Power Rangers: Ottoman Force (Book Two)

21: The Two Faces of Adrian

Adrian

We were all seriously stunned, but I was even more so looking at the fully grown-up, future version of myself. For a moment I thought I was dreaming, because once upon a time I thought that things like these only happened in dreams. But being a ranger – as much as I hated it – I knew that almost anything, even the unthinkable, was possible.

Future-me looked at me, as I studied his similar but at the same time different features. He also wore glasses, which with the clothes he wore, made him look even more sophisticated. Like perhaps I become someone successful in the future.

"Wait, what just happened?" I asked.

"That's what I would like to know!" said an angry future-me. "One moment I was taking a walk after work, trying to enjoy some fresh air, the next thing I know I'm staring at my past self!"

We stared at each other for a long time, and then we both turned and looked at well, our parents, our mom specifically since I had a really strong feeling she was the one who caused this.

"What did you do?!" I glared at her.

She sighed, holding my, our, dad's hand. She then looked at both of us. "I wanted to get to the bottom of what's been driving you to behave the way you've been behaving. But I had no idea that your future self would be brought to the present."

"Well, your present" future-me snarked. "This is my past! Something I wish I never had to relive, ever!" his jaw was so tense from grinding his teeth together.

"What's going on here?" Troy suddenly showed up, Evren next to him.

Future-me, as I had no clue what else to call him, looked at him with surprise. But I could tell he was not happy to see him whatsoever. In fact, his expression upon gluing his eyes on him became one that I could almost describe as hate.

"Troy?!" Future-me practically raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah" said Troy, trying to recognize him, not realizing he was a different version of me. "Who are you? Why do I feel like I've seen you before?"

"You seriously don't recognize me?!" Future Adrian spat, angrily, Troy trying really hard to recognize him. "Then let's see if this will refresh your memory!"

Future-me ignored Evren's existence, and quickly went and gave Troy a mean punch. He punched him so hard, the snap from his fist colliding against his face practically echoed throughout the entire living room. He fell to the floor, but it was not over yet, as future me jumped on top of him and continually punched him. He was so angry, he even ignored mom's pleas for him to stop. This suddenly made me have an epiphany, making me realize that the future was not at all bright for me, and clearly for none of us. It was obvious that something would eventually happen between Troy and me that would ultimately destroy our relationship.

My dad went and stopped future me from doing any more damage, and pulled him off of Troy. My mom helped him up, while my dad tried to calm down a seriously fired up grown-up me.

Troy's lip and nose were bleeding and had a bruise forming on his cheek. My mom took him to tend to his wounds, while my dad held grown-up me from bouncing off the rails, trying to calm him down. He was exasperated and was crying, it only made my fears with regard to the future, grow. I knew I had to figure out what else would take place, and why I would eventually develop a hatred for my own brother, as that was what it looked like. As it was, I was not one hundred percent happy with him, despite the fact that I was beginning to realize that a lot of what has happened was out of both our hands.