Disclaimer: Everything Power Rangers belongs to Saban.
No permission, no profit, no lawyers. Got it? Kim's
roommate Corinne is loosely based off of a certain
person I know. You know who you are. 

Author's Notes: This fanfic was originally started
waaay back in February 2000; the first chunk was
written on a caffeine rush. Unfortunately, inspiration
lagged, and then two major projects derailed it
entirely: namely, "Special Case" and "Murphy's Law."
This is a romance - sort of. Given the nature of the
pairing, it required some setup and a bit of
time-travel to be plausible. I started this fanfic
before we knew anything about Time Force;
consequently, it ignores that series. (I toyed with
the idea of writing the Time Force Rangers in, but my
attempts to do so only made the story more convoluted
- and I was trying for a fairly simple story without
five different subplots.) 

My thanks for this one go out to Cynthia: it was she
who started throwing out challenges for unorthodox
couples and got my creativity demons frothing at the
mouth to write it. It's not a pairing that I'd
normally go for, but the setup was lots of fun and
gave me an excuse to write something non-"Bloodlines"
involving Mike. 

As for when this takes place... the "present" timeline
takes place shortly after "Stolen Beauty" and the
"past" timeline is shortly after the Turbo movie. The
opener was salvaged from a fanfic written before
"Destined for Greatness" blew a ton of holes in it. :)


Vacation
by Amanda Ohlin


Terra Venture
October 2003

"As of now, Lieutenant, you are on leave," Commander
Stanton said.

Mike Corbett couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Commander?"

Stanton frowned, trying to look stern. "That was not a
request, Mr. Corbett."

Biting back a groan, Mike sighed. He should have
expected something like this when the commander had
called him into his ready room. Actually, he was
grateful that Stanton was doing this in the privacy of
the ready room rather than in front of the rest of the
senior staff, but this was an order he couldn't obey.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted. I'd be surprised if you didn't."

"Sir, I respectfully request that you withdraw that
order." As Stanton merely looked at him impassively,
Mike continued. "I'm perfectly capable of performing
my duties. Doctor Fraiser found nothing wrong on my
test results."

Stanton nodded, getting to his feet. "Your ability is
not in question here. To the contrary, I'm aware that
you're quite capable. The problem is that you've
reappeared from a rather lengthy period of - God knows
what - and I'm afraid that you might be asking too
much of yourself to leap right back into duty rather
than giving yourself some time to adjust." He folded
his arms. "Besides, you haven't been looking all that
well."

Mike paused for a moment, pressing his lips together
in frustration. "To be honest with you, sir, I'm
better off here than I would be in my quarters. At
least here I know what's going on."

Shaking his head, Stanton took the datapad from his
first officer's hands, but not without some
reluctance. "I'll be the judge of that. You're
dismissed until further notice. Consider it a
vacation."

"Commander--"

"Dismissed." The hard edge to Stanton's tone indicated
that it was not a request. 

Mike wavered for a moment, but it was obvious that
there was no way to argue out of this one. His
shoulders slumped in defeat as he turned and left the
bridge. 

*****

Miami, Florida
March 1997

So much for a relaxing Spring Break.

Kimberly Hart leaned back and sighed as the taxi
pulled away from the airport. It was an amazing stroke
of luck that the week Coach Schmidt gave the team off
was the same week that Angel Grove High had for Spring
Break. She'd accepted Jason's offer to come home and
surprise the gang as a way to cool off and mend old
wounds. Specifically those caused by the letter she
didn't write. 

When she finally found out why Tommy hadn't called,
the culprit had been obvious: Tyler Jackson, an
arrogant jerk from the men's team who she had
rebuffed. He'd had access to her room, knew how to
forge handwriting, and was just underhanded enough to
try something like that. If she ever saw him again,
she was going to give him hell. Not for breaking up
her relationship - it was too late to try to mend that
by the time she found out - but for hurting Tommy like
that. 

The pain was why she'd returned. It was probably too
late to try to salvage what they'd had. But Kim
couldn't stand the thought of Tommy being unhappy due
to the manipulations of a prick he'd never met. And
her hopes had, after all, been realized; Tommy was
with Katherine. They had plenty in common, and Kim
knew Kat would take good care of him. 

If only Divatox hadn't interfered.

Kim shuddered, remembering the feeling as she'd been
lowered into the Pit of Eternal Fire. First that
excruciating, hateful blast of heat... then that cold
chill it left behind. She'd never believed herself
capable of the bitterness and hatred that had poured
into her heart at that moment. The release when
Lerigot had restored her was an utter relief, yet it
did nothing to purge the memories of what she'd done,
what she'd said. 

After their rescue, Jason naturally opted to stay in
Angel Grove, since his family was there. Kim had only
stayed just to straighten things out with Tommy and
Kat and make sure they would be okay. Once that was
accomplished, though, she had to go back to Florida.
She couldn't stand to be around the two of them, and
it wasn't out of jealousy. It just brought back
memories of Murianthus.

She might have killed Kat if not for the wizard's
interference. And Tommy would have been alone again. 

Besides, she had to wrap up the Pan-Globals, and send
in her acceptance letter to the University of Miami.
She'd received a full scholarship there, based on both
academics and athletics... and frankly, after the
finals she was quitting the Pan-Globals for good. Yes,
she loved gymnastics. Yes, she loved competing. But
she didn't want to spend her life in competition. She
wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do, but it
wasn't that. And she had plenty of time to figure it
out.

In the meantime, there was still a few days of
vacation left. Perhaps she could use it to relax.

******

Leo was surprised to see Mike in their quarters so
early in the afternoon. Not only that, he was wearing
civilian clothes: jeans and a gray t-shirt. Leo hadn't
seen his brother out of uniform since Mike's return.
"Mike? What are you doing here?"

At the sound of his voice, Mike turned away from the
window, looking tired and frustrated. "Huh? Oh." He
sighed. "The commander put me on mandatory leave.
Something about letting me get back on my feet."

"Well, you haven't been looking so good lately," Leo
informed him. 

"I'm just not sleeping well," Mike replied. "I know
he's trying to do what's best, but I'll go nuts if I
don't know what's going on."

Leo chuckled. "Yeah, I know that firsthand." He ducked
Mike's playful swipe as their communicators suddenly
went off. "Leo here."

It was Maya on the other end. "Leo, you have to come
to the Forest Dome! There's a bunch of Stingwingers
out here. I don't know what they're doing, but it
can't be good."

"We'll be right there," Leo assured her. He turned to
his brother. "Coming, Mike?"

But Mike was already halfway to the door. Shaking his
head, Leo followed his brother out.

******

They found Maya huddled in the bushes, watching the
Stingwingers bustling around in a nearby clearing.
They appeared to be setting up a device of some sort,
but it was entirely unfamiliar to Mike. One of
Scorpius' generals, probably a lackey, was overseeing
the activity. 

"What are they doing?" Leo whispered as they crouched
down beside her.

The air shimmered, and Trakeena appeared in the
clearing, scaring the daylights out of the
Stingwingers. "What is taking so long?" she demanded. 

Mike signalled for silence. "Shh. Maybe we'll find
out."

The lackey in charge wrung his talons nervously. "My
apologies, Princess, but a temporal disruption device
takes time to calibrate. It's highly unstable; we
might warp ourselves into another time and place if
we're not careful."

"Well, stop yammering and CALIBRATE it already!"
Trakeena shrieked. "Daddy's tired of waiting for all
the people on Terra Venture to be warped out of time!"

She continued to screech, but the trio had heard
enough. "I'm no scientist," Mike murmured, "but I know
we can't let them set off that device."

Leo was nodding. "Where's the others?"

"I tried to call them, but Damon's in the middle of
repairs, Kendrix can't get out of the lab, and Kai is
on the bridge," Maya replied. "I don't know how long
it'll take them to get here."

"We can't wait for them," Leo pointed out. "Trakeena's
not going to wait. We've got to stop that thing from
going off."

