Preston sat at his desk in Mrs Finch's class, fidgeting impatiently as she ran through some revision exercises on the board. She had warned them she had a test coming up and she was working on preparing them for that. It was fortunate since Preston was clearly not paying attention to the lesson at all. He had already managed to make it through Levi's class without the Gold Ranger noticing that he wasn't paying attention in the slightest. Right now, he was far more interested in what was in his bag!

Preston loved magic! He had since he was a kid. His obsession and love of magic was amplified by his contact with the Ninja Steel to the point that he had developed real magical powers! Unfortunately, much like his stage tricks, he had been forced to learn about his new gift more or less on his own. Since he hadn't met anyone in the Magic Circle, at least to the best of his knowledge, he had spent most of his time and money teaching himself all his stage illusions. Though with them, there were at least guide videos, books and kits for some of the basic tricks that were now considered public domain and the Magic Circle no longer punished members for revealing the secrets of. With his actual magic though, sadly there was no how-to guide. He was pretty much on his own…until now.

He was aware that there were people who had real magic powers in the world. Hell, he'd heard that there was an entire Ranger team whose powers were rooted entirely in magic, but since he'd never met any of them and couldn't just run off to Briarwood for a couple of years to see if he could find one of them willing to train him, he'd been figuring out his magic largely by experimentation. Trial and error. While he had made some headway, it was slow going. Not only did he not have anyone to give him pointers in how things should be done, he also had to be very careful to make sure none of his spells went too far awry, and he'd already had a mishap or two that showed him exactly how badly things could go wrong which made him a little wary of being too ambitious. He had already caused a full evacuation of the school when he inadvertently conjured a real-life panther, and it was just as well his dad didn't ask too many questions when he couldn't find his humidor since even Preston didn't know where it ended up after he tried a teleportation spell. While Viera had already explained she was not a wizard, at least now he had a good starting point. Now he had a very real grimoire all of his own!

He couldn't wait to try out his new spells, to get started on his new studies. To know that there was a real spell book within reach right now was almost too much to bear, so much so that he was tuning out pretty much everything else. He'd already taken the Dragon Wand out of the bad and slipped it into his pocket just to have it close. He didn't claim to be too knowledgeable about such things, but he could already feel the power in it, and couldn't help putting his hand into his pocket just to feel it in his hand. He saw everyone pulling out their books and presumed that Mrs Finch had told them to get out their books to do some reading. Preston went into his bag for the book, but as he did so, he found himself focusing on the grimoire. He looked around seeing the others were just reading quietly while Mrs Finch wrote up some revision notes on the board. Unable to resist, he slipped the grimoire out and opened it up, beginning to read.

"Alright Viera, perhaps you'd like to demonstrate how this problem is solved?" Mrs Finch asked. Viera got up from her chair and headed to the front of the class. Preston was thankful everyone was paying attention to her since it gave him a chance to read his book. It started off with some notes and diagrams, the great Wizard who'd composed it gave a foreword on what magic meant to him and how the winds of magic existed in a delicate balance and…

"Man, this guy is long-winded, how long is this foreword?" He asked as he flipped through. "The foreword is over three hundred pages? That seems unnecessary!"

There was a chapter on how to hold a wand…a full hundred and fifty pages just on grip! Why exactly did anyone think that a lesson in how to hold a stick was so important that it required a hundred and fifty pages? Another two hundred or so about being rested and emotionally stable before beginning to work on spells, recipes for teas, suggestions for good times of day to perform certain types of spells, dates for certain celebrations when the winds of magic ran particularly strong or unexpectedly weak…He finally found something good well over a thousand pages into the book.

"Spell one, levitation! Now we're talking!" Preston whispered to himself. He looked up, seeing Viera still working on the problem and looked back to the book. "Man, here I was hoping Wingardium Leviosa would work…wait…so that's the word? And there's a move…that doesn't look too difficult."

He looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him, before pulling out his wand. He just wanted a practice run before he tried it for real. He read the word a couple of times trying to figure out how best to pronounce it, before flicking his wand under his desk.

"Etativel!" He whispered. Just as he did so, the classroom was thrown into chaos as virtually everything that wasn't nailed down suddenly flew towards the front of the class. The desks only moved a few inches, but papers and jotters all flew right to the front. Preston quickly shoved his wand back in his pocket and hid the book as everyone looked around in confusion.

"Alright class, settle down!" Mrs Finch said, trying to restore some order. "It's just a draft, Hayley would you mind closing the windows?"

As Preston put the book away, making a mental note to wait until he wasn't in a crowded classroom to try that again, people started retrieving their belongings. Monty was about to pick up a note on the floor when Viera got to it first. She picked it up, and couldn't help seeing what it said.

"Viera's so pretty?" She asked, before seeing another form of handwriting. "Well, what are you waiting for, ask her out! Are you kidding? What would she see in…"

She looked to Monty, who looked mortified. He gulped as he tried to play it off like the note wasn't his. He started looking around for some imaginary coursework. Viera just put the note away and smiled.

