AN: Hi paisanos! I'm sorry for the serious drought in updates but since I've finished class for the semester I've been enjoying my summer being with my folks, playing some games, and watching the big three movies: Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, and POTC: At World's End. If you haven't seen them yet, I strongly recommend you do. They're very good movies. (Now I just have to bide my time just a little more for Transformers…)

Oh, and speaking of movies, I've been to youtube a couple of times and I've seen some pretty awesome PR pairing videos. From powerrangersonline's "Accidentally in love"; jdoonan's "From this moment"; to katastrophe911 (Purple Strobe)'s "Te quiero tanto", "Everytime", "Head Over feet", "The letter"; nsrangerform's "I want to grow old with you"; Meloda26's "She's like the Wind"; navypowergirl's "Still"; fluffythefluffkeeper's "Collide"; bluemidnight02's "Angels have brought me here"; and NinjasKarateSensei19's "My love is for you". This isn't every single PR video I've seen on there, but I think if I say more it's probably going to take up the whole chapter. So if you get the chance check 'em out. You won't regret it. (Now if only I had video tools so I could do some of my own)

--

Chapter 9-And then there were six…

Krista adjusted her hold on her bag as she entered the doors of the dance school, where she saw other girls that had already arrived and were either talking or warming up, or doing a bit of both.

Good thing they weren't here when that freak and her dinosaur posse showed up yesterday. She thought.

Shortly after Linda and herself had gotten a good enough distance away from the dance school Krista asked her dance teacher if she could drive her home, which Linda was more than happy to do. As they got closer to Krista's house Linda asked her student about her car, which she had to leave behind at the dance school during the scuffle with Elsa and the Tyrannodrones, or what Linda called "Dino-zombie freakazoids.". Krista just sighed and said that hopefully if anything it would still be there, "and in one piece at that too."

"Let's hope so." Linda had said, even though she didn't feel convinced.

"Well, if from what I saw how that strange-looking woman and her 'Dino-zombie freakazoids' were acting, somehow I don't think my car was what they were after." Krista replied.

"Maybe," Linda said. "But that still doesn't explain why they tried to come after you and try to take your bag though." Linda pondered.

Because somehow a gemstone I had found five days ago seems to have gotten their attention, and I know if it hadn't been for the Rangers, I probably would've not only lost the gem, but I would've long been turned into dino-chow by this point. Krista thought to herself. "Who knows?" Krista asked. "Maybe they somehow caught a fetish for dance and they just wanted some clothes to go with it."

Linda chuckled. "Probably."

When they finally got to Krista's house Krista checked to make sure that her clothes were still in her bag (which they were in spite of the Tyrannodrone's handiwork), thanked her teacher for the ride, and walked to her front door. Her parents were already home by this point, so once Krista merely rang the bell, her dad answered it right away. However, once her mom saw the gashes on her bag, she asked Krista where the slashes came from and Krista then told her parents what happened. Her parents were both shocked, and Krista's mom, having already witnessed an attack by the Tyrannodrones once before, almost went hysterical and asked Krista if she was sure she was all right, and Krista had insisted that she was.

"The Power Rangers showed up shortly after, so if those freaks wanted something out of me, they changed their minds pretty quickly once they saw the Rangers."

"Well, I suppose if they had to show up to save you, I guess it's better than nothing." Krista's mom said with a sigh.

Krista was about to say something when she saw her dad gesture to her not to say anything. She had seen that kind of reaction on her mother's face many times before whenever the words "Power Rangers" would be spoken by someone or mentioned on TV and her mother was within earshot, and she just didn't know what the deal was.

Shortly after Krista took a shower and had dinner, she and her dad went back to Cosmos to try and get her car (and hope that it didn't get trashed during the fight). When they got there they saw burn marks all over the parking lot which at first scared Krista a bit as to how her car might be, but fortunately, Krista's car was still there, completely untouched from the fight that had ensued a while earlier, which made both Krista and her dad breathe out a sigh of relief.

Though she was relieved that her car was okay, and that the worst was over, Krista still couldn't help but wonder if her teacher Katherine was able to break away from the scuffle to get to safety, and also…what may have become of the gem and whether the dino-freaks and the strange woman in black had succeeded in getting their hands on it or not; and those two things weighed heavily on her mind for most of the night and through most of today.