Mike was studying the group in the clearing, noticing
something in the lackey's hand. "That's not going to
be easy. See that remote he's got? I'll bet you it
controls a force-field generator."

Maya peered out at the device, her keen eyesight
picking out the small gray box at the other end of the
clearing. "There! That might be it!"

"So one of us distracts them, one of us destroys the
generator, and one of us destroys the device," Leo
concluded.

"I'll take the device," Mike offered. "The Magna
Blaster might be able to take it out."

"All right," Leo said. "Maya, you distract them, and
I'll get the generator. Come on."

"Go Galactic!"

"Magna Power!"

******

Trakeena hesitated mid-screech. "Did you hear that?"

The lackey could only blurt, "Hear what?" before a
yellow blur leapt from the trees and all but landed on
top of him. He at least had the sense to hit the
remote, because a force-field flickered into life
around the device. 

"I have to do everything myself," Trakeena muttered as
the Yellow Ranger pummeled the latest disposable
general. She glared at the Stingwingers. "Get her, you
morons!"

They immediately swarmed towards Maya, but then
another figure emerged from the trees, handily
dispatching the Stingwinger guarding the field
generator. "No!" Trakeena cried, leaping into the air.


As his Quasar Saber swung down, it was blocked by her
staff. "It's not going to be that easy, Red Ranger!"

"There's a first," he quipped. Enraged, she lunged at
him, and he parried the blow. The two combatants
squared off, oblivious to the action around them.
Trakeena didn't notice the pink and green figures
jumping into the fray, beating Stingwingers left and
right. 

"Didn't want to wait for us?" Damon quipped as he
literally threw a Stingwinger off of his beleaguered
teammate, helping Maya up. 

"There's no time!" Maya exclaimed. "That device - it's
got to be destroyed!" She ducked a punch and kicked
the Stingwinger away. "Leo was going to destroy the
force-field generator, but Trakeena stopped him!"

Just as she said that, Leo scored a hit on Trakeena's
shoulder. It was minor, and didn't do much damage, but
it caught her off balance. The distraction cost her as
Leo cut clean through the generator with his sword.
Deprived of power, the force-field flickered and died
out. 

"Where's Kai?" Maya managed to gasp in the midst of
fighting.

"Couldn't get away from Commander Stanton!" Kendrix
cried.

By that time, the fighting had spread out, and the
Stingwingers and Rangers were battling it out all
around the device. The Magna Defender was crouched in
the trees, prepared to fire. From his vantage point,
Mike could not get a clear shot at the device. And the
way the Stingwingers were fighting, he didn't think
the others would be able to do it either. 

He reformed the Magna Blaster back into the Saber,
waiting for his opening. When Damon kicked a
Stingwinger back, Mike saw his chance and leapt from
his hiding place, moving right for the device.
Trakeena saw what he was doing and screamed, but it
was too late as Mike swung the Magna Saber, slicing
through the temporal disruption device like butter. 

At that same moment, a Stingwinger accidentally struck
one of the buttons on the device. 

A sphere of rainbow light burst from the machine,
spreading out briefly to engulf Mike before
contracting again, turning in upon itself. Mike found
himself unable to move or speak as the light passed
through him. He felt himself demorph, and was vaguely
aware of Leo shouting as the light pulled away to
become a vortex, pulling him into its bright depths. 

He had time for one last thought before falling into
the depths of the time hole.

<I>Oh, no. Here we go again.</I>
 
******

It was a good afternoon for a run.

Glancing up at the gray, cloudy sky, Kim sighed. Well,
maybe it wasn't such a good afternoon for a run, but
she definitely needed to clear her head. 

Her first night back in Florida hadn't been all that
relaxing; the other athletes who had opted to remain
in their apartments had thrown a rather wild party. It
hadn't gotten all that out of hand, really, and it
would have been a blast if Kim hadn't been so acutely
aware of the number of couples gathered there. She was
one of the few who was alone over break.

Fortunately, Tyler had been absent. Kim was sure that
she would have done more than cause a scene if she'd
seen him. <I>It's his fault I'm alone...</I>

Was it?

She slowed to a jog, turning the thought over in her
mind. True, she couldn't have prevented the letter.
But if she'd stayed in Angel Grove, she'd at least be
with her friends and maybe her dad right now instead
of jogging all by her lonesome around the compound.

It was almost as if she was choosing to be alone. The
problem was that she hated not having someone to be
with, to confide in, to have fun with. 

The jog slowed to a walk as Kim cut through an alley,
lost in her thoughts. She was so absorbed in her
problems that she almost walked smack into the monster
blocking her path. When she saw it, though, Kim let
out a yelp of surprise, automatically falling into a
fighting stance.

It was roughly humanoid in appearance, armored, with a
fishlike face and huge bulging eyes. Kim backed away
as two other beings appeared beside it with splashing
sounds, gibbering in a language not unlike
Putty-speak. But when she backed into something, she
whirled to see more behind her, blocking her escape.

One of them extended a gauntleted hand, and small
claws popped out of the fingers. The others followed
suit. Kim spun around, terrified not at the sight of
the creatures surrounding her, but at the thought of
who they must be working for. She couldn't go through
that again. There was no way she would let herself go
through that again. 

Determination flared inside her. If anything, they
were actually uglier than Putties or Tengas. But that
didn't mean they were any harder to fight.

With a yell, she spun and kicked out at the nearest
creature, backflipping out of the reach of another. It
was a relief to find that her fighting skills hadn't
deteriorated during her time in Florida; two of the
creatures splashed into oblivion beneath her assault. 

But still more took their place. No matter how
viciously she fought, there were too many of them. Kim
screamed as a webbed hand clamped around her wrist
with an iron grip. What she wouldn't give for a
morpher. Or a blunt object. Or any kind of
distraction. 

She shouldn't have left her friends. If she had stayed
behind, there would be some hope, some backup to get
her out of this mess. Wrenching her wrist free and
backhanding another creature, Kim silently prayed for
a miracle.

A moment later, she got one.

******

The time hole opened up, and Mike landed on something
wet and soft. A couple of somethings. He suddenly
realized they were a pair of fishlike creatures that
were almost as ugly as Stingwingers as the creatures
twitched and vanished in a splash of water. It was
then that he also noticed the six or seven others
around him, attacking a young woman who was kicking
and punching like crazy.

Seeing a new target, they advanced on him. Mike leapt
to his feet. A webbed, clawed hand slashed at him, but
he caught the thing by the wrist and threw it to the
ground. Another one was felled by a crescent kick, and
the third got bashed in the face. One of them got
lucky, and its claws raked across his forearm. 

Somehow, he found himself fighting back to back with
the girl they had been attacking. She was definitely
holding her own, and Mike had the feeling she didn't
need his help. Between the two of them, the creatures
were finished off within minutes, leaving them alone
in the alley.

Mike turned back to where the time hole had been, and
his spirits sank. "It's gone. Damn it!"

"What's wrong?"

Mike groaned softly, turning to try to give the girl a
cover story. But as his eyes met hers, anything he
could have said died in his throat. She was petite and
pretty, her long caramel-colored hair tied back in a
French braid with a few stray wisps framing her face.
Her brown eyes seemed to pull him in as surely as the
time vortex had. The baggy T-shirt and running shorts
she was wearing did nothing to diminish her beauty. "I
- um - are you all right?" he finally managed.

She dusted herself off. "I'm fine. Just <I>fine.</I>"
A twinge of bitterness came through as she spoke.
"They just can't leave well enough alone, can they?"

Mike said nothing, giving her a moment to compose
herself. She pulled herself together in a few seconds,
looking up at him again. "I'm sorry. This is just
adding on to a miserable couple of days."

"I know the feeling." Impulsively, he offered a hand.
"I'm Mike. Mike Corbett."

She looked at him for a moment before taking his hand
in her own. "Kimberly Hart. Kim for short." She smiled
then, a smile that lit up her entire face. "Thank
you."

