After careful planning, Noah had the perfect setup for his training just beyond the Ranger's training grounds in the woods outside the command center. It had taken him hours, but he had managed to recreate Skatana's attack's perfectly by using some of the swords the Rangers had stored for their training. By cutting the ropes they were connected to, he would unless them group by group, and just like the alien's attack, they would all be coming for him. To pass, he needed to be able to stop or dodge them all.

Skatana, the alien, had gotten the better of him. Noah was a good Ranger, but he wasn't good enough. He should have been able to stop the monster. He shouldn't have needed his friends to come and help him. He couldn't have them thinking he would need them around all the time, or that he couldn't take care of himself, or that they couldn't rely on him to get the job done. He wanted them to know, and he wanted to prove to himself that he was more than just the guy behind the computer, or the one who came up with smart ideas for them to follow. He could be the brawn of the team. He could be counted on to stop an alien while the others dealt with the X-Borgs.

So Noah cut the ropes, and group by group the swords came flying in his direction. He fared pretty well at first and thought maybe he wouldn't need much training to defeat the alien. He had gotten a lucky shot in at the end. Noah hadn't seen that one coming. If Skatana tried it again, Noah would be ready for it.

Unfortunately, his training proved otherwise. Just when he thought all the swords had been thrown, one shot by. It narrowly missed him, cutting through his shirt and just barely grazing his skin, leaving a slight cut. Noah grabbed his arm and let out a groan. He had been close, but that wasn't good enough. He started to collect the swords to try again when he heard a twig snap. He turned around and saw Rebecca had joined him.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, seeing all the swords on the ground.

"I just want to be left alone," Noah answered her. "Just go back to the command center. I doubt Troy would be happy to know you're out here alone anyways."

"I'm not alone," Rebecca shook her head. "You're here."

"That's not enough," Noah shook his head and reset his training system. "You heard him. I'm not good enough."

"Noah..."

"Don't tell me he's not right. I might be good enough to stop some X-Borgs, but no one thinks I can take care of myself against the real monsters."

"No one said that. Noah, you were amazing back there! That alien just got lucky."

"You brother said it, and everyone else agrees."

"We talked about this, Noah," Rebecca walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "You're an awesome Ranger, and you've come so far from where you started. You don't need to beat yourself up like this. Next time that alien comes, you and the others will..."

"I may have come a long way," Noah shook his head, "But my training was far behind the others when we first started. Troy, Gia, Emma and Jake were born for this stuff. I wasn't. I have to train twice as hard just to keep up."

"Noah, you're good enough as you are! That alien just got you alone. If you go in there with your team, I'm sure you'll be able to take him down..."

"I don't need a team. I'm going to prove to them I can do this. I am good enough."

"No one doubts that."

"Of course they do. You were there! Hell, you're not all that confident in me either."

"What?"

"When the others turned up, I heard you. You were relieved. You didn't think I could protect you alone."

"It was twenty to one," Rebecca shrugged her shoulders. "I knew you'd do your best, but when my life's on the line, I'd prefer better odds."

"You wouldn't have felt that way if it had been Troy with you. Or Gia, or Jake, or Emma."

"I'll always prefer better odds," Rebecca shook her head. "Besides, you and I haven't finished training me. It's not like I can really help out. The more Rangers, the safer it is for everyone. Including you."

"No."

"No? Noah..."

"I'm not good enough. The others don't think I'm good enough. Just leave me alone. I'm going to train, I'm going to figure out how to beat the alien, and I'm going to do it by myself. I have something to prove. If I'm not good enough. The team's not good enough. I can't let that be the case."

Noah pushed her away and told her not to come any closer as he unleashed the first round of swords. Rebecca jumped back as she watched the sharp blades fly straight for her friends, and there was nothing she could do to stop them. When the final blade she hoped that would be the end of it, but just like the time before it grazed Noah's arm and he felt he wasn't good enough to pass. He reset his system and started over again.

