"I don't think we can just ignore it, Doc," Tori frowned as her argument with the doctor continued. Ever since they had returned to the Garage from their fight with Kilobyte and the Grinders, Tori and the doc had been going at it. Refusing to let the Rangers venture out into the wastes, Dr. K had insisted that they forget about the sudden appearance of the Venjix army inside the dome and they focus on improving their battle technique so that they can better defend the city next time.

But Tori wasn't about to let that happen. She knew for a fact that hundreds of people had been kidnapped and dragged out into the wastelands and knew that it was her duty as a Ranger to do something about it.

"Even after your father grants her freedom, she's still butting heads with the doc," Flynn whispered to Scott. The Red Ranger groaned at the mention of his father. As much as it killed him, he wanted nothing more to do with his father until the Colonel could truly learn to appreciate his efforts and act like a father. He was tired of this military act.

Flynn heard the grunt and frowned. He turned to face Scott, "You okay?"

"Peachy," Scott answered as he shifted in his seat. "You know that idea my father had… it wasn't his idea."

"But he said…"

"After that fight, where my father helped us out, I told him what I thought of Tori. I told him how she wasn't a threat and I drilled that idea into his head. He had me to thank, and he wasn't even going to give me the time of day!"

"Ah…"

"I'm just tired of always trying to reach out to him… you know?" Scott frowned and Flynn nodded to show he understood. "I'll work with him. I'll put up with him. He needs us and we need him if we want to keep Corinth city alive… but aside from that…"

"He's your dad," Flynn told the Red Ranger. "You're not going to be able to give up on him like that."

"I just want to focus on this," Scott sighed. "At least he can't tell me what to do here. I'm leader of this team."

Scott looked back at the rest of the RPM team, where Tori was still fighting with the doc. He sighed and watched, unsure of what to do. He wasn't fond of going out into the wastelands, but he also didn't want to leave the prisoners behind.

"Why can't we just patrol the outside of the dome?" Summer suggested, trying to find the peace. "The Grinders were tough, but they may have left behind some clues or maybe some people managed to get away. If we find anything, maybe we can use that to get one step ahead of the Venjix."

"I know all I need to know about the Venjix," Dr. K stated. "Trust me, there's nothing you Rangers need to focus on."

"He's a learning Virus, doc," Tori said. "We need to stay one step ahead of him at all times. I agree with Summer. We should at least do a parole. We owe that much to the people in this city, and to any survivors out there."

Defeated, Dr. K sighed over the speakers, "I'll do a search. I'll see if I can pick up any life signatures from in here."

"We can take Scott's new car," Flynn suggested as he patted his red friend on the back. He hopped the chance to ride in the new car would cheer Scott up. It was only a few days old, but it was already Scott's pride and joy. A nice, red sports car.

"It won't work if we do pick up something, or someone in the wastelands. We'll need your truck, Flynn," Tori said.

"Why not both?" Summer suggested. "Scott's car can go pretty fast and it can get out there and find people long before Flynn's truck can ever made it. We can pack some first aid supplies and a survival kit in the back. Then, Flynn's truck can transport them back here."

"Fine," Tori sighed. Flynn and Scott jumped up, with their keys already in hand as they rushed over to their respective vehicles. Tori turned back to Dr. K's screen. "Anything?"

"One life signature. Very faint. It might not be worth it to go out there…"

"It's worth it to try," Tori interrupted. She looked at Summer who nodded in agreement. "I'll go with Flynn."

Summer nodded again and followed her instructions with a smile on her face. There was something about Tori's last statement that really hit her in a good way. It was always worth trying to save a life.

-Fight-Flight-

Alex stared at the clock. Kelly had been gone for hours and gum wasn't helping his hunger pains anymore. Hunter had long since gone to work renovating JKP and had probably picked up something to eat on his way, leaving the kids to starve.

Libby had been busy exploring the house. She wanted to figure out how things worked and what purpose they served. Alex was doing an okay job at making sure she didn't electrocute herself or severely injure herself in any other way, but for the most part, Libby was learning many of her lessons the hard way.

"Ouch!" she cried before putting her finger in her mouth and glaring down at the table. Alex finally looked up from the clock.

"What did you do now?"

"That blood stuff is coming out of my finger," Libby said. She held her finger up for Alex to see. "It's this thin white thing that did it this time."

"Paper cut," Alex nodded. "Those hurt."

"I don't like paper, either."

"Newsflash, Libs," Alex chuckled, "Most things on earth can kill you. Why don't you wait for Kelly to get home before you do anymore exploring?"

