"Anyone else notice that the government Rangers have been really quiet lately?" Tyler looked over from where he was stationed against a random building and at Riley, testing out his sword absentedly.

Another day, another mission; Sledge's monsters were on the move again, terrorizing the city as they sometimes did. Keeper suspected that it was the space bounty hunter's way of trying to lure out the Power Rangers, and admittedly it worked pretty well but it never worked out the way he seemed to want. Monsters showed, caused chaos, Renegades showed, and the bad guys lost, pretty badly oftentimes. The days went on and it had almost started to pass their mind that there were far more things to worry about than just looking for the Energems and fighting off Sledge's forces.

Until the newest green spoke up and it all crashed down upon Tyler's head again. He had been almost content with not thinking about Jason or Taylor or the senators or any of that; actually no, strike that, he was content to not think about the main problem in their lives, the reason they had had to go on the run and fight for their lives and watch their friends and the people around them be hurt and killed. It was easier for him, as pathetic as it might seem, like running away and hiding from his problems but he was a teenager, he figured he had a bit of a get out of jail free card for being allowed to occasionally be selfish. But now that it was allowed back he couldn't help but remember everything else that had happened and everyone else after them and he stared at Riley for a hot moment before shaking his head.

"I'm sure it's nothing," he said but his voice seemed to be shaking far more than he meant it to.

Nearby he heard Shelby make a small noise and he turned to look at her. She seemed to be thinking on something, her brow furrowed and her eyes stuck to the screen of a small device that Kendall had handed her before the five dino rangers had left for the surface. Tyler was red but it seemed that as the two had started to properly bond, Shelby became more and more the one their would-be mentor preferred to contact first. Honestly based on what Chase and Koda had told him of the relationship between the two women before all of this, Tyler was glad for the change and he wasn't entirely certain about being a "leader" anyway. He was happy to let Shelby do what she did best, which seemed to be the sciencey things and he stepped closer to her, leaning closer.

"Something interesting?" He was glad for the distraction from the question from Riley.

She started and looked at him before shaking her head. "No, what, it's nothing..."

"Okay," he said, "That's not suspicious at all," she frowned and Tyler smiled, "Come on, what is it?"

"It's nothing, I promise."

"Shelby..." Riley had moved to come closer, abandoning his spot; there still was no sign of the monster they had been told to be prepared for but Tyler just figured that meant good things not bad. But if whatever Shelby was trying to hide happened to involve the missing monster, that could easily not be the case.

She hesitated still and the boys looked at one another as if to telepathically ask one another what to do; Riley shrugged and Tyler was left to sigh and hope she choose to share. It wasn't like he could force her, not that he would if he had that power; he just had to wait and hope it wasn't too terrible.

The communicator crackled and Riley pressed a button on the one around his wrist. "Yes?"

"Good news, weird news, mates," Chase's voice came through, sounding both cheerful...and confused, "Which do you want first?"

"Good news, Chase," Tyler interjected.

"Righto, well we found the monster."

"Alright," Riley said, "And the weird?"

"Well we tried to engage it but this robot-hey, stop that!" Chase started yelling something inaudible and the transmission cut out. Tyler and Riley looked at each other again, then at Shelby; she still looked mostly tangled up in her own thoughts but she took a deep breath and focused on them.

"Well then, shall we go see what that idiot got himself into?" she asked; Riley sighed, not particularly looking forward to finding out what Chase got caught up in, but Tyler mostly was curious. What was the robot he mentioned, and why did the transmission cut out? He supposed with a life as strange and complicated as theirs it was not too surprising to have random machines appearing but Keeper never mentioned anything about Sledge having robots. Part of him feared a government plot; Riley had brought up the relative peace they had had on that front and now Tyler couldn't entirely get it out of his head. He didn't immediately notice the others having started off but once he did he snapped to attention and rushed after them, not wanting to be left behind. He just would have to wait and see he supposed, frustrating as that might be.

He wasn't sure what he expected to find but it sure as hell wasn't what he found. There was a monster of course and there was the other two members of their team who had come with them, sitting on the ground unsettled, but none of these three were fighting. Well not each other.

