After the tour was over, it was finally time for Finn to start selling the baked goods he had worked so hard to prepare. He had made special dinosaur themed treats for the occasion. He made dinosaur shaped cookies obviously, but there were also cupcakes with dino heads made from frosting, and brownies covered in powdered sugar, with the imprint of a dino on them. All proceeds from the sale would go to the cause of keeping the museum open. Once everything was set up, Finn put a sign on the table that said open on it. “Alright, Finn’s Yummy Nummies is open for business!” He exclaimed while throwing a fist in the air.

Sa’Cha browsed around the area before they would have to go back to help with putting up the tent and displays for the fundraiser. He’d finally gotten an opportunity to sneak away from the group and contact Udonna.

“I felt something strange when we drove onto the property, but since it has been silent. If you’d tell me what I was looking for, I could be of better help, Grandma.”

“Just look for anything strange my little one.”

“Grandma I’m not little anymore.”

“You’ll always be my little one. Keep a low profile and don’t do anything crazy unless you have to.”

Their mental connection ended and Sa’Cha had returned to help get everything up and running. As he helped, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of Finn. He nearly broke his finger, but thankfully Andrew had caught it just in time.

“If you don’t go over there and talk to him,” Andrew said, putting emphasis on the words “talk” and “him” with his hands.

“Okay okay I will.”

Sa’Cha cleared his throat as he moved towards Finn who exclaimed that his stand was open for business. Slowly he approached until he was standing in front of Finn. For a moment, he couldn’t find words, but he cleared his throat and smiled warmly.

“Hi Finn,” Sa’Cha began, “can I get a cupcake, a cookie.”

He tried desperately to maintain his nerves, but if Finn could read his mind he would know just how nervous he was.

Finn’s blue eyes lit up, and a wide grin appeared on his face. “Oh goody! My first customer!” He immediately placed a cupcake and a cookie onto a paper plate, and was about to hand it to him, but then stopped and thought for a second. “Hold on, in my excitement I forgot to set a price for these. Um… I can’t give these to you for free. This is a bake sale after all, and the proceeds are going to a good cause! Um… is two dollars fair?”

Sa’Cha smiled as Finn’s silliness. He’d forgotten to price the baked goods for the bake sale. It was very much something that Finn would do and it made him even more adorable in Sa’Cha’s eyes. Sa’Cha pulled out a $100 bill and handed it to Finn, his courage rising up slightly.

“This should cover it,” Sa’Cha said as he took the baked goods in his hand and placed the $100 bill into Finn’s hand. “Thank you,” Sa’Cha said, as he turned to leave, he turned back to face Finn and sighed. “I…” he paused and thought it over in his head before continuing, “I would really like to take you out for dinner and a movie…” he paused again, his nerves getting the better of him, “that is if you aren’t busy, but I mean you’re the captain of the cheerleading squad, you’re always busy. This probably isn’t the best time either, I’m sorry,” he blurted out without taking a single breath.

Finn put his hands over his mouth and gasped. This was a lot of money for a cookie and a cupcake. “Wow! Um…thank you! I’m sure the museum appreciates your generous donation.” He was surprised again, by the next thing to come out of Sa’cha’s mouth, and Finn giggled. It was a sweet gesture for sure. “Hehe, aw dude. I’d be happy to go out with you, you don’t have to pay me $100 for that. Um… would Saturday work? I’m free for the weekend.”

Sa’Cha shook his head to make sure he’d heard correctly. Did Finn just agree to go on a date with him? He stood for a brief moment, shocked by Finn's response, but when reality hit him that Finn was waiting on a response, he scratched the back of his head and smiled.

“Saturday works for me too, say 7? I’ll pick you up?”

Sa’Cha was holding back all of the excitement that was flooding his body. Finn had accepted and now he had the chance to get to know Finn on a more personal level.

“Of course I’ll need your number,” Sa’Cha added as he retrieved his phone from his pocket and handed it to Finn.

