Disclaimer: The Power Rangers belong to Saban. The whole sliding concept belongs to... the guys who own Sliders.
Author's Note: I decided to write my own series about sliding because I had so much fun writing about dimensional travel in Earth Crystals. However, I will make you this pledge. The fics in this series will not be crossovers into other fandoms. This series will deal with alternate histories. Such as, what if the South had won the Civil War? Or Hitler not been defeated?

Leaving Kansas
by Jeremy Ray Logsdon

"Toto....I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..." - Dorothy Gale, "The Wizard of Oz"

In seven teleportation signals, the Space Rangers, plus Karone, appeared in the empty town square. Destruction still spotted the area, and if it hadn't been nine o'clock at night, construction crews would have been at work.

"For starters," Ashley said, tugging Andros' arm happily, "you meet my parents."

"But-?" Andros resisted, a smile on his face.

"You'll like them," Ashley promised. "But I gotta warn you about my older sisters, Maggie and Molly... They're Valley Girls."

"What are Valley Girls?" Andros asked as Ashley carted him off.

"Where are you all going to stay?" Cassie asked, looking at Zhane and Karone.

"We'll probably stay on the MegaShip for the time being," Zhane answered.

"Hey, you guys!" Carlos called from the other side of the clearing. In his hand, he held a glass orb the size of a softball. "What do you think this is?"

Karone, after catching no more than a brief glimpse of the object, ran across the clearing to him. "Carlos, don't move!" she cried.

"Huh?" he asked in confusion, still holding the orb in two hands.

"Don't move," she warned again. "Just stand still."

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"That's a Time Spell," she answered. "Dark Spectre must have created it before he died in the eventuality he would be destroyed."

"What does it do?" he asked, looking at the orb with nervous eyes.

"I'm not sure what the spell was created to do," Karone said.

"What can we do, then?" Cassie tried.

"Carlos, slowly, slowly, lower the Time Spell to the gr-"

She wasn't able to finish, because it suddenly exploded, capturing everything in a ten-foot radius within a bright sphere of white light. When the light faded, the clearing was completely void of Rangers.

"What just happened?" Cassie asked, looking around her. The clearing looked exactly as it had before. The only discrepancy she could see was that Carlos no longer held that weird orb in his hand.

"Does anyone feel any different?" Karone asked.

"I feel okay," Zhane remarked, patting himself down.

"Maybe its power was wiped out by Zordon's energy?" Cassie suggested.

"That makes sense," Karone agreed.

"No destruction," Carlos suddenly realized. "Look, no where."

"Hey, you guys?" TJ called, waving his friends over. He was standing at the crest of a small knoll, a look of seriousness stamped on his face. "I just noticed something different."

His four comrades gathered around him, trying to see whatever it was he saw. "What is it, Teej?" Carlos asked.

"The traffic light," Cassie suddenly realized. Off a bit, the traffic light above a busy intersection was glowing a subdued purple. The middle light promptly flashed green, and then the light at the top turned blue, and all of the cars came to a stop.

"I don't think we're in our Angel Grove anymore," TJ muttered.

Carlos delicately touched the communicator on his wrist. "Let's try and go to the Power Chamber," he suggested. "Maybe if it exists, then there will be someone who knows what's happening."

"Zhane, can you follow our signals?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, absolutely," he said, reaching for his own silver communicator. He slipped his right arm through Karone's and whispered, "Hold on tight."

She smiled broadly at him and gripped his arm tighter. "I can still teleport myself," she said, "but I'll let you do the honors this time."

As Carlos, Cassie, and TJ disappeared in streams of their respective color, Zhane and Karone disappeared in a wider stripe of silver and purplish-white.

For a brief moment, Cassie was able to see the inside of the Power Chamber with the excess light given off by Zhane and Karone's teleport. However, as soon as they solidified, the light was gone, and the room was plunged into an unparalleled darkness.

"Lights on!" Carlos ordered. The Power Chamber didn't reply.