Now as she was entering the dance school (with a spare bag in hand since her other one was trashed), walking to where all the other dance students were and getting herself ready for class, the burning questions still lingered.

Then when she saw Kat, along with Jessica, Linda and Victoria call everyone's attention and start splitting up everyone into their respective groups, Krista smiled and inwardly sighed in relief.

--

If somebody was to write down a list of all the synonyms that could go with how Katherine was feeling right now, the words, "glowing", "jovial", "ecstatic", would be close, but they still wouldn't completely describe how she felt. Granted, how she was feeling came only a close second to how she felt that night just a few weeks ago when she and Tommy had kissed for the first time in a long time, but still, at times it was enough to almost make her jump 100 feet into the air (which thanks to her dino gem power, she could) but for obvious reasons that wouldn't be such a good idea.

Shortly after Kat had gotten back to her apartment, she called up Tanya and told her what had happened. Though Tanya had been kept somewhat up to date about what had been going on gem-wise via her best friend for a while now, nothing could have prepared her for what Kat was going to say next. Once Kat told her that the gem had made her the sixth Dino-Thunder Power Ranger, Tanya flipped out.

"Girl, get out of town! Get out of town!"

"Believe me Tanya, I know it seems almost impossible to believe (okay, maybe not impossible), but…that's what happened." Kat said.

"So after you touched the gem, it did-whatever it is those gems do-and then you…morphed?"

"Pretty much." Kat replied.

"Wow." Tanya remarked. "I mean…wow." She said as she tried to absorb what her best friend had told her. "So just out of curiosity…when you morphed…how did it feel?"

"Like ten years hadn't even gone by at all." Kat answered sincerely.

Tanya smiled. "I can't imagine." She said. "So I believe that makes it six now, right?"

"I guess you can say that." Kat answered with a slight shrug.

"So now that you've got the gem…what are you going to keep it hidden as?" Tanya asked curiously.

"Well…everyone keeps theirs hidden as wrist bracelets."

"Bracelets?" Tanya said, a little baffled at her friend's answer. "Now I'm pretty sure Kira could pull that look off easily, but you're telling me that Tommy and the other guys walk around wearing morpher-disguised bracelets on their wrists?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Kat replied with another shrug.

"Well, I suppose it's a lot better than showing the actual morpher itself, but if they're going to have them as a bling-bling accessory, I think it should look like something that's not going to stick out like a sore thumb."

"Probably, but obviously Tommy and Hayley didn't have a problem with the look when they made the morphers, so if they felt a bracelet was the best way to go disguise-wise, then…"

"I suppose." Tanya conceded. "So were they able to make yours a bracelet?" Tanya asked curiously.

"Tommy was going to, but I told him no." Kat said.

"Why not?"

"Well, personally I don't mind having my morpher disguised as a bracelet, but there's one problem with me having it disguised as one though."

"What's that?"

"Krista, my dance student." Kat replied.

"Wasn't she the one who initially found the gem a couple of days back?" Tanya questioned.

"Yeah, she was." Kat answered.

"Okay, I still don't get what the problem might be." Tanya said, still a little confused.

"Since Krista's the one who found the gem first, she knows more or less what it looks like." Kat explained. "And from the bracelets I've seen on Tommy and his students, the gem can pretty much be seen on the bracelet itself."

"But the gem didn't have the same color as it did when you literally had it in your hands." Tanya pointed out, already starting to figure out what Kat was getting at.

"You're right, it didn't, but still…I can't take that chance having it as a bracelet if the gem can be seen. Krista's a pretty smart girl and if she sees my bracelet and gets even a glimpse of a gem that looks like the one she had found a few days back, I've a feeling she might be able to put two and two together."

"Mm, that's true." Tanya said in agreement. "But that still leaves the question of what you going to disguise it as."

"Well fortunately…as I told Tommy, I think I know what disguise would work."

"What?"

Kat then answered her best friend's question with one short sentence, and once she said it, Tanya found that she didn't need to say anything more on the subject.

"Y' know, it's a shame you didn't move there when Tommy and Hayley were first working on the morphers. That probably would've been a way better idea."

"Thanks." Kat said.