"I'm just curious. I'm learning a lot, though."

"You learn quickly," Alex muttered.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. It's a good thing. Especially seeing as at your age you should know most of this stuff by now."

"Oh," Libby said. She looked around the room, wanting to discover something else. That's when she noticed Alex had been staring at a round circle on the wall. It had numbers all around it, going from one to twelve. It also had three sticks coming from the middle and going in all different directions. There was a short one, which looked like it was pointing at the ten. There was a really long one, that was pointing somewhere between the five and the six. Finally, there was a thin one that was moving constantly. Libby couldn't keep up with it. It was almost as if it had no idea which number to point at, so it tried to point to all of them.

After a few minutes of staring at the strange object, Libby turned to Alex, "What's that?"

"A clock," he answered her.

"What's a clock?"

"It tells you what time it is."

"Oh," Libby answered. She turned back to the clock, "What time is it?"

There was no reply. Confused, Libby looked back to Alex.

"Are you trying to figure out how to fix it?"

"It doesn't actually tell you the time," Alex explained. "You have to learn how to read it."

"There are no words," Libby frowned. "Just numbers."

Alex sat up, "Libs, let me tell you about the concept of time."

-Fight-Flight-

The car ride was silent. Scott was still bothered by his father and Summer could sense something was up. She didn't want to force Scott to talk, but couldn't get him on another topic. Every time she tried, the conversation would only last a few minutes before it fell into a long silence.

But she persisted.

"What do you think Venjix wanted all those people for?" she asked.

"I don't know," Scott shrugged. "He probably just wanted to kill them. He wants to rid the Earth of humans and take over with his evil robot empire, remember?"

"Yeah, but he was collecting people, not killing them," Summer frowned. "If I wanted to kill people, I would walk into the grocery stores guns blazing. I wouldn't be dragging them off."

"Hopefully we can find out," Scott sighed.

"Hopefully," Summer nodded.

And there it was again. The silence. If there was anything Summer wanted to kill, it was that silence.

She was about to bring up another topic, a little closer to Scott's issue, when he suddenly hit the brakes and stopped the car.

"I found her!" he shouted to Summer as he reached into the back seat, where there was an emergency kit packed.

"Already?" Summer frowned, glancing at her watch. They hadn't been driving for long.

"Really," Scott answered her as he got out of the car and slammed the door shut. He rushed over to where the person was laying and Summer was right behind him.

"Kelly!" she shouted when she recognised the person. She dropped to her knees beside the red head. Thankfully, Kelly was still conscious, if just barely.

"What happened?" Scott asked. He pulled out water from the kit. The sun was hiding behind a sky of pollution but it was so hot out here that he was sure Kelly was dehydrated from sweat alone. Summer checked her over for injuries. There were a few gashes, scrapes and bruises, but nothing appeared serious.

Of course, appearances could be deceiving.

"Kelly, what happened?" Scott asked again when he didn't get a reply.

Flynn's truck pulled up in the background and the two blue Rangers hopped out as soon as it came to a full stop. Tori rushed over and picked up the pace when she recognised Kelly.

"What…?"

"I already asked," Scott answered. "She's not answering."

"Kelly?" Tori knelt down and leaned in closer to Kelly. She touched her friend's face, "Can you hear me?"

While Tori and Scott tried to get an answer out of Kelly, Summer stood up and walked over to Flynn. He was already using his morpher to get in contact with Dr. K.

"You told him?" she asked the blue Ranger when he tucked his morpher away. Flynn nodded.

"He's going to have an ambulance waiting at the border when we get back."

He looked down at Kelly. He was worried about. But as he watched her, something caught his eye. He walked around Kelly, Scott and Tori and reached down to pick it up. He showed it to Summer.

"A needle."

"Any clue what's inside it?" Summer asked. Flynn looked.

"Nothing, as far as I can tell."

"It must be from the Grinders," Summer stated.

"Let's just get her back," Tori said. She looked to Flynn and Scott and the two boys got the message. They lifted Kelly up carefully and carried her over to the back of Flynn's truck

Tori looked at Summer while the boys were doing this, "You and Scott race back to Corinth and tell the ambulance she's out, she's hurt, and apparently she's been drugged."

"Got it. Out, hurt, drugged."

"Go, fast!" Tori shouted.

"Scott!" Summer called to the red Ranger as she raced to the car. Scott did the same. Tori jumped into the truck with Flynn, but sat in the backseat to keep an eye on Kelly.

"Drive!" she barked to the blue Ranger.