In the city, Chase and Allison were desperately looking for a costume for the party that night. The last-minute nature of the invitation to a costume party caused its own complications, but between the fact that the open invitation meant virtually everyone in town was also looking for costumes just on the chance that they MIGHT be one of the lucky few to get in, combined with Chase's usual habit of leaving things until the last minute meant that unfortunately, costume were a little thin on the ground.

Allison was with him as he ran amok through the fifth costume shop they had visited, hoping beyond hope that there was one costume, somewhere in the city that someone had missed. She was standing in the corner, out of his way as he searched desperately for something, answering a tweet on her phone. She smiled as she saw that it was yet another from Chloe. She had taken to Chase's little sister quickly after meeting her, and now that she was following her on the social networking site, she had been bombarded by pictures and tweets all morning. She just smiled, seeing a selfie of the young girl in Phillipe's office.

"Come on, there has to be something in an adult size surely." He grumbled as he searched through the rack that was clearly the last-ditch ideas. The costumes that had been in the shop so long, and repaired so often that they were marked down to only five or ten dollars for a day's hire. "Come ON!"

"It really looks like Chloe's enjoying her tour." Allison told him as she replied to Chloe's latest tweet. "If she keeps this up, I'll be expecting a tweet of Phillipe's bathroom any minute."

"Are you sure this is all you have?" Chase complained, holding up a rather sad-looking, extremely old version of a naval dress uniform, entitled "Officer and a Gentleman" after the classic movie. The shop owner just shrugged.

"I've had people in all day, they've cleaned me out." He answered in an off-hand way. "Take it or leave it."

"Chase, maybe it's time we looked at making something." Allison suggested. "We've been at this for a couple of hours now. It's clear nobody has anything..."

Just then, she let out a shriek as Koda jumped out on her from behind a display. Alessandra wasn't far behind him, carrying a bag.

"You look for costume too?" Koda asked. Allison just pointed to Chase.

"ONE of us is." She replied. "I actually got a costume last night when I went shopping with Chloe."

"Well, you two are in here. I guess you're in the same boat." Chase surmised. Koda shook his head and pulled a large, plastic club out of the bag Alessandra was carrying.

"We pick up last ones." Koda told him. "We the Flintstones."

"You picked out a couple's costume?" Allison asked. "Aw, that's so sweet. Of course, I'll be lucky if Chase even gets a costume."

"Alright, there is officially nothing even remotely worth wearing here." Chase grumbled. His hand strayed to his Energem. "You know, I have one idea..."

"I don't think so." Allison reprimanded him, staring at him as she put a hand on his. She flashed a quick glance in Alessandra's direction, reminding him that while she knew their secret, Alessandra currently didn't. She then looked to Koda. "So how was the show?"

"Koda do great! He crush it!" Alessandra told them proudly, holding the Blue Ranger tightly. "He get loudest cheer! People like see him kick Eddie's butt."

"You mean YOU did right?" Allison asked in response. She knew it was Eddie that was responsible for the injury that had kept Alessandra out of action just short of two months. She just smirked.

"What that saying Koda teach? Karma a bitch?" Alessandra answered. Allison heard another bleep from her phone, and checked it, seeing it was yet another tweet from Chloe about the tour.

"Well, it's not the bathroom, only his desk." Allison chuckled.

"I can't believe Chloe's so into this tour." Chase responded as he hung up the last costume, having finally admitted defeat. There was nothing that he would be willing to wear. "She never was hugely into history or politics or any of that stuff."

"Somehow I don't think it's the tour she's into." Allison remarked as she picked up the latest tweet, a selfie she took with Phillipe, with his arm around her. Chloe always did have a bright smile, being a lively and cheerful girl, but here, her grin was close to splitting her head in half, and there was a slight, pink tinge to her face.

"What was that?" Chase asked as he came over. He hadn't quite heard her, but Allison took that as a blessing. She knew all too well what it was like to be a young girl with a crush. For her, it was Tony Hawk. She didn't see any need to embarrass the young girl, especially since it wouldn't be long before she was heading back to New Zealand.

"Oh, nothing." Allison answered, putting her phone away. "Now, come on, I'm sure I'll find something to make a costume out of in your apartment."

Up on Sledge's ship, Wrench was working on Shearfear's weapons, making sure they were all as sharp as possible. The plan to sever the Rangers' bonds of friendship was a solid plan. The deciding factor in a lot of the Rangers' battles had been their teamwork. While Sledge's forces did have a lot of strength, they also all had their own agendas which often meant they couldn't work together when they needed to. For most of the monsters Sledge had sent after them, all they really cared about was getting free of Sledge's ship. They didn't really care what Sledge did with the Energems, or even about the Energems at all. In the end, it made sense to try and do anything to disrupt the Rangers' teamwork. If they couldn't co-ordinate their efforts, perhaps their battles would end differently.

