about buying out Tiffany's some other time?"

"Ugh," muttered Kimberly, rolling her eyes playfully, "Fine, I guess I'll settle for just one."

With that, she called out to the salesman who had greeted them earlier and motioned for him to come over. As he walked towards them, Tommy asked, "Which one are you thinking about?"

Kimberly merely smiled, though, not speaking again until the salesman had arrived. "I'd like to try this one on, please," she announced, pointing to a necklace inside the case.

For a brief moment, Tommy noticed a change of expression on the man's face, as though he thought that Kimberly must have been joking. Perhaps he thought that their attire dictated what they could and could not afford. After all, most people in the market for an eight-thousand dollar necklace probably did not come in wearing a black Van Halen tee shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and brown leather flip-flops, in Tommy's case; or, in Kimberly's case, white short-shorts, a pink tank-top, and five-dollar white flip-flops from Old Navy.

But then the man seemed to remember his job training, because he quickly gave a smile and reached into his pocket, extracting a ring of keys. "You have excellent taste," he said as he made to unlock the case.

Tommy closed his eyes to prevent himself from visibly rolling them. Silently, he mused that the salesman would have probably told Kimberly that a stale candy necklace was in excellent taste if he thought that it would fatten his commission check a bit more. Nevertheless, Tommy soon opened his eyes and found himself looking at the necklace in question, which Kimberly was holding out to him expectantly with one hand while using the other to pull her hair back. "Can you help me with this?" she asked

Blinking his mind back into focus, Tommy quickly nodded and took the necklace from Kimberly, looking at it as she slowly turned her back to him. He had to admit, the salesman was right; she did have excellent taste. The chain, like the band of the ring he was so fond of, was platinum, holding onto a gorgeous diamond-encrusted key that shimmered vibrantly beneath the ceiling lights.

Carefully fastening the chain around Kimberly's neck, Tommy stepped back and watched as she murmured her thanks and then moved to observe herself in a nearby mirror. "That piece has more than a carat worth of diamonds, you know," the salesman said conversationally.

Tommy silently wondered if the salesman was telling them that for mere informational purposes, or as a way to direct them towards something that he thought was more in their price range. Before he could think on it much further, however, Kimberly turned around and said, "Where do you get your diamonds from?"

"I'm sorry?" the salesman replied, clearly caught by surprise.

"The diamonds, where do they come from?" repeated Kimberly. "Are they conflict diamonds? And don't try to tell me they aren't if they are. I can sniff out a liar faster than Jack Bauer."

Looking even more taken aback now, the salesman needed a few moments to recover before he could answer. "The honest truth is that we have no idea whether these are conflict diamonds or not. We're a giant corporation and the diamond trade is full of middlemen who have no problem lying to us about the source of the stones. While we try our hardest to ensure that our diamonds come only from clean sources, there's simply no way for any jeweler, large or small, to determine with certainty if they're buying blood diamonds or not."

Though it sounded like a company line that the salesman had recited from memory, Tommy also thought that it was probably the first completely honest thing that he had said to them thus far outside of telling them his name. For her part, Kimberly observed the man's face in silence for a few moments only to nod once and then look away.

After observing her reflection in the mirror for several more seconds, she then looked back at Tommy and said, "I would feel like the most terrible person in the world if I found out that enslaved kids in some third-world African country died so that I could wear these diamonds."

Tommy smiled, not surprised by her statement at all. For as long as he could remember, Kimberly had always cared deeply about the welfare of others, even those that she had never once met before. "It's your decision, Beautiful," he told her. "At the end of the day, though, I think there are only so many things that you can do to try and save the world, you know?"

Kimberly, of course, immediately understood the deeper meaning to his words. Still, she did not want to take the risk — knowingly or otherwise — that the diamonds on her neck could also be blood on her hands. It was with a saddened expression, as though she was a child who had just put her dog to sleep, that she took one last look at herself in the mirror and then slowly unfastened the chain.

Turning around, she looked at Tommy and shook her head before handing the necklace back to the salesman. "I'm going to have to pass on this," she told the man during the exchange. She then returned her attention to Tommy and said, "I really appreciate you doing this for me, but I don't want to take the chance of contributing to the continued death of innocent people."

