Author's note: I feel like I have to say this at least once every season...

I don't take story requests. I will not write someone else's story. I have plenty of my own ideas, and I would like to spend my time and effort focusing on them. If you have a story idea, you are more than welcome to write it yourself.

But you're no good at writing, you say? Well, neither was I. How do you think I got to this point? And how do you think I'm going to continue to improve (at least, I hope I am). I practice. Writing is an art, and you're not going to be good at it unless you do it yourself.

Also, I don't take ship requests. I see the couples I like and I write about them. Sometimes, they line up with the popular ship, and sometimes, they're waayyy out there (Serena/Dekker, anyone?). But the point is, I write what I love. The only thing worse than not seeing any stories about your favourite couple together, is seeing a story where the author has absolutely no love for the couple and tries to force them together for a request. So if I ship the same two people as you, you will eventually see them come together naturally. If I don't, you're honestly better off. If you want to see a story about your favourite pair, write it yourself. But you're not good, you say? Refer to my point above. Writing is an art. Please respect my process and ideas and I will respect yours.

It had taken hours of work – most of the day, in fact, but Kendall had done it. With Shelby's help, she had built a machine that, theoretically, would be able to track an energem. All they needed to do now was test it out.

Kendall brought a new charger over to the machine, showing an excited Shelby what they had managed to accomplish.

"This charger should be able to temporarily power our machine while it searches for the aqua energem."

"Does that mean it can also locate and power the ankylozord?"

"Theoretically," Kendall answered. Nothing had been confirmed yet. Kendall would need to get the machine up and running, and it would have to do everything she hoped it would for this idea to be a success. It was exciting to Kendall. It would shave months of research off her schedule if they could track down energems with the machine. It would also mean there was a higher chance the energems would fall into good hands, and the world would be safe from Fury and Sledge and their armies.

Hopeful, Kendall turned on the machine and watched it come to life as it powered up the ankylo charger. The boys, back from their dig, arrived just in time to be part of the fun.

"Welcome home, gentleman," Shelby said with an air of confidence. Kendall could relate. She was on a little bit of a high as well from their success so far. "Find anything?"

"I think I found... uh, poison ivy," Koda said as he took off his suit and checked out his back. Kendall did note he looked a little red, and would have to pick up some cream for him before the stores closed. But right now, that wasn't the most important thing.

"Well, we had a very successful day, she said and Shelby showed the boys the ankylo charger.

"This is the ankylo charger," she said. "It's the brain that runs our new invention: the E-Tracer."

Kendall blushed slightly, hearing that. She had never been one to share credit, only because the teachers and mentors she had early in her career never shared credit with her. When she came upon something new while helping them, they would take any of her ideas and run with it. Kendall learned in that way that science was a very competitive field. Shelby, easily, could have done the same to Kendall. It was her idea that got this project started. Yet, she hadn't. It was a strange concept to Kendall, but one she found made her happy.

Shelby put the charger into the machine then turned it on. The boys were excited, but Kendall was nervous. Now was the moment of truth. Their hours of work could be a breakthrough, or could have all been for nothing. Kendall turned on the laser, and waited to get something back from the satellites floating above the Earth. Kendall watched as the E-Tracer did a search of the planet and waited hopefully to see if any results would come up. To her delight, it did. Kendall quickly received an alert that the E-Tracer had picked up on something special.

"That's definitely the right energy signature," Kendall stated, "But... I can't say if it's an energem. It might be a Zord."

That was still good news. It wasn't quite what Kendall was hoping for, but it was a step forward. Possessing a Zord wasn't quite as important as locating the missing energems, but it was certainly better than letting Sledge or Fury get their hands on it.

"Comes on, guys," Shelby announced as she started to make her way to the exit, "This time, we're going to dig in the right place."

As the Rangers took off, Kendall stayed in her lab. Until the Rangers arrived to the location to see what it was the tracer had picked up on exactly, she wanted to analyse the readings she had gotten. It would help identify anything important in the future. Even the most subtle of variations in readings between could mean the difference between something they wanted to find, and something they didn't need to waste their time on. After all, Earth still held a lot of mysteries. Until they knew for sure what they had located, there were any number of things it could be.