"Hey, careful with that thing!" Shearfear complained as Wrench used his angle-grinder on the blade to hone it. "I need this thing!"

"Some good they've done you so far." Wrench muttered. "So far you haven't even severed one friendship bond. You'd think by sheer chance you'd have been able to cut at least one friendship bond by now."

"There was no cover! They saw me coming!" Shearfear complained.

"And whose fault is that? YOU were the one that decided to attack them in the open like that!" Wrench reprimanded him.

"Just get on with the main-pedi." Shearfear responded in a snort. "I'm sure I'll have much more luck at that costume party, and I want my weapons at their best!"

Wrench muttered something under his breath as he went to one of his leg blades. As he was about to start working on it, he noticed something.

"What happened here?" He asked. "This section of the blade...it's scratched, like it's been used." Wrench told him. Shearfear just looked down to the blade, inspecting it.

"These blades haven't been used in years." He responded. "I haven't used them on anyone..."

Wrench noticed his words tailing off, and realised he was thinking about something. He looked to the monster curiously.

"What is it?" He asked.

"One of the Rangers hit me; he hit me in the leg." Shearfear told him. "He must have hit the blade!"

"And it did nothing?" Wrench asked. Shearfear just went to the monitors, pulling up the footage of the fight at the sand dunes. At the end of the fight, they watched Tyler slide straight into Shearfear's legs, taking them out from under him.

"So, the Red Ranger hit you." He surmised. "I guess Master Sledge would like to know your weapons..."

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge." Shearfear told him, watching the same footage through one of his lenses. He handed the viewer to Wrench, who looked through it. He could see the Ranger's friendship bonds on the screen. After Tyler stood up, he could see something was different about his friendship bond. It was still intact, but there was something off about it.

"His friendship bond is still intact!" Wrench complained. "He hit you full on and..."

"It may be intact, but look here." He responded as he pointed to a section of the friendship bond. "It is damaged. Perhaps if it hadn't been so long since my blades had been used, and they were a little sharper..."

"Sit back down!" Wrench told him, grabbing the angle grinder. "Prepare for the best mani-pedi of your life!"

At the Embassy, Margaret had the headache of dealing with the sudden announcement of an open-invitation party at the Embassy. She knew how important it was to mark the occasion of the Embassy opening, but she would have felt considerably more comfortable if Phillipe hadn't been quite so hasty with it all. While the building was, to all intents and purposes finished, with the exception of a few rooms on the top two floors, there were always problems in opening a new building that would likely not be encountered for the first few days, little minor issues like electrics and plumbing that might not be evident right away. Of course, her main concern was the security aspect.

She hadn't had a chance to fully test out and check the surveillance system for any potential bugs or blind spots. She would have felt much more comfortable if the grand opening had been delayed by a couple of weeks to make sure she and her team were fully comfortable with the security system, and had completely familiarised themselves with the building. Unfortunately, that was not Phillipe's way. Once he decided to do something, he very much believed in hitting the ground running. It wasn't the first time she had found herself grabbing her passport and on a plane within an hour because the Prince got some idea in his head of somewhere he needed to be or some event he just had to see. It was one of the things she liked about him, but at the same time it also made her job very frustrating at times. It wasn't as if he gave her much time to properly co-ordinate a security detail. Over the years, she'd had to become pretty good at organising things pretty much on the lam.

"Have you got that full report on the CCTV system?" She asked one of the technicians. He pulled out a tablet, showing her the view from the cameras, cycling through them. "Are you kidding me? Half of them aren't even working!"

"It's not like you gave me a lot of time to finish up." The technician complained. She just sighed, checking through them.

"Alright, so we don't have eyes on the basement, or the top three floors. We'll just refuse access to everywhere but the main lobby and the ground floor." She told him, checking where the cameras did cover. "There are blind spots!"

"There are blind spots with most systems." He protested. She just glared at him.

"We aren't paying you to create a cheap-ass system to guard one of your two-bit mini-malls." Margaret reminded him. "If your system doesn't catch something, some store doesn't lose twenty dollars worth of lip stick or a pack of Cheetos. This system is meant to protect the safety of a US Ambassador! If anything happens to Phillipe on your watch..."

"I'll...see if I can re-adjust the views a little." He stammered out as he ran off. Margaret just stroked the bridge of her nose.