While Tommy himself was not nearly the bleeding heart that Kimberly was, he still nodded and said, "I can respect that. Tiffany's sells more than diamonds, though."

Kimberly seemed to consider that for a few moments and then smiled. Quickly, she took off towards the other side of the store without saying another word, leaving Tommy to shake his head before following after her.

"I want this," she told him once he had arrived at her side, pointing at an item that had caught her attention during her earlier trip around the store.

Tommy's eyes were soon following her finger to the locket she was pointing at, a smile overtaking him at once. The heart-shaped locket and chain were made of gold — eighteen carat, according to the approaching salesman — and seemed absolutely perfect for Kimberly. It was not overtly flashy, but it was still a beautiful piece, just like her.

"I have the perfect pictures of us to put inside of it, too," she added, beaming up at him brightly.

Still wearing his smile, Tommy looked down at her and nodded. "If that's what you want then it's yours."

"It is," she said, nodding as well. The kiss he received a moment later was all the thanks he needed, especially after she had just gone from an eight-thousand dollar diamond necklace to a one-thousand dollar locket.

As the salesman moved to unlock the case, he looked to Kimberly and said, "If you'd like to have any kind of personalized message engraved into the locket, we can do that and have it ready for pickup by this time tomorrow."

She definitely wanted the locket personalized but, knowing that it would cost extra, Kimberly made sure that it was okay with Tommy before confirming this to the salesman. Since she would not be taking the locket home with her today, the salesman carried it into a back room and then returned a minute or so later with a pencil and a scrap of paper in its place.

While Tommy dealt with paying for the locket, Kimberly took the paper and pencil and walked far enough away so that he would not be able to see what she was writing. She was not going to show it to him until the inscription was done and the pictures were inside, either.

Folding up the piece of paper, she walked back over to the register where Tommy was signing the receipt and handed her instructions to the salesman, who accepted them with a smiling nod. It was then, just as Tommy had dotted the "i" in his last name, that a familiar six-tone chime came from two different sources to fill the area around them.

Immediately, Tommy's right hand moved to cover his other wrist as Kimberly shoved her own hand into her pocket. Raising his eyes to find the salesman looking back and forth between them with a curious expression, Tommy turned to Kimberly and, acting as if the noise had come from a watch, said, "We need to get going or we're going to miss our appointment."

Kimberly nodded her agreement and, after quickly thanking the salesman for his help, they made a beeline out of the store, keeping their pace brisk as they passed by shops and shoppers alike in search of somewhere less crowded. Eventually, they came to a long hallway in between stores that was lined with benches and had a right turn at the end, which lead to a pair of restrooms.

Neither said anything as they walked by the benches, stopping in front of the restroom doors with their backs against the opposite wall. Standing on the inside, Kimberly peeked around the corner and then looked back at Tommy. "It's clear," she said.

Nodding, Tommy brought his communicator to his lips and said, "We're here."

"We have a problem."

It was Hayley.

Tommy rolled his eyes and muttered, "Fuck me." He then pressed the button on the side of his communicator once more and asked, "What's going on?"

"Well, Scott was pretty pissed off about the fact that no one told he and his team that Adam, Aisha, and Billy are all married, but Jason got involved and was able to convince Scott that, having been Rangers and all, Tanya, Rocky, and Trini wouldn't say anything. Aside from that, there are five Goliath Rovers about to land in the middle of downtown Los Angeles that you might want to deal with."

Again, Tommy rolled his eyes. "You could have just gone straight to that part," he said with obvious impatience in his voice.

"I know," Hayley replied nonchalantly. "Stand by for an invisiportal."

Less than five seconds later, a crackling swirl of black and green energy appeared a few feet above their heads. Next moment they were being sucked inside, the portal snapping shut just as the door to the men's room opened and an older man walked out. Had it not been for the fact that he was looking down upon his exit, he most certainly would have seen the portal just before it had disappeared.

Some one-hundred miles away, five separate invisiportals soon opened simultaneously above the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. Adam and Scott came from the first, then Jason, Dillon, and Summer; Tommy and Kimberly arrived next, followed by Aisha, Flynn, Ziggy, and Gemma. Billy and Gem were the last — though only by a few moments — to land atop the seventy-three story building.

