Rebecca climbed out of the van when it stopped and looked around. Dr. Oliver had driven far out into the woods and the parked the car in a dark tunnel deep underground.

"Are you sure you're not part evil villain?" Rebecca asked. "This is creepy."

"I like my privacy," Dr. Oliver assured her. "I had to make sure no one was going to stumble upon my basement by accident."

Rebecca whispered to Jake, "This is the creepiest basement I've ever… ooh! Bones!"

Rebecca jumped when she saw the fossil of what appeared to be a dinosaur. She had been to a museum a few times growing up but never bothered to learn the names of the dinosaurs there. She had always been too busy coming up with a plan to try and touch them.

"Dr. Oliver, you do know you have the smallest brachiosaurus remains in your basement, right?" Jake asked his teacher while Rebecca touched the bones. Suddenly, a door opened up. Rebecca jumped back and hid behind her brother. Dr. Oliver invited the teens through the door.

"I did."

"He's a freaking weirdo," Rebecca shook her head and clung on to Troy as they walked in.

The red and black Rangers recognized the basement immediately from the time Dr. Oliver had invited them to show them their Ranger history. Rebecca looked around in amazement.

"Your basement looks like a lair!"

"It's a base," he said. "The Ranger base. It's where I do my work."

"Correcting homework?"

"Ranger work," Dr. Oliver sighed. "I correct homework upstairs."

"Wait, I thought you lived in the city."

"I do."

"Where are we?" Rebecca whispered to Troy. He put his arm around her.

"Dr. Oliver, Vrak's still out there somewhere. We appreciate your help but we need to find him and stop him before…"

"The invasion. I know. But don't bother killing yourselves. From what I caught of the fight, Vrak was pretty beaten. He won't be coming out of hiding anytime soon. And you all need to save your energy. The invasion isn't far off now."

"That would be great," Jake shook his head, "But we're not all here. There's only three of us."

"I know," Dr. Oliver answered and he walked to a curtain. When he pulled it back, Jake, Troy, and Rebecca found their missing friends.

"As soon as the fight was over I got to looking and brought them all back here. They're pretty badly off, but there's no reason why they won't wake up."

"Badly off?" Jake asked and clenched his fists as he looked to Gia and Noah especially. They were completely still and badly beaten up. With Noah it seemed like most of his body had been burned, which would mean a painful recovery once he woke up. Emma was in very much the same state, which made sense considering they had been together. The worst of their burns had been treated and wrapped already, which was a load off Jake's mind, but they were both still out of it. Seeing his best friend lying there, helpless, and dependant on the medical aid, Jake couldn't help but get flashbacks of his family after the car accident.

So he didn't even bother to look at Gia. Already, from the corner of his eyes, he had seen it was bad. He didn't want to know.

"You did all this?" Troy asked, seeing how his friends had already been treated.

"I've learned a lot in my time," Dr. Oliver nodded and he looked to the three Rangers. He had seen teammates and friends in such a position and he knew it was hard, but he had to remind himself what it looked like without the experience. He knew from his own life that Rangers were hard to take down, and that as long as they were still breathing, they had a good chance at bouncing back. Without that experience and knowledge, these were just kids looking at their badly beaten friends wondering if they would make it through the night. He put his hand on Troy's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly, "They'll be fine. I wouldn't lie to you about that."

As if to prove Dr. Oliver right, and to reassure her friends, Emma suddenly started to stir and groan. Dr. Oliver walked to a cabinet over her bed and grabbed a bottle of pills and some water for her while Jake, Troy, and Rebecca gathered around. Emma opened her eyes slowly and looked to each of her friends.

"Did we win?"

"Vrak got away," Jake shook his head sadly. "Barely, but he did. We gave him everything and it still wasn't enough."

"Jake says he lost his armour, though," Troy added. "We know it's not impenetrable anymore."

"Well… whatever worked, I don't think I want to repeat it," Emma whispered and grabbed her head. Jake helped her to sit up as Dr. Oliver offered her the pills and the water. She accepted both gratefully and threw the pills to the back of her throat and then downed all the water in the glass. When she was done, she offered the glass back to Dr. Oliver and then turned to Jake. She had seen Troy go down and assumed he knew just about as much as she did. "Can I get a recap?"

"You mean after the car explosion?" Jake said. "You and Noah were blasted to God knows where…"

"Inside the corner store," Dr. Oliver answered. Rebecca shot him a strange look. She knew he had been the one to find the Rangers and so he did technically know where they had been, but it was an odd place to add detail.

Jake continued, "When the smoke cleared, we couldn't see you guys. I thought the explosion took you."

"How's Noah?" Emma asked and looked one bed over. Noah was still resting, and seemed to be carrying many of the same wounds as her, which made sense given they had been side by side last she remembered.

"He'll be fine," Dr. Oliver promised. Jake nodded his head, but he seemed hesitant about it.

"We hope. Anyways, after you guys were down, I tried my hand with Vrak but I guess it wasn't enough. He got a few pretty good shots in. He kicked my ass. I was down, but not out. Gia stopped me really taking a bad hit and then she just ran off and brought Vrak with her. She made him think we were all done for, I guess."

Jake refused to look over his shoulder, though everyone else did. If his best friend was beaten up as badly as he was after just a couple of blasts and a car explosion, he didn't want to see what his girlfriend looked like after an entire neighbourhood was levelled.

"There was just a big explosion," he said. "I don't know what she did, but she really put all she had into it."

"And it wasn't enough?" Emma asked and Jake saw the tears coming to her eyes. He nodded sadly.

"By the time I could see through the smoke, all I had to look at was Vrak dragging himself off. He wasn't looking good, but he was alive. I tried to finish him off but he was gone before I could."

"So he's on his third life?" Emma remarked and then grabbed her pillow and tossed it across the base. "That lying, cheating, vile bastard gets three lives and three chances at…"

"Emma…" Troy reached for her but she slapped his hands away.

"Don't! After everything he's done? He's tortured us! He's put our families and friends in danger. He kidnapped babies! He set up that train crash! He's taunted and abused Gia! He killed Joe!"

"Emma…"

"Don't put any of your hopeful bullshit into this, Troy!" Emma shouted at the red Ranger. "He should be dead by now! There's no reason he should still be alive unless we're the ones who are fucked!"

"Why don't we let her rest?" Dr. Oliver said and tried to usher the three teens away from Emma's bed. He knew this wasn't like the pink Ranger. Though her body seemed to have recovered enough for her to be conscious again, it was clear she would still need a little time.

All of them would need a little time. Dr. Oliver remembered how it felt for himself when he had to face villain after villain. Though he did enjoy his time in the spandex, and sometimes he missed the thrill of the power and the battle, he would never forget how tough it was to live through. He wasn't ashamed to admit that some night he would lie in bed and cry because he wanted to be just a regular teen.

So he knew what it was like for the Megaforce Rangers to think their battles were over and they could start their normal lives, only to find out that wasn't true. He knew it was hard to know there was more to come, and they were still only in the beginning of what was, without a doubt, going to be the hardest time of their lives.

The worst was yet to come, and they all needed some time to cope and come up with the best way to handle it.