Over in the police precinct, down in the armoury, there were a bunch of officers getting equipment. While the department did issue equipment, it wasn't unknown for officers to purchase additional or better equipment on their own dime, and buying it through the department was considerably less expensive than buying it wholesale, not to mention as police officers they were permitted to buy a great many things that weren't exactly on the shelves of many supermarkets.

The firing rage was down there, letting people practice and also letting them engage in a little "try before you buy" action. Trevor didn't make a habit of spending much time down here. He practiced his marksmanship of course in order to be ready for his mandatory checks, but unlike a lot of officers he was often more than happy with his standard issue equipment. That was until today. As he approached the armourer, the woman looked up from the desk and smiled.

"Well, well, well. I didn't expect to see you down here." She commented. "So, what's the occasion Marx?"

"I could live without the routine Iris." Trevor told her. "I'm here to make a purchase."

"That would be the occasion I'm talking about Marx. It's not like you make a habit of shopping." She commented, tapping a few keys on her computer. "In fact, the last time you got anything it was filling a requisition form for three clips for your nine. That was four years ago. That's a department record you know!"

"Iris…"

"I'll bet you still have all three clips, don't you?" She asked. "I'm betting that you haven't dropped so much as a single round…"

"I dropped a few rounds the other day actually." Trevor said a little bad-temperedly. "Now, can I make some purchases or do I need to go to Walmart where I won't get the third degree?"

"Someone's impatient." She teased him. "Alright, so another clip of 9mm rounds…"

"I was actually looking for something with a little more kick." Trevor told her. She just smirked.

"So, Marx is looking for an upgrade? I never thought I'd see the day." She said as she looked to him. "Are you finally over the touchy-feely stuff?"

"No, I just found there's some things that need a little more convincing to go down." Trevor told her. "What have you got that'll take down someone in armour?"

"Armour?" She asked him. She reached under the counter, pulling out a huge, oversized hand gun with a triangular cross-section. Marx wasn't exactly an enthusiast, but he could recognise it as a Desert Eagle, the gun which had the reputation of the most powerful handgun on the planet. She showed it to him.

"This is the .50, it holds six in the clip and another in the pipe. Whatever you hit with this will be ripped clean off." She told him. Trevor picked it up, inspecting it a little. He took a clip and stepped over to a free aisle in the range. He squeezed off a couple of rounds, hitting two in the chest and one in the head. He could feel in his arm that it was significantly more powerful than his standard issue pistol, the one that the Red Ranger had shrugged off and run away from. Perhaps if he'd had this, then he might have been able to bring the guy in. "I'd say it looks like that was made for you!"

"It's a good start." Trevor said, putting the Desert Eagle down. "What else do you have?"

"You want something bigger than THAT?" She asked him. Trevor just pulled out his credit card.

"I'm good for it." He answered. "What do you have?"

"Well, you can't go wrong with a good 12 gauge, personally I like the SPAS." She told him, fetching one off the shelf. "Semi-automatic shotgun, capable of using a variety of rounds, fires pretty damn quick. A lot of the SWAT guys call this a 'room broom', because once you start, you sweep a room clean pretty quickly."

Trevor picked it up and went to his aisle. He fired off a couple of shots, tearing into his target. He smiled as he saw the results.

"Not bad." He stated with a satisfied nod.

"Not bad?" She asked him. He just put the gun down. As he was going to tell her to ring up the sale though, he heard a massive roar, one that sounded more like an explosion than a gunshot. He spun around to see a couple of the SWAT guys in a combat range doing an exercise. One of them fired off his shotgun, at which the roar came once more. A door went flying and they stormed into a simulated room. Trevor's eyes went wide.

"What the hell was that?" He asked. "Why didn't mine do that?"

"Those would be shredders." She said to him. Trevor looked at her a little confused. "They're breaching rounds, they're designed to break open barricaded doors. Mostly it's the SWAT guys that use them but…"

"I want some!" He told her, pulling out his credit card. "Ring it up…ALL of it!"

"All of it?" Iris asked, no longer mocking him. He'd gone from having next to no interest in arming up to loading for bear in the matter of a couple of minutes. "What the hell are you going after?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Trevor answered, sliding her the credit card. "Ring it up."

Back at Summer Cove High, Hayley was taking time during the morning break to get in some warm-up exercises while others were enjoying their break. She had been humiliated by Victor the previous year, and she was determined that this time she wasn't going to suffer the same fate. She was working on her serve, hoping that a few aces might just give her a little bit of an edge, but just because she could hit an 85 mile an hour serve didn't help much if Victor managed to return the serve or when it was his turn to serve, that was where Preston came in…well, it would be if he'd showed up! While he wasn't as enthusiastic about the game as Hayley was, by virtue of his dad, he'd spent enough time around country clubs to play a little and he'd promised to help her warm up. Hayley finally saw him wandering onto the court, but instead of a racket, he seemed to be carrying a book and his wand, which right now he was using to scratch his scalp as he read it.

