26 Going On 17

Morphin' Fever

'I should've known that something like this would happen... This was the 3rd time, and now I'm convinced that this was the morphin' grid being a dick. But I was careless. Distracted. Now I'm stuck with no way out. And my "friends" aren't helping at all..."— There is some muffled laughing behind — "Stop that!" — More laughing and the speaker grumbles under his breath —" As I was saying, I'm guessing you're all confused as to what I'm talking about. Well, it started about a week ago.
-------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 1: Morphin' Fever
-------------------------------------------------------
At the beginning, Tommy thought his ordeal would be an easy fix. He trusted Hayley and thought that she would be able to get it done in a couple of days. But it hasn't been a couple of days. It's been almost a month! Three weeks, five days, and three hours to be exact, but it wasn't like he was counting. The longer he was stuck, the less confident he was in getting his situation resolved. His regular routine throughout the day was gone. He couldn't go upstairs in the day time because there might be a chance of someone seeing him through the large windows. For that, he had to stay cooped up down in the lab. Tommy had a bad case of cabin fever. A very severe case of cabin fever. Ethan had dubbed it Morphin' Fever in an attempt to alleviate the depressed mood, but all he was met with was a glare from the rest of his teammates. Tommy was probably going to be fired for his amount of days off, especially with the empress of all things sadistic and mean, Principal Randall, as his boss. He wouldn't admit it to his teammates, or even himself, but that woman was one scary she-devil at times. The black ranger sighed, fiddling with a bolt to try to calm down his nerves.

"How's it going Hayley?" He asked, the small metal bolt still in his hand.

"Tommy, I love you like a brother, but please," His red headed best-friend from college replied," this is the third time you've asked me." She finished, rolling her eyes. However, taking one look at his depressed demeanor and sulky body language, she sighed.

"I still haven't found an adequate power source for the machine to return you to normal," She explained for the 3rd time, opening a computer program that depicted a radar of sorts and different wave lengths,"Once we get a powerful enough reading—"

"We'll get to it straight away," Dr. Oliver finished for her with a sigh. Hayley smiled at him sympathetically, but before she could say anything else, the alarm signaling one of the Rangers were calling started to ring. Getting up from his position on the table, the paleontologist pushed a newly added white button on the console.

"Come in Trent." The man said. Trent had joined the team not too long ago after a mutant he was paired up accidentally electrocuted his Dino Gem so bad, that it apparently burned the darkness right out of it. Currently, only Kira was speaking kindly to him, with Tommy slowly warming up to the white ranger because of sympathy and understanding. Connor and Ethan, however, were still wary about the Hispanic teen, with Connor a bit more hostile towards Trent. Wait. Scratch that. Connor was very hostile towards him.

"A mutant just came out of nowhere in the city park," Trent replied loudly, as an explosion rang near him.

"That's strange... The scanner should have sensed it already..." Hayley muttered under her breath, going to check diagnostics just as Tommy asked,"Where are the others?"

"They're getting here as fast as they can. They got caught by Randall because Connor and Ethan were too busy arguing." Trent replied, his voice getting a bit staticky. At that, Tommy rolled his eyes. Of course they were arguing. Teenagers.

"I'll be there soon, but in the meantime, keep the mutant busy!" The paleontologist replied, already moving away from the intercom and towards his ATV.