There was a fourth figure and looking at it Tyler wasn't sure what to make of it. It had a humanoid shape and was mainly white with silver and black; it seemed to be trying to hit the monster but as Tyler, Shelby and Riley came by, they were witness to what looked to be a very clumsy attempt to run but it mostly just swung and missed. The monster looked confused as much as monster could and as Koda picked himself up off the floor and tried to rush the enemy, the robot had apparently tried the same and the two ended up colliding at the same time. Tyler winced, in empathy of the pain that had to cause.

"Chase!" Riley yelled and the black Ranger looked over.

"Guys, you're here," he said and pulled himself up, in time for Koda get knocked down again by the confused seeming robot.

"What in the name of Zordon is going on here?" Tyler asked watching in amazement; the monster seemed to try to take the opportunity to attack again but the robot actually managed to make contact and it punched the monster in the face.

"Beats me," Chase answered standing up and rubbing her arm, "We were trying to fight the monster but then this crazy thing appeared and everything got all topsy-turvy!"

"Where did it come from?" Shelby asked in astonishment and Riley went to help Koda up, again, and pull him away from where now the monster was trying it seemed to give the robot a nudgie.

Chase shrugged and honestly Tyler didn't know what to expect; at the very least this didn't seem to be a government plot, the thing was causing as much chaos as it was doing any level of help and while it seemed clear it was meaning to attack the monster, it didn't seem to care much about the Rangers themselves. There was only a little bit of comfort to that as that still left too many questions. The five of them just stood there watching, staring at this madhouse and for a second it crossed Tyler's mind to maybe even try to fight but a glance at Koda made him rethink that. If the robot wanted to fight the monster, and could, then more power to it and even if it didn't win it was keeping the monster busy.

Riley snuck from the group and started looking around the surrounding area. The people of the city all seemed to have gone to find safety, luckily out of the way and out of sight, leaving them to be able to focus on fighting without worry of other stuff. But after looking around for something, a clue to the reason the robot was there, he walked around a corner, saw something he did not want to see, paled and immediately ran back.

"GUYS!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, causing Tyler to turn to look at him as the green ranger stumbled and raced over to join them again, "Guys, guys, guys!"

"Riley, what's wrong?" Shelby asked, Chase letting his friend lean on him as Riley panted, breathing hard; he was panicking, truthfully and entirely, and it gave all four other rangers to feel worried. More so than the robot continuing to be nudgied and trying to punch the monster over and over in the stomach in response.

"Mi...Mi...Mili...Mili..." he tried over and over to get it out but he could barely breathe. It was enough though; the wheels turned and Shelby looked over to where Riley had come from first, copied quickly by Tyler then Chase and finally Koda who mainly did it because the others had. And they heard a light rumble, like many booted footsteps marching in unison.

Tyler was the only one who seemed able to still move when finally the soldiers showed their faces and he chalked that up to the fact that of the four teenagers and one caveman, he was the one with the most experience dealing with this sort of situation. His instincts kicked in and he moved to get between the men and women with guns and his friends who all seemed to be in various states of frozen. Even the monster and robot stopped their fighting and the monster looked over to see the humans who had arrived.

"More trouble," it growled in a gruff and to smash the robot only to get punched, again, in the stomach, again.

"Freeze!" said a voice and Tyler glanced at his friends, then at their enemies, then at the robot and finally at the soldiers; slowly and carefully he raised his hands, demorphing for the moment.

"We're...already frozen?" he offered in an attempt to be helpful but as multiple guns then cocked and were raised against him, he decided that maybe that was the wrong answer.

Someone grabbed onto him and pulled him back. Someone else yelled as a gun went off. And then pandemonium ensued; a bullet buzzed by his arm, ripping his shirt and causing him to bleed. Shelby tried to check on him but he brushed it off for the most part; the shooting luckily seemed mainly focused on the monster but a few of them were trying to still attacking the group of kids in spandex. There was a yell from somewhere and from behind a different building Phillip came stumbling out, holding what looked to be a strange box in his hands; Tyler saw him but Chase was the one who ran to get to him, grabbing hold of the wayward royal before dragging him back to the group. They teleported back as quick as they can, Tyler throwing one last look to the robot and the soldiers before they did.