"Well either way, good luck with it. Hopefully that disguise is just what you need."

"Me too Tanya." Kat said. "Me too."

After she finished talking to her best friend for a while more, Kat then looked through her backpack to find what she was looking for. Once she found it she then tested it to see if it worked, and much to her surprise, it still did.

Earlier today, after school had let out, Kat met up with Tommy, Hayley, and Tommy's students at his house (or more precisely, the Dino Ruins). Tommy then asked her what her idea had been, and Kat merely answered with a warm smile as she reached for her gym bag and pulled out the object she had found the other night. When she put the object in her boyfriend's outstretched hand Tommy's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly and started to break into a grin.

"You still had this?" Tommy had asked.

"Yeah." Kat replied. "I did."

"Wait a second, is that what I think it is…?" Ethan asked, having remembered seeing the object in his teacher's video diary a few times before.

"Yeah Ethan." Tommy answered his student. "It is."

Not wasting any time, Tommy then handed Hayley the object which she took and then asked Kat for her morpher, which appeared on Kat's left wrist as soon as she looked at it. Once she had both the morpher and the device, Hayley then sat down in front of the mainframe, which had a very strange contraption with what looked like two miniature satellite dishes that Hayley herself had placed and hooked up to the computer, Hayley started in earnest with Tommy, Kat, and Tommy's students watching closely.

Even though it didn't take Hayley long to make Conner's, Ethan's, and Kira's morphers into bracelets, this was different because the object Kat wanted as a disguise for her morpher wasn't a bracelet, so as the hour went by Hayley found it was going to take longer than what she had originally thought. Kat had to head for Cosmos to teach her dance class, so Tommy gave her a ride. While they were on their way there Kat wondered if it was a good idea to use the object at all, and Tommy said that it was, and that if anything Hayley would be able to find a way to get it to work.

"If I know one thing about Hayley, there's no program on a device she can't code. And if it doesn't work, she finds a way to make it work." Tommy said.

Once they got there Tommy told her not to worry and that if anything they'd be a lot closer to getting the mechanism to work, if not already done when class let out.

Now that class had in fact let out, Kat was already hurrying up as much as she could so she'd be ready once Tommy picked her up. Though she was still car-less at the moment Kat had already looked through some cars in a catalog she had picked up at the dealership she and Tommy went to and after looking through some, finally decided on one but hadn't gone to fill out the paper work for it yet.

Well, hopefully I'll be able to get it tomorrow. She thought to herself as she stepped out of the locker room, already changed back into her regular clothes. Though she was eager to head back to the Dino Ruins, Katherine did however, want to talk to Krista about yesterday before she left, for she was pretty sure Krista was probably going to ask her questions like why she didn't go with her and Linda during the Tyrannodrone attack.

"Miss Hillard…?"

"Oh, hi Krista." Kat said with a smile as she turned and saw Krista walk up to her. "You know, I was actually hoping to talk to you about yesterday just before I left."

"Same here." Krista replied.

"Come on, let's talk outside."

Not wanting to attract attention to their conversation, Katherine and Krista walked out the doors and sat by the bench out front by the parking lot.

"While we're on the subject, there is one thing I do want to ask you though." Krista said.

"Sure."

"Yesterday…when Miss Dawson and I got into the car…why didn't you come with us?"

When she had chosen to stay behind Kat knew full well that Krista was going to ask her this question, and while she knew that for obvious reasons Kat couldn't tell her the whole truth, she knew she could at least tell her something that wouldn't be completely far-fetched and would be quite plausible.

"I guess you could call it an old habit that never really died." She said.

"What do you mean?" Krista asked.

"Well, years back…when I was around your age, I was living in Angel Grove at the time, and there had been a…I guess you could call it a monster attack much like what happened yesterday, and they were wreaking havoc on a construction project that myself and some friends of mine had been working on. Everyone had mostly gone to lunch, so it was just me taking a look the place and taking some pictures for my scrapbook. Anyway, I saw what they were doing, and while the smart thing would've been to run and get away from those…things, I just couldn't stand there and let them get away with trashing what me and my friends had worked on, so I stood my ground and held them off until the Power Rangers showed up and took care of things from there."

