Jake had been told to take it easy by Tensou and his teammates after their last battle left him with a concussion. He wasn't supposed to be playing soccer, and explained to his coach that he would have to sit out the next few games if he wanted to recover. His coach understood completely, but he felt he had let his teammates down. They had several big games coming up, and they had been counting on him showing up. By now, all their opponents knew he was a good player and they were definitely going to take advantage of the fact that his position was being filled in by a substitute to try and win some games.

So, he wanted to make it up to his team. He wanted to be ready and warmed up for when he returned to the field. He kept his practice sessions easy so as not to hurt himself again, but he was going at it, pushing himself as much as he safely could so he would be ready for his next game.

He kicked the ball in the net and smiled as the power he managed to put into the shot. Hard kicks weren't always the best choice, but if he could shoot hard and with accuracy on net then there was very little to keep him from scoring goals. He congratulated himself with a little dance even though he had been told by everyone who had ever seen him dancing that he was no good.

He then went to pick up the ball from the net. As he bent over, he felt himself being grabbed. His arms were pulled back behind him and held tightly by someone bigger and a lot stronger than him. Before Jake could do anything, someone else in a mask walked up in front of him and punched him right in the stomach. Without his arms to defend himself, he couldn't block the punch and had to take it as best as he could. He tried to wriggle his way out of his captor's hold, but he couldn't move his arms at all.

"You're strong," he said and then took another punch, this time to the chest. He continued to try and break free, and eventually he did. He blocked a punch from the man who thought he could beat him up, flipped him over and then started to run. He didn't get very far before a bunch of other men, probably about a dozen, surrounded him on the field. Like the other two, they were all wearing masks.

Masks and Harwood County High Letterman jackets. These were or had been students from his school. When Jake looked around to try and figure out if he knew his attackers, he figured it had to be the latter. They were all much bigger than he was and from what he could tell, they seemed older.

"What did I ever do to you guys?" Jake asked before he was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. He looked down the field, where he had left his bag and his morpher and then felt a kick to the ribs. He curled up into a ball and tried to protect himself as best as he could. He was outnumbered and taken by surprise, and with his concussion, he couldn't risk fighting back. He had to find a way out.

Suddenly, he felt a blow to the head and everything went black.

-Megaforce-

Troy walked through the park with his sister. While she insisted she was okay after the birth and adopting of her baby, Troy had noticed she had been a little upset. She had been looking forward to the end of her pregnancy and moving on from her mistakes, but now that the time had come, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She was a lot like Gia, Troy had noticed, in the manner where a lot of her teenage years had been taken from her and she was left without a sense of direction or a sense of who she was. And with school still weeks away, there was no way for her to find herself. Troy knew he had to get her out of the house.

"I could train you, you know," he suggested. "You might like it, and with the city under attack by monsters, you never know when it could come in handy."

"Troy, I'm still sore and tired from pushing a human being out of my you-know-what," Rebecca grumbled. "I don't feel like… exercising."

"It could be good for you. You know, to drop the baby weight. Mom is still complaining about that. Hey, why don't you start jogging with her?"

"Jogging?"

"Some people enjoy it. That could be your thing."

Rebecca shook her head, "Exercise is not my thing."

"Well, what inspires you?"

"I don't know. TV."

"You're not sitting on the couch all day."

"I'm not just sitting on the couch. I'm also watching TV. Do you know how complicated that gets? Don't get me started on how frustrating it is when there's nothing on TV."

"You live in one of the most beautiful cities in California," Troy said. "Every day Emma goes down to the same forest, down the same trail, and she always comes back with new pictures and a new story. And you want to spend all your time inside watching TV?"

"You could put the TV and couch outside. I can tan and watch TV."

"What if I invited my friends to the beach?" Troy suggested. "It's warm out, you can tan there, and there's always something to do at the beach."

"Troy, have you not seen my stomach since the baby?" Rebecca asked. "I've got stretch marks and flab!"

"Where a swimsuit that covers your stomach."

"I'm post-pregnancy. No one should be seeing anything that is currently covered up by clothing. Stupid baby ruined me."

"My friends aren't going to…"

"Troy!" Rebecca cried and pointed over his shoulder. Troy spun around and put himself in front of his sister to protect her, worried she had seen a monster. Instead, he saw something much worse. He saw a sight that made him second guess why he wanted to save humanity from monsters.

"It's an ambush!" Rebecca said and grabbed her brother's arm. "It's like, fourteen against one!"

"Stay here," Troy said to his sister before he ran over to the soccer fields, where a group of young men seemed to be beating up a smaller kid. Troy had no idea what had caused the fight, or who was truly at fault. No one deserved to be attacked and beaten up.

"Hey! Hey!" he shouted and when he saw all the attackers were wearing masks he grabbed one and ripped it off. He spun the guy around, "What do you think you're doing?"

He was shoved but he didn't back down.

"Beat it, punk!"

"Troy," Rebecca called as she approached the soccer field slowly, "I called the police. They're on their way."

"Quick, guys, scram!" the unmasked attacker cried out. Troy wanted to go after them and keep them here until the police showed up, but he knew there wasn't a way he could do that without his Ranger powers, and with Rebecca looking on he couldn't morph. He did his best to remember the face of the one man he unmasked and let them all run off. They would be caught eventually. They had been wearing jackets from the school so surely he could figure out one of their names by looking through the yearbook.

"Jake!" Rebecca screamed and Troy looked down at the boy who had been in the center of the beating. His heart dropped when he saw it was Jake and he was in a bad way.

"Troy, you have to do something," Rebecca said as she came over. She put her hand on Jake's chest. She could feel it rising and falling slowly, which meant he was still alive. Troy checked his pulse.

"Why would they do this?" Rebecca asked as she turned to Troy, "What do you think Jake did to them?"

"You called the police?" Troy asked. Rebecca nodded her head but couldn't take her eyes off Jake. She gently tapped his cheek to try and wake him, but he didn't respond.

"Don't," Troy gently grabbed her hand and pulled it away, "He's already hurt. You don't want to make it worse."

"Why would someone do this, Troy?" Rebecca looked up at her brother and then fell into his arms. "Why would they all gang up on him like that?"

"I don't know," Troy gave his sister a tight hug and then let go. He got back to his feet and took out his cell phone, "Stay with him until the police arrive, Becca. I've got to call his dad and the others."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Just stay with him, Becca. Don't leave his side."

Rebecca nodded her head and then looked down at Jake sadly. She tried to come up with a reason for why fourteen men would beat him up. She tried to imagine what he could have done to justify this. She couldn't, and it wasn't just because she knew Jake to be a good guy, she just couldn't imagine why anyone would deserve to be beaten so badly. She took Jake's hand gently.

"You're going to be okay," she promised him. "We'll find out who did this."