They found Kendall and Billy waiting for them and seeing the look on their mentor's face he wondered if maybe staying down there might not have been easier. Chase groaned and demorphed, his head bleeding; Tyler's heart stopped seeing that and Billy rushed over to tend to the apparently injured black; Kendall looked at Tyler, arms crossed over her chest, then spoke, "What happened?"

"You won't like it," he warned, certain of that much.

She bit her lip but stepped closer. "I am sure of that much but still, tell me."

He took a deep breath, looked to his companions, then started the explanation. It hadn't been a very long mission so there was little to tell, but he could see from her expression that the more he told the less she was pleased. Finally when he was done she was silent and still, Billy staring with some awe at Tyler's story.

"So let me get this straight," Kendall said her tone denoting just how much she was trying not to kill any of them, "You go down there on a routine monster hunt, stumble on a strange robot from nowhere which both hindered you and started a fight with the monster, the army showed up, Prince Phillip appeared, and you all retreated back here after getting shot at."

"And left my robot behind," Phillip interjected and they all looked to him.

"You made that thing?" Riley asked incredulous.

The prince actually looked proud of himself as he nodded. "Indeed, I created it to help me better my own skills but when I heard about a monster on the loose I couldn't resist going to test out if it might be able to help fight monsters too. It's unfortunate that it was left behind..."

"In our defense," Shelby said, Billy bandaging up Chase's head gently beside her, "We were distracted trying not to be shot and keeping you safe, Prince Phillip. We couldn't just stop to grab the robot even if we had known the truth of where it came from..."

"It will be fine," Phillip responded, ignorant it seemed to the intense anger that was now being directed at him that radiated from Kendall's form, "G-BO is a highly advanced and capable robot-"

"G-BO almost got Chase and Koda killed!" Kendall snapped and Billy moved to touch her shoulder but she shook him off; she was livid, anyone could see that, but it seemed more out of fear than real anger, "Your robot messed up a mission, attracted the attention of the government, and got the Rangers so mixed up that they almost got badly hurt!"

Phillip frowned. "I was trying to help..."

"You're supposed to be in Zandar; we have enough worries about everything going on, with so many forces acting against us and trying to kill us, and especially with your announcement, why would you think that you should come throw yourself into yet another dangerous situation?!" It was a good question, Tyler would give her that; he didn't expect when he followed Chase's transmission that he would find what he did but now that they were all back on the ship, a little worse for wear but all alive, he had to admit to some curiosity himself on what brought the Zandar prince to the States.

Phillip seemed hesitant to answer and slipped back into a more royal manner. "I do not need to justify myself to you. I simply wished to help."

"Look here, rich boy," Kendall started and poked his chest, making both narrow their eyes at each other.

Tyler could tell a disaster in the making when he saw it; looking to the veteran in the room, knowing full well he was unlikely to be able to make this any better, he watched as Billy sighed and moved to get between the two adults. He looked at each of them. "Prince Phillip, Kendall, let's take a deep breath and think before we act. Yelling and fighting will not solve any issue, in fact it will only cause more difficulties and tribulations for us all."

Kendall bristled and looked at him, forgetting it seemed for a moment she was not dealing with a teenager but a man who had been a Ranger for decades. "So what exactly is your suggestion, hm?"

"I suggest," he said and put an edge to his voice, giving her a look that was both not like him and made her back down a bit, "that you two both calm down, we all take a moment to breathe and recover from what just happened, and then when we are all calm again and back to normal, and only then, can we try to get to the bottom of the current situation."

"What about the robot though?" Riley said and all eyes turned to him, "Shouldn't someone go get it? Make sure no one tries to do anything with it? Just seems like the smart thing to do."

"We can send Tommy or Zedd or one of the others with powers to be able to make themselves less easy to see or track," Billy said shaking his head, "The rest of you though need to rest and to stay here for the time being."

There was some grumbling but ultimately it wasn't a question; Billy might have physically returned to that of a sixteen year old boy but the aura about him was very much the veteran Ranger and it was hard to argue with him or his logic. Phillip made a rather annoyed noise and walked out of the room, to the chagrin of some of them, but no one dared move to stop him. Tyler figured if anything he was likely to go find Sir Ivan, the sole individual on the ship who would likely take his side over anyone else's, which meant they knew exactly where he would be going. Until then though he figured the safest and best bet was to follow Billy's orders and get some rest. And avoid being seen by Abby; his mom was sure to have a fit if she saw that her son almost got shot considering she still wasn't exactly comfortable with him being a Ranger or full fledged Renegade.

