Dane stepped down off the Greyhound in the Stone Canyon bus depot, taking a look around. He'd spent a couple of days on the way there doing a little research to find out what he could about the city, and in particular Promethea's facility there.

Stone Canyon, Angel Grove's sister city, had always had a long connection with the spiritual home of the Power Rangers, though to anyone outside of Angel Grove it was somewhat of an after-thought at best and at worst most wouldn't know what Stone Canyon even was. While Angel Grove was always very successful, Stone Canyon had a few economic downturns that hit it hard. Peaks and troughs in the economy meant that people had moved in and out of the city regularly throughout the early to mid-nineties. That was until Promethea set up a major site there.

Promethea, the company founded by former astronaut and entrepreneur Grace Sterling had its fingers in a lot of pies so to speak. Assembling some of the finest minds and sparing no expense, they had done decades worth of research in science, technology, medicine, space exploration, weapons manufacture all to name but a few. When the site was built in Stone Canyon around 1997, the city was on its last legs as most of the businesses dried up and the citizens started to leave in droves, but within only a few short years, with Prometha at its heart, Stone Canyon was not just alive and well, but actively thriving! Businesses built up around the city all fed symbiotically by the site that was churning out some of the greatest scientific advances on what felt like a daily basis. Not only businesses that fed into it directly like the metal works and the factories, but as the city re-grew it started to need other things like homes, schools, restaurants and suchlike. Now, Angel Grove mainly sold itself on its legacy as the home of the Rangers as a tourist attraction. Stone Canyon though was the new hub of the entire county!

Dane didn't care particularly much about most of that. All he cared about was finding out about Promethea and finding out what was the best way to approach finding out what he could about Mariko and where she was now. Benny, after a little convincing, had told him that Mariko had contracted a very serious illness, and had gone to Stone Canyon to take part in medical trials at a Promethea site for an experimental treatment. It was just another thing that pained him to know about how his actions had harmed Mariko, to know that she had to go through all that alone. He had no idea what he could say to her, never mind what he would say to her if he did find out where she was. It was an all too familiar feeling for him, knowing that he could never make up to someone the harm he had done them in the past, only try to make some kind of amends for the present.

It wasn't too hard to find Promethea, if anything the problem was narrowing the search down. Stone Canyon now was virtually all about the group. Benny had told him it was a Prometha hospital he needed to find, but it was only after leaving San Francisco that he learned he should really have asked him to narrow it down. Promethea owned no more than fifteen hospitals in the city, about a dozen of which were open when Mariko went to the city. If he'd thought to get the name of the hospital it might have helped. Still, it wasn't as though it was the first mistake he'd made on his search.

Hoisting his backpack onto his shoulder, he trudged off in search of the first hospital on his list, hoping that at some point, he might be due for a turn in his luck.

Over in Summer Cove, the Rangers had assembled in the lab, trying to figure out what to do about Venoma. It was far from the first time one of them had been under a spell or the influence of some poison or some other factor that affected their mental state. However, it was still always a problem whenever even one of them was taken out of action. Right now, it looked like three of them could not been relied upon to fight Venoma. The Green Ranger was still very much a wild-card since none of them knew who she was and so as far as Sarah, Hayley and Preston were aware, potentially they were on their own.

"No, Brody, you can't have Super Ninja Steel to make a gift for Venoma." Mick put down flatly as he wrenched a piece from his hands. "You can…take your pick from my scraps box, but we…don't know if the Nexus Prism will…"

"Will even be able to deal with the depths of my love!" Brody concluded, letting go of the Super Ninja Steel, causing Mick to stumble a little. "That's good thinking Mick, thank you!"

As Brody wandered off to find something to make a gift for his 'true love' Venoma, Mick put the Super Ninja Steel back. He'd never considered the need to lock it up or keep it away from the Rangers before. All of them knew how precious Super Ninja Steel was. Much like the Ninja Steel before it, they only had a finite amount and they still had no idea if any more even existed. After melting down all the Ninja Steel Stars to re-forge them with the stronger Super Steel, they kept it just in case, but the point was they couldn't afford to waste even a few grams, much less for a gift for a monster.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen Brody like this." Hayley commented. "I didn't even know he was interested in dating."

"I don't think he would be if it wasn't for those arrows." Mick sighed. "Considering most of the women he met growing up were violent sociopaths dating wasn't really much of a consideration."

There was a loud yelp from the corner, where they all turned, finding Sarah holding a syringe and Calvin with a pained expression on his face, rubbing his arm.

"Oh, suck it up lover boy!" She grumbled. "You just got shot with an arrow, do you think Venoma would be impressed if she saw you whining about me taking a little blood?"

Calvin immediately scurried off back to his corner to pine over Venoma as Sarah took the blood sample to her computer. Hayley came over to her.

"Um…what was that?" She asked.

"I needed a blood sample." Sarah told her. "We need to know what we're working with here, venom, magic, you know…"

"Yeah, I think I'd prefer it if you didn't turn my boyfriend into a pin cushion in the process." Hayley commented.

"I took one sample!" She protested.

"Yeah, it's not just that…you've been a little short lately." Hayley stated. "You've been in kind of a mood this week to be honest."