Finn entered his phone number, and then handed the phone back. “Send me a text message so I can have your number too.”

Sa’Cha sent a quick text with a wink emoji and smiled as he slid his phone into his back pocket.

“I’ll see you on Saturday, and if you need any help I’ll be lingering around “

The special day started sleepily. Helia was tired from having to unclog a particularly nasty toilet and taking a cleansing swim afterwards. She tried to sleep on the bus ride, but the regular annoyances Bulk and Skull woke her up. They regretted it shortly after when Helia put them to work and took nothing but silent obedience for an answer, fairly certain that she ruined Bulk's back for a week. That's what they get for being obnoxious bunch of insufferable waste of calories. A LOT of calories in Bulk's case.

Thus it was that when it came to labouring at the fair, Helia did most of it on autopilot and barely able to remember what she did until she took a bet to eat a bowl of fries, which she demolished in record time. Finally getting a kick of energy from the meal, she wandered around the fair grounds, now having nothing to do until the museum tour took place. Finding none of the shopping stalls too interesting, she instead took a look at the scenery. The museum was located in a rather pretty location, she had to admit. She heard that there were other caves in the area she wanted to check out since forever, but never found enough time to haul her ass all the way here.

But, since she was here now... She returned to the stalls where Finn and Sa'Cha were chatting. "You guys want to go explore a bit when we're done here? I heard there are caves with prehistoric paintings here, and a bunch of them probably still undiscovered. Want your name in the history books anyone?" She fished. Bad enough she did not have gear to go caving properly, but going alone was just asking for trouble. If noone bit, she supposed she would have to find something other to do in the town for the rest of the day.

The fry bet was a bust; Helia beat Bruce spectacularly, and he ended up buying both of their fries. On the bright side, he hadn't eaten yet and was feeling a good deal better with some food in his belly. With his burst of energy, he set about helping with renewed vigor, carrying twice what the similar-sized Bulk did, and taking half again as many trips to and from the truck.

Soon all the manual labor was done, and Bruce was basically on standby, so he took a trip on over to Finn's bake sale stall.

"Hey, Finny, how much for a brownie?"

While he was inquiring after a sweet treat, he heard Helia's foolhardy suggestion.

"You guys want to go explore a bit when we're done here? I heard there are caves with prehistoric paintings here, and a bunch of them probably still undiscovered. Want your name in the history books anyone?"

"You sure we oughta be poking around undiscovered caves?"

After scoring a date, Finn went back to attending his booth. Business was booming, just as Finn expected. After all, who doesn’t like baked sweets? A short while later, Bruce came by asking for a brownie. “Hi Brucey! It’ll be one dollar. I think that’s a fair price right?” He replied as he put a brownie on a paper plate.

After that, Helia came by and asked if they wanted to explore the caves that were in the area. Finn had some reservations about the idea. The idea sounded fun, but he could just picture a teacher yelling at them for going off unsupervised. He was cheer captain, he had a record to protect. If he got detention or worse, he could get kicked off the team. Bruce also voiced concerns about messing around in some undiscovered caves. “Yeah, I’m not so sure about that either. As much as I would looooooooove to have an adventure, um… I can’t leave my booth unattended!”

"Two, then. You're tryna raise money, right?" he fished two dollar bills out of his wallet(he usually had larger denominations on him, but today had deliberately come with small bills for exactly this purpose), and handed them over.

As this transaction concluded, Sa'Cha and his friend returned, and threatened Bruce with a date unless he went to the caves. Before he had an opportunity to consider it, Bruce blurted out, "Guess I'm going..." and immediately started looking around for something. Without explaining, he approached a lady nearby who was doing sidewalk art of various dinosaurs. It was quite good, though she was using the Jurassic Park style, which was no widely considered to be inaccurate.