"Noah, this is ridiculous," Rebecca called out and took a seat on the ground. She was sure she would be in for a long night.

-Megaforce-

Inside the command center, the Rangers were taking some time to unwind. Troy had put Ryan to bed and then brought out a board game for everyone to play. He figured it would be a fun way to relax, and a game would take his mind off the fact that Rebecca and Noah were still out somewhere. When his sister had taken off to find the blue Ranger, she hadn't told him where she thought he would be. She wanted to be able to speak to him privately.

Jake, Emma, Jordan, and even Tensou joined in on the game. Only Gia decided to pass, and retreated to her room for the night.

About an hour into the game, Emma decided she wanted to get changed into something a little more comfortable, and went to her room to grab her pyjamas. She shared the room with Gia because of limited space in the command center and so found her best friend looking at her laptop on the bed.

"You'd prefer to browse the internet over hanging out with your friends?" Emma teased her. Gia looked up, and as she did she lowered the lid of her computer slightly.

"I just didn't feel like a family game night," she shrugged her shoulders. "I kind of have other things on my mind."

"Like what?"

"Wedding sabotage."

Emma rolled her eyes. She knew Gia was only teasing. Jordan had happily announced that he had earned Gia's real blessings after their little date night together.

"Seriously, Gia. What's up? Want to talk about it?"

"It's nothing, really," Gia shook her head. "I kind of just... wanted to check up on our moms."

"Gia..."

"I'm not contacting them. Trust me, I know how dangerous that can get. If Vekar had shot that third missile..."

"Noah says the coordinates were for home," Emma reminded her. "Our moms aren't home. We'd have lost the house, but nothing else."

"Yeah, I know. You made the right call asking them to leave. But just because we would have avoided that problem doesn't mean I can't just... make sure they're okay from time to time. You know."

"Just don't do too much digging. After what happened to Troy and Rebecca's parents, we can't afford to let Vekar know where ours are. I'm fine with him believing they're at home."

"Yeah, me too," Gia nodded her head. Emma offered her a smile and then when she was changed she walked out of the room. Gia breathed a sigh of relief and then opened her laptop and continued reading the page.

All residents are warned to keep a careful eye out for the escapees. Any information that leads to their recapture will be rewarded. Residents are also warned to keep a safe distance. These criminals are considered dangerous.

Gia didn't need to read anymore. She clicked the back button and then closed her laptop and set it aside on the bed. She knew it would be pointless to ask Gosei if she could lend a hand with these criminals. She knew her Ranger powers were only to be used to protect herself, or to defend the world against an alien invasion.

But knowing these criminals were on the run made her sick to her stomach not because she worried they would be coming after her, but because she knew what they wanted.

"We'll get you next time, Goodall!"

She knew it was them. She wouldn't forget the faces of the three men she had to fight in the alley the night of hers and Jordan's date. At the time, they had just been regular thugs – men with nothing better to do than cheat and steal from others. But when they called her Goodall, when they used Emma's name, she knew there was more to them than she initially thought. She had been busy recently stopping Vekar's missile plan and being a comforting shoulder for Troy and Rebecca when they needed her, but now she had some time to go back to it.

Her research had revealed that these men were escaped convicts. In her last battle with Vrak, she had given the fight everything she had, and as a result, ended up levelling an entire neighbourhood. Homes had been destroyed, and people were still suffering as a result. She had anticipated that before unleashing all her power. What she hadn't seen coming was the effects it would have on other neighbourhoods. Until recently, she thought the waves of her blast had only set off car alarms or shattered windows or caused some power to go out for several hours. It seemed it had more of an effect than that.

The city's prison had been touched, and while the building was able to stand the waves, its power had not. Between the time the lights went out and the generator could kick in, hundreds of criminals had been released from their cells. While most of them hadn't been able to make it past the guards to leave the prison, some had. The three thugs that had challenged her and Jordan in the alleyway had been some of them, but there was one name that really stood out for her. One name she was hoping never to see again.

Jeffrey Goodall.