Standing at the edge of the rooftop, surrounded by the twelve other Rangers, Tommy looked down to find five long, horizontal blurs of silver flying in a single-file line just feet above the cars on the streets below. Suddenly, the first blur changed direction, going into a vertical climb that required it to slow its speed significantly.

One by one, the remaining blurs followed suit until, at last, five Goliath Rovers were visible, the jet propulsion in the bottoms of their feet allowing the robots to hover roughly fifty yards above the ground. Then, without warning, the jets cut off and the Rovers began to plummet rapidly, landing feet first and violently smashing at least twenty-five cars — some of which had been occupied — in the process.

"Fuck this," said Tommy. Looking left and right briefly, he added, "Let's go."

And then he was gone, having leapt from the edge as though he were doing a pencil-jump from the world's tallest diving board. The fact that he had not even bothered to morph left several of the Rangers atop the building looking around at each other in surprise, but not Kimberly. Her attention was focused solely on Tommy, maintaining her gaze until she had seen the all-telling burst of white energy midway through his descent.

With that, she turned her back to the ground and looked around at the other Rangers. With a smirk, she gave a quick wink and muttered, "Catch you on the flipside." Then she was gone, having effortlessly launched herself into a graceful back flip off the edge of the building.

Not wanting to be left behind by his two best friends, Jason gave a brief wave to the other Rangers and was following after Tommy and Kimberly the next moment. Turning to his right, Adam said, "Guess we should probably join them."

Scott simply nodded his agreement as the remaining Rangers formed a shoulder-to-shoulder line at the tower's edge and then jumped. Echoing cries of "It's morphin' time!" and "RPM, get in gear!" surrounded them as they fell, nine separate expulsions of brightly colored energy temporarily blinding the people inside the tower, who had the severe misfortune of working on the wrong floor at the wrong time during the morph.

In a matter of seconds, though, the Rangers had all landed safely on the ground, with much bigger problems to worry about than a civilian's inability to see for fifteen or twenty seconds. Tommy and his teammates immediately called for their Zords, while Scott, holding what looked like an oversized flip-phone, brought the device to the side of his helmet where his ear would be and said, "We could use some firepower here, Doc."

"Ranger Series Red, I'm down-morphing the High Octane, ValveMax, and Mach Megazord configurations as we speak," a female voice replied.

In the distance, a shrill whistling sound could soon be heard, rapidly growing closer and closer as Scott and his teammates looked to the sky in an attempt to locate the noise. Then there came a burst of vibrant white light and, from it, nine different individual Zords.

Watching as he waited for the Thunder Zords to arrive, Tommy was honestly not sure what to think of the RPM fleet. Their Zords, which were each a hybrid of an animal and a type of vehicle, were almost cartoonish in nature, with comically large eyes and mouths that made them seem far from threatening. Had he been piloting the green shark/motorcycle, or the gold chicken/helicopter, or the blue lion/bus, he doubted if he would have even been able to take himself seriously.

Yet the RPM Rangers leapt into their Zords and quickly formed three separate Megazords, each equally impressive in their own right. Scott's eagle/flying race car, Summer's bear/monster truck, and Flynn's lion came together to create the High Octane Megazord, while Dillon's wolf/police car and Ziggy's shark combined with an orange crocodile/eighteen-wheeler to form the ValveMax Megazord. Finally, Gem's helicopter and Gemma's tiger/fighter-jet linked up with a massive blue whale/jumbo jet to establish the completed Mach Megazord.

With three new Megazords on their side, Tommy mused that the odds were as close to even in a fight against the Goliath Rovers as they were likely to ever be. For the first time since the ARC had unveiled the giant robots over a year ago, in an attack against New York City that the Rangers had just barely been able to stop, Tommy did not feel like their only goal was to merely survive until the next fight. Instead, they were fighting to win; to abolish the ARC from Earth once and for all.

Deciding that now was the time to show the ARC that they, the Rangers, were not backing down any time soon, Tommy looked to his teammates as their Zords arrived and announced, "It's about time we switched things up." That having been said, he leapt into the cockpit of his running Tigerzord and, inserting Saba into its proper slot, called out, "Mega Tigerzord transformation, now!"

Without any action of their own, the remaining Rangers suddenly found themselves being pulled towards their Zords and, once inside, the Thunder fleet began their own transformation. "Thank God," said Jason via the Zord's internal communication system, as the Red Dragon Thunderzord began its conversion to Warrior Mode. "I was really starting to get sick of being stuck in that cockpit with the rest of you."

