As Emma, Jake, and Gia entered the city, they walked around and skimmed the area quickly, trying to look for any signs of Troy and/or a battle going on. Noah was just staring at his morpher through his helmet, trying to locate where Troy was with the coordinates that Tensou had sent him. Tensou usually did that, just to make sure that the Rangers would get there fast and easy.
Noah looked up from his morpher for the first time in twenty minutes to see where he was. He saw that he was somewhere in the city, but his attention had already shifted to his friends, who were going around at random places, seemingly looking for something. Noah rolled his eyes.
"Guys," he called out, making Emma, Gia, and Jake look his way instantly.
"I have the coordinates that Tensou sent me that'll lead us to where Troy is. No need to go looking around frantically," Noah informed. Jake threw his hands up in the air.
"Now you tell us?!" Jake exclaimed, remembering that Noah had not told him and the girls about Tensou's coordinates. Though, Noah gave him a confused look under his helmet. He hadn't told them that yet?
"Are you sure that I haven't told you anything about the coordinates?" Noah asked, scratching the back of his neck. Emma, Jake, and Gia nodded in unison. Noah gave them a sheepish grin, even though he knew the others weren't able to see it.
"Sorry," Noah apologized. Gia ran up to him and gave him a stern look.
"We need to find Troy, fast. He could be in serious trouble right now. I don't mean to be rude, but read that thing faster!" Gia commanded. Noah fumbled with his morpher at the sound of Gia's stern voice. When he was finally able to hold his morpher properly, he looked at it with his full concentration once again, just like he had done before.
"The alien's coordinates are this way . . .," he murmured as he started walking further into the city. When he realized that they were running out of time, he started running, the others following close behind him. He couldn't take his time. Troy could've been seriously injured by now while he was taking his precious time staring at his morpher. He needed to move fast, for Troy's sake.
Troy flew into the air and landed on the ground with a hard thud due to a slash from one of Creepox's sickles. Troy laid on the ground, helplessly, as Creepox walked slowly towards him, looking like he was going in for the final slash. He could do nothing but brace himself, almost all his energy leaving him. He was already in his civilian form, demorphing a few seconds ago when he had hit the ground.
"Weren't as tough as you thought you were, huh?" Creepox taunted, enjoying every moment of their fight. Creepox has been getting the upper hand ever since the whole fight, and it had been quite the workout, considering the Red Ranger was an excellent fighter. But, Creepox still managed to gain the upper hand throughout the whole one-on-one fight.
Troy didn't answer Creepox's question. He barely had the energy to move, never mind speak. As Creepox was only a few inches away from him, he knew Creepox was thinking about finishing him off then and there. He couldn't let that happen. He had to do something.
Creepox lifted his sickles, forming a barrage of small, fast-moving energy shots. Before Troy could do anything, four color-coded blasts shot him in the back, causing him to lose his concentration.
Creepox and Troy looked to see that Emma, Gia, Jake, and Noah have come. Troy sighed out a breath of relief, or at least the best he could with so little energy.
"Rangers?" Creepox cried out in anger, outraged that they had ruined the perfect chance for him to wipe out Troy. "You aren't supposed to be here!"
"Well, we came anyway," Gia snapped back. "Keep your hands, or whatever you call those things, off of Troy!"
"You will all pay dearly for this mistake," Creepox threatened before disappearing. The only rival he wanted to defeat for now was the Red Ranger. He'd deal with the others later.
Gia, Emma, Jake, and Noah wore perplexed looks on their faces. Why would that alien leave just as they joined in on the fight? Didn't he want to destroy all of them?
The four Rangers were pulled out of their thoughts as they heard some movement a few yards away.
"Troy!" Emma exclaimed, rushing over to his side as he tried to stand up. She pushed him down, knowing he was too injured to move around.
"No, stay down," Emma warned him as the other three Rangers came to his side as well. "You need to rest." Troy did as he was told, too tired to fight back.
"We need to teleport back to the Command Center, fast," Gia stated hurriedly. Jake nodded and used his morpher's teleporting feature, taking them right in front of the entrance. Jake groaned. Why couldn't the morphers Gosei gave them just teleport them directly inside the Command Center? In emergencies like this, there's literally no time to walk inside.
Jake turned around to his teammates to help them bring Troy in, but he saw that Troy was already standing up on his own, more or less. He was leaning on Noah, but he was probably just using Noah to keep his balance.
Seeing that Noah and Troy had everything under control, Gia, Emma, and Jake walked in first, trying to get to Tensou as soon as possible. Once Tensou caught sight of the three of them, he let out a sigh of relief, glad that most of the Rangers were okay.
"Boy, am I glad to see you're all right . . .," Tensou stopped mid-sentence when he saw how badly beat up Troy was. Tensou rolled over to Troy in a split second.