"Excuse me, miss? May I borrow a piece of chalk?" Though slightly confused, she handed him a blue piece that she didn't seem to think she needed for dinosaurs. Bruce walked back to the group and explained, "See, we can mark where we've come from so we don't get lost. If I'da come in my car, I'd have some rope and flashlights and stuff but..." he trailed off as he looked away and shoved both chalk and hands into his pockets. "Anyhow, we can get a move on when y'all are ready."

The reception for her idea was far from what Helia would call excited. She could swear their social group has lost their drive since Tommy moved out at the end of last school year. The ginger has tried to keep some of the energy going, but in the last few weeks it seemed to be more and more obvious that their group were 'Tommy's posse', and once their kingpin was removed, they started drifting apart. If only she could find some glue to hold the party together!

"Oi come on! I'm not saying we should go cave diving or anything crazy," she rolled her eyes at the worries about safety, "Take a casual stroll, _{walk off a bowl of fries}, poke our head into a hole in the ground if we see any to check if someone lived there a very very long time ago." she explained her idea a little better. Fortunately Andrew arrived to the rescue and seemed to have talked everyone into going, not taking no for an answer.

It would have to do.

"Right-o. I'll go clear up with the teachers that we'll be staying after we finish here then!" she said, forcing a bit of a cheer into her tone and a ghost of a smile on her face. She managed to keep it that way until she turned the corner. She was now faced with a difficult choice which teacher to approach. She could go to OhPleaseDon'tHurtYourselves Kendall, or she could go to DinosaurBonesRule Oliver - and promptly Helia walked in the direction of the jacked up science teacher.

"Dr. Oliver?" she made her presence known.

"Helia." he nodded to her, "What can I do for you?"

"Well, me and a group of others would like to stay when we're done at the museum to look around a bit and then hike home. Do you think that would be possible?" She proposed, "We want to go look around to see if we can perhaps find any artefacts still lying here somewhere. Bits of pottery, cave paintings and the like."

She could see Dr. O was happy with the intention having to do with exploring history and not a poorly veiled attempt at smoking weed or some such thing - he's already had to confiscate a bag from Skull today. Good thing principal Randall was not accompanying them here, or he would have been expelled on the spot. "Well, I would be happy to let you go, but there is the thing that the school is responsible for your well being until we return. You'll have to get on phone with your parents, if they confirm you can stay, I have no objections. Heck, I'll give you extra credits if you do find something prehistoric." he smiled, and have Helia the phone number to call.

She returned to the group in actually good mood. "We're a-okay to go, provided your parents call Doc Oh and give him a head nod. You guys need the number?" She asked, texting her mother to do so as she spoke, praying that the woman was not too drunk to forgot how to read. Last time she checked there was only wine around the house, and it was still early. Sighing, she hit the send button. A weight lifted off of her shoulders when a minute later, a text saying 'done' came back.

She was feeling rather well for the first time since morning. Not only did her drunk of a mother let her off the leash, but she convinced the lot to go and do something together again for once. Helia even allowed herself a smile as they did indeed find the mouth of a cave, and curiously they peeked in. Producing a flashlight out of one of her many pockets, she shone the light on the floor and walls, checking if there was anything worth an extra credit from Dr. O to be had.

Something about the cave started rubbing her wrong though. Not only was it barren of any sign of being inhabited, that would not bother her. What did bother her was the shape of the cave. It was odd. Unnaturral even, like it was formed by something plowing into the ground rather than a fault in the rock, or water coming out. "Oh, I'm not sure I like this one, maybe we should-"

Before she even could finish, a series of tremors hit the area, dislodging a bunch of rocks that fell dangerously close to them. Before she knew it, the group was free falling as the ground gave way. There, she did it. All of them were dead and it was the fault of her and her curiosity. If only Tommy was here to keep her on the damn leash! I'm so sorry! She thought as she thought they were about to hit the ground.