"Well, it didn't look like you needed much help," Mike
answered. "You were handling things pretty well on
your own."

The admiration in his voice was not lost on Kim. "They
probably would have gotten me if you hadn't landed on
a few," she told him. Mike grinned. "I appreciate it."

Her smile suddenly faded as she noticed his wounded
arm. The scratches were still fresh, and bleeding
badly. "It's not that bad," Mike started to protest.

"Not that bad? Mike, you can fight, but you're a
terrible liar." She examined his arm carefully for a
moment. "There's a first aid kit in the gym. I'll
patch you up."

"You don't have to--"

The look she gave him clearly said she wouldn't take
no for an answer. "The macho routine doesn't work on
me." Her expression softened then. "Besides, I owe
you. Now come on, or do I have to drag you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Mike said with a grin. Kim sighed and
led him out of the alley.

******

The moment her device was destroyed, Trakeena let out
a shriek of rage before teleporting away, presumably
to blame the entire failure on the latest disposable
general. The few remaining Stingwingers exchanged
glances and disappeared as well, leaving the four
Rangers staring at the smoking and sizzling remains of
the temporal disruption device. 

"No," Leo whispered. "He can't be gone."

Damon was the first to approach, waving away the smoke
as he looked over the half-melted circuitry. "He fried
it good, all right," the mechanic observed. As Leo
clenched a fist, Damon added, "But I don't think he
fried himself, Leo. Calm down."

Kai chose that moment to dash into the clearing,
stopping short when he saw the scene before him.
"What's happened?"

"The power surge must have generated a random time
hole," Kendrix theorized. "Mike was in such close
proximity to the device when he destroyed it that he
couldn't help but be pulled in."

"What?" Kai gasped as the information sunk in.

"But he's alive, isn't he?" Maya asked, moving to
stand beside Leo. The Red Ranger was standing
stock-still, staring blankly at the smoking machine. 

"He was morphed when it blew, so he should be okay,"
Damon answered. "Trouble is, we don't know where or
when he is. And this sucker's way too far gone to tell
us."

"What?" Kai asked again.

"I don't believe it," Leo said. "He's gone. Again."

"Maybe not," Kendrix interrupted, holding up a hand
before Leo could do anything rash. "I think I know how
we could find him. Come on."

As they followed her out of the clearing, Kai stood
there for a moment, blinking in confusion before he
fell into step beside Damon. "What?" he repeated
dazedly.

Damon sighed. "I'll fill you in on the way."

******

"That was a time hole, wasn't it?" Kim asked as she
sat down on the bleachers beside Mike, the first aid
kit in her lap.

He blinked, surprised. "How did you know?"

"I'm from Angel Grove, so I've had a little experience
with them," she informed him cautiously, not really
sure if she should get into the entire story. "How
about you?"

"First time, actually. What <I>is</I> the date?"

She opened the case and set it down beside her. "Let
me see the arm and I'll tell you." 

Reluctantly, he extended his arm, and Kim winced
sympathetically at the sight of the parallel gashes.
They looked painful, but there didn't seem to be any
infection. Still, it was best to be safe. She fished
out a small bottle and a cotton swab from the kit
before turning back to Mike, who was looking at her
expectantly. "Oh. Sorry. Uh, March 14, 1997."

"1997?" Mike echoed, sighing. "Oh, great. At least I'm
not that far back." He flinched a bit as she began to
clean the cuts. Kim studied him surreptitiously for a
moment; she hadn't noticed how good-looking he was. He
wasn't "drop-dead gorgeous" like the model-type guys
her roommate gushed over, but there was an appealing
quality about him, especially when he smiled. She
couldn't shake the feeling that they'd met before.

"Exactly how far back are you?" she wondered.

Mike hesitated for a moment before answering. "Six
years."

She nodded, filing that away to think over later.
"Does that sting?"

"Only a little," Mike admitted. "You're pretty good at
this."

"I've got to be," Kim told him as she retrieved some
bandages from the kit. "With all the bumps and bruises
that balance beam's given me, I had to pick up a
little first aid."

Mike glanced around the empty gym, looking at the
banners lining the walls. They listed all the
championship wins and the years and the names of
individual winners. "You can't have been beaten up
that badly," he observed. 

Kim turned to see what he was looking at; her name
popped up on several banners for several events. "Oh,
that was last summer," she said dismissively. "I'm
just finishing up here before I go to school.
Gymnastics isn't cutting it; I want to make something
of myself."

"Really? Doing what?"

She hesitated before looking up to meet his quizzical
brown eyes. "I have absolutely no idea." She laughed
at that, and Mike joined in.

"Kim! Kimmie! I've been looking all over for you!"

Kim was wrapping Mike's arm up when a familiar squeal
echoed through the gym. "Oh, no," she sighed. "Don't
look now, but here comes my roommate."

Corinne Roberts bounced up to them excitedly. She was
a tiny redhead, a few inches shorter than Kim and
seemingly on a neverending sugar rush. Despite her
quirks, she was a sweetheart, and Kim loved her as
much as she was irritated by her. "You are not going
to believe what's happened," Corinne gushed. "You know
Aaron's aunt Marge? The one who's got that huge beach
house out by Fort Lauderdale?"

Aaron was on the men's team, and he and Corinne were
joined at the hip. Kim finished wrapping Mike's
injured arm before replying. "What about her?"

"She finally caved. She said she'd let Aaron bring a
bunch of us down there to stay for the rest of break
so we don't go out of our minds and besides, she says
it's safer than Miami. Coach even gave the okay. We're
all going to get dinner at this awesome grill
downtown, and then we're going to take the van down
there. Liz is going, Mark is going, Angie's going, so
is Allison and Jake and me and Aaron and you've got to
come!"

Kim paused, noting that Tyler was conspicuously absent
from that list. "Okay."

"Great! I'll tell Aaron." Corinne finally noticed
Mike. "Who are you?"

Kim valiantly stifled a laugh. "Corinne, this is Mike.
Mike, this is my roommate, Corinne."

"Hi there." Corinne looked Mike up and down
appraisingly before turning to Kim. "Can I talk to you
for a minute?" 

Kim rolled her eyes and allowed her roommate to drag
her out into the hall. Mike watched them go with some
amusement. The moment they were out of sight, Corinne
started babbling again. "Who is he, where did you find
him, and does he have a brother?"

"Corinne!" Kim exclaimed. "Why are you giving me the
third degree here?"

"He's cute, he's with you, and I've never seen him
before. Details. Now."

"Oh, for crying out loud, I just met the guy." Corinne
did not look pacified in the least, and Kim added,
"Some creeps attacked me and he helped me fight them
off, all right? The least I could do was patch him
up."

Corinne raised an eyebrow. "Kim, you must bring this
one along."

"Okay, now I know you've had too much sugar. Is this
the same girl who's always warning against strange
men?"

"That was when my roommate wasn't moping around all
lonely," Corinne retorted. "Or plotting Tyler's death
- and I'd like to point out that Jackass is NOT
invited."

Kim couldn't help but smile at the nickname that
Corinne had given Tyler. "If he was, I wouldn't be
going, period."

Corinne barreled on, oblivious to Kim's comment. "And
didn't you see the puppy-dog look on his face when he
was looking at you?"

"I was too busy bandaging his arm to notice," Kim told
her. "Besides, Aaron's aunt--"

"Aaron's aunt is letting ME stay at her house. That
should tell you how much she's willing to risk,"
Corinne pointed out. She grabbed Kim by the hands,
bouncing up and down. "Please, please say you'll come
and bring the hottie along!"

Someone coughed, and Corinne whirled to see Mike
standing in the doorway. "Um, sorry to interrupt," he
said sheepishly, "but I thought you'd like to know I
could hear you all the way from the bleachers."

Corinne's face went about as red as her hair, and Kim
smiled. "Mike, do you want to come along?"

