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