"Love you too, Jase," said Kimberly with a laugh.

"Okay, guys," interjected Tommy, rolling his eyes while grinning despite himself, "Let's try to focus on this one for now, alright?"

As he soon realized, however, there was not much they could really do. By the time that they had assembled the Mega Tigerzord, one of the Goliath Rovers had already been destroyed, while another had had both arms and a leg removed and was trying unsuccessfully to remain standing. The other three Rovers were all being engaged by the RPM Megazords, none of which looked like they needed much help.

"Screw it," said Tommy, turning the Megazord to face the wobbling Goliath. "We brought this thing together, we might as well have some fun with it; Kim, power up the Firebird."

Kimberly laughed. "My pleasure," she replied, pressing a series of buttons on the control panel in front of her.

The last button she pushed caused the mouth of the Tigerzord, as well as the Firebird attached to its right forearm, to glow a vibrant shade of red. Moments later the Firebird was released as if it had been shot out of a cannon, eventually becoming no more than a blur of red energy that ripped the Goliath's head off on impact.

No one inside the Thunder Megazord bothered to celebrate; rather, they turned their focus to the RPM Rangers as, one by one, the Goliath Rovers quickly fell to the ground in heaps. The last one, which had been doing battle with the High Octane Megazord, ended up split in half at the waist via the Megazord's Super Saber.

Of course, there was a fair share of destruction done to the surrounding area. Every parked car for two full blocks became scrap metal, and several buildings ended up on the receiving end of damage that ranged from mild and aesthetic, to structurally irreparable. However, the fact that the damage had been contained to such a small radius was, without a doubt, a major victory in and of itself, one that Tommy and his teammates were eager to celebrate with their new allies.

"I've never felt more useless as a Ranger than I do right now," said Kimberly, shaking her head as she and her teammates shared a laugh inside the Mega Tigerzord's cockpit.

"Girl, I just wish it could always be this easy," added Aisha.

Beneath his helmet, Tommy smirked. "C'mon guys," he said, shaking his head as well, "Let's get out of here."

A few minutes later the Zords had been sent back and the two teams were standing atop the U.S. Bank Tower once more. They had only just begun to congratulate each other on their victory when a cluster of individual portals opened above their heads, sucking the Rangers through and returning them to their pre-battle locations.

Luckily for Tommy and Kimberly, there was no one outside the mall bathrooms when they reappeared there several seconds later. With a look to his right at Kimberly, Tommy grinned and muttered, "We need Zords like that."

Kimberly merely giggled and nodded her agreement as she grasped hands with Tommy, the pair continuing on their way through the mall.

Though Tommy had lured Kimberly to the mall with false intentions, promising lunch when he had really just wanted to take her to Tiffany's, his stomach now gave a rumble as they passed the food court from across the mall, the combined smell of several different types of fast food reaching his nose as they walked.

"Hungry much?" said Kimberly with a laugh, having clearly heard his growling stomach.

Tommy barely gave a nod as he pulled Kimberly with him towards the food court. Ten minutes later, they were seated at a small table with a cheesesteak sandwich and drink for each and a basket of French fries between them to share.

Dipping one of the fries in the puddle of ketchup next to them, Kimberly winced as she watched Tommy take a bite of his sandwich. While hers was a plain sandwich, Tommy had asked for his to be made with extra bell peppers and onions.

"Eww," she groaned, smiling despite herself. "You better not even think about trying to kiss me after that thing."

Tommy swallowed the food in his mouth and then smirked as he took a sip of his soda and replied, "Aw, come on, Beautiful; you know you love my onion breath."

Kimberly rolled her eyes playfully. "Loving you and loving your onion breath are not mutually exclusive, Tommy."

Tommy just smiled as they went on with eating their lunch, stopping frequently to continue the playful banter that had become so commonplace in their relationship. Truthfully, that level of banter was something that both of them loved; it allowed them to express themselves to each other in a non-serious way, thus avoiding many of the arguments that had seemed to plague their previous relationships.