Kendall worked until she heard an alarm buzzing in her lab. She rushed back to her computer and saw Vivicks and a new monster coming out of the hole in the ground where she was getting the energy readings. Kendall gasped – this shouldn't have been possible. If Sledge or Fury had a way to track down energems, they would have already found them all by now. They did have millions of years of searching over Kendall. She raced back to the E-Tracer to see what could have possibly tipped the aliens off and quickly realized her mistake. She slumped in her chair and sighed loudly.

"Shit..."

She turned off the E-Tracer so no one else could tap into her findings and possibly locate the other energems and then just stared down at her hands until the Rangers were back. They were beat up, likely from the fight, but they were more confused than anything. Keeper appears, and Kendall knew her mistake was serious. She kept quiet as the Rangers tried to figure out what had happened.

"Okay, so the ankylozord is awake," Riley said. "That means the energem bonded to someone."

"You mean, there's an aqua Power Ranger out there?" Shelby asked.

"That is correct," Keeper said. "But he may not know we exist or may have chosen for some reason not to join us yet. What is important now is the ankylozord. Is shares the energem's power and would not normally attack us."

Hearing that made Kendall's stomach churn. She had worked with her fair share of Zords since this mission started and Keeper was right. Despite not being bonded to an energem, the Zords had never tried to hurt her. They knew better, and they understood who was trying to help them, and who wanted to hurt them. Something must have happened before the Rangers arrived to confuse the ankylozord.

And it was her fault.

"Maybe monster sting zord," Koda said, and pointed to the stinger that, during the battle, had gotten lodged in his back. It had turned him against his friends just until they managed to remove it. "Like it sting me."

"That would explain it," Tyler agreed and Kendall only felt worse. Now the monster had definitely reached the Zord before the Rangers, and had certainly done something to hurt it. And that had only happened because of her mistake. Had she been a little more careful with her work, this never would have happened.

"Idiot," her father mumbled with a shake of his head. He snatched her homework from her hands and held the paper right in her face. "What does that look like to you? Huh?"

Now that it was literally right in front of her, young Kendall could make out the number.

"Sorry, daddy," she whispered and erased her mistake. "Three?"

"Only took you two tries," her father muttered. "After three months in first grade, you still don't know how to add one and two?"

"I didn't see it was a two," Kendall insisted, but her father wouldn't have it. He got up and walked off, leaving Kendall to do the rest of her homework by herself in shame. When she finished, she brought it over to him to check. He only took a couple of seconds to glance at it before he tore it up.

"Do it again," he growled at her. "This time, get it right. I'm not hanging up an F on the fridge, Kendall!"

"But daddy..."

"You made the mistake, Kendall. You correct it. No excuses!"

"But..."

"Go!" he shouted. Kendall picked up the torn pieces of her homework. She would need to piece them together before she could start correcting her answers. This second time around, she was determined to make her father proud. She grabbed the first part of her homework and held the paper close up to her face, where the numbers were clear. Now she knew where she had gone wrong.

When she was done, she brought the corrected homework over to her father. He looked it over then nodded.

"See what you can do when you're paying attention," he said.

"Can I watch TV now, daddy?"

"Just don't make any noise," he said and made a little room for her on the couch. He didn't change the channel, so Kendall had to watch another documentary about dinosaurs, though she didn't mind. They fascinated her.

And, they kept her preoccupied when her mother returned home from work and started yelling back and forth with her father.

"No way!" Kendall snapped out of her thoughts to hear Tyler call out, and turned to see him blocking Shelby from leaving. "It's too dangerous."

"Someone has to do it," Shelby insisted. "Besides, it's my stupid E-Tracer that somehow screwed up and gave away the Zord's location to Sledge."

Kendall felt a huge pang of guilt hit her when she heard that. This time, Shelby took credit for their invention, but it wasn't in her favour. She was actually taking the blame. Kendall wasn't used to being spared like that at all. If she had anything to do at all with one of her teacher's or mentor's failed discoveries, they found a way to pin it on her. Hell, her own father had blamed her for his unhappiness just before he disappeared, despite Kendall always trying to do her best for him.

She couldn't let Shelby take the blame for her mistakes. Just before the pink Ranger left, she spoke up.

"Actually... Your device worked brilliantly. Sledge got the location of the Zord because I didn't encrypt the E-Tracer's code. It's my fault we lost control of the ankylozord. Somehow, I'll find a solution."