"I'd love to," Mike replied, giving Corinne a
sympathetic look. "I <I>do</I> have a little brother,
but he's out of town."

"Great," Corinne squeaked, finally composing herself.
"I'm going to go wallow in my humiliation upstairs
now. Meet you out front at five?"

"Sure," Kim agreed, sighing as her roommate darted
down the hallway and out of sight. "I am so sorry
about that. We don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No, it's all right," Mike assured her. "I - ah - I'm
going to have to figure out what to do, and you said
you've had experience with time holes, so maybe we
could compare notes over lunch." He frowned. "That
didn't sound as bad as I think it did, did it?"

"It was fine," Kim said, taking his good arm in her
own as they started down the corridor. "Most people
find it hard to complete a coherent sentence after
their first exposure to my roommate."

"Does she even stop to breathe?" Mike asked, and Kim's
answering laughter echoed down the hallway.

******

As Kendrix and Alpha Six set up a small device,
connecting it to a video display, Damon goggled in
amazement. "Is that what I think it is?"

"A temporal flux calibrator? Yes," Kendrix answered.
She finished hooking it up and pressed several
buttons, causing the small display to light up.

"You can't sit there and tell me DECA's had one of
those lying around all this time," Damon said.

Leo frowned. "What are you talking about? What is
that?"

"This is an Aquitian temporal flux calibrator," Alpha
replied as if that was the most obvious thing in the
world. 

Damon coughed. "It's, uh, supposed to monitor time
streams or something, I don't really know. But I know
there's only two or three of them outside of Aquitar."

Kai looked at his friend suspiciously. "How did you
get a hold of that?"

"It's not important," Kendrix answered dismissively,
her eyes locked on the small screen as her fingers
flew across the console. In a few moments, a
holographic diagram lit up; a series of parallel white
lines that flowed over a perpendicular series of red
bars that formed a plane beneath the streaming lines
of light. The white lines were flowing, rippling
almost. "What is important is that it might help us
find Mike."

Maya peered at the display. "What is all that?"

"These things," Kendrix explained, pointing at the
white lines, "represent different time streams.
They'll help us pinpoint when Mike ended up. The red
bars represent different points in space."

"They'll help us pinpoint where Mike landed," Leo
finished.

Kendrix beamed. "Exactly. It's a rather simplistic
display, I know, but it's a display our minds can
easily comprehend. Anything more than a
three-dimensional model would give even Aquitian
scientists headaches."

"So why are the white lines rippling like that?" Kai
asked. "The red lines aren't moving at all."

"Points in space are stationary," Kendrix told them.
"Points in time, however, are constantly changing. If
we pinpoint Mike at a moment in time, the next moment
he'll be gone. Once we get a time lock, it will
continue to move in accordance with the amount of time
elapsed afterwards while we try to get a location."

"Okay," Leo said, not quite understanding, but
trusting Kendrix's expertise. "What do we do now?"

"I'm entering all the data the Megaship has on Mike,"
Alpha told them, tapping away at the console.
"Specifically, his energy signature. The Magna
Defender powers should leave a visible trail for us to
search for." 

Alpha hesitated, and Damon frowned. "Okay, what's the
catch?"

"There are two catches," Kendrix admitted. "The first
is that if we spend, say, two days searching for Mike,
he has to remain in the past for the same amount of
time. He could risk serious temporal disorientation if
we pick him up early."

"And the other one?" Leo prodded.

Kendrix sighed then, brushing her bangs out of her
face. "For such a widespread search, we're not going
to just be able to pick up the signature," she said.
"Mike's going to have to morph."

The other four Rangers seemed to deflate at this news.
"Great," Kai sighed. "This is not going to be easy."

******

The restaurant Corinne had been gushing about was
actually a nice little place, and after dodging a
stream of curious questions, Mike was relieved when
Kim singled out a small booth in the corner, set apart
from the rest of the group. "Finally," Kim sighed as
she sat down. "I thought I'd never get Corinne to
leave us alone."

Mike nodded, reluctantly changing the subject. "So
tell me what you know about time holes."

"Not much, actually," Kim sighed. "I mean, I do have
experience with them. Somebody tried to trap me in one
a few years back, but some friends of mine managed to
open another one and bring me home."

"Friends of yours?" Mike repeated cautiously.

Kim caught the look in his eyes and smiled. "We were
kind of a team."

It dawned on Mike just what sort of team she was
talking about. "I get it." She was keeping it vague,
just in case someone in the crowded restaurant heard
their conversation. "So how did they do it?" he
prodded, just in case his assumption was off.

She smirked. "Magic."

Mike sighed, making a big show of searching the booth
for something. "Damn it, I left my magic wand at
home."

She rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the arm
as the waitress came up to get their drinks. Kim
ordered orange juice, but Mike settled for water.
"I'll give you a few minutes to look over the menu,"
the waitress said, handing them both menus and
departing. Kim opened hers eagerly, but Mike set his
aside with a resigned sigh.

"Aren't you going to get anything?" Kim asked
curiously.

Mike shrugged. "I'm not really hungry," he lied,
glancing longingly at a cheeseburger being served to a
nearby table. "Besides, I can't afford anything."

"I can pay. You'll just have to pay me back."

"You don't have to do that," Mike protested, and Kim
gave him a look. "I don't have anything to pay you
back with."

Kim narrowed her eyes. "You're not going to tell me
we're not going to need cash in six years, are you?"

"No, believe me, that hasn't changed." Mike chuckled,
remembering the last time he'd had to do his taxes
before leaving for Terra Venture. "Just don't need any
where I'm from."

"That's it," Kim said. "You have got to explain this
one."

"Hey, it's not <I>that</I> improbable," Mike said.

"I'm a recovering shopaholic," she informed him. "This
concept is utterly alien to me."

He frowned, remembering the lectures he'd heard about
temporal mechanics. "I don't know..."

"Tell me and I'll buy you dinner."

Mike looked at her oddly, trying not to laugh. "What,
you're resorting to bribery now?"

"Well, you won't take charity, so what else am I
supposed to do?"

He ordered the cheeseburger.

******

"So how'd they pick people to go on the space colony?"
Kim wondered as they wandered past a shelf full of
microwave popcorn.

"Interviews, personal history, employment, special
skills, medical records, you name it," Mike informed
her. "There was this ridiculously long list of
criteria they had to fulfill."

"Oh. So how on Earth did <I>you</I> get picked in the
first place?" She giggled, ducking the playful swipe
he made at her.

He pulled her into a one-armed hug instead. "Ha ha.
Are we done yet?"

"What? It's not my fault Angie and Corinne absolutely
<I>had</I> to make a shopping stop."

Mike sighed, making a show of suffering. "Sure. Blame
it on someone else."

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you didn't miss trips to
Wal-Mart just a little bit."

Mike glanced around at the huge price placards and the
crowds pushing and shoving through narrow isles.
"Okay, I won't tell you. But did you have to get all
that?"

"You'll thank me later." She patted the spare pair of
jeans and t-shirts she'd forced him to try on, which
were draped over her arm. 

"I can't <I>pay</I> you back, Kim, that's the point,"
Mike reminded her. "I don't know, I just don't want
you to go to all this trouble."

"Like I said, I owe you. Now shut up." She nudged him
playfully. "Seriously, though, I don't know if I can
get through to my friends. I'll try to make a call to
Angel Grove tonight, but you might be spending the
night no matter what."

Mike looked down at her and smiled. In the short hours
they'd known each other, they had become surprisingly
comfortable with one another. Whether or not it had to
do with the strange sense of familiarity they had,
Mike was sure of one thing - he wasn't in as great a
hurry to get back to Terra Venture. "You know
something?" he told her. "I can deal with that."

******

"You know," Damon muttered, "if you stare at it from
this angle long enough, it's almost hypnotic." Beside
him, Maya yawned. "Cut that out!"

Kai hurried onto the bridge, fresh from his latest
shift. "Okay, Henderson, my turn."