"But you could've gotten yourself hurt." Krista pointed out. "Or worse."

"I know." Kat said with an agreeing nod. "But I wasn't going to stand back and let those things shake you down for whatever it was they were here for."

Though that comment should have comforted Krista somewhat, it didn't.

"Well…I think I have an idea as to what they might have been looking for."

"What?" Kat asked.

Krista then told her dance teacher as to what had happened a few days before; about how she found the gem and the encounters that she had with Elsa and the Power Rangers, and anything/everything else up until yesterday.

"Granted, I didn't know what that gemstone was or what it could do, but…I don't know, I just…I just couldn't let them have it if that's what they were looking for."

"You did the right thing, Krista." Kat said sincerely.

"I know, but…still, I can't help but wonder if those freaks ended up getting the gem or not."

"Well, the Rangers were there too." Kat pointed out. "Hopefully, if anything, they probably might have gotten it before those dinosaur things did."

"I hope so." Krista said with a sigh. Though her experiences with monsters up until this encounter with Elsa had only been getting kidnapped by Zeltrax, Krista had a feeling those monsters would not have gone after her (namely, the gem) if it wasn't important to them in some way. And from what she saw yesterday…the same thing could also be said about the Rangers, albeit in an opposite sense.

Krista was about to say something when she saw Kat smile and wave at a jeep that pulled into the parking lot and steadily made its way to the front of the school, where they were.

"Hi Kat." Tommy called out as he unlocked the passenger door.

"Hi Tommy."

"Were you waiting long?"

"Oh, no. Class let out just a few minutes ago."

"Oh, okay. Cool." Tommy said, relieved that he hadn't taken too long. "Hi Krista."

"Hi Dr. Oliver." Krista replied, a look of semi-amusement on her face as she saw both of her teachers talk.

Friends…right. She thought to herself as she remembered Conner talking about them.

"So Krista, don't worry about it." Kat said as she got into the jeep. "If the Rangers did get it, then I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it's in good hands."

"I hope so." Krista said with a smile.

"I'm sure." Kat said confidently. In more ways than one. "Well…I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Kat said.

"Definitely." Krista. "See you then."

"Cheers."

--

"So…any luck?" Kat asked once she and Tommy joined Hayley and the others in the Dino Ruins.

"Well…in a nutshell…" Hayley said as she looked back at the screen that been saying, "CONFIGURING…" for what seemed like forever, the screen finally said, DISGUISE-CONFIGURATION COMPLETE.

Hayley didn't say anything else, for she merely gestured for Kat to come closer, and when Kat looked at the contraption Hayley had invented she saw her Dino-morpher still lying there as before. But then, suddenly…energy streams that looked like flames then enveloped the morpher itself, and for a brief second an image of the Dino-Thunder symbol passed over the morpher, which quickly disappeared along with the flames, and then…in place of Kat's Dino-morpher, was none other than the old wrist-watch communicator Billy had invented so many years ago.

"It's…?" Kat began.

"Yeah, it's finished." Hayley said with a big grin.

As Kat then slowly took the communicator and put it on her left wrist, she stared at it with her azure eyes in complete disbelief and wonder. Though she hadn't worn it in almost ten years, it felt like as if she hadn't ever taken it off at all.

As she looked at it, Kat noticed that even though it looked more or less the same as before, the communicator did have some slight differences to it that it had a digital screen and some more buttons to it that made it look much like a typical digital watch one would find at a Wal-Mart.

"Since some of the components were obviously a little too ancient when I first tried to configure the thing, myself and Ethan had to literally take the communicator apart and replace the components, if not get rid of some." Hayley explained.

"What did you do?" Kat asked.

"Well, we put in a new sound chip so it sounds a little more clearer than before, and we replaced the old Ranger chime with our own signature one, and of course, we put in a LCD crystal and some other little things so it'll work, not just look, like a watch, but it still does what it's really meant to do." Ethan explained.

"The only thing that we had to reluctantly get rid of was the teleportation function." Hayley said.

"Y' know, speaking of which, how come you and Hayley weren't able to create something like that, doc?" Conner asked. "It definitely would've helped us out in a lot of ways."