"God I wish we'd hired Cerberus like I recommended." She grumbled. She just heard a little chuckle from down the hall.

"You really do worry too much." Phillipe teased her.

"Yeah, I worry too much. I mean, no one has ever tried to assassinate an Ambassador before." She replied. She looked to him, seeing the outfit he was wearing. It was a period outfit, a seventeenth-century style suit, a silver-grey outfit, trimmed in gold thread, with a ruffled shirt underneath. She recognised it from one of the many portraits she had seen growing up in the royal household. It had belonged to one of his ancestors. She had seen that very outfit in one of the display cases in the building. Phillipe had opted to honour one of his ancestors with his costume. Either that, or like a lot of people he had to find a costume last-minute and had grabbed it out the display case for something to wear. He took a twirl and stood, waiting for her assessment.

"Well, what do you think?" He asked her. She just smiled.

"Very Three Musketeers." She replied as she looked to him. Phillipe just smiled.

"I thought so." He told her. "I just hope this outfit doesn't see the kind of action it used to."

"It better not." Margaret agreed. It was a different time, one that was known both as a romantic period...and also one fuelled largely by testosterone more than good sense. At the time, somewhere in the region of twenty five percent of all noblemen died in personal duels. Phillipe's ancestor, the one who had worn this very outfit on the day he inherited the Principality, was known as having something of an eye for the ladies...and was also a highly talented duellist, a deadly combination that had led to more than one noble family burying a son. He gestured her towards a room.

"Now, it's your turn." He told her. She just looked to him a little confused.

"My turn for what?" She asked him. He just smiled and opened the door. She looked inside, seeing an outfit on a mannequin in the middle of the room. She just gulped.

"You're not serious." She rushed out. "Phillipe..."

"I'm sure you'll look fantastic! I'll see you at the party." He told her as he walked away before giving her a chance to refuse.

"Phillipe!" She called after him, but she knew her words were falling on deaf ears. His mind was made up, and when that happened, it was rare that anyone could convince him otherwise. She just headed inside, taking off her suit jacket and hanging it up and closing the door behind her.

Elsewhere in the city, Chloe was busy getting ready for the party in the motel her class was staying in. The teacher knew that her older brother was coming to pick her up any time now. She came into the room, where a bunch of her friends were waiting. Chloe came into the room, wearing the outfit that Allison had helped her pick out. It was an aquamarine, frilly dress, trimmed in lace. The look was completed with a little tiara propped on top of her head. She wasn't normally into stuff like that, but when Allison had agreed to take her out shopping for an outfit, the princess outfit just spoke to her. Her friends just screamed in delight.

"Chloe, you look gorgeous!" One of her classmates complimented her. "I can't believe you get to go to this party, I'm so jealous!"

"I'm so stoked to be going tonight. Chase is the coolest brother ever!" She said with a little smile.

"You're excited to see the Prince again you mean." One of the others said as they all started to close in. "It's just a shame there's going to be so many people there. No doubt he'll be busy the whole night."

"Not the WHOLE night." Chloe told them. They all looked among each other, wondering what she meant. "He might just have to help me with a little problem."

"What kind of problem?" One of them asked. Chloe just smiled.

"When we were in his office...I may have just... 'accidentally' left my phone." She told her class mates. "If I tell him that I've lost it, and how upset my mom will be if she has to replace it, I'm sure he'll be only too happy to help me find it."

"He already risked his life to save you from that robot. Of COURSE he'll help you find your phone." One of the others agreed. Just then, they heard a knock on the door. She put her finger to her lips, indicating to the others to keep quiet. She went to the door and opened it, finding Allison standing outside in a black, leather outfit, with a domino mask. She had a pair of plastic night-sticks attached to her belt, and the look was topped with a blonde wig.

"Black Canary!" Chloe rushed out excitedly, seeing her in her costume. "You look amazing!"

"So do you Chloe, that outfit really suits you!" She complimented the little girl. A guy wearing a white sheet, with only holes cut for eye holes came up the hall, and looked to her. He looked to Chloe.

"Wow, and look who's just the prettiest little princess ever!" Chase said as he picked her up.

"Chase?" She asked. "You're going as a ghost?"

"Well..."

"That's kind of lame." Chloe giggled. Allison just looked a little sheepish.

"He didn't leave me a whole lot of time to arrange anything." She told his little sister. "Besides, he doesn't have too much to work with in his wardrobe, so I had to make do with the linen closet."

"So are we ready to go?" Chase asked. "Then let's go, your carriage awaits Your Highness!"