Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Dino Charge. This story is fan-made.

Since first meeting Keeper, Kendall had been on a mission to locate the ten missing Energems that Keeper had entrusted to dinosaurs millions of years before. It was a task that seemed impossible to most, considering the likelihood of finding ten tiny gems that were somewhere on this planet. However, Kendall had embraced the challenge. She was unsure of why Keeper had chosen her over everyone else who worked in her field, but she wasn't about to let him down.

Since her mission began, five energems had been located. Kendall discovered two on her own. The blue energem had been found in a glacier, frozen alongside a cave man. Testing placed the cave man to be about a hundred thousand years old, which was an amazing discovery on its own. However, Kendall had gotten the shock of her life when she accidentally allowed the cave man to thaw out, and it turned out he was still alive.

His name was Koda and he had been scared. Of course, he had to be. From his perspective, everything had changed in the blink of an eye. With enough time and patience, Kendall had befriended Koda, and taught him enough about the English language to be able to communicate effectively.

Then, along came Chase, who had received his own energem from an old friend. He had no idea about its power until he stumbled upon Kendall and Koda while visiting the museum. She had explained to him that he had been chosen, and just like Koda, she took Chase under her wing.

For a couple of months, it was just the three of them, plus three energems. Kendall had discovered the pink energem near a triceratops fossil while out on a dig with her team. She had pocketed it and brought it back to Keeper. It hadn't yet bonded with anyone, so Kendall knew she needed to keep it safe.

Eventually, Shelby stumbled upon the energem. She had broken a few rules in doing so, but Keeper had assured Kendall that fate had brought Shelby right where she needed to be. At the same time, Tyler discovered the red Energem and Riley found the green. The three of them made their way to the museum, where they accidentally stumbled upon Kendall's lab and were then told of the responsibility they held.

Five of the energems had been found, five were still missing. Kendall's mission was halfway through. There was still a long way to go, especially since Sledge and Fury were also looking for the power of the Energems and would stop at nothing to possess them. Fortunately, Kendall, with Keeper's help, came up with a way to transform Tyler, Shelby, Chase, Riley and Koda into Power Rangers. It would keep the aliens at bay while the search for the Energems went on.

It was a lot of work, but Kendall found herself enjoying it. She finally felt a purpose with her life; like there was somewhere she was needed. Growing up, Kendall never felt like she belonged anywhere. Her father had walked out on her and her mother, before killing herself, raised Kendall to believe that letting people get close to her was giving them permission to break her heart. So when Kendall moved in with her foster family, to avoid suffering anymore pain and disappointment, she kept them at arm's length. The only thing she found she could depend on in her life was her curiosity. She had fallen in love with dinosaurs and early life, and let herself be consumed by it.

Unfortunately, though this wasn't unexpected to Kendall, research wasn't just about going to amazing places and making incredible discoveries. It was a lot of planning time, and studying, and reading, and testing and many, many failures. In her research, Kendall had hit far more dead ends than she had made discoveries. The key to being one of the greats was taking her mistakes and correcting them, no matter what it meant. Sometimes, that involved simply reworking an idea. Other times, it meant hours, days, or even weeks or months of re-examining data.

So while the Rangers were out on a dig, Kendall was in the lab, doing exactly that. She had some theories about where to find the remaining energems, but none of them were proving true. She hoped the Rangers would stumble upon on by accident, just like how the first five were found, but she needed to stay in the lab, just in case there was something she had missed before.

She thought the Rangers would be gone all day, but in the middle of the afternoon she noticed Shelby walking back into the lab. She looked up from her microscope with a bit of a frown.

"You're back early. Is everything okay?"

"Well, actually... something did happen."

Kendall's first reaction was to look around for the others. She would have been notified if there had been an attack. The alarm was loud enough to snap her out of her deepest thoughts. Sometimes, she forgot about the world around her when she was consumed in her research. But seeing Shelby looked okay, she figured the pink Ranger had simply gotten bored of the rewardless digging and gave up.

Shelby's response was far from what Kendall expected.

"I came up with an idea for how to find the other energems."