A relief came as she splashed into water, deep one at that. The adrenaline gave her what felt like a strength of a thousand men as with a couple of paces worth an olympian, she swam towards the surface. Taking a deep breath, she yelled on top of her lungs: "Next time that bitch wants to go explore, kick her ass! Is everyone in one piece?"

On the way up to the cave, Bruce stopped every once in a while and made arrows on various exposed stones with the chalk he had borrowed. In the cave itself, he walked along a wall, dragging the chalk along it to leave an obvious line.

"Oh, I'm not sure I like this one, maybe we should-"

Bruce began to object, something to the effect that this whole thing was her idea, but the cave itself seemed to react to her, and soon they were all falling over each other, and sliding down into a watery cavern.

It was natural enough that they would all follow the light, and luckily it led them out of the water. Bruce, being the tallest, found his feet first, and reached to pull someone else(he wasn't sure who) toward the beach.

"Well, it ain't like you coulda predicted a god dang earthquake. I'm not sure my chalk is gonna find us a way out of here..."

He looked across the strange underground beach. Something was casting light, and he could only imagine it was a way back toward the sun. What else would even be down here?

"On the bright side, Doctor O knows where we went. If we can't find our own way out, someone'll come lookin'. But look there," he pointed across the cavern, "That's gotta be daylight, right? Let's get on up there." Bruce started trudging up the beach, his boots squelching horribly around sodden socks.

So far, Finn wasn’t enjoying the cave all that much. It was just a bunch of rocks as far as he could tell. But, he didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s fun. So Finn had to make his own fun, and he and Sa’cha talked and made jokes the entire time. It was mostly Finn making the jokes though, Sa’cha seemed to be having difficulties, even though he claimed to be ok…

Then, there was a sudden earthquake that came out of nowhere. Rocks fell from the sky that probably would have crushed Finn had Sa’cha not pushed him aside. Then, the earth seemed to open up, and swallow everyone before Finn could say anything.

Finn fell and landed in the water with a splash. Finn hadn’t expected to go swimming today. Everyone swam towards the light which exposed a rocky beach. Bruce even helped him out of the water. That was nice of him. “Thanks! I’m fine, just wet is all.” Finn pulled his pink tank top over his head, took if of, and wrung out the water. “I would have bought a bathing suit if I had known we were gonna go swimming today.” He said with a grin. Finn followed Bruce’s lead and went towards the light. “Hey Sa’cha, are you sure your ok? You’ve been acting funny since we got here.”

Bruce had slowed down to make sure he didn't leave anyone behind, but everyone was at least walking up the rocky beach and free of the water. Sa'Cha made a baffling proclamation, and insisted that they all keep quiet about something he was about to show them.

"Well you know I'm no gossip, but I dunno how I'll react if you're about to tell us that you're superman or something."

Bruce, utterly bemused, did not take cover at all, but luckily received no worse than a fist sized rock hitting him in the shin. He hopped up and down on one foot, and in the back of his mind he thought he might be bleeding under his pantleg. In the meantime, however, he was staring at Sa'Ca.

"Ah," he ventured.
"Well," he tried again.
"You... ain't superman," he finally got out, as he put his foot back on the ground. "But, like. Did you know this was here?" Bruce pointed at the plants mysteriously growing underground, and the even more mysterious vessel beyond. He began to limp forward.

(O_O);

A couple of things happened in quick succession that caused Helia to break her jaw on the floor. The first one was good, everyone by some ungodly deal with the King of the Devils survived the fall. Helia would never forgive herself if someone got hurt, despite the voices of reason in her head and coming from Bruce telling her that she could not have predicted an earthquake. That was only the immediate problem though.

When they all crawled onto a piece of solid land and squeezed the water out of their clothes (Some going shirtless to the joy of others), they took inventory and realized they saw no way out. Just fucking great. There was only one source of what was hopefully daylight, but it was too narrow even for her skinny self to get through.