Damon nodded and stood up, yawning as he did so. He
shot an accusing look at Maya, who smiled at him with
a look of sleepy contentment in her eyes. "God, it's
contagious. Did the Commander say anything?"

"About Mike? No," Kai replied. "But he kept looking
around all afternoon. I think he half-expected Mike to
come poking around at the earliest opportunity to find
out what he was missing."

"That sounds like Mike," Damon agreed, looking over at
Maya. She had her head rested against the console, and
was barely awake. "Leo's going to come and relieve
Sleeping Beauty here in about an hour. Til then, she's
all yours. I've got to get to work."

With that, he hurried out. Kai sighed and sat down
beside Maya, watching the shining streams of time flow
by. 

After a moment, he shook himself and scooted his chair
over to view it from a different angle. "He's right,"
Kai muttered. "It <I>is</I> hypnotic."

******

Alone in the study, Kim dialed in the series of
numbers printed on her mother's phone card. Outside,
she could hear laughter and an older woman's voice
scolding someone; Corinne had already gotten on Aunt
Marge's bad side. She felt a little sorry for Mike,
regretting leaving him out there with the vultures,
but he could take care of himself. Besides, this call
had to be private, even though it involved him.

She finished punching in the touch-tone code and
hesitated, thinking. Who should she call? Tanya and
Justin she didn't know very well. Rocky was a
possibility, but it was almost six in California and
she'd have to wrest him away from a family dinner.
Adam's number had changed, and she couldn't recall the
new one. Tommy... no, no, calling Tommy somehow seemed
like a bad idea. 

That left Katherine. Kim smiled, remembering the one
night she'd spent in Angel Grove after all the horror
had ended, sharing her pain with Kat and Tanya over a
bag of marshmallows. Kat had been unbelievably
understanding. Her decision made, Kim dialed the
Hilliards' number. 

Someone squealed in the hallway as the phone was
picked up on the third ring. "Hello? Hi, Mrs.
Hilliard, this is Kimberly Hart... yes, Katherine's
friend. Is she around?" Kim paused, covering her free
ear to block out the laughter from behind the study
doors. "Out with Tommy. Okay. Um, do you know when
she'll be home? Yes, it is pretty important. The
number here? Oh, I don't know... I'm staying at a
friend's tonight, and I forgot to ask." 

The giggling died down. "Around ten? Yes, that's
around one a.m. in this time zone. Can you just tell
her I called? I'll call tomorrow morning, then. It was
nice talking to you, too, Mrs. Hilliard. Okay. Bye."

She hung up the phone with a deep sigh. Out with
Tommy. Darn. Oddly enough, the revelation didn't bring
on a twinge of jealousy, the spark of loneliness that
she thought it would.  

As she stood there, wondering what that meant, the
study doors opened just enough for Mike to stick his
head in. "Hi. Any luck?"

"She wasn't home." Kim smiled as Mike opened the door
all the way, standing in the open threshold. "I left a
message, but with time zones I'll have to call her
tomorrow. You okay?"

He shrugged. "You have some crazy teammates."

"You have <I>no</I> idea." There was an awkward
silence. "Did you come in here to tell me something?"

"I was just going to ask if you wanted to go outside,"
Mike said. "You know, escape from the funny farm?"

A battle cry echoed down the hall. Behind Mike, Aaron
dashed down the hallway, followed by Corinne, who was
holding a pillow over her head like a weapon. They
disappeared down the hallway, and more screams and
giggling could be heard.

Kim rolled her eyes. "I'll get my coat."

******

Leo leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his eyes.
He'd only been pulling his shift for two hours now,
and already the flowing white lines were putting him
to sleep. Groaning, he sat up straighter, blinking and
trying to keep his head clear. He couldn't afford to
let himself drop off to sleep. Since Maya had pulled
the entire afternoon shift, and the other three had
GSA duties, he was the only one who could do the late
night shift. Alpha was elsewhere recharging.

A gentle kiss on the cheek surprised him to full
awareness. Leo turned to see Kendrix standing there,
smiling at him. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't
you be in the lab?"

She sat down beside him. "I got off duty early. I
thought that maybe you'd like a little company."

"I'd love some," he told her sincerely, yawning.
"Staring at this thing is enough to put me in a
trance."

"I know, it's not that entertaining," Kendrix
admitted. "Nothing yet?" 

Leo shook his head, stifling a yawn. "I guess that's a
good thing. I mean, if Mike doesn't need to morph, he
can't be in too much trouble, right?"

Kendrix nodded, reaching over to take his hand and
squeeze it reassuringly. They sat there for several
moments, holding hands quietly, until Kendrix yawned
as well. "Great, now you've got me started." Leo
laughed, and she stood up. "What would you say if I
made us some coffee?"

"Synthetron coffee?" Leo made a face. 

"The Synthetron is capable of replicating perfectly
adequate provisions," DECA interrupted testily.

Startled, Leo jumped, and Kendrix smiled. "Uh, no
offense, DECA," Leo said guiltily, "but Synthetron
coffee just isn't the same."

"I meant real coffee," Kendrix said, laughing. "I'll
have to synthesize the grounds and the water, but I
can brew it myself."

"Oh, okay," Leo said, relieved. "Yeah, that would be
great."

She patted him on the shoulder before getting up and
heading for the lift. Leo watched her go before
turning back to the display with a resigned sigh.

******

"Wow," Mike murmured, looking around him with awe.
Aunt Marge's beach house was only half a mile from the
nearby private beach, which was empty and quiet save
for the soft crashing of the waves breaking on the
shore. It was a clear, surprisingly dry night, and the
light of the moon spilled over the dark water,
shimmering on the surf.

Kim paused at the base of the wooden steps to kick off
her sandals. "What do you mean, wow? It's a beach,
silly."

"Yeah, but it's empty," Mike added as he kicked off
his own shoes and socks and stuffed them beneath the
steps. "And clean. I didn't know these existed in this
state."

"Come on, you," Kim admonished him, slipping her arm
into his. 

They walked for a while in silence, their bare feet
padding across the cool, clean sand without fear of
broken bottles or discarded cans. The only sound was
the crash of the surf and the faint crunching of the
sand beneath bare feet. After several minutes, they
slowed and stopped right at the edge of the water, at
the point where the incoming waves could just barely
stretch out to lap at their toes before the tide
pulled the water away.

A moment or two passed, and Kim sank down onto the
soft sand with a sigh of relief. Mike sat down beside
her, grinning. "Tired?"

"Relieved," she replied. "It's nice to have some peace
and quiet."

She wasn't just referring to her teammates. Mike
studied her for a moment as she stared thoughtfully
into the night. Kim had changed and showered before
leaving the compound, and her long brown hair fell
free over her shoulders, lifted gently by the evening
breeze. He gently brushed away a stray lock that
tickled his cheek. Lost in her thoughts, Kim didn't
notice; her worried gaze was studying something that
only she could see. Understandingly, Mike reached over
to squeeze her hand. Kim caught his eye and smiled,
leaning against him as he put his arm around her. 

"What is it?" he asked after a moment.

She sighed deeply at the question, but didn't pull
away. "I don't know. Have you ever just felt like
you've completely tossed something good away?"

"Sometimes."

Kim bit her lip uncertainly before continuing. "I
broke up with my boyfriend a while ago," she finally
said. "It was a stupid reason why, I guess. So I went
home over Spring Break to see my friends again..."

"And he was there," Mike finished.

"Yeah." Kim nodded. "He's with a friend of mine now,
and she's really sweet, and they really deserve each
other... I did some things. I said some things. It
wasn't my fault, I - well, I wasn't in control of
myself at all." She lowered her eyes, playing with a
strand of hair. "And I didn't want them to break up, I
don't want him back, but seeing them together just
made me feel so strange. I just suddenly realized I
was alone," Kim finished, hesitating as the
realization hit her. 