When they had finally made it back to Tommy's house nearly an hour later, they were still going at it, so much so that Dillon and Summer, who were watching television in the living room with Hayley and Jason, thought that the older couple was genuinely fighting. As they exchanged a nervous look with each other, Jason laughed and quickly explained that this was quite normal behavior for Tommy and Kimberly and definitely nothing to worry about.

As they entered the living room, Tommy looked around and was surprised to see that there were only four people in the house. "Where's everyone else?" he questioned, looking at Hayley.

"Where they were before the fight," she answered nonchalantly. "They all had stuff to do as well, remember?"

"Did you really just ask Tommy if he remembered something?" Jason interjected, shaking his head. "Come on, Hayley, I thought you knew him better than that."

Rolling his eyes as the others shared a laugh at his expense, Tommy simply said, "I'm going swimming."

With that, Tommy turned and started for his bedroom, leaving Kimberly behind for just a moment as she looked around at the others and said, "I think I'm gonna go too. Anyone else want to join?"

Summer sighed. "I'd love to, but I didn't bring a suit; didn't think we'd be doing much swimming while we were here, you know?"

"Same here," said Dillon.

"That's fine," said Kimberly, shrugging. "I'm sure Tommy has a pair of trunks that will fit you, Dillon, and I've got more than enough bikinis for you to choose from, Summer."

That seemed to settle the debate for Dillon and Summer. Neither had been swimming for quite some time; their high-rise apartment building lacked a pool, and their busy lives probably would not have permitted them to use it even if the building had had one.

Hayley, however, had to get back to the café that she owned in town, and Jason was intrigued very little at the prospect of being the proverbial fifth wheel to the two couples. Instead, he opted to go to the gym and left the house just as his four roommates made their way through the sliding glass door into the backyard.

To say that Tommy's backyard was impressive would be a vast understatement. The door led to a small covered patio with a table and several chairs, and to the left of it was a porch swing big enough to accommodate four people. Beyond the patio was a large stretch of neatly manicured grass some sixty yards long and twenty yards wide, perfect for the spontaneous games of touch football that seemed to break out every time Tommy held a Ranger gathering at his house.

Just passed the grass was the pool, and on the other side of that was another concrete patio, although this one much larger than the one outside the door. Several long pool chairs sat at the closest edge of the patio; behind them and to the right was a four-foot high brick wall that curved around the patio corner, hiding the gas grill and wet bar that were perhaps the two most important factors in those same Ranger gatherings.

Then there was the foliage that surrounded the entire area. Various types of shrubbery, flowers, and trees filled his backyard. Tommy, however, did not know what any of them were. Knowing that he would likely mistake poison oak for a rose bush, Hayley had taken it upon herself to pick everything out when he had first moved into the house.

Of course, for Dillon and Summer, it was hard to focus on anything other than the pool itself, so much so that they did not even notice the half basketball court on the backside of the larger patio.

Though the owner of the company who'd built the pool had been extremely confused by the design choice, Tommy's friends had all been quite amused by the pool, which was shaped like the dragon symbol that had been emblazoned upon his very first Power Coin.

They were only ten or so feet from the pool, Dillon on the verge of asking Tommy about the design of the pool, when Tommy suddenly dropped his towel and took off running. Unable to hear the shrieks of Kimberly and Summer from beneath the water, when he finally emerged several seconds later Tommy could tell from their smug, dripping appearances that his cannonball had done the trick.

But where was Dillon?

Tommy looked to his right just as another head of dark brown hair suddenly broke the water's plane, Dillon laughing heartily as he turned to face Summer. Apparently he had followed Tommy's performance with a cannonball of his own.

For their part, the two women slowly shared angered expressions with one another. Standing at the edge of the pool, Kimberly let her towel slip from her hand as she muttered to Summer, "Let's get 'em."

Summer merely nodded, throwing her towel down as she and Kimberly dove straight at their respective significant others, tackling them and dragging them underwater in the process.

The element of surprise left Tommy momentarily stunned, but he was quick to recover and immediately took hold of Kimberly as they struggled beneath the water. They wrestled desperately for the advantage in position, neither willing to give an inch until the need for oxygen simply became too much to bear any longer.

Even as they came up for air, though, the pair continued their battle, moving about the pool wildly until at last there was nowhere else to go. Kimberly had found herself pressed against the wall of the pool with a hand on either side of her, Tommy seemingly boxing her in as he hovered over her with dripping hair.