That was when Sa'Cha went and did... something. Words Helia could muster failed to describe to her mind just what happened. “With this wall turned to dust, its utter destruction is an absolute must...” she repeated dumbly, "But, if the wall is already turned to dust, why is the destruction a must? And it didn't turn into dust, chunks of it went everywhere... What?" She had to shake the stupid out of her head and looked at the result.

There appeared to be an alien (presumably, she was too cold for intelligence service conspiracy theories) spaceship buried in the earth, with strange flora covering it. Even the plants looked alien, the colors having entirely too much blue and purple to have come from anywhere on Earth. "Okay..." She told Sa'Cha when she gathered her wits again, "I am not sure what is cooler. The fact we survived that drop with nary a scratch, you, or that." Then, the urge to explore surfaced again, "No other way out but through there. Shall we take a peek?" she grinned.

Finn’s mouth was agape when he saw Sa’cha blast the wall. He was speechless for a moment, but Finn did not stay quiet for long. ”OMG! How did you do that?! You can do magic? Are you a wizard? How long have you been like that? What else can you do? Do you have a pet talking cat”

Behind the wall was a bunch of plant life surrounded by a spaceship. Both the plant life and the spaceship definitely did not belong here. Helia suggested exploring, which Finn wasn’t opposed to. Not like they had much other choic… “Guys, we just saw real magic! Now we just found a mysterious spaceship underground. I feel like I just stepped into a cartoon! This is awesome! You’re gonna have a lot of explaining to do when we go out on Saturday Mr…” He grinned, and lightly nudged Sa’cha’s arm.

Heath has been getting ready for the day where he would be out hanging with a new group. That set of people that...what was his name again? Finn Logan? Jim Hogan? Biff Bogan? Nah it was definitely Finn Logan, no one this century had the first name Biff, hung out with. It was a very small group of friends, and his friends over in the football team were off on a hunting trip somewhere. He never got the appeal of it, so hanging out with a new group of friends at least allowed him to do something neat with new people. Even if it was just hanging out somewhere it at least allowed him to connect with new people. Being a part of the football team meant being a dude who was willing to reach out to other students. It not only helped foster a sense of belonging inside the school, that you want to support your fellow students, but it also gave him a sense of how things were. If there was one thing Heath couldn't stand it was bullies, people who messed with their peers just because they could. Never made sense to him if you didn't like someone just don't talk to them right?

Regardless he had to talk with his dad before going, and it turned out to be a bit longer call then expected. He had a general idea of where they were going because Finn had texted him the other day where they were planning on going. A set of caves somewhere in Angel Grove? Sounded dangerous so just in case no one else did he brought his cellphone, some first aid supplies, an emergency rope, and flare gun. It wasn't something he expected he would need but you couldn't be more careful. He had stuffed them in a backpack before heading out. As he approached the cave entrance he didn't see anyone initially. He heard a loud noise, not sure what it was, and quickly started to make his way through the cave waiting for calls, or voices. "You guys good? Its me Heath." called out from behind the crew not really taking note of what was in front of them initially before rubbing his eyes. "You guys come here to explore some theme park or somethin'?"

The fear that settled in with seeing the strange alien creature was of set by the way it walked. It just...didn't seem human to him. He wasn't sure if this was some elaborate prank on the jock or not but by the way the other guys here looked at it Heath didn't think it was. Then it got worse when more appeared quickly after he couldn't really do much for the others right now but he had one hell of a nasty right hook. It helped since he was frequently training, and working out. He was probably the most fit one here. "You got one chance to stop. I don't want to hurt you." Heath said as he started to breath heavier ready to fight to protect the others here if need be, and himself. He didn't come here expecting a fight but what else could you do in a situation like this. When the thing didn't stop Heath took a quick breath. "Seriously I don't want to fight you but I will." Heath tried but when it got even closer Heath shook his head in a mixture of fear, and frustration he quickly went on the offensive and tried swinging at the alien thing, or dude in a rubber suit but he gave it a chance. Heath wasn't a trained fighter but he knew a thing or two after seeing some of the guys on the football field do their thing.