"Let me," Karone offered. Suddenly, a basketball-sized orb of fire appeared beside her. "It's not much, but I'm not as strong as I used to be."

"Man, this place is dusty," TJ observed, walking over to a computer console. He swiped his fingers through the thick dust piled up on its surface.

"This shouldn't even be here," Cassie sighed. "Last time I was here, this place was a big pile of rubble."

"Hey guys," Carlos said, pointing to the back, "this isn't the Power Chamber we recognize." Behind them, instead of the five lighted color columns they should have seen, there were seven glass pods, seven holding a suit of armor and the middle holding various weapons. One of the pods was a bit larger than the others, holding the armor to both the Green Dragon Ranger and the White Tiger Ranger.

"Green Ranger, White Ranger... these are all Morphin Rangers," TJ realized. "Where on Earth are we?"

Suddenly, the entire Chamber lit up. Karone quickly extinguished her ball of fire. Black light flecked with gold entered the Chamber, and the five turned to see it materialize into the Gold Zeo Ranger.

"Who are you?" the Gold Zeo Ranger demanded, pointing a stern finger out before him. "How did you get in the Power Chamber. Only a Power Ranger can enter here."

The four Rangers shared looks. "Let's Rocket!" Zhane cried. In four bright flashes, they transformed into their respective Space Ranger identities.

"I came with Silver," Karone said meekly, pointing at the gleaming Space Ranger.

"We don't know where we are," Cassie said quickly, speaking for the group, "but we suspect that we are in the wrong dimension."

"What's the date?" Gold Ranger asked.

"November 22, 1998," TJ answered. "Here?"

"The same," he said. "Who do you work for?"

"At the moment, no one," Carlos told him. "But previously, Dimitria of Inquiris."

"I'm not familiar with her," Gold Ranger said, still holding himself in a ready mode of attack.

"She took over for Zordon when he went to Eltare," Cassie said.

"Zordon?" Gold Zeo asked suddenly, his curiosity piqued.

TJ removed his helmet, setting it down on a nearby console. "My name is TJ Andrews, and we could really use your help."

The other Space Rangers did likewise, revealing their identities.

"TJ Andrews?" Gold Zeo asked. "You were a freshman when I graduated."

"We've shown you our identities," Zhane said. In a flash of silver, he demorphed. "And to prove you I mean no harm, I'll demorph. If you wanted to attack me, I wouldn't stand a chance."

The other Space Rangers demorphed as well, adding temporary color to the air.

"You can trust us with your identity," Cassie told him.

"And we could really use your help," Carlos added.

Three points of golden light flared up on the Gold Zeo Ranger. The points on his forehead, his chest, and his belt buckle glowed brightly. As the golden glow subsided, a nonmorphed human stood before them.

"Billy," he said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Billy Cranston. Tell me your story, Rangers. Then I'll tell you mine."

"And then we found ourselves here," Karone said, finishing their round-robin telling of the adventures of the Power Rangers, starting with what they had learned from the former Rangers and culminating with the annihilation of all evil in the universe.

"I suppose it is my turn now," Billy told them. "It's wildly different from your tale, however..."

The two universes ran parallel from the day Rita had been freed to the day that the Varox Bounty Hunters were hunting Trey. He was killed by them. The Counsel of Triforia deemed Billy Cranston, the Blue Morphin Ranger of Earth, worthy to hold the Golden Zeo Powers. Unlike the Space Rangers' dimension, however, Billy had not absorbed an unhealthy dose of anti-protons. The Golden Zeo Powers easily joined permanently with Billy's body. They had tried to fail at one point, but a simple manipulation on the atomic level of the Gold Zeo Shard had made them safe for Billy to wield.

On a side note, Billy never aged rapidly. As such, there had been no need for him to journey to Aquitar.

The Turbo Powers had never been created. But just the same, the Machine Empire was defeated, and Divatox did come to free Maligore. The six Zeo Rangers went to Muranthius, and both Maligore and Divatox were defeated. She fled the galaxy without a single ounce of supernatural power to her name.