"Seeing my friends about to try and romance a psychotic space ninja will kind of do that to me!" Sarah replied sarcastically. "Anyway, why aren't you more pissed about the fact Calvin's dumping you for an insect?"

"Hey, I know it's not real." Hayley responded with a shrug. "I know where Calvin's heart really is."

Preston let out a sigh as Sarah responded with a gagging gesture. Hayley rolled her eyes and went over to him.

"You found any spells on that arrow?" She asked. Being the resident magic expert, Preston was the natural choice to check the arrows for any spells that might be causing the intense infatuation in the others. He just shook his head.

"I just…I can't concentrate." He admitted.

"Preston, why ever not?" Hayley asked him. He just looked to her.

"Sandy…Sandy asked me to the dance." Preston told her. Hayley's face lit up.

"Are you kidding? Preston, that's great!" She screeched. "Did you hear that Sarah? After all his doubts Sandy asked him!"

Sarah dropped what she was doing and trotted over excitedly, sitting down next to him.

"Alright, you have to tell us everything! All the details, right now!" Sarah told him.

"I said no." Preston told them. They both looked to each other, then back to him. Sarah reached out and started squeezing and knocking on his head.

"Not quite ripe yet." She commented. "Hello? What are you doing? You wanted this!"

"Yeah, but…she got hit by one of those arrows and I was worried…"

"That she only wanted to go out with you because of the arrow." Hayley sighed.

"Aw, Preston." Sarah said sympathetically as she stroked his arm. "If it's worth anything, you did the right thing."

"That's just the thing, it turns out, I didn't." Preston told them. "The arrow hit one of the books in her bag. It never touched her."

"So that means Sandy really did want to ask you?" Sarah asked him. He just nodded.

"But now I've told her I don't want to go with her!" Preston complained. "Now she's going to hate me!"

"Well…at least you know she did like you?" Hayley offered weakly. "And you did the right thing when you weren't sure, a lot of guys wouldn't have."

Before Preston could say anything, the computer chimed. Sarah ran over to it, checking the analysis.

"Alright, that's confirmed one thing, it isn't a venom." She told them as she analysed the blood work. "There's nothing foreign in Calvin's bloodstream, which leaves us with magic."

"I almost wish it was venom." Hayley remarked. "At least then we could come up with an anti-venom. Now we're stuck with breaking the spell."

"Which going by previous experience is best accomplished by finding the monster and destroying it." Sarah said as she looked to them.

"But how do we stop her getting us too?" Preston asked.

"Well, she's not aimed for us yet." Sarah pointed out, gesturing to herself and Hayley.

"But that means that we're down to only two of us!" Hayley answered. "Unless the Green Ranger shows up, and who knows when she'll turn up."

"Well, I wasn't thinking about that so much." Sarah said, putting her arm around Preston. "I was thinking more along the lines of…"

"Live bait?" Preston grumbled.

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that exactly…"

"How else would you put it?" Hayley asked her. Sarah thought about it for a moment.

"OK, I guess that is what I'm suggesting." She said. Preston just sighed.

"Alright." He grumbled. "But if I get hit with one of those arrows and turn on you…"

"I…think I might have that covered." Mick said as he snapped his fingers. "I think I might have an idea…"

"Mick? If you're over here, who's watching the guys?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, they're right over…" His words tailed off as they realised the others were gone. "…there."

"Really? Taking your eyes off of trained ninja?" Hayley asked him.

"Um…yeah, point taken." Mick answered. "Sarah, Hayley, how about you go see if you can find the guys and I'll work on getting Preston ready for the plan?"

"Come on Hayls, looks like we're in charge of making sure the guys don't do something stupid." Sarah muttered.

"What else is new?" Hayley replied.

In another area of the school, Emma was sitting with her laptop when Sandy stormed up to her, flopping herself down opposite her. She closed over her laptop, cautiously trying to appraise her sister's mood.

"Having a good day?" She asked weakly. Sandy just threw her hands up.

"No, I am about as far from having a good day as I could possibly get!" She snapped. "I swear to God, I hate this place!"

"What's wrong?" Emma asked her, putting her laptop away and coming to comfort her sister. She could see that Sandy was clearly very upset. A lot of it seemed like anger, but she could also tell there was some hurt in there too.

"It's everything about this place! I just…I hate it here! Nothing's gone right since I got here!" Sandy said a little bitterly. "The other kids are either creeps or assholes, I'm barely getting anywhere in science, I got stuck with that stupid Power Star for…God knows what reason and I just made a complete idiot of myself in front of Preston!"

"Preston…alright, let's start there." Emma said sympathetically. "What happened?"

"I met up with him in the park." She told her sister. "We were talking and it was really nice, but then some monster attacked us and…of course I couldn't use my powers or anything because you…"

"OK, how about we skip this part?" Emma sighed. "Look, I know I put you in a bad position with that promise, but please, I'm begging you, it won't be much longer then you can tell him everything, I swear."

"Well it very nearly got us both turned into pin cushions because he couldn't use his powers either because he thinks I don't know so we ran!" Sandy told her. "He…he got me back to the school, and he made sure I was alright, he was really sweet about everything."

