Burt set an impressive pace in his training for his next marathon. He'd long since given up finding anyone to train with, most of his friends were now out of town at various colleges. Having left High School the year before with a diploma that could be more accurately described as proof of attendance he didn't really have the same options as the others. Even some of his friends who he knew had no ambitions beyond Millport and would likely be back once they had learned a trade had left. Burt was still admired enough by the current High School students that he could easily train with them, but it felt a little pathetic to hang around with pity-buddies who would probably be off to college and leave him in their wake in another few months as well.

He still had his marathons, though he was on the cusp of losing them too. This would be the last year he would qualify for the junior ranking and after that he would be competing in the open if he wanted to continue. He wasn't worried so much about the competition, he was still in great shape and since he would be competing against literally anyone up to and including those in their 80's, he was still confident he could compete, but it was all about losing something else for him too. He was now…that guy. He was working full-time in his dad's store until "something better came along", knowing it likely never would. He had no real skills, at least not on paper, and that just meant he was soon going to be one of those guys that always talked about his glory days in High School because he had nothing else.

He got to his distance marker out on the woods, before pausing to take a breath and get some water. He had other worries too, most prominently what he was going to do about what happened at the lake. So far his dad didn't know he'd lost his phone, but that was the least of Burt's worries. He was sure he could come up with a suitable excuse at some point and work off the cost of a replacement. Now he was worried that Brody had the phone and what he was going to do with it. The Romeros were only newly back in town and from what Burt heard even before they left they were pretty much hermits as far as the locals were concerned, but he still couldn't help wondering what would happen if Brody told people about his visits to the farm or of the pictures he took. Now that he had the pictures there was little that Burt could do about stopping him. He took another long sip, before a flash interrupted him. He looked to a nearby tree and saw Brody standing on one of the branches.

"It's not nice is it?" Brody asked him. "People watching you, taking pictures without asking?"

Burt was about to run off when Brody leapt down, blocking his path. He tossed the phone to Burt.

"I'm not a thief, you can have that back." Brody told him. "I deleted the pictures of course, but since I was nice enough not to call the cops maybe you could tell me what you took them for in the first place."

"What does it matter?" Burt asked him. "You said you deleted them."

"It matters because I want to know if you're going to try it again!" Brody said sternly. "You see, we kind of like our privacy and when people violate it we get a little cranky."

"Yeah, I kind of noticed." Burt grumbled. "Between the way you jumped me at the farm and the way you held me down at the lake…"

"What do you mean the farm? I never…?" Brody started to say, before shaking off the detail. "OK, so you know what I'm capable of. So maybe you might want to tell me why you've been following me around. Who are you working for?"

"Working for?" Burt asked him. Brody was sure that even if he was a spy Burt would try to play dumb, but he wasn't too sure he'd have the intellect to do so this convincingly.

"So you wanted the pictures for yourself?" Brody asked him. Burt started to shift a little uncomfortably. "You can see how creepy that sounds right?"

"I'm not a creep!" Burt snapped at him.

"You could have fooled me!" Brody replied. "Now, one way or another this ends, do you understand? Next time I see you around me I'm calling the cops and handing you over myself, but I'd like to know why I shouldn't do that."

"Do what you want." Burt sighed. "It's all everyone else does. Everyone with a choice anyway."

"What's that meant to mean?" Brody asked him.

"It means some of us aren't lucky enough to have loads of friends and go to a good school and…"

His words tailed off before he just shook his head.

"You know what? It doesn't matter." He told him. Brody could see the defeated look in him and approached.

"What about all your friends…?"

"Are you kidding? They're all gone! They're all partying it up all around the country while I'm still stuck here!" Burt told him. He took a seat on a tree stump as he looked at Brody. He let out a nervous little laugh.

"What's so funny?" Brody asked him.

"You look so much like him when you do that, like the whizz kid." Burt told him. "This kid in my year, Riley, he was the only one that was even close to me at athletics. I still trounced him at everything though. I did everything I could to make sure everyone knew it too. He was one of those smart kids that everything was so easy for you know? Always had the answers in class…it was great seeing that smug little smirk wiped off his face."

Brody just continued to stare at him. He hadn't met Riley, but he had heard about him from Sarah and he was starting to learn that he had a history with Burt. Burt looked to Brody, another little laugh escaping him.

"I remember this one time after I'd humiliated him in some race…I can't even remember rightly which one, there were so many, but I'd beaten him by almost a full lap. The only reason I didn't lap him was because he ran the rest of the way so fast that he ended up throwing out his ankle. I made jokes about it of course, made sure everyone was laughing, but that day…that day something must have happened, because instead of just sneering or walking away like he always did, he lost it. He started going this really weird shade of red and he started yelling at me. He said, 'You're an idiot Burt, and you'll always be an idiot because you never concentrate on anything important. You just coast by on your races and never work at anything else and that's why…that's why when all of these people are gone and I've left this town for college and forgotten you forever you'll still be here because you never accomplished anything. Welcome to your last years of being relevant.'."