"We tried to, but it was just way, way too complex for us to create that kind of function, plus we didn't have any resources to do it, and even the most advanced technology on Earth wouldn't be enough to even make a prototype of it." Tommy answered, remembering the many sleepless nights where he and Hayley would spend hours and hours on the mainframe trying to create a teleportation function and coming up with absolutely nothing. As a result, they had no choice but to scrap it altogether.

"So it still works like before, but it also works (and looks) like a regular watch and I can still use it to communicate with you guys?" Kat asked.

"Yeah." Hayley replied. "Its main function still works, all we did was take out/update some things so it'll work better than it did before. Go ahead, try it."

As Kat looked at her communicator again, she saw the all-too-familiar button below the lower part of the communicator and pressed it. Immediately the Dino-Thunder chime sounded off from Tommy and his student's bracelets.

"Testing, Testing." Kat said into the speaker, which still took up most of the communicator (except for the middle, which was of course, the LCD screen itself.). "Can you guys hear me?"

"Loud and clear." Tommy said into his bracelet.

"So what do you think?" Ethan asked.

"I like it." Kat answered with a smile. "And you were right, it looks and works better than before. Thanks guys."

"No problem." Ethan said sincerely.

"So…I guess this makes it official now, doesn't it?" Kat asked rhetorically as she looked from her communicator to her boyfriend.

"You already were a part of the team." Tommy said as he put a hand on Katherine's shoulder. "Hey, it's like the saying goes, 'Once a Ranger, always a Ranger'."

"And that's a fact." Kira said as she beamed at Kat.

"Well, I guess if that's that, then there's only one thing left to do." Ethan said.

"What's that?" Kat asked.

Ethan then looked at Conner, who then nodded with a grin before he stepped forward and with his fist clenched, thrust out his left hand with his red bracelet, followed by Ethan doing the same, then Kira, and then Trent. Sighing in amusement, but feeling no less the same as his students were, Tommy joined them as well, with each of the fivesome's fists forming a circle of sorts.

When all eyes turned to Kat she then looked at each of her new friends, and Tommy as well. As she did she then looked at her communicator, finding herself going into a semi-trance as she did. When she had passed on the power to Cassie years ago, Kat felt that as hard as it had been to give it up, she knew that she was starting a new chapter in her life, and as such, her time as a Ranger had come to an end, and it was time to pass the torch to a new generation. And when she had, Kat had believed that she would never be a Ranger again, even though at times she would dream of wanting to don the power once more, even if only just for old time's sake.

But now, in a series of strange events, what she had thought would only be just a dream had become reality. Not only that, but with Tommy on the team as well…in a lot of ways, it seemed as if all the stars had indeed aligned just right to where a small dream of hers had come to fruition in the best of ways.

With this realization also came another realization that now she wouldn't have to worry about sitting on the bench, and that now she would be able to face those dangers along with Tommy and the others…whatever it is those dangers may be.

With a warm smile on her face, Kat then placed her fist between Tommy's and Kira's, completing the circle.

As she did though, the bracelets and the communicator started to glow with their respective colors. As they glowed, energy streams then emitted from the six devices and met in the middle of the joining, converging onto each other and forming a faint image of the Dino-Thunder symbol before fading out.

Tommy then turned to his girlfriend and smiled a bright smile.

"Welcome to the team, Kat."

Kat blushed. "Thanks Tommy."

Tommy smiled again before nodding slightly to her, to which Kat nodded back, and when they looked at Conner, Kira, Trent, and Ethan, they smiled and nodded to them. At first the four teens were confused, but then in a split-second they caught on, and with one great shout, Conner, Ethan, Kira, Trent, Tommy,, Kat and even Hayley said a phrase that hadn't been said in the longest time, but is still a phrase for all time.

"POWER RANGERS!"

--

AN: Finally! Y'know, I wonder if I've beaten Nintendo's record for having the most delays, let's see…hmmm, nope, not yet. Well, anyways, how many of you already guessed what the disguise was going to be? If you knew it was going to be the communicator, then you guys catch on a lot more than I thought. I hope you guys enjoyed this installment and it was what you hoped it would be. Well, I'm off to work now, and again, I hope you guys enjoy it, and I hope it'll whet your appetite for more to come. Take it easy, and as Optimus Prime would say best: "Transform, and roll out!"