Kendall raised her eyebrows, and tried not to let her shock and doubt show, but her voice somewhat betrayed her. "Oh? Really?"

It wasn't that she didn't think Shelby was smart. For an eighteen year old, Shelby seemed to know a lot about the field. However, Kendall had spent many years in school, and many years before that reading up on research papers and challenging theories made by other scientists. After school, she had spent most, if not all her time consumed by her work. When Keeper recruited her for this mission, months and months before Shelby first lay eyes on her pink Energem, Kendall had put all her energy into coming up with a better way of tracking down energems. She didn't want to leave the fate of the world relying on sheer luck that the good guys would reach the powerful gems first.

Kendall picked up her notes, showing them to the younger girl, "I think you underestimate how difficult it is to find an energem."

Kendall turned away from Shelby to continue her own work. However, Shelby didn't seem ready to let up.

"And I think you underestimate me," she responded. Kendall stopped her work and froze, just for a moment. She turned around to look at Shelby, somewhat uncertain whether or not the pink Ranger had spoken back to her. No one had ever spoken back to her. "Ever since I first got here I've been waiting tables, mopping floors, and being a pretty good pink Ranger, if I do say so myself."

Kendall scoffed. None of that had anything to do with being able to find energems. Unless Shelby was going to come across the next one while cleaning up a spill, her job as a waitress was a very weak argument for why her idea could possibly be any good.

But Shelby didn't let up, "But I've also got a lot of ideas going on up here," she said as she pointed to her head. The problem is no one will listen."

Kendall looked away from Shelby just for a moment and breathed out. She had her doubts about the pink Ranger, but those last words felt so familiar to her. Kendall had gone most of her life feeling like she didn't have a voice, and that didn't stop once she found her passion. Everyone she encountered in her field seemed to believe the little girl from a foster home would ever be smart enough to challenge them. Kendall had to prove she was eons smarter than anyone else in the room just to be heard. Her first paper had been rejected by articles several times because she was too young or her background seemed to lend her very little credit. People had a tough time taking her seriously. Really, it wasn't until just recently, after years of hard work, that people were starting to see her as a respected scientist, and that hadn't come easily at all.

So while she doubted Shelby had stumbled upon anything she hadn't thought of herself, she owed it to the pink Ranger to at least hear her out.

She set her notes down and nodded, "Okay, Shelby. I'm listening."

Kendall wasn't all that surprised to see Shelby hesitate. It seemed Shelby had also underestimated Kendall's ability to be empathetic. A lot of people did. Kendall knew she was regarded as cold-hearted. The Rangers had only figured out part of the reason for that when her father came to town, and it seemed it was still sinking in with Shelby.

But the pink Ranger's hesitation wasn't too long for Kendall to give up. Finally, Shelby spoke.

"Well, we combine known facts about the five remaining dinosaurs: climate, known breeding grounds, food sources, stuff I know, with the global scan of the energy signatures for each of those dinosaurs' energems. That's stuff I thought you could help me figure out."

Kendall crossed her arms over her chest. She was very impressed. Shelby's idea wouldn't work, but it had shown Kendall that maybe there was more going on with Shelby than she had initially assumed. If anything, Shelby's idea, while mistaken, had sparked an idea for Kendall.

"Global scan of energy signatures... highly doubtful," Kendall moved over to her computer, and started typing furiously, "Unless, of course, we... That would require DNA samples and the processing power required would limit us to just one dinosaur at a time."

Kendall glanced up quickly for a moment and noticed and absent assistant, so she turned to Shelby with a smile, "Well, are you going to watch or help?"

Shelby smiled and got to work, picking up the DNA sample Kendall had already collected from the ankylosaurus. Thanks to Keeper, they already knew the aqua energem had bonded with that dinosaur, so they had a little bit of a lead. Kendall nodded her head, and found her work was moving quickly thanks to Shelby's idea.

So, in the middle of their work, Kendall did something she rarely had to do. Something that made her a little nervous. She looked up to the pink Ranger, "This was a really good idea, Shelby."

Shelby smiled brightly at the compliment. "You really think so? Thanks, Ms. Morgan, that means a lot."