Ultimate Power Rangers: Movie
Journey to Dino Earth
From the journal
of Tommy Oliver, 2006 AD
Life seemed to
have return to normal. I was in college. Running the Hayate Way school. Ashley
and I were great. Angel Grove was peaceful and quiet.
It didn't last.
I woke up one
morning expecting to start my day as usual. I had a test in Ancient
Civilizations, and a paper due for my psych class. I yawned and pulled myself
up. That's when I noticed. I wasn't in my bed or even in my room. I was in a
cave. Sleeping on stone ground. Rags and fur for blankets.
I looked to my
left, where a slab of glass was sitting against the cave wall like a mirror.
What I saw shocked me. My reflection wasn't my own. It wasn't even close to my
age. A young boy with shaggy jet black hair stared back at me. He looked more
Asian than American. He was wearing a tan headband and has a pair of bone-like
claw marks on each cheek.
Others were
within the cave too, most of them were sleeping. All of them had the same
claw-marks on their faces as my reflection had.
"This has got to
be a dream..." I said to myself, shaking my head while staring at a reflection
that wasn't my own. "Did we watch Quantum Leap last night?"
"Hello Tommy," a
voice said from the shadows. I turned to see the Dark Man standing with his
hands in his pockets.
"What have you
done to me?" I asked while standing.
"I have done
nothing," the Dark Man said. "You were called here by The Power itself. Into
this child's body."
I shook my head.
The Dark Man was making even less sense than usual. "What are you talking
about?"
"Your spirit has
been called to this dimension. To this child's body," the Dark Man said.
"This...is Dino Earth. You are now living the life of Asuka.
One of the planet's inhabitants, known as the Ryuujin.
The Dragon people."
I turned back
and looked at the reflection of Asuka, running my
fingers along the claw marks. "I don't understand."
The Dark Man
walked closer to me. "When Bandora summoned the asteroid to wipe out the
dinosaurs...the impact of the asteroid blast split the Earth into two different
dimensions. More closely linked than even parallel dimensions. The Ryuujin, or HomoDinosaur, as
Zordon called them, continued to thrive on Dino Earth along with the last
remaining dinosaurs.
"On Earth Prime,
the asteroid had destroyed almost everything. Only Zordon and his five Ryuujin Power Rangers were left. They defeated Bandora, and
the world evolved into what you know today."
Dark Man
extended his hands. "This is Dino Earth. A world born of two races. The
descendants of HomoDinosaur and a humanoid species
that evolved from the dinosaurs themselves."
"Why am I here?"
"I don't know
for certain," Dark Man said. "I do know there is a war going on. A war that has
been waged for centuries between the Ryuujin and a
race known as the Evorian."
The Dark Man
told me more about Dino Earth's history, but even as I sit and write, my
memories of Dino Earth are fading like a dream. I basically lived ten years as Asuka, and not more than 20 minutes had passed here on
Earth Prime in the meantime. My Earth. My home.
I remember
living as a rebel. Riffraff. We hid from the Evorian
and fought whenever possible, but we were outnumbered. As my life in Asuka continued, my memories as Tommy faded. Bits and
pieces at a time. Until I was Asuka. I took part in
the raids with my friends Mahoro and her older
brother Mizuho.
During my last
few years on Dino Earth, I lost Mahoro and Mizuho. I
just can't remember how.
What I do
remember is the legends the Ryuujin told. Legends of
a group they called Zyuranger, which I now realize
were simply Zordon's first Rangers in prehistoric times.
On Dino Earth, I
helped the greatest mages and scientists create soldiers to fight against Evorian. I still had knowledge of magick
and The Power imprinted from my former life.
We used gems
that shattered from Bandora's asteroid, gems ripe with The Power, to create a
team of Rangers all our own. I can't remember how many or exactly how we did
it. I can't even remember if I was one. Everything from my first to last day on
Dino Earth was becoming a blur. Everything but what the Dark Man said when he
appeared to me during my final minutes as Asuka.
"It's time to go
back, Tommy," he said to me in the middle of a barren field. We didn't
celebrate birthdays, but I was around 18 at the time.
Memories of my
previous life slowly started to come back in flashes at a time. "I can't go
back. The Evorian are..."
"Asuka will continue," the Dark Man said.
"I know I will,"
I answered. "And I won't stop until-"
"No," the Dark
Man said. "The real Asuka will continue. You've done
your part."
I raised my
sword to the Dark Man. It was a broad sword with a double-edged blade.
"Go back where
you came from, demon!" I shouted while charging towards him.
Pain suddenly
tore through my body and I collapsed, dropping the blade.
"I have no power
over your destination, Tommy," the Dark Man said. "You have done what you were
meant to do. That's all I can tell you. You will return to Earth and take the
Dino Callers with you. Once away from this dimension and the Bakuryuu, they will have no power. "
After that, I
woke up in my old bed in a cold sweat. I was Tommy again, and my life as Asuka felt like nothing more than a fading dream. Only this
dream left proof of its reality. Asuka's sword was at
my bedside, along with a black silk pouch. I leaned over and opened the pouch,
and inside were three vaguely familiar Dino braces. Morphers, infused with the
power of the Dino Gems.
I laid back down
and rubbed my hand rubbed my fingers across the cheeks where my...Asuka's claw marks had been. What was I sent there to do?
What did I accomplish?
I only hope that
someday, I can find the answers.
End