Brody could only go by what Sarah had told him about Riley, but while he didn't mind answering back if someone annoyed him, it did sound like something must have snapped for him if he went off like that.

"I always thought four years was such a long time. I kept telling myself I could get serious and buckle down later." Burt continued as a tear rolled down his face. "Of course by the time 'later' came it became clear that I wasn't smart enough to catch up. I guess Whiz Kid was right all along. I am irrelevant."

Brody knew that Burt had no right to his sympathy. He knew that by all rights he should just walk away and leave Burt to wallow in his own self-made misery, but something compelled him to stay. He looked to Burt.

"Have you considered going back to school?" Brody asked him. Burt laughed a little.

"Yeah, because the kids around here would be so forgiving." He said dismissively. "Burt the Blockhead coming back because he couldn't make the grade the first time."

"Well, it doesn't HAVE to be here." Brody suggested. "It'd mean a bit of a drive but Summer Cove isn't that far away. They have some pretty amazing teachers there too. The Shop teacher especially you'll have to see to believe."

"You think it'd be that easy?" Burt asked. "I struggled at school…"

"And anything worth accomplishing is only accomplished if you work at it." Brody interrupted him. "I'm pretty sure you didn't win all those marathons by turning up on the day and hoping for the best."

"No, of course not! I train every day!" Burt told him. "I watch what I eat I practice I…"

"And school is no different. It's just a different TYPE of training." Brody explained. "Hell, I wasn't that good of a student either to begin with, but my friend Sarah really helped. She just told me that instead of training these…"

He prodded Burt in one of his pectorals.

"You have to train this." He pointed to his head. "It's just instead of sit ups and push ups, it involves some reading and some study."

"I was never good at that stuff." Burt told him.

"Neither was I." Brody said with a smile. "But then I was never that good with a jumping spin kick as a kid either but now…"

He leapt off the ground, spinning in the air and bringing his foot around narrowly missing Burt's face.

"Need I say more?" He started to back away from him. "Just think about it OK? Oh…and uh…don't come around to the house anymore. You know, unless you call first. That way we can have some lemonade ready."

Late at night, at the lake, Wrench and Doomwave teleported down, carrying the tsunami device with them. Wrench started to look around to make sure that they were alone.

"You're paranoid." Doomwave told him. "I've done this dozens of times. There's never anyone around at this time of night!"

"Well YOU haven't been up against the Rangers before!" Wrench told him. "Last time I faced off against one of them she cut off both my arms and both my legs!"

Really?" Doomwave asked. "Well, they haven't met anything like me! I'm not just some weakling they can..."

"Oh, I've heard that before." Wrench told him. "I believe Galvanax said something similar."

"G...G...Galvanax?" Doomwave asked, apparently taking the threat a little more seriously. "Well, it couldn't hurt to take a little look around first right?"

"Glad you see this my way." Wrench answered. "Go and look around while I plant the device!"

Doomwave went to look for any signs of anyone watching while Wrench picked up the tsunami device and waded into the lake. Not needing to breathe, it was a pretty simple matter for him to walk out into the lake to find a good spot for it. Finding a rocky outcrop at the bottom, he set to work bolting it in place.

He started the process of turning on the power, setting it so that the device could be activated remotely, before he cast a quick look up. Doomwave was still off looking for any intruders. That gave Wrench the time to act. He pulled out a device, attaching it to the tsunami machine and turning it on.

"That should do it." He quipped, before heading back to the shore. By the time he got there, Doomwave had returned.

"So, did you set it?" He asked.

"Don't worry, no one's going to find it until it's too late." Wrench assured him. "Come on, let's get back to the ship and watch from a safe distance."

With that, they both teleported away, leaving the lakeside as quiet and still as before they arrived.

The following morning, the lake was awash with people. Summer Cove was always an ideal fishing spot, but the only thing that got people more excited than the thought of a delicious fresh-cooked meal was the annual competition.

To say that people took the competition seriously was an understatement. The objective was effectively to catch the largest fish as one would expect, but in Summer Cove there was legend of a particularly large and elusive fish of truly amazing proportions named Bruiser. Logic dictated that it was a myth, after all the first reports of Bruiser were from 1907 and since there weren't many species of fish with a 112 year life span it was likely "Bruiser" was more likely an amalgam of many different 'almost got him' stories. Even the size of Bruiser changed from telling to telling, from some claiming he was anything between eight and fifteen feet long! Still, it didn't detract from anyone's fun of trying to be the one to finally bag Bruiser!

The competition itself had very little in the way of rules as well. Since it was open to professionals pretty much anything short of dynamite fishing, which was illegal for very obvious and sensible reasons, was considered fair game. Almost as much fun as the fishing itself was seeing some of the exotic and amazing equipment and devices people came up with for capturing 'the beast'. From the high-tech, such as laser-guided rods, through the sublime such as varied and specialised types of lure, to the frankly hilarious such as the guy who was currently walking around dressed as a fish and smearing himself in what he claimed was 'fish pheromones'. That was why none of the Rangers particularly felt like it was cheating when Aaron offered to help them with his drone.

