The next morning, Emily felt a lot brighter. It was obvious that rather than actually being poisoned by the fajitas, it merely upset her stomach. She could remember acutely the time she had begged her parents to throw her a party in a burger joint in town near her home for her ninth birthday. It turned out that they had a far from stellar hygiene record, and half the kids at the party, including Emily and her sister Serena, were off school sick for days.

The symptoms then were similar to what she had felt last night, but lasted a lot longer. Thinking about it, the chicken was so overcooked, it seemed unlikely that any traces of salmonella would have survived, so she was confident she was over it. Looking across and finding Mia's bed empty, she checked the clock to ensure she hadn't slept in. Fortunately, she was still awake in time for breakfast, and got up, quickly dressing herself before heading to the living room.

Kevin, Mike and Jayden were all in the room, sitting with muesli, preparing their breakfast as she arrived. She poured herself some as well, and started eating to have something in her stomach after her night of enforced "evacuation". Given the way they were talking quietly, she could guess what the subject was. They all seemed to be healthy, but just like her, seemed tired as a result of having very little sleep. She knelt with them, next to Mike, giving him a little smile as they exchanged a glance. They had promised that they were still unsure what they had together, and being in the house with the others made getting privacy for them to explore what was forming between them impossible, but they had promised each other that they would try at some point.

"All I'm saying is this time we got away lucky." Jayden whispered, rousing her attention. "I don't know about any of you, but I maybe got about three hours' sleep the whole night."

"I spent half of my time on the toilet." Kevin agreed sadly. Mike and Emily just suppressed a giggle at his expense. They, unfortunately, had direct experience of that. The image of Kevin running in, desperate for a throne, the necessity of expediency obviously over-riding his embarrassment as he whipped his pants down in front of them had somewhat killed the romance of the moment.

"I know we were only trying to spare her feelings, but in future, I think we need to put our health ahead of that." Jayden put down. "Last night was unpleasant, but..."

"Look, I wasn't having much fun either, but Mia's never been anything but nice to me." Emily interrupted the Red Ranger nervously. "She's always made me feel better when I get homesick. She could be a bit sensitive..."

"So telling her that her cooking is more likely to kill us than Lord Xandred is hardly likely to help the team dynamic." Mike suggested. Emily smacked him on the arm for his somewhat blunt way of putting it, but couldn't help thinking that he had said pretty much exactly what she was thinking. Jayden nodded.

"I understand that, but two days ago, her asparagus was raw! The day before that, her cupcakes were still liquid in the middle." He reminded them. "I like her as much as the rest of you..."

Mike and Kevin both chuckled, remembering how they had blackmailed him into eating the fajitas by telling him they would say his habit of pink shirts was because he was crushing on her. It wasn't true, Jayden had never considered her that way, indeed he had never thought that way about either of the girls on the team, but that didn't mean that Mia wouldn't believe it. It would make training and teamwork awkward if she thought that was true. He just shot them both a warning glance.

"Mentor Ji talked to me already about this matter, and we both agree that it's for the best if we just tell her." He told them. "Last night we got lucky, but if she does give us food poisoning, then it'll weaken us, and we can't afford that."

"Fine." Kevin sighed as he pulled out a set of scales and set them down on the table, beginning to spoon some muesli into the bowl. He kept a careful eye on the gauge as he started to measure out the exact recommended portion to the last sultana. "Which one of us has to tell her?"

"It's bad enough having to be on the team with her if we hurt her feelings." Emily began, watching him curiously. "I share a room with her too. That would just be unbearable."

"Um...what are you doing? Just eat already." Mike told Kevin as he finished a bite of his own cereal. Kevin just looked at him like it was a strange question. He knew Mike wasn't as serious about the regulations and traditions of the Samurai as him, but he thought it was pretty obvious.

"There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything within the Samurai code." Kevin said matter-of-factly, looking around and seeing that both Mike and Emily were looking at him like he was being ridiculous. Even Jayden was shaking his head and laughing at the display, and he had been at the academy a lot longer than all of them, having spent much of his childhood there.

"Wow, you're so wound up, I'm amazed you can digest your food." Kevin replied. "Although if you could stomach Mia's..." He was cut off as Emily nudged him again.

Just then, Mia came in with a bright smile on her face, laying down a dish on the table.

"I came up with a new recipe." She told them. "Everyone loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right? Well what could be better for breakfast than a PB&J omelette?"

As she removed the closh, they all looked at it in horror. The first thought through Emily's mind was that it looked a lot like the fajitas had when she brought them back up, and the resemblance threatened to turn her stomach. Kevin was the first to speak.

"Darn, I'm stuffed, I just ate." He replied, putting down an empty bowl. "Rain check?"

Jayden and Emily just indicated that they too had already fixed their breakfast. Kevin quickly threw his muesli into a bowl. So quickly in fact, he hadn't noticed that he had thrown in orange juice instead of milk, and immediately started to wolf it down.

"Precision and discipline huh?" Mike said sarcastically, only getting a glare from Kevin in response as his mouth was full. Kevin hated the thought that one of them would have to tell her the awful truth about her culinary skills, or, more accurately, lack of them. There was no way to avoid the fact it would hurt her feelings if they told her that not only was it simply not good, but that it was now so bad, it was becoming a real security concern.

"Everyone, I have excellent news!" Mentor Ji announced as he arrived. "The missing Swordfish Zord has been spotted in Lementor Beach."

Jayden looked up as he heard this. They all knew that there were other power disks and new zords to be found, many of which had been lost for centuries. The Bettle Zord had undoubtedly been a huge benefit in their battles recently, and a new Zord could only help their cause.

"A swordfish?" Mia asked him. She looked away thoughtfully for a second. "That reminds me, there's a recipe I've been wanting to try..."

"The Swordfish went missing in action years ago." He told them. "If we don't catch it now, who knows when we'll get another chance?"

Just then the Gap Sensor sounded an alarm. Jayden got up and looked around the room, trying to determine the best course of action. They needed to deal with the new Nighlock's attack, but Mentor Ji was right. It had been almost a generation since the swordfish was last seen. It was possible that this would be the only chance they'd get. His gaze rested on Kevin, and he made his decision. With his determination and discipline, he knew that Kevin would not fail, and his mastery of Water symbol power would give him some level of affinity with it."

"Kevin." He announced. Kevin stood up eagerly. "We'll go after the Nighlock. I want you to catch that swordfish. Are you up for a solo mission?"

"I've been training my whole life for this." Kevin replied proudly.

"With your mastery of symbol power over water, I'm confident you'll catch that zord." He replied, handing him a blank power disk. The others were already on their way, but Jayden held Kevin back for a second. "You also have one other solo mission."

Kevin looked at him and he could guess what Jayden was going to say. His heart sank a little.

"Emily has to share a room with Mia, and Mike is as diplomatic as a sledgehammer." He told him. "I think what we talked about might be best coming from you."

Kevin nodded and left, heading for the jeep. As he stared at the power disk, making his way to the beach, he suddenly got a thought. He had heard that the swordfish had some kind of cleansing or healing abilities. He was sure he had read that somewhere in his many books on Samurai history. His determination doubled as he thought about this. With the swordfish, not only would they have a new weapon in their arsenal, it was also possible that he wouldn't need to have that talk with Mia after all.