Mike nodded, thinking about Leo and Kendrix, Kai and
Hannah... and even Damon and Maya, whose bickering had
taken on the tone that only couples had. "I was...
missing for a while. When I came back, it was like all
my friends had paired off, and I was just there in the
middle. I thought I'd found someone, but it turned out
she was just using me." He almost winced at the
understatement.

Kim jerked up slightly at that, nearly hitting Mike in
the chin. "You don't have a girlfriend?"

"No." He chuckled. "You almost got me in the jaw
there."

"Sorry." Kim didn't sound all that contrite. "I just
called that friend of mine," she went on. "She wasn't
home. She was out with him. The weird thing is, I
didn't feel anything. I mean, I expected to be
annoyed, or jealous, or something. But I wasn't."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Mike blurted out. Kim
pulled away slightly to stare at him, and he winced.
"Oh, I so didn't mean that to sound the way it did."

Kim studied him curiously for a moment, then let out a
soft laugh as she leaned back into his embrace,
resting her head on his shoulder. "It's all right." 

She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she did so.
"So what about you?"

"Hmm?"

"I've told you my sob story, now it's your turn," she
informed him. 

Mike chuckled. "No one told me that was the
procedure."

"Well, now you know. So where's your little brother?"

It took Mike a moment to process the question. "Huh?
Oh. Back on Terra Venture, I guess. Leo's probably
going nuts right now trying to figure out the time
hole."

"You must be pretty close," Kim observed.

"Yeah, if the situation was reversed, I'd be doing the
same thing." He sighed. "Leo was always running off
and doing crazy things. Usually I ended up trying to
keep an eye on him."

Kim looked up at him. "Worried he'll get into
trouble?"

"No, that he'll be the one worrying himself sick,"
Mike admitted. He looked down, his eyes locking with
hers. "I think..." He trailed off at that as they
looked into each other's eyes, that strange, almost
familiar attraction flaming up again.

"What?" Kim whispered.

"I think he can take care of himself," Mike finished.

Their faces were almost touching, and their lips met a
second later. The kiss was gentle and brief, but it
left both of them more than a little dazed. As Kim
pulled away, her eyes were unreadable, her expression
shadowed by the hair that blew into her face. Seeing
the hesitant, unsure look on his face, she brushed her
hair away and smiled, leaning in for another. 

This time, the kiss was not so brief, but it ended
abruptly as several loud splashes could be heard
nearby. Startled, Kim turned in the direction of the
sound. "Ohmigod! Piranhatrons!"

Mike saw what she was looking at, jumping to his feet
at almost the same time that Kim did. Half a dozen of
the fish creatures were stepping out of the ocean,
their intent perfectly clear. "Not again."

Kim fell into a fighting stance. "She just doesn't
give up, does she?" the gymnast muttered as the
Piranhatrons advanced.

Not bothering to ask who "she" was, Mike glanced back
towards the road. "Think we could run for it?"

"There's no way!" Kim exclaimed, pointing to where
several creatures were already milling around atop the
dunes. 

A roar caused them to both turn back towards the ocean
as a large creature appeared on the beach, a
lizardlike monster that stood nearly eight feet tall.
Its head swung towards them, revealing a mouthful of
gleaming teeth. 

"This just gets better and better, doesn't it?" Mike
remarked. 

The monster let out a roar. "I am Lizzinator!" it
snarled, yellow eyes glowing. "Surrender or die!"

"That's the best name she could dream up?" Kim
muttered.

Mike shrugged. "Yeah, well, Lizzie doesn't seem to be
all that clever itself." 

Lizzinator growled again, unsheathing a massive
broadsword and starting to advance. The group of
Piranhatrons began to close in.

"Okay," Kim said nervously as the two of them backed
away hastily from the surf. "I'm hoping the reason I
know about time holes is kind of the same reason you
have for falling through one!"

Mike spun, taking in the whole situation with a
glance. They were alone on an empty beach at an
ungodly hour, and the road was deserted. They were
surrounded, and running was not an option. And he knew
there was no way the two of them, unmorphed, could
take on the giant stepping from the surf. "I hope so,
too," he finally said, twisting his wrists in a
certain way. It was a relief to see the morphers
appear. "Here goes nothing," he muttered as the lizard
charged. 

"Magna Power!"

******

The temporal flux calibrator started beeping
incessantly. Leo woke from a sound sleep with a snort,
blinking sleepily at the diagram in front of him. A
blip was flashing along one of the flowing white
lines, and it took Leo a second to realize what that
meant.

He grabbed his communicator, fumbling frantically to
activate it. "Kendrix! Forget the coffee! We've got
something!"

******

Despite herself, Kim screamed as the monster charged
and Mike was suddenly engulfed in a blinding
blue-white swirl of light. For a moment, it was as
bright as day, but the monster was undeterred as it
charged the brightness, its sword coming down in a
deadly arc...

...only to strike another blade as it was easily
parried. The light faded as swiftly as it had come,
and Kim couldn't help but gape at the figure it left
behind. Where Mike had been standing, there was now a
warrior covered head to toe in heavy black armor and a
cape, his face obscured by a horned helmet. In his
hand was a massive sword, which he hefted as easily as
if it were a toothpick, deflecting the monster's blows
as blade met blade. 

"Mike?" Kim cried incredulously.

"Kim, get out of here!" Mike's voice shouted through
the helmet. "I'll hold them off!"

Kim hesitated, looking around. While Mike might be
able to handle the actual monster, there were still
half a dozen Piranhatrons to contend with. Spying a
rather long branch lying nearby, she made up her mind.
Kim snatched it up, hefting it like a bo staff. "Hell
no!" she shouted, turning to face the Piranhatrons.
"You take Ugly, I'll get the fish faces!"

Mike sighed. "Somehow I knew you'd say that."

******

"I think I can get a time lock," Kendrix said as she
stared intently at the diagram, her fingers flying
over the console before her. "If he stays morphed long
enough, I can get a spatial lock too."

"I know you can do it," Leo told her. But he was
trying to reassure himself of that fact as well.

******

Again the monster swung, and again the Magna Saber
barely parried the blow. Frustrated, Mike took the
offensive, trying to disarm the creature or at least
knock it back. If he could get a break, he could
switch to blaster mode and do some serious damage. 

But Lizzinator parried each and every one of his blows
with practiced skill; where it was lacking in clever
quips, the monster made up for in swordplay and brute
strength. Mike could feel the strength behind its
blows resonating through his limbs. While he could
match its strength morphed, something told him he'd be
hurting later. 

Behind him, he could hear a high-pitched battle cry;
Kim was tearing into the Piranhatrons with a
fierceness she hadn't shown earlier in the day. Out of
the corner of his eye, he saw a pink blur darting out
of the fish creatures' clumsy and laboring reach, and
smiled beneath his helmet. With Kim effectively
holding off the Piranhatrons, he was free to deal with
the monster alone. Mike was positive that if he had to
take on Lizzie and the fish faces, even morphed, he
wouldn't stand a chance.

"Surrender to me!" a voice hissed.

Suddenly, Lizzinator broke through his defense, and
the sword went flying. Mike ducked the next swing of
the monster's sword and rolled, diving for the Magna
Saber. "Die!" he heard Lizzinator growl.

Mike grabbed the Saber and leapt to his feet, just in
time to see Lizzinator's blade coming towards him -
and missing him completely as the monster slipped and
stumbled. Mike had driven him back from dry land into
the wet sand, where the footing wasn't quite as
stable. 

Not for the monster, anyway. While the upper part was
skilled, the lower part was not. If he could just get
Lizzinator onto softer sand... 

With a yell, Mike took the offensive again, driving
Lizzinator towards the surf. Slowly, the monster
retreated, and Mike could see the point where the
hard-packed sand gave way to pebbles and silt. Two
more inches... one more...

"Foolish human!" Lizzinator hissed. "You cannot defeat
me!"

Mike punctuated every word with a swing of his blade.
"Will - you - please - shut - up!"