There was no longer any evil threatening Earth. The Zeo Rangers kept their powers, and they retired from active duty. Shortly thereafter, Zordon and Alpha Five left for Eltare. Since that time, Billy had been the guardian of the Power Chamber. He monitored the Power Chamber from his apartment, and until the arrival of the Space Rangers, he had not had a need to morph since the trip to Muranthius.

"The Earth has been silent since then," Billy said. "We've all gone our separate ways a bit, but we keep in touch. Tommy and Katherine are married and expecting at the moment... A lot of us are married." He looked at the golden ring perched on his left hand. "Jason and Emily got married, but he hasn't been a Ranger in a long time. Rocky and Adam are both working hard at their dojo, Adam is engaged to Tanya, hmm... Rocky and Kimberly are pretty serious..."

"What about Justin?" Carlos asked.

"I don't know Justin, sorry," Billy said.

"Who's your girlfriend?" TJ asked. "Er, wife."

"Why don't you just come over to our apartment?" Billy offered. "You're going to need a place to stay anyhow."

"Lemme guess," Trini Cranston said, resting her hand on her swollen stomach, "you must have been the Yellow Ranger."

Cassie grinned warmly, glancing down at her pink shirt. "We weren't very politically correct," Cassie grinned.

"Were you yellow?" Trini asked, looking at the blonde with them.

"I was the villain, actually," Karone admitted. "But a long time ago, I was training to be the Yellow Ranger. I never got the chance, though."

"Billy, you didn't tell us you were gonna be a Papa," Carlos grinned.

"I figured you could see for yourself," he said.

"He's already a very proud Papa," Trini announced. "Kat and I are expecting about the same time. So... we're hoping."

"Zhane, you want to go to the Power Chamber and see if we can figure out a way to get you home?" Billy offered. "I'm sure there is a way."

"That'd be great!" Zhane agreed. "You sure you don't mind to go tonight?"

"Not at all," Billy said. "We'll go now."

"The Silver Ranger Powers were experimental," Zhane remarked. "The template. But when KO-35 was attacked, only the Red Powers had been made by that point. My friend Andros got those, I got Silver, and we tried to defend the planet. Long story short, we failed. But... the powers are still here."

"I've never seen a morpher with electrical components," Billy said, examining the Digimorpher closely. "Do your Silver Powers require electricity to work?"

"Long story 'yes with an if', short story 'no with a but.' The Powers are magic-based, but the process by which they're activated requires electricity... You really think we can make it into a... what did you call it?"

"Slider," Billy grinned. "There's a sci-fi program here named 'Sliders.' They travel the dimensions with a device called a Slider. It was really about the first fictional exercise in the multiple dimension theory, so the term is pretty popular. Even in scientific circles."

"Assuming we can turn the Digimorpher into a slider-"

"We will," Billy said quickly.

"Okay. When we do turn the Digimorpher into a slider, will I be able to morph?"

"I'm afraid not," Billy told him. "The Silver Powers are what is essentially going to allow you to slide. It's one or the other."

"Then I'm gonna have to get the other guys together and give 'em the news," Zhane commented. "Karone will be really surprised to learn this."

"What?" Karone asked in disbelief.

"It's what you were destined to be as a little girl, Karone," Zhane said. "It would make Andros happy."

"We can't just take Andros and Ashley's powers," Carlos interrupted. "We can't just leave them defenseless."

"Defenseless?" Zhane asked. "What do they need them for now? Your Earth is safe? Besides, if we don't take their powers, they're going to take ours because they'll assume we're dead. We can't afford to have that happen."

"How does it work?" Cassie inquired. "I don't... get it, for lack of a better way to say it."

"The five AstroMorphers are all linked," Zhane said. "Should a team member be killed in battle, any existing Morpher can be used to call the others back."

"Across dimensional walls?" TJ asked.

"In theory," Zhane said. "Somebody, give me your morpher."

In a glimmer of pink light, Cassie's morpher appeared on her wrist. She pulled it off over her hand and unquestioningly handed it to Zhane.

