The Principles of Teamwork
by Selma McCrory
copyright 1998
part 1

It was a nice, quiet, sunny day. One could say that it was a little bit too quiet. Still, like a lot of people that day, Lucas Scott and Teresa DeSantos were enjoying the nice day and fresh air. Their picnic lunch had been eaten a long time ago, and the couple were just relaxing, taking some time out from school and chores, and in Lucas' case, Rangering. Not that he'd left his communicator behind, of course. But at least for a little while, maybe he could forget that he was on call.

Not for very long, though. Lucas' communicator beeped, and he groaned. "Not again," he said. Reaching into the basket, he snared his communicator. "What's up, Alpha?"

"It's Ian. There's a disturbance in the Park. I'll be teleporting over with some scanners."

Teresa put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, there's still time after whatever."

"I know," Lucas said. "I just hate it when this happens."

These kinds of interruptions hurt Lucas a lot inwardly. First of all, Regina was fond of mounting attacks during his and Teresa's dates. But what probably hurt more was that he could see Teresa missing her old status. Probably Regina was doing that deliberately. So, when Ian showed up, Lucas made a mental note to find something that Teresa could do.

It took him a few seconds to realize that Ian was holding three scanners. He realized that Teresa was staring as well. "Ian?" she asked, plainly surprised.

Ian shrugged. "We're getting readings similar to when Gavin and his team showed up here, but it's not in the same spot. Three of us will be able to locate this thing faster than two, and you two were here, so...."

Lucas nodded. This was exactly what Teresa needed. She could fight off Putties as much as anyone else, just in case, and she needed to be included in more stuff. He accepted a scanner from Ian, and handed the other to Teresa. "Got it. Just let us pack up, and we'll go."

* * *

Some ten or twenty plus minutes later, they met back in an unremarkable section of the Park. "You sure that's where this thing is?" Lucas asked.

"I think so. The entrance is kinda slipper-"

"Ian!" Teresa shouted as their teammate disappeared, shimmering as he went. "We gotta go and get him."

"I will," Lucas said. "I'm responsible for him."

"We can't risk you," Teresa argued. "You're a Ranger. I'm not. If this is Gavin's world, I'm a bit safer than you, plus we can't risk this closing and stranding you there and us missing two Rangers."

"I'm going," Lucas said firmly. He twisted his wrists, summoning the two parts of his morpher. "You have experience, and the rest of the team can take care of some things for you."

He handed Teresa the morpher. She attempted to hand it back to him, but he managed to stop her. "I'm going," he said, and pushed himself through the nearly invisible portal.

Lucas stood for a moment. This wasn't Angel Grove park. It was some house, somewhere. Ian was standing there as well, looking probably as confused as he felt. About half a minute after he arrived, he felt something behind him. He turned around to find Teresa behind him, still clutching his morpher. "Teresa!" he exclaimed, not at all pleased. He moved to lecture her.

"Now that we know where everyone is, we can go back," Teresa replied. "Ian?"

"It's not there anymore," Ian said quietly, reading something on his scanner. "It looks like it's probably downstairs, if this place has a downstairs."

"We're going to hope," Lucas said, annoyed. "Teresa, when we get back, I have something to say to you about following orders."

Teresa rolled her eyes.

"Guys? Let's get home, first," Ian said pleadingly.

"Okay," Lucas said, noticing Ian was getting a bit fretful. "Let's split up and look around."

Teresa looked at her scanner, and teleported out. "Great," Lucas mumbled. "She'll probably teleport right into the wormhole."

Ian shook his head. "Don't be too tough on her, Lucas. She hasn't had this much adventure in a long time."

"I know, and it's making her reckless," Lucas replied unhappily. "She's being bored to death."

"Guys!" Teresa yelled from somewhere. "Kitchen."

The two of them finally found the kitchen. Teresa was standing in a doorway. "Found the basement."

Lucas decided not to lecture her right then and there and went towards Teresa and the basement steps. Teresa put up a hand to stop him. "There are people down there... TP. They don't know about the Rangers. Behave yourself."

"I'll try," Lucas said. He knew that some TP were pretty cool. He just hoped these were. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anything else.

He followed Teresa down the stairs. Below, there was this big... contraption was the best that he could name it. There were two people there, teens younger than any of them. A black girl and a white guy. Both TP, if Teresa was correct.

Lucas stopped at the bottom of the stairs, allowing enough room for Ian to come down as well. He pulled the scanner out, puzzled by the readings. "Where *is* it?"

