Noah had just teleported out of the Command Center to an adjacent street near his home. He never liked teleporting too close for fear of being spotted. He didn't know what he was going to do about his parents, though. If Vrak could track their morphers, that meant he knew where all five of the rangers lived. He could show up at any time and hurt their families. The rangers couldn't just spend every night together without arousing suspicion from their parents, so it was just a risk they were going to have to take.

If Vrak showed up at someone's house, the rest of the rangers would just need to be alerted as soon as possible and provide reinforcements while the targeted ranger held him off and tried to divert his attention.

Needless to say, none of the rangers got good sleep that night. Luckily, Vrak hadn't tried anything, but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of it.

Noah was on his way to the computer lab at school, where he planned to meet up with his friends. They had all agreed to come an hour before school started and stick together, so they could spend as little time apart as possible. Noah's fears came into fruition as he saw Vrak materialize in front of him. He was just two blocks away from the school and his friends, but unfortunately, that was two blocks too far.

Immediately, he morphed and sent out a distress call through the morpher. Hopefully, his friends would be there soon. The blue ranger would have to stall until they arrived. He was a competent fighter, but did not want to try his hand one-on-one against the alien.

"What do you want, Vrak?"

"Oh nothing, blue. I'm just scoping out the situation. I can track all your movements, and sometimes I just watch without causing a fuss. I see everything now. Sometimes I'm watching, and you aren't even aware."

Noah muttered under his breath. "Dude is like a creepy killer Santa Claus."

Vrak continud with his monologue. "I have big plans in the works, but it requires me to learn everything I can about you rangers. What makes you tick. Where you go to feel safe. What you're up to during the day. I have been studying up on your families, your passions, your mannerisms... everything. Nowhere is safe."

"You're just trying to get in our heads, Vrak. We know that, and it's not going to work."

Vrak smirked. "You sure about that? Because as far I'm concerned, it already has."

With that, he blasted at the blue ranger. Luckily, Noah saw it coming and rolled out of the way. As he pulled out his Shark Bowgun to retaliate, he turned and saw Vrak had disappeared. At that moment, the rest of the rangers appeared and saw an empty battlefield with an unharmed blue ranger standing confused.

Troy approached cautiously. "What's going on? We got a distress call from you, Noah."

Noah just turned to the rest of his team. "Something seriously messed up is going on here."

-0-

After Noah had explained what happened during his encounter with Vrak, the rangers took it as a cautionary sign and continued through their school day, attached at the hips. Noah was separated for just ten minutes on his walk to school, and he had been attacked. It pained them and was difficult to manage, but no one could be alone from the group in any circumstance.

They met up during lunch and discussed in hushed voices. Jake suggested something troubling.

"What if he really is picking us off, but he's just not finishing the job?" Gia looked at him as if a third eye had grown on his forehead.

"Do you understand how stupid that sounds?"

Noah cut in. "I think Jake might actually be onto something. He said he was trying to learn everything about us. He must have been watching you or Jake, and saw you two were alone. That's when he decided to strike. This morning, he must have been watching me and struck when I was alone too. There's no rhyme or reason, but there hasn't been a repeat attack. After our meeting in the Command Center, Gia and Jake both went home by themselves. That would have been an opportune moment for him to strike, but he didn't need to. He already got inside your heads when he attacked the first time. Everything is a mind game with him."

Troy shifted uncomfortably. "So what you're saying is... He's not going to stop this until all of us have had an encounter with him? That means Emma and I are next in line." Emma shuddered. "So I guess that means you and me can't go anywhere alone. The rest of them are probably safe since he's already come at them, but we haven't been hit yet."

The red ranger nodded. "If we have to separate from the group, we should travel in pairs or groups of three. Especially, Emma and me. If he does plan to hit us, I want it to be us two against his one, as opposed to a straight one-on-one fight. Even though he hasn't tried to seriously hurt us yet, it doesn't mean he won't try to with you and me. I'll walk you home today, then teleport to the Command Center and let Gosei know what's going on. He can teleport me to a nearby street and I can run home from there."

Emma shook her head. "We should do that the other way around. You can't teleport straight into your house because your parents will see, but I can teleport straight into mine. Gavin already knows about the ranger thing, so it'll be safer if neither of us have to walk, even if it's a small distance from the side street to the house."

Gia nodded. "Okay, so buddy system starting now. No one goes anywhere without having another ranger with them. In Troy and Emma's case, try to stick together as much as possible." She gestured to herself, Jake, and Noah. "Maybe one of us three could tag along whenever possible to try and discourage him from doing anything. Since he's already gotten us, maybe he won't want to try anything if one of us is there."

The rest of the rangers nodded in agreement as the lunch bell rang. They all waited until everyone was ready and left as a group.

-0-

After school, Troy and Noah had accompanied Emma to the Brainfreeze for her shift. She felt bad forcing them to stay there the entire time doing nothing, but the boys insisted. They said they would just work on their homework until Emma's shift ended. After she and Troy walked Noah home, they started off in the direction of Troy's house. Once they arrived and he was inside, Emma teleported straight to the Command Center.

The pink ranger debriefed Gosei on everything that was happening, and then had Tensou beam her straight into her house. That way, there was no extra walking alone that she had to do.

However, as soon as she arrived in the living room, she was met with horror.

Vrak wasn't in her house, but Gavin was having a seizure.