"I just hope I can remember the codes," Zhane commented. "Uhm... Yellow..." He hit the keypad with his index finger, typing in a rather long code.

"Yellow," the Morpher's mechanical voice called. Yellow light flashed in Zhane's hands, and lying next to Cassie's Pink Morpher was Ashley's Yellow.

"It worked!" Zhane cried happily. His fingers punched in the command for Red, and Andros' morpher soon joined their ranks.

"Oh, serious stuff," Karone remarked as Zhane thrust the Yellow Morpher into her hands.

"This can also let them know that we're okay," Carlos suggested. "When they realize that their morphers are gone..."

"Do you guys think I'll look okay in red?" Zhane asked, strapping his morpher onto his wrist.

"You guys are all set to go," Billy told them the next day.

"How does it work?" Zhane asked, taking the modified Digimorpher. It still looked basically the same, but the controls had all been relabeled. The read-out was smaller in heighth but wider, so as to allow a greater expanse of characters.

"Any even-numbered button will activate the sliding mechanism," Billy started. "In the event of an emergency, you can hit an odd-numbered button to pause the timing device."

"Timing device?" Cassie asked.

"It has to charge up to gather up the energy to cross the dimensional barrier," Billy explained. "But as soon as it reaches zero, you need to activate it within the next ten minutes or the circuits might be overloaded. If you're on a time limit, you can pause it, make it stop absorbing energy, and wait until you are ready to slide."

"I thought we were going home," TJ muttered.

"Just in case," Zhane promised. "We should be going home first of all. Right?"

"Right," Billy said. "But there are a lot of dimensions out there. This is JUST in case. I also installed a slider safety sentiency feature, so you won't slide into the middle of a tree or anything. It'll keep you safe. Actually, it's going to keep the others Morphers safe as it has no concept of human life, but since you're wearing the Morphers, you'll be okay."

"All right, guys," Zhane remarked. "Ready to go home?"

"Thanks for having us over," Cassie grinned.

"Anytime," Billy smiled back. "Be careful you guys."

"Good luck with the Dad thing," TJ added, clapping Billy on the shoulder.

"We're out of here," Zhane said, pushing the number four on his former Digimorpher. Instantly, red light flashed before his eyes.

From Billy's perspective, he saw each Ranger begin to glow their respective color with an impeding teleport. Then, they all just disappeared, leaving the courtyard empty.

"Was that a teleport?" Carlos asked as the black light fell away from his eyes.

"Look at Billy's apartment building," Karone commented, pointing to the building that they had spent the night in.

"Look at the courtyard," TJ added. What had once been a nice, middle-class apartment building was now a dilapidated structure standing behind a courtyard full of rubble.

"This could be home," Cassie offered. "We don't know what all damage was done."

"If it isn't, we've got seven hours until we can get out of here," Zhane said, tucking the Digimorpher into his dimensional pocket. It may have been a dimensional sliding device, but his body still recognized it as his old Digimorpher and readily placed it in his own pocket dimension.

"Let's go to the town square," Carlos suggested. "Maybe we can figure out that way."

"Uhm, guys," Cassie said, standing at a corner of the courtyard. "I think I can safely say we aren't home."

"Why?" TJ asked, jogging over to her side.

"That," she said, pointing at the horizon.

"Oh wow," TJ remarked. "Guys, we didn't have that in Angel Grove before, did we?"

"This isn't home," Carlos agreed, sighing and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"So what do we do now?" Karone asked.

"We're homeless," Carlos realized. "My family..."

"Our friends," TJ added.

"They're okay, and we're okay," Zhane said. "We're just gonna have to find our way back. We'll get there eventually."

Karone slipped her arm securely through Zhane's and leaned partially against him. The others stood around them, not able to look at each other. Home seemed so far away to them, and they all feared that looking at someone from home would be far too painful. Instead, they just stared at the gargantuan golden Sphinx, nestled securely among Angel Grove's tallest skyscrapers.

End