Epilogue

Tommy sighed contentedly as he turned his Jeep into his driveway. His past month on an archeological dig in Europe, while interesting and rewarding, had felt like the longest of his life. But it was done, now, and he was home. He wanted nothing more right now than to collapse on his bed and sleep for a week.

Bringing the car to a halt, he turned the engine off, grabbed his bag out of the back seat and hopped out of his Jeep. After making his way to the front door and around the piles of newspapers he'd apparently forgotten to cancel, he fumbled with his keys for a second before managing to unlock the front door. He had only made it two steps inside the door, however, when he discovered that the rest of his path was obstructed.

"What the…"

Tommy's eyes widened in shock, taking in the sight before him. He was brought out of his momentary reverie when he dropped his bag in disbelief and there was a loud popping noise. What looked like his entire house was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of balloons.

Multi-colored balloons.

Some were filled with helium and floating upon the ceiling. Others appeared to have been blown up manually and were piled a foot high off the ground.

Still reeling with shock, Tommy waded through all of the balloons, kicking them to the side and trying to avoid the strings hanging from the balloons on the ceiling. Finally, he made his way into the kitchen, which was also infested with balloons. And there, lying on the table, was a piece of paper folded in half. His name was written on the front in unfamiliar handwriting. He picked it up and, unfolding it, saw the same unknown handwriting on the inside.

Dear Tommy, it read,

So sorry, but we couldn't find ribbons to match all of the balloons.

It looked like someone whose name began with an X had begun to sign it but, judging from the tear in the paper, someone had forcibly taken the paper away from that person and blacked out the signature. It had been replaced in different handwriting with what appeared to be an acronym of some sort:O.T.O.M.D.G.

Tommy looked at the note again in confusion. What was any of it supposed to mean? And why was his house full of balloons anyway?

Out of frustration, Tommy kicked the balloon nearest to him so hard that it was squished in between his foot and the wall, causing it to pop. Tommy was about to look away when he spotted a white piece of paper half-hidden among the pieces of demolished balloon. Stooping quickly, he snatched it up and discovered a computer-typed message upon it.

You will be here.

Tommy stared at the small piece of paper for a solid minute, a feeling of trepidation rising in his stomach. Slowly, the hand clutching the note rose, so he could look again at the letters scrawled at the bottom of it, looking closer. He knew that handwriting, he just knew it. With the feeling of dread growing as the seconds passed, Tommy looked around at the balloons surrounding him.

Yellow, blue, pink, purple, silver, gold, orange…every shade imaginable of each of those colors.

Not a single green, white, red, or black balloon to be seen.

Jason.

Jason was responsible for this. Without a doubt it was Jason. No one else had a copy of the key to his house. No one else could possibly hold a grudge against him for all of the colors.

Could they?

Except, Jason must have had help. There was no way he could have managed all of this on his own. But who else could there be with any kind of vendetta against him? He hadn't had to fail any of his students at the end of the previous school year, so it wasn't likely to be any of them. In fact, the last student he remembered even contemplated failing for the entire year was a certain soccer player with a fondness for the color red…

Tommy's eyes went wide again as he had a sudden realization. He dropped both of the pieces of paper he was still holding and practically leapt across the room, kicking up many multi-colored balloons in the process. He yanked on the dinosaur skeleton and then practically fell down the steps into the lab.

His fall was cushioned by balloons.

They were in on it, too. He didn't know how many of them, or which ones, but some of the Dino rangers must have been in on it. Why did the world seem to hate him so much? What had he done to deserve this?

And no, serving on multiple ranger teams with multiple different colors was not the right answer.

Thoroughly dejected, Tommy made his way back up to the kitchen, where he noticed for the first time that the light on his answering machine was blinking. Crossing the room, he pushed the playback button on it and then collapsed onto a chair to listen. There were five messages from various organizations collecting money; one from Anton, asking how the dig went; one from Principal Randall, with the reminder that school started in less than a month; and three from his mother, whom he must have forgotten to tell that he was going out of the country. It was the very last message that caught his attention, however, as he was about to get out of his chair to find something to eat.

"Hey Tommy," Jason's voice rang out pleasantly. "I just thought I'd call to see how your dig-thingy went. Dig up any interesting dinosaurs? There was a slight pause, as if Jason had expected Tommy to answer. So, yeah, I don't really know when you're coming home. But I thought I'd let you know that I'm going out of town for a couple of days, in case you were thinking about stopping by, since, you know, we're friends and that's what friends do. Some of Adam's students are going to be in this big national competition, so Rocky, Zack, and I thought we'd go check it out and give Adam some moral support. It's been ages since any of us has gone to one of those things…and since we've all seen each other. If you get back in time, you should try and come, too. Although, seeing as we're leaving in five minutes and you wouldn't be here on time even if I'd told about it a week ago, you probably won't make it. Well, that's it, I guess. Call me sometime. Oh, yeah, and welcome home!"

The answering machine beeped to signal the end of the message and Tommy contemplated throwing it out of the window. But no, the innocent telephone had no part in this, really; no need to harm the messenger.

Of course, after that message, Tommy thought he might know of a few more people who had been coerced into breaking and entering his house. But now that he thought about it, how had Jason even known that he had gone on a dig? Yes, out of all of his old teammates, Jason was definitely the one he talked to the most, but Tommy had forgotten to tell his own mother that he was going on a dig. He knew for sure that he wouldn't have remembered to tell Jason that he was going, so how could he have known? In fact, the only person Tommy remembered telling that he was going out of town was Hayley…Hayley and the other Dino rangers, who had happened to be visiting Hayley at the café when Tommy had gone to tell her that he was leaving. If he had any doubt before about whether or not they had been involved in this, now Tommy knew for sure. Now he just had to figure out if anyone else had been in on it.

And then there was the matter of how exactly he was going to get rid of all of these balloons…

But sitting there, in his balloon-filled kitchen, there was definitely one thing of which Tommy Oliver was absolutely certain: Jason Scott Must Die.