As Lizzinator stepped back, its foot suddenly sunk
into the sand, and the creature reared back wildly,
arms pinwheeling as it tried to regain its balance.
The sword slipped from its grip, and Mike attacked as
Lizzinator fell backwards into the water.

But without solid footing, it wasn't that easy.
Lizzinator's tail lashed out, knocking Mike's feet out
from under him. It was a miracle he could hold on to
the Magna Saber as he was briefly tossed beneath the
waves. 

He surfaced again several feet behind Lizzinator, who
was again facing the shore. The creature inhaled
deeply and then spat out a mouthful of what looked
like a white goo in Kim's direction. She flipped out
of the way at the right moment, and the goo struck the
Piranhatron she was fighting, encasing it in a cocoon
of rapidly hardening glop. 

Its back was to him, and it was too focused on its
target practice to notice Mike moving up behind it as
it headed for the shore. Again it spat, and again Kim
dodged. It was about to reach solid footing as Mike
leapt upon Lizzinator's back and drove the Magna Saber
home. 

The creature howled as the sword stabbed into its
back. Black blood gushed from the wound as it thrashed
around, alternately snapping at Mike and spitting goo
at Kim, who was having enough trouble fighting off the
remaining Piranhatrons. Mike held on for all he was
worth, hoping the wound was enough to finish the
monster off. 

Kim had just made short work of the last remaining
Piranhatron when the monster spat out another mouthful
of goo, which struck Kim in the knees and hardened,
effectively binding her legs. Kim yelled as she fell
to the sand, unsuccessfully kicking and tugging at the
stuff to get her legs free. Seeing its prey had been
caught, the lizard monster stepped towards her,
ignoring the blade in its back. Kim saw it coming and
frantically clawed at the glop encasing her legs.

There was still a good twenty feet between them. A
crazy idea came to Mike. He drove the blade in deeper.
"Magna Blaster!"

At his command, the blade seemed to shrink in on
itself, the hilt bending to form the trigger as the
massive sword transformed into a blaster - which was
pointed literally into the monster. Hoping for a
miracle, Mike pulled the trigger. 

With a shriek, Divatox's latest monster met its end in
a terrific explosion. The force of the blast sent Mike
flying. He landed on his back, the impact knocking all
the wind out of him. Demorphing, he flopped back into
the sand with a groan. 

The goo encasing Kim's legs disappeared, and she
jumped to her feet, stumbling across the sand to where
he lay. "Mike? Mike, are you okay?"

He opened his eyes, smiling when he saw her leaning
over him. "Yeah. I'm fine." Groaning, he sat up. "So
do we know about time holes for the same reason?"

Wordlessly, she threw her arms around him, and Mike
hugged her as well. They remained there, holding each
other for several moments until Kim finally pulled
back. Mike was surprised to see that she was close to
tears. "Are <I>you</I> okay, Kim?"

"No, I--" She broke off, shaking her head. "I was sure
for a second there we'd lost, and I panicked, and I
shouldn't, and why can't Divatox just leave well
enough alone?"

Gently, Mike brushed her cheek, cupping her chin in
one hand. "Kim, tell me what's wrong."

She jerked her head away, turning so he couldn't see
her face. "You wouldn't understand, it was so - so--"

"I died. Top that."

Kim immediately turned back, staring at him. "What?"

Mike sighed. "Tell you what. Let's head back to the
house. We can trade stories in the morning."

******

The beeping stopped, and Kendrix sagged back in her
chair with a moan of defeat. Leo stared at her, at the
readouts, then back at Kendrix again. "What? What?"

"I couldn't get a spatial lock," she sighed. "The
signal's gone. He demorphed."

"But you got a time lock, right?" Leo asked.

Kendrix nodded, leaning forward to bring up the
figures. "Yeah. March 14, 1997." She sighed. "We know
when now, but not where."

She looked completely drained, and whatever
disappointment he might have felt was swallowed by
sympathy. "Come on," Leo said, taking her arm and
pulling her to her feet. "You need to get some rest.
We'll try again in the morning."

******

The party had died down an hour ago. Even Corinne,
with her seemingly boundless energy, had staked out a
bed in one of the upstairs guest rooms. The downstairs
rooms were quiet save for the patter of rain outside. 

Mike was sitting on the couch, staring idly out the
window. He'd staked out a bed upstairs, but he'd been
unable to sleep in it. After a few hours of staring at
the ceiling, he'd gone downstairs to sit and think
things over. He was physically exhausted, but his mind
was too active to rest. There was just too much to
worry about for sleep to be an option.

First, there was the main problem: how was he supposed
to get back to his own time? He didn't know that much
about temporal mechanics, although it had been covered
somewhat in his training. While they didn't have the
slightest idea how to actually utilize time travel,
the GSA had been made aware of the existence of
temporal anomalies, time holes and the possibility
that travelers could inadvertantly pass through them.
He'd initially thought the best course of action would
be to simply get back to 2003 as soon as possible
before altering the timeline.

But the minute he met Kimberly Hart, he must have
altered it. Mike propped his chin in his hands,
thinking. Their meeting hadn't caused any sort of
paradox as far as he was aware, and there were two
possible explanations for that. 

The first was that the changes in the timeline weren't
drastic enough to cause serious problems. The second
was that there had been no changes - that he was
supposed to meet her and save her from the fish
creatures. In short, perhaps he was supposed to be
here, and hadn't changed a thing at all. Some kind of
predestination paradox. If that was true, perhaps he
wasn't meant to go back at all. Perhaps he was
supposed to stick around in this timeline. 
 
His head hurt from trying to puzzle it over. This sort
of dilemma was something Kendrix would be able to make
sense out of. Strangely, the prospect of being stuck
in this time frame didn't seem so bad.

Which brought him to the next problem. If he went back
to his own time, he would probably have to leave Kim
behind. He'd only known her for a day, but already he
was falling for her. As absurd as it seemed, he knew
it was true. Every time he was around her, he was
drawn to her, instantly comfortable in her presence as
though they'd known one another for years instead of
hours.

Sure, he could stay in this time. But if he did, he'd
have to figure out how to keep from encountering
himself; six years wasn't long enough for him to be
unrecognizable. Besides,  he'd be leaving his little
brother, and his friends, alone again. He wasn't sure
he could live with himself if he did that.

"Nice going, Corbett," he muttered. "You met the
perfect girl at the wrong time."

"Couldn't sleep either?"

He looked up to see Kim standing in the doorway in her
pajamas, smiling at him. "Not really. Trying to figure
things out."

"Move over." He did so and she sat down on the couch
beside him, gazing out the window. "Ick. I know it's
the middle of the night, but I hate rain at the
beach."

"Defeats the purpose, doesn't it?" Mike looked out at
the rain for a second. "So what's your excuse?"

"Hm?" She blinked at him, confused, before she picked
up on his train of thought. "Well, it was less
thinking and more... worrying."

He nodded, not saying anything. They sat there quietly
for a few minutes, watching the rain together, taking
comfort in each other's presence. But even that
couldn't get rid of the worries. 

"Hey, we can trade stories now," Kim said suddenly,
breaking the silence.

It was Mike's turn to be confused. "Huh?"

She pointed at the clock. "1:15. It's technically
morning now."

"I guess it is." Mike smiled. "You want to start or
should I?"

*****

"Good morning, good mooorrnning..." a perky voice was
singing. "It's great to stay up late..."

Kim opened an eye to glare at the cheerful face of her
roommate. "Where's my machete?" she mumbled, fumbling
for a pillow to block out the sound with.

Corinne grinned, unrepentant. "Where's my camera?" 

Unable to find a pillow, Kim lifted her head. She
suddenly realized that she was not in bed as she'd
supposed, but curled up on the couch, practically
using Mike as a body pillow. "Oh, God."

Beneath her, Mike stirred, opening his eyes to see the
two of them tangled up on the couch and the grinning
girl standing over them. "This isn't what it looks
like."