They were both breathing heavily, and though Tommy was wracking his brain for some clever wisecrack, the only thing that he could think about was Kimberly…Kimberly and how sexy she looked…dripping wet…right there in front of him…

Before he knew it, his hands were at her back and he was kissing her passionately, Kimberly's arms and legs encircling his neck and torso as she returned the kiss. It took every ounce of self-control Tommy could muster to not let things go any further, knowing that Dillon and Summer were in the pool with them as well.

However, when they finally broke their kiss and Tommy looked around, he saw that the younger couple was in the middle of enjoying their own very similar activities. Smirking, he looked back around at Kimberly and then slowly shook his head.

"What is it?" she asked softly.

"Nothing," said Tommy, looking fleetingly at Dillon and Summer once more. Then he saw the look in Kimberly's eyes and knew she would not let him off the hook so easily. Sighing, he went on in a murmur, "It's just — this is gonna sound weird, but…I get the feeling that there's something more to Dillon. We were talking earlier, back in San Francisco, and it was like there was this crazy connection between us."

Kimberly narrowed her eyes. "A connection?" she said laughingly. "Tommy, you're not gonna start batting on the other side of the plate, are you?"

Laughing heartily, Tommy shook his head again and said, "Get outta here, Kim. You know what I mean. It's like what you told me about you and Kat. You felt something there when you two first met. You couldn't explain it, but you knew that there was something big between you. That's how I feel now…like something big is going to happen between me and Dillon."

Kimberly seemed to think on that for a few moments, nodding slowly every so often before finally giving up with a shrug of her shoulders. "I dunno, Tommy; I mean, maybe you're right. Who knows? The Power works in mysterious ways; we've known that since the beginning. If you are right, though, you know it's one of those things that you're not going to be able to force. If something is meant to happen, it will happen when it's meant to; no sooner, no later."

Tommy said nothing for several long moments; then, finally, a smile and a nod.

"Yeah," he said, somewhat grunting as he pushed himself over Kimberly and out of the pool, "you're probably right."

"I know I am," she said, grinning as she watched him walk over to his towel, scoop it up, and start to pat himself dry. "Where are you going?"

"To take a leak," he answered, rubbing the towel all over his head. "Why? Do you wanna join me or something?"

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Ha ha, very funny," she replied, sticking her tongue out at him. She gave a brief look to Dillon and Summer, saw the pair engaged in a heated makeout session, and then quickly directed her attention back to Tommy. "Hurry up, will you?" she said almost pleadingly. Clearly, she wanted to be doing the kissing, not watching it.

Smirking once more, Tommy gave a quick wink and then started towards the back door. Less than five minutes later, and having properly relieved himself, Tommy exited his bedroom and was passing through the hallway en route to the backyard once more when something made him freeze on the spot.

It was a faint noise…a tune of some kind…coming from one of the nearby guest bedrooms.

With rapidly narrowing eyes, Tommy listened carefully to the tune, barely making a sound himself as he crept down the hallway. He knew the tune well, having heard it frequently while spending summer days as a youth at his grandparent's house in Arizona.

As he tiptoed beyond Jason's room, he became aware that the sound was emanating from the room he had given to Dillon and Summer, the door to which was open several inches. Growing even more curious now, Tommy quietly slipped into the room and immediately began his search for the source of the tune.

As it was, it did not take him very long to find it at all. Resting atop the oaken dresser was a small, silver pocket watch that had been left open, thus allowing the sound to escape. Picking up the watch, a surprised expression crossed Tommy's face as he inspected the object, an expression that soon turned to anger once he had closed the watch and examined its outer shell.

His first instinct was to walk outside and demand to know how and why Dillon or Summer had taken the watch from his room; the same watch that had been given to him by his grandfather — his mother's father — just before he had passed away some ten years prior.

But then he noticed several small scratches on both sides of the watch's shell, scratches that did not exist on the watch that had been left to him. Furrowing his brow, Tommy maintained his hold on the watch and rushed back into his bedroom, setting it atop his own dresser before beginning a hasty search through the topmost drawer that left a collection of boxer shorts, socks, and undershirts lying on the floor behind him.

Finally, his hands emerged from the drawer, a small blue box in his left hand that he quickly removed the top from.