"Preston, you promised me you'd help me to warm up for my match!" Hayley reminded him. She could completely understand his eagerness to get started on the spells, but he had promised to help her and she wanted to be sure he was able to deliver on his promise. "I thought you were going to help me practice."

"I am." Preston explained. "But I figured, if I use this then maybe we can both practices together."

"You want to use magic to help me practice?" She asked him. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, sure I am! I have a really simple spell right here." Preston told her, dragging over a basket of tennis balls.

"What if someone sees you?" She asked him.

"Oh, Victor's holding a victory party in the canteen, no one's going to be coming out here." He assured her. Hayley just glared at him. "Um…alright, let's give this a go. Etativel!"

Hayley watched as one of the tennis balls lifted into the air. Preston concentrated the tip of his wand, tracing where he wanted to position the ball, before a flick of his wrist sent it flying at Hayley at speed. She hit the ball, returning it and smiled.

"Hey, that's pretty cool! Nice magic Preston!" She complimented him.

"See, we can practice together!" He assured her, continuing to lob balls at her. Hayley felt the benefit of this new form of practice. While the serving machine was good, it was quite limited in the scope of where it would fire meaning that it could get predictable. Doing things this way, Preston could keep Hayley on her toes and prepare her for the less predictable nature of the match. The other Rangers, Viera and Mick all came out to watch.

"Hey, nice backhand Hayley!" Sarah complimented her.

"Thanks, after last year I decided to make a comeback better than ever!" She told them all proudly.

"She's not kidding, she's been practicing every day for an hour all year!" Calvin said as he looked to his girlfriend proudly. "I wouldn't be surprised if the next victory party in the canteen is hers!"

"Epic magic Presto!" Brody complimented him, noticing the spell he was using. It wasn't one he'd seen Preston use before, and so he assumed it was all down to the book. "I see you've made some impressive headway in that book."

"I'll say." Sarah said, noticing how far into the book he was. "You have to be about a thousand pages in. When did you get a chance to read all that?"

"Oh…I haven't read ALL of it, I just skipped some of the intro and some lame foreword and stuff like that." Preston told her.

"Really?" She asked him. "Viera, I thought you said…"

"Yeah, it was just fluff, I can read over it later." Preston assured Sarah.

"Preston, magic is a very precise artform. People have done some pretty terrible things when they weren't prepared properly." Viera warned him.

"Seriously, it was only stuff about getting enough sleep, which I do, and how to hold a wand! I've kind of been practicing that since I was five!"

"Oh…OK, as long as you're sure." Sarah replied, looking a little nervous.

"Best part is, that's only the first spell in the introductory series! How cool is that?" He asked. "Let's see, what's next? Changing colour…yeah, maybe later. Spell three, turning things to food…BORING! Growing hair why would you even want to do that…?"

"Um, I've lost my eyebrows a couple of times." Sarah said with a shrug as the others looked at her. "What? I'd have appreciated being able to get them back a little sooner!"

"Come on Preston, I'm cooling down over here!" Hayley complained.

"Oh man! Spell 8 is INVISIBILITY!" Preston said excitedly, practically dancing on the spot as he said this. "Hayley, I've just got to try this! If you can return this you'll be able to return anything Victor can throw at you!"

"Spell 8?" Levi asked as he thought about this. It was one thing that Preston had said he skipped the introduction and some of the foreword and suchlike, but now he was talking about skipping whole spells it started to ring a couple of alarm bells with him. "Didn't Viera tell you specifically not to do that?"

"Yeah, I definitely remember her saying that." Mick added.

"I definitely did!" Viera warned him. "Preston, whatever you do…"

"El-Beez-Eve Nee!" Preston called out, pointing his wand at a tennis ball in his hand. The wand started to vibrate in his hand, and sparks started to shoot out of it. It shook itself free of Preston's grip and fell to the ground where it fired off a beam causing them all to throw themselves aside for cover. Preston got up, dusting himself off.

"OK, that wasn't quite right." Preston commented. "I'm sorry about that, is everyone alright?"

They all answered to indicate they were alright, but that was when Calvin noticed something was odd.

"Hayley?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine Calvin." She assured him. It was only then that she saw the others staring around turning this way and that. It all seemed rather odd.

"Hayley, where…where are you?" Sarah asked her.

"I'm right over here!" She told them.

"Hayley, we can hear you but…where are you?" Calvin reiterated. Viera suddenly had a thought.

"Hayley, pick up a tennis ball." She told her. They all watched as a tennis ball started to float in the air.

"What? What's going on?" She asked, before she looked to the tennis ball and realised she couldn't see her own hand! "PRESTON!"

The Rangers, Mick and Viera all looked to the Blue Ranger, who just gulped.

"Oh shit." He offered weakly. "My bad?"