Heckyl was half asleep next to Karone's bed when he heard the doors to the infirmary open and a rather irate looking Phillip stormed in. From his station by the door Sir Ivan immediately came to attention and looked concerned. "Sire?"

After the awakening and recruiting of the eight hundred year old gold ranger, he had apparently decided to take a permanent position as guard to the infirmary. While his would-be teammates went down on the mission for the day, he had been adamant about staying put, stating that he had chosen to 'protect the ones who were most vulnerable as a knight should', which seemed to translate to keeping an eye on the four Renegades who were still in the infirmary. Thus Heckyl, who had already weeks before decided that his own place was in the same space, often found himself stuck with the strange man; neither spoke, Ivan let him be, never questioning why the apparent civilian spent so much time sitting by the bedside of Karone specifically, though as the beds were close it could seem he was sitting by Tsuki's inside. Heckyl in turn choose to ignore the knight for the most part, letting him do as he wished even if that did seem to mainly equate to whittling and keeping an eye out for trouble. What trouble that could be when the ship was full of Rangers and allies Heckyl had no idea but it also wasn't his business.

"Dude, are you okay?" Of course not all the patients were asleep still. Two days prior a miracle had occurred and during a routine checkup by Billy, Dustin had finally awakened. Confused, feeling a bit claustrophobic, and wanting out of the capsule he'd been in for over a year at that point, the yellow was released and the word was spread through the ship like wildfire. Laura nearly had a breakdown in happiness at her brother being awake and talking again; Tori and Hunter, happy to see their teammate again, had almost squeezed him to death in hugs. Billy did tests, checks, everything and the kitchen sink to make sure he was alright.

One problem had come up though; his wounds were mainly healed but Dustin, perhaps from excessive bedrest, maybe because of the extent of the original injuries and both the limited ability of the cryo chamber and the lateness of the Morphing Grid event, could not walk. Billy tried to assure them it would be temporary but until he got use of his legs back, through physical therapy and/or other means, he was still a permanent resident of the infirmary. Luckily he was a good sport about it and while saddened by the revelation about Blake and the events that had followed up to this spot, Dustin continued to be a bright spot in the otherwise quiet infirmary; to the disappointment of the others, he was the only one to have awoken thusfar. Anton, Karone and Tsuki continued their long slumbers, much to the worry of certain individuals.

Phillip froze for a second, as if not expecting the concerned voice, but after glancing over at where the yellow sat, eating an apple, he shook his head and turned to Ivan. "I simply was trying to help, I do not understand why Miss. Morgan would treat me so...so...disrespectfully!"

"Your Highness, I do not understand," the knight said furrowing his brow, "Didst an incident occur between yourself and Miss. Morgan?"

"I graciously attempted to give my aid against a monster and because of events outside of my control, she blames me for the Rangers getting hurt," the prince answered with a bit of an edge, "She even seems upset over me declaring Zandar's assistance to the Renegades, as if she does not appreciate it. I do not understand her."

"That's probably because the announcement brought complications," Heckyl piped up, sitting back in his chair; he folded his hands over his lap as both Zandarians looked at him, "The truth of the matter is no one expected it. Up until a few months ago the Power Rangers aboard this ship, save for a few, were all for the most part retired from active duty; they were mainly normal individuals living their lives. Their identities were in most cases kept secret from the people in their cities, which allowed them to integrate into society again easily after their duty was done with; when the Initiative went into effect, when they started getting rounded up, they had no power or pull to protect themselves. And what nation was going to choose people who used to have the power to protect Earth over the might of the United States government? Did you before your castle burned to the ground?"

The prince was notably quiet at that and Heckyl continued, mainly making connections based on what he had gathered from listening to the others; after all he'd only been on Earth for a few months. "Now we have a nation backing us, a small one but that's a big deal right now; the Renegades who were Power Rangers or villains have gotten their powers back and we even have a brand new team on our side this time. It's turning from a messy but largely internal affair to an actual international problem. The kingdom of Zandar is now on the line for what we do and what people see of us and that scares the daylights out of the others."