The situation seemed to be moving out of the frying pan and into the fire. Helia barely had the time to notice someone had joined them from the world above, when some big, ugly... Bugs? Emerged from the ship.

"There's something in here, and it ain't us!" She warned as the strange creatures approached.

Both Sa'cha and Heath tried the reasonable first contact approach, and she saw both of those fail. It gave her precious little time to decide what to do before her assailant came for her.

That's right. They were attacked. Without warning, although after Sa'Cha's display, Helia could not claim it was absolutely without provocation. But the thing going after Sa'Cha took no timw going for the kill. Had he not moved, there went his neck. They were in danger.

So Helia did what Helia trained to do.

Her hand reached into her pocket to find her multitool and draw the knife, as she jumped in front of Bruce whom she knew for sure was not trained to fight. That left her to fend off two of those things. She angled her body to present a smaller target. Left hand high in fron to grapple. Right hand behind her, ready to stab. Her heart was beating like crazy. She could barely stop her lwgs from shaking. And the pit of fear in her chest almost made her turn tail and run.

But she held. As one of the creatures lunged for her, she swatted the offending appendage away. The body of the creature was now wide open for her to see. She was still reluctant to kill it, so instead her leg kicked forward to it's bony chest - it's build seemed easy to topple.

Indeed, the bugman stumbled back, winded. The other one ceased it's charge. Smart. They would have easier time if they both attacked her. She could not let them, or it was over.

But she could not attack either and leave Bruce to fend for himself. Thus she chose to do wat they did, safety in numbers. "Get together! Whoever can fight to front, others behind them!" She shouted, ponting towards the group of three nearby and backing away as fast as she dared to them.

Zordon watched from the ship as each of the teenagers managed to find some way to fend off the threat, but what surprised him most was that they were willing to protect each other even though he could see one of them wasn’t truly as connected with the others, yet even they managed to help keep the threat at bay. He smiled. Teenagers with a true heart to protect didn’t come to his neck of the woods every day. This was indeed a rare treat. His eyes narrowed on Sa’Cha who was displaying a unique ability. It seemed he was already connected to the power source, or was there more to him than just surface?

A loud ringing filled the area and the creatures stopped their attack, retreating back into the ship. Sa’Cha gasped holding his injured side, having stumbled during the fight and hitting a sharp rock. Zordon appeared at the entrance of the ship and slowly descended the long strip of stairs. He approached the gathered teens and looked at them closely.

“I assure you that was merely a test and you are in no true danger here,” he said, his eyes falling on Sa’Cha’s injured side. “Here, let me mend that for you.”

Before Sa’Cha could object, nanites flew from Zordon’s body and began to mend the wound. This was advanced technology and Sa’Cha gazed down at his wound as he watched the little pieces of tech make quick work of mending him before returning to their source. Sa’Cha looked between the collective and then focused on Zordon.

“What kind of welcome was that? Those things nearly killed us.”

“No, they were merely testing you to see what kind of response you’d have. Trust me, I would not have allowed them to kill you. Although they are an alien race, they do understand your native tongue. Pardon my manners, let me introduce myself.” Zordon looked at each of the teenagers assembled before him. “I am Zordon, and if I am not mistaken, I am looking at the next protectors of this world. The next Power Rangers.”

Sa’Cha’s mind was swirling at the term used. His grandmother would always tell him tales of the protectors of the world and how they defeated evil throughout the years, each eventually retiring or worse. Had they been chosen to follow in the footsteps of so many legendary warriors?

“Please, I will answer all questions, but first if you could follow me into the ship, everything will become clear.”

Zordon turned without a second of hesitation and moved towards the ship, moving up the long trail of stairs and vanishing back into the ship. Sa’Cha turned to the others unsure how to proceed.

“Ummm, that was a lot to take in. Everyone alright?”