Emma could see her mood lifting a little talking about that part. She and Sandy had both experienced crushes in their lives, and they recognised the signs in each other. Mainly they would tease each other when it became obvious one or other was infatuated with someone but it was good to see Sandy happy. She had been a little hesitant coming to the new school and was only convinced to come because Emma was being skipped up to senior year thanks to her stellar performance in most of her classes.

"So, you're both alright, what's the problem?" Emma asked her.

"Well, I got caught up in everything and he was so nice and all that I asked him to go to the dance with me." Sandy told her. Emma beamed brightly.

"Well it's about freaking time!" She congratulated her. "Wait, you're upset he…he…he didn't…?"

"He turned me down cold." Sandy whispered quietly. "I don't know what I was thinking, it was a dumb idea and…"

"Hey, hey, don't do that to yourself!" Emma said soothingly.

"He said it wouldn't be right!" Sandy snapped. "I mean, what the hell is that even meant to mean?"

"Maybe he's not into girls?" Emma suggested weakly. Sandy just looked at her witheringly. "OK, probably not. Look, maybe…maybe he meant because he'd just saved you from that monster. Maybe he meant because he didn't want you to go out with him because you were grateful and thought you owed him."

"But that's not what he said." Sandy whined.

"Well, what did he say?" Emma asked.

"I guess I didn't really give him the chance to say much." Sandy admitted. "I was so embarrassed and upset I just ran out of there."

"Well, maybe when you next see him you can ask about it?" Emma suggested. Just then, she heard a bleep on her computer. She opened it up, checking the software she had created. "Hey, it looks like the others are on the move. There's a fair amount of activity on their communicators."

"You hacked their communicators?" Sandy asked. "You know, that really isn't going to help put you in their good books when you finally tell them."

"They're ninjas, they'll appreciate my ingenuity I'm sure." Emma brushed her off. "OK, it looks like they're searching for that monster, maybe you should go help them."

"Really?" Sandy asked. "You want me to help them?"

"Well, I think that's kind of what you got that star for in the first place right?" She asked. "Uh…speaking of which, where is it?"

"It's right in my…" Sandy's words tailed off as she suddenly started scrambling. "…bag. Oh shit! My bag! I've lost my bag, I must have left it in the library!"

"You left your bag in the library…with a Power Star that lets you access powerful weapons technology in the pocket?" Emma asked. "Seriously?"

"I know, I screwed up…"

"I'll say! What kind of Ranger forgets or loses their morpher?" She asked.

"Tell you what, how about instead of making fun of me for losing it, we go and get it back?" Sandy asked. "We'll check the library, hopefully someone will have handed it in."

The Rangers had all split up to go out into the city on patrol. Given the fact that Venoma seemed more drawn to attacking the male Rangers, Preston was being set up to go looking for Venoma, while Sarah and Hayley had gone in search of the other guys, hoping to find them before they got themselves into trouble.

She had come to the mall, having vaguely recalled hearing something one of them mentioned about getting Venoma the perfect gift, but so far she couldn't see any sign of them. She had tried the most obvious places she could think, the candy stores, the florists, the gift shops…she was considering trying the jewellers when she saw something odd. She could see someone carrying armfuls of some of the most random assorted items she could ever recall seeing anyone carrying. There were skis, a stuffed bear, a coffee maker, balloons. The person carrying them seemed to be struggling while keeping an eye on one of the other shops. Sarah came up to him, recognising him as she got closer.

"Victor?" She asked as she approached. Victor just steadied himself as she looked to him.

"Oh, Hi Sarah." He greeted her, adjusting the items in his arms. He looked like a human pack mule with the sheer volume of items he was carrying. She laughed a little.

"OK, I have to ask, what are you doing?" She asked him.

"Oh, I'm here with Lori." He said with a bright smile as he nodded. "She just needs to pick up a few more things."

"Lori…who is she again?" Sarah asked him. Before he could answer though, a blonde girl around Sarah's age came out of the shop, carrying a credit card. She didn't seem to even acknowledge that Sarah was there. Sarah did, however, notice that she was wearing a very familiar looking necklace.

"Your credit card's maxed out, it wouldn't let me get that vegetable juicer I was looking at." Lori told him. "You have another one?"

"My wallet's in my back pocket." Victor told her. Lori fished it out, getting another credit card, before heading back into the shop. Sarah just stared at him.

"OK, what the hell was that?" She asked him.

"Lori's going to the dance with me!" Victor told her. "She just needed me to get her a few things first."

"A few things?" Sarah asked, staring at what he was carrying. "What's she doing, stocking up the world's tackiest car boot sale?"

"Come on, you can't expect a girl like Lori to be impressed by a cheap necklace can you?" He asked her. Sarah just sighed.

"Victor, for one thing, that necklace didn't look exactly cheap to me." Sarah told him. "Secondly…if she only wants to go to the dance with you if you buy her all this…stuff, do you really think that's a good thing?"

"Hey, I've got a date with one of the hottest girls in the school." Victor said a little grumpily. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

"Alright then. Have fun." She muttered as she walked away.