"Ooh, Troy! What happened?" Tensou asked in a frantic tone. All Troy did was shake his head, unable to form any words from the exhaustion from fighting Creepox.
"Just help him," Gia commanded. Tensou nodded as he rolled out one of those beds used to nurse the Rangers when they were terribly injured. Noah helped Troy sit down. He would have helped Troy lie down, only if Troy didn't refuse to. That was pretty surprising. Troy looked so tired, too tired to even sit up right. But, instead of collapsing, he was sitting on the bed. That was something the four other Rangers didn't get. Why was Troy pushing himself so much?
As Tensou did a few scans on Troy, Emma, Gia, Jake, and Noah turned to Gosei, who had been silent ever since they walked in. His eyes were litten up, so he was listening.
"Gosei," Gia started, "do you know who that Warstar alien was?"
"I'm not sure . . .," Gosei replied slowly.
"Wait, why did that alien want to fight Troy, but not us?" Noah asked suddenly, causing everyone's attention to be shifted to him, including Troy's.
"What do you mean?" Emma asked. She had noticed that that Warstar was only interested in fighting Troy, due to the way he seemed more angered when the four other Rangers came. If he could've defeated Troy, he could probably defeat all of them as well. Of course, he'd have a harder time getting the better of some of them, but eventually, he'd be able to demolish them all. Why didn't he take that chance to destroy all of them once and for all, so there was no one in the way of the Warstars conquering Earth? It just didn't make sense.
"Well," Noah started, trying to find a way to explain to Emma in a less complicated way, "did you guys notice how Creepox left when we came?" Gia, Jake, and Emma nodded.
"But, he could've been scared or something," Jake suggested. "You know, of us defeating him?" Gia gave him a small grin.
"Don't get so full of yourself, Hot Shot," Gia warned. "That Warstar beat the fudge out of Troy." Gia pointed to where Troy was sitting, Tensou bandaging his wrist. "Do you think we stand a chance?"
"Troy was alone," Emma pointed out. "The five of us together would've been a team. Unity is strength. When us humans work together, we can accomplish anything."
Jake chuckled. "You probably didn't notice, but you were quoting Troy in that last sentence."
Emma thought about it for a moment before she burst out laughing, as did Noah, Jake, and Gia. It was true. She was quoting Troy from the first day of school, when he first walked into Mr. Burley's classroom. Emma looked over at Troy to see what his reaction was. But, instead of laughing along with them, he was staring out into space, seemingly deep in thought as Tensou finished up bandaging his arm. Emma stopped laughing, nudged Gia, and pointed to where Troy was.
Gia, confused as to why Emma's demeanor had suddenly changed, looked over to see Troy not focusing on the conversation, but focusing on something else in his mind.
Jake and Noah had stopped their laughter once they saw how serious Gia and Emma looked. Both guys looked at the direction as to where Gia and Emma were looking and saw it, too. Troy seemingly didn't take in anything they had been saying for the past few minutes or so.
Tensou, seeing that the Rangers were focused on Troy, also looked up to see what Troy was doing that was grabbing everyone's attention. Tensou tilted his head in confusion. What was Troy thinking about?
"Um, hello?" Tensou asked, rolling in front of Troy, trying to get Troy to snap out of his thoughts. "Are you in there? Or are you just zoning us out?"
Troy shook himself out of his thoughts at the sound of Tensou's voice. He looked to see that his friends' eyes were concentrated on him, making him a little uncomfortable.
"What's going on?" Troy asked, bewildered as to why all the attention in the room was on him. Noah stepped a little closer to him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Noah asked, concerned. Troy nodded.
"Yeah," Troy replied. "It's just a few scratches and burns. Nothing too serious."
"No, I meant are you mentally okay," Noah clarified, earning him an uneasy look from Troy. Troy didn't answer, though, not wanting to talk at the moment.
After a few moments of silence, Gosei decided to speak up.
"Is there something you want to tell us, Troy?" Gosei asked. Troy shook his head slowly, but didn't know what to say. He wouldn't tell anyone about Creepox yet, though he got a feeling that Gosei already knew he was hiding something.
Gosei, sensing the slight tension in the room, decided to break the silence.
"Rangers, you all look very tired. Go home and rest before your parents start to worry," Gosei said. Everyone nodded, but Troy was the first one out, not wanting to be asked any more questions. He would have told them about Creepox, but something in him was telling him now wasn't the time yet. They'd just have to find out later on.
The problem was that they were incredibly suspicious. Troy was usually pretty good at hiding things from others, but the timing of everything was against him. Troy knew that they'd want answers. But, they couldn't find out yet. His gut was telling him to keep his mouth shut. He just hoped that he would be able to resolve and reveal everything soon.