"Inside my machine, I'd guess," the black girl said. "Hi, I'm Vanessa Skye."

"Teague," the boy added.

"I think that your wormhole is doing something weird to my machine," Vanessa observed. "We were just doing a bit of manipulation, and bang, some stuff that shouldn't be working is suddenly doing just that."

"What kind of machine is it?" Ian asked.

"A time machine, y'know, the kind you use to travel in time."

Ian nodded, a little wide-eyed. "Ah. That might explain the problem."

"Oh?" Vanessa perked up, suddenly interested. "You dealt with time travel technology before?"

"No, but I know it's very possible, and I figure it could be possible to reproduce it technally."

Vanessa grinned and stuck out a hand. "Pleased to meet you. Come here, give me a hand, and we'll get you back home as soon as possible. You're -?"

"Ian," he responded, shaking her hand.

The two and Teague shortly commenced working on the machine, and Lucas sat down on the steps. What little he could make of Vanessa's and Ian's talk was not understandable to non-techies.

Teresa sat down beside him. "He's in his element," she said.

He looked over at the working trio. "Yeah. Too bad we can't stay."

"I know," Teresa responded. She handed the morpher back to Lucas. "These are yours."

Lucas strapped the two parts back on, but they didn't disappear. "They don't work in this world."

"They will when we get back," Teresa said. "We need to, anyway. We're down two Rangers-"

"We wouldn't be if you'd followed orders!" Lucas snapped. "I ordered you to stay there."

"I'm not a Ranger anymore, Lucas," Teresa said softly. "I can't be, you know that as well as I. You should have kept the powers and let me through. Ian is my teammate, and my friend. I should have gone, not you."

"You're part of the team," Lucas responded just as quietly, mindful of the fact that two of the people in the room didn't know about the Rangers. Though it seemed that the three working on the machine were oblivious to them. "You said it yourself. And that means cooperation and teamwork, Teresa. It means that you don't leave the world undefended."

"I could say the same thing to you, Lucas," Teresa replied. "Leaving me your powers was worthless. It's just something that I can't do anymore."

"You may not be able to kill, but you can fight! I've seen you. And your dad managed to Ranger after he broke out."

"My dad lasted less than a week, passed out in the Megazord, and had troubles defeating a monster."

Lucas shook his head. "You've been letting them get to you again."

"Actually, no. I know my own abilities, Lucas. I can fight, yes, but I've learned to trust my instincts. And something there tells me that I'd not be an effective Ranger anymore. I'd be a liability to the team."

Lucas inwardly sighed. It was immediately obvious that her friends had been nagging her again, and that reinforcement from their end was needed. Teresa didn't get in this mood unless her balance was upset, and as far as Lucas could tell, it was. "Look, Teresa-"

But whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a yell from Ian. "Get-"

A wave of white overwhelmed them.

* * *

When Lucas came to, he found that they weren't in the house anymore, but outside. And not in Angel Grove park, either. No, this was an entirely different place. Even he could recognize that the plant life was not normally found in Angel Grove.

One of his companions groaned. Vanessa. "Are you all right?" he asked, helping her to a sitting position.

"I think," the girl responded.

Lucas moved to the others, reaching Ian, then Teague, then Teresa. He gradually got all of them sitting up. When all were more or less proved to be all right, he sat down. "Anybody have any idea where we are?"

"Looks like a nature conservancy in Ireland I used to go to all the time," Vanessa commented. "I don't claim to know all that much about botany, but my big sister's fiance is into it so I know something about it."

"Anything familiar?" Lucas asked.

Vanessa cupped her hands arround a small blossom. "I know these don't grow in Sacramento. They're northern-climate plants."

"They wouldn't be growing in Angel Grove, either, then," Teresa observed.

"We're not in Kansas anymore," Teague spoke up. "Haven't you two noticed? Nobody's talking except for us."

Teresa sat absolutely still for a minute of two, as did Vanessa. Lucas had seen the look before- tuning out the physical to concentrate on the mental. "You're right. This isn't either of our homes."

Vanessa reached down into her shirt and retrieved something from inside. It looked like a small remote control or something, and Lucas guessed that it was some sort of remote for the time travel machine, maybe a retrieval device. She pressed on a button, frowned, and looked at Teague, obviously telepathing something to him. He reached into his own shirt and pulled out an identical device, but it didn't function either.

Lucas didn't need telepathy to know that they were stuck there.

(end of part 1)