"Looks like you two got comfortable last night,"
Corinne replied.

"Again, this isn't what it looks like," Mike muttered.
"Ow."

"Sorry," Kim apologized, lifting herself off of him.
She nearly tumbled to the floor, but years of
gymnastics kicked in and she shifted her weight in
time to half-roll, half-cartwheel herself to her feet
instead. 

Corinne was on the verge of hysterical laughter. "And
after all the fuss over finding separate beds. You
ought to be ashamed of yourselves."

Mike sat up, glancing at the clock. "It's only quarter
to eight." He turned to Kim. "Permission to kill your
roommate?"

"Forget it," Kim said, picking up a cushion. "She's
mine!" 

With a shriek, Corinne dashed out of the living room.
Instead of chasing after her, Kim dropped the cushion
and flopped back down on the couch. "Morning people,"
Mike muttered.

Kim chuckled. "You want to know something scary? I
used to be one." She yawned. "Think I'm going to try
to get a few more hours' sleep in an actual bed. You
coming up?"

He groaned, painfully stretching his limbs. "No, that
would mean I'd have to get up. I'm starting to feel
the effects of last night."

Her laughter seemed to catch in her throat at that
reminder. "God. I'd almost convinced myself that was a
bad dream."

"Sorry." He reached over and squeezed her hand. "You
okay?"

She nodded, noticing his obvious discomfort. "I should
be asking you that. Doesn't the armor protect you?"

"Oh, yeah," Mike answered. "Without it, I'd have been
in traction. Just sore, that's all." He frowned. "I
take it you never had to feel battles after the fact?"

Kim thought for a second. "Sometimes. I had to take on
a monster all by myself once - while I had a really
bad cold. I sneezed on him more than I hit him!" She
grinned, remembering. "I was not in great shape after
that one."

"I can imagine." Mike yawned. "You get a chance to
call your friends?"

"No. It's about four or five a.m. in Angel Grove. I
don't have a death wish." Mike yawned again, and she
yawned with him. "Stop doing that!"

"I can't help it. I'm tired." He grinned. "And in
pain."

"My heart bleeds for you." She stood up, tugging at
his hand. "Come on, get up."

"You're kidding."

"There are free beds here, and you might as well sleep
in one. Besides, you can lock the bedroom door for
when Corinne comes back to taunt us."

He was on his feet in a second.

*****


[Middle of the fanfic, which didn't get written. Divatox
attempts to kidnap Kim again as payback, gets interested in
Mike, goes after him, Kim goes to save him (and they basically
both end up saving one another), and the Turbo Rangers show 
up just in time before Divatox can get the best of them. Oh, 
and the jackass shows up and Kim and Mike discuss Kim's
uncertainty about what to do with her life.

Naturally, it's around that point that the Galaxy Rangers
get a lock on Mike and a time hole opens up to send him home.
Of course, he doesn't want to go, but Kim threatens to push 
his sorry behind through herself, telling him they may just
run into one another again...]

*****

"You almost stayed behind over a girl?" Kai repeated
in disbelief as he, Mike and Leo walked down the
streets of the City Dome. "I can't believe that."

Leo snorted. "Uh-huh. This from the guy who nearly
broke his neck and served us carbon pancakes over a
girl."

"I was preoccupied!"

"Preoccupied? Your brain was in another dimension. You
almost set off the smoke alarms."

Mike ignored the argument. "I wouldn't have stayed
behind. I couldn't have. Kim just made it hard to
leave." 

They paused by a small fountain. "She must have been
something special," Leo observed.

"Yeah, she was," Mike said quietly, looking away. He
finally changed the subject. "So, what did I miss?"

"Nothing much, really," Kai said, taking a sip from
the water bottle he was carrying. "No Stingwinger
attacks, but that weasel Fordham tried to
'temporarily' stand in for you. Stanton saw right
through him, of course."

"The guy just doesn't quit, does he?" Mike asked. "The
commander didn't shorten my leave because of it, did
he?"

The hopeful note in his voice was obvious even to Kai.
"Sorry. Full week's leave, no changes."

Mike groaned. "I'm going to lose my mind."

Leo glanced over at a young woman on crutches coming
out of one of the nearby medical buildings. "Hey,
isn't that Terri? What happened to her?"

"Damon said there was a plasma leak in C-15 last
week," Kai remembered. "No major injuries, but she did
a number on her knee."

"Ow." Leo winced sympathetically as the engineer came
up to them. "Hey, Terri, how you doing? Aside from the
obvious."

"Can't complain too much," she replied. "Just got out
of physical therapy. I think it's working, too."

"Got a good therapist?" Kai asked.

"Yeah. She really knows her stuff, and she's only a
year or two older than me. She even let our time run
over even though I was her last appointment of the
day." She noticed Mike's bandaged wrist. "You know,
she might be able to help you out. I can put in a good
word for you, see if she can work you in."

"Thanks, but it's nothing," Mike said. "You don't have
to go to any trouble."

"Trouble? What trouble?" Terri pointed over Mike's
shoulder at the approaching foot traffic. "She's
coming right this way."

Mike looked around, and froze as he caught a familiar
glimpse of chestnut brown hair. _It couldn't be...
could it?_ 

Terri spotted her and waved. "Kim! Hey, Kim! Over
here!"

Okay, maybe it could be.

The brunette turned, and Mike immediately forgot about
his sore wrist. Her hair was shorter, she looked a bit
older, but the pretty young woman walking towards them
was none other than Kimberly Hart. He was frozen to
the spot as she weaved through the crowd towards them.
As she drew closer, her eyes met his, widening in
recognition as she came to a stop in front of Mike.
"Kim," Terri began, "I want you to meet--"

"Mike. I know." Kim beamed at him, enjoying the
astonished look on Mike's face. 

He somehow managed to speak. "Kim. God. It's been
forever."

She almost laughed at that. "You have NO idea."

Terri looked nonplussed. "You guys know each other?"

"We had a fling," Kim said, and it was Mike's turn to
stifle a laugh. Kai choked on his water. 

Leo was looking at the two of them, the grin on his
face widening as he put two and two together. Mike
glanced over at his brother, seeing the expression on
his face. "Uh, Kim, this is Leo, my brother. Who was 
just leaving."

"No I wasn't," Leo said cheerfully.

Before Mike could throttle his brother, Terri grabbed his
sleeve. "On the contrary, gentlemen, I've got some
equipment to retrieve and I certainly can't do it on 
my own." The last few words were delivered in a threatening
tone of voice, hinting at just what she could do once
she was off the crutches.

"Oh, yeah, that," Kai said, finally putting all the 
pieces together. "Sure, I've got time before my shift starts.
Come on, Leo."

"But -" Leo looked disappointed as he was half-dragged, 
half-led away. 

Mike watched them go, chuckling. He turned back to Kim, 
shaking his head. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured out what I wanted to do. Who knew Terra
Venture was looking for physical therapists?"

Mike was grinning like a fool. "I can't believe you're
really here." She reached over and pinched him. "Ow!"

"Did that feel real?" Kim folded her arms. "What irritates
me is that I've been on Terra Venture for almost a year
and haven't seen you once."

"Well, I did lose a few months there." He shrugged. "I only
got back a day ago, but it feels like forever."

"A day? Try six years. Now that's a long time." She leaned forward,
smiling. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Well..." Mike returned the smile. "I am on leave for the rest of
the week..."

She slipped her arm into his as they walked along the promenade.
"It'll have to do for now." He laughed suddenly. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. I just - had this leave forced on me," Mike said. 
"My commander just told me to enjoy my vacation."

"So? Are you?"

Mike put an arm around her as they headed towards the park. 
"Oh, I'd say it's definitely looking up."

-end

[Don't you just HATE it when the middle of a fic won't write itself? 
Well, this one wouldn't. I had to eventually pull it off of ff.net, but
the idea was good and the premise plausible, so I decided to put it
here. --Mandi]