Sarah was far more interested in that side of things than anything else. She wasn't just a gadget freak, she was a true engineer at heart. She was interested in the way people saw a problem and came up with a variety of solutions to it. She wasn't too confident in "Fish guy's" approach, but some of the devices and strategies people seemed to be employing were really quite something to behold.

She saw Victor a little way off, sitting on a log by himself, attaching a reel to his rod and threading in the line. She felt badly for him, she knew that he and Monty hadn't really spoken too much that week and assumed it was something to do with Monty still being upset about Viera's 'Dear John'. As much as they had been a pain in the ass at times, she knew that Victor and Monty were friends in the very truest sense of the word and had been for many years. It was clear Victor was upset about the fact Monty wasn't joining him as she was sure he was meant to. She quickly looked around before heading over, preparing to speak to him. Before she got there though, she heard Monty's voice.

"Victor!" He called out. She looked quickly around, thinking that if he saw her, he might be reluctant to go and make peace with him. She ended up diving into some bushes right behind Victor just as Monty approached him. "Um…nice…rod."

"Thanks." Victor answered. "I borrowed it from my uncle. He goes ice fishing in the Arctic every year."

"I…um…" Monty said, holding a box in his hands. He fumbled it a little awkwardly as he tried to approach. "I brought some lures I thought might help."

Sarah just sighed. Guys were really pathetic at this kind of thing.

"Monty…"

"Victor!" He interrupted him. "I just…I just wanted to say, I'm really sorry. I should never have said what I did."

"Monty, you don't have to…"

"No, really, I do." Monty told him. "I was upset about Viera and I know you were only trying to help but I guess I just was hurting and I wanted someone else to hurt too. It was a really shitty thing to do to anyone, especially my best friend."

"I can't say it didn't sting." Victor told him. "The fact is you did have a point Monty."

"No, I really didn't."

"No, you were right about one thing." Victor answered. "I don't know what you're going through, because…well…I've never had what you had with Viera. I might have gone on a few dates with girls, but what you and she had? The way you looked at each other? The way you lit up when you were around each other? I've never had anything like that, and I'm really jealous that you had it. So, no, you're right that I don't know what it feels like to lose that."

"It was still a really shitty thing to say." Monty replied.

"Well, yes." Victor agreed. "But I can understand how what I said seemed insensitive and that was never my intention. I'm sorry if it felt like I was making light of things."

"No, I should have known better." Monty answered him sadly. "You've always been my best friend. I know you're always on my side. Can you forgive me?"

"What's there to forgive?" Victor asked him. "Now, how about you tell me about these lures?"

As they walked away to discuss different lures, Sarah just lay in the bushes, holding a hand over her heart.

"That…that just…happened right?" She asked, before finally getting back to her feet and heading back towards her friends. She got to them just as the competitors were being called up for the beginning of the competition. A man dressed for the occasion in an outfit that could best be described as someone doing their very best impression of Captain Birdseye stood on a stage to kick off the proceedings.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the 25th annual Summer Cove Beast of the Deep Hunt!" The 'Captain' declared. "Many moons ago, a monster came to this fair city, swimming though miles of underwater caverns to come to this very lake where it made its home! A prehistoric monstrosity of enormous size…"

"Wow, this guy is really trying his hardest to sell this fish." Sarah commented. Levi just shrugged.

"It's common enough, everyone exaggerates their game a little." Levi told them. "One time Tom told me he bagged a twenty point buck…It couldn't have been more than a fourteen, maybe sixteen tops! Didn't mean it didn't make a great stew!"

"Bruiser's a legend around here. People were telling stories about him since before my gran was born!" Calvin told her. "My grandfather claimed he lost a finger to him…but I found out after he passed it was an accident with a flywheel at his work."

"I guess Chase told us about Tanifa a few times." Sarah conceded. "But…it's still just a fish right?"

"It really isn't about the fish, it's about the imagination it inspires! I mean look at all these people!" Brody said, panning his hand around. "Do you think this is all about just a fish? This is epic!"

"…Never underestimate the animal cunning and guile of this monster! Use any and all tricks and devices you wish, and if one of you should catch the legendary Bruiser, you will take away this trophy!"

He held up a trophy for them all to see. Levi held up his rod.

"Not to mention one hell of a lot of fish tacos!" He called out. There was a huge laugh from the assembled crowd.

"So go adventurers, crusaders, heroes, go and catch the elusive Bruiser! Be the one to finally bring him in!"

As they all walked away, Sarah looked to the others.

"These people all realise that they're never going to catch Bruiser right?" She asked them. "I mean, if he is such a tourist attraction there's no way they're going to say he's caught and end this event. They'll just say it isn't him and keep the whole thing going."

"Sarah, sometimes overthinking things makes you kind of a buzz-kill." Preston answered her.