There it was, just as it had been the last time that he had looked at the watch some six months ago. But while the other watch was in nowhere near the same quality of condition as his, there was still no denying the striking similarities between the two timepieces. They were exactly the same size; they opened and closed in the same way, held wind-stems in the same position, and even had the exact same clock faces — a white surface with black hands, Roman numerals, and hash marks.

Reasonably speaking, Tommy knew it was a definite possibility that there was no connection between the two watches whatsoever. But then he remembered the conversation he had just had with Kimberly, which in turn reminded him that the Power was about as far from reasonable as was possible.

Instantly, a whirlwind of thoughts began to flood his mind, leaving him grasping the edge of the dresser with both hands as he hung his head and tried desperately to make some sense of everything. Of course, there was a very easy way to find out if he even had any reason to be suspicious at all.

Opening both watches, he picked up his own and slowly inserted his fingernail into a small crevice that ran along the bottom half of the silver shell. Carefully, he lifted up with his finger and pried open the bottom shell, thus splitting the watch into three still-conjoined pieces.

The seemingly hidden compartment of the watch was nothing special to speak of, really. Rather, it contained a brief inscription that had been written to his mother's grandfather when he had first received the watch from his father as a birthday gift over a hundred years ago. Tommy could not read the inscription, being that it was scribed in Polish, but what was written inside the watch was not of any real importance.

Without hesitation, he opened the other watch just as he had done with his own, nearly dropping it in shock when he saw that it contained the exact same inscription as his own.

Setting both watches back on the dresser, Tommy backpedaled until he found his bed, at which point he slowly lowered himself into a seat on the foot of the mattress. Confused beyond recognition, he rested his chin atop his hands and forced his mind clear as he began to think about everything that had happened since first meeting Dillon.

The physical similarities he had first noticed — but had also quickly banished as mere coincidence — immediately returned to the forefront of his thoughts.

Alas, after several minutes of quiet contemplation, there was only one conclusion that Tommy could reach.

He needed help.

Not even bothering to pick up the clothes he had discarded minutes prior, he returned his watch to its box and then the drawer, closing it behind him before racing out of his room with the other watch in hand. After making sure everything in Dillon and Summer's room — watch included — was exactly as it had been before his entrance, he quickly made his way into the basement, booting up one of the computers as he reached over to a nearby office-style phone and pressed three keys.

Though Tommy had placed the phone into speaker-mode, there was no dial tone or ringing sound to speak of as he waited for the person on the other end to answer. Instead, it was a series of random clicking noises, until finally a male voice answered, sounding quite friendly as he said, "Hey, Tommy, what's up?"

"Not much, Wes. How are things over there?"

"Same old, same old," said Wesley Collins, the former Red Time Force Ranger. "Jen, Eric, and I talk every day about giving up our powers, man, especially now. We really want to be there to help you guys."

"I know you do, man," said Tommy, almost solemnly. Deep down, he really wanted Jen, Eric, and Wes there too. Besides his own team, they were three of the most capable Rangers he had ever served with. "Listen," he went on, shaking his head clear, "that's part of the reason why I'm calling. I need Jen's help with something. Is she around?"

"Uh, yeah, she's in the bedroom I think," said Wes, sounding more than a bit curious, "Let me go see what she's doing. Hold on a sec."

"Sure," said Tommy simply.

Nearly a minute later, a brightly sounding female voice reached his ears. "Tommy, it's so good to hear from you! It's been forever since….well, you know."

Tommy chuckled despite himself.

Thirteen months before the war started, Tommy and Jason had been approached for a clandestine mission by the three Time Force Rangers, as well as a handful of other Rangers from various teams, specially selected for the mission. So secret was the mission that Kimberly herself did not even know about it.

And though the mission was successful in the end, it had also cost Eric his Quantum powers, and Jen — who had only been allowed by Time Force to stay in the present day on the condition that she did not use her powers again — had nearly died, making retirement an easy decision for the trio, even if they did regret it now.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Tommy laughingly. "Maybe once all this stuff is over with, we can all get together again."

"Definitely!" said Jen enthusiastically. From there, several quiet moments passed before she finally broke the silence by asking, "So, what's up? Wes said you needed my help with something…"

Tommy sighed heavily. "I do," he murmured. "I need you to get in touch with Time Force. I need to talk to Alex."