"Zandar is my responsibility and it was my choice to get involved," Phillip said.

"You choose to get Zandar as a whole involved though; you decided to declare to the world that you and your nation would stand with the Renegades. It's now not just your responsibility to protect it but the responsibility of every Ranger, ally and ex-villain aboard this ship; whether or not you think we should, Billy and Abby and Tommy and of course Kendall, everyone here understands that. Sledge's forces might be the only ones who had attacked you thusfar but that is not gonna last for long."

"I..." The prince deflated some and it seemed the full extent of what he had done that day set in. Heckyl decided not to blame him; it wasn't really Heckyl's problem, it wasn't his war. As long as Astronema was safe, relatively, and he eventually got his hands on the Energem, who cared if the Earth exploded into all out war because a tiny European nation decided to be the first to get involved in the United States' problems. So what if the Renegades got spread more thinly because they had to worry over protecting said tiny nation from the wraith of people who didn't like being challenged? Phillip had been trying to help, he didn't do anything particularly wrong. But good intentions didn't always mean good results.

Dustin looked from Phillip and Ivan to Heckyl then back again; the tension made him uncomfortable so he spoke up, trying to cheer them up. "Hey, it's fine, dudes; what's done is done and things happen. We just gotta move on and do what we can with what we got, right? Sorry you got yelled at, man, that's never fun but I'm sure what Hec means is that she's worried about you and she didn't want you or the other Rangers getting hurt. That's how mentors are; they hate when their teams are needlessly harmed, it goes against their personal code or something."

"That's probably why RJ keeps beating me and the new kids up so much," Heckyl half joked smirking, "Because he doesn't want us to get hurt."

Dustin laughed. "Man, you should have seen Sensei Watanabe and Cam, they could be brutal when it came to training. But they wanted us prepared; the government weren't the first ones to wipe out the Wind Ninja Academy after all."

There was a sadness to his tone; Heckyl had seen the way that Tori, Hunter and Laura acted, how everyone tended to act around talk of the first big incident of this conflict. Whatever had happened there was traumatic and had left them with a lot of scars both physically and emotionally. But Dustin was the first he had heard actually willing say the names of those lost that day, the first to be willing to talk about the demolished school. He managed to keep smiling but even the outlaw could see that there was pain behind his eyes as he did.

"I see," Phillip answered and he paused before continuing, "I...I was just overwhelmed with the wanting to help out and the sense of being..."

"Powerless?" He nodded; Dustin did too, knowingly.

The prince went on, "I keep messing up I feel; I ignored Kendall and the others when they came to warn me about the Gold Energem and got my home burned to the ground and my family almost killed. Then in my excitement I put my entire kingdom on the line because I thought that would help, without thinking about how much danger that would put everyone and pressure that would put on everyone. And now I've almost gotten Tyler's team killed because I decided to interfere where I wasn't needed. I simply wish to help but it's not enough; I'm...just not worthy."

He reached into his pocket and set something on a nearby table, catching the eyes of everyone and Heckyl stood up quickly. A familiar looking stone, this one a dark gray color, lay there, sparkling and the outlaw's eyes widened; Sir Ivan looked at it then at Phillip. "Is that not..."

"I found it," he admitted, "I...I thought that, maybe, if I found one and could prove myself, I could be of use to you and the others. I thought I could potentially be a Power Ranger too."

Sir Ivan was silent and he looked to Heckyl though for what reason the outlaw had no idea. He continued to stare at the Energem but deciding it was too risky to try and take it right now he sat back down, crossing his arms. Dustin blinked and looked Phillip in the eye. "But like why do you want to be a Power Ranger?"

This seemed to confuse the prince and he stared at the yellow for a moment. Noting this Dustin tried to explain. "You're aware that there's a lot of things against us right now; even before all this happened, being a Power Ranger was never really all fun and games. We have to lie to those around us, we put ourselves in danger to protect others, sometimes we even have to give up things or people we love in favor of doing what is supposed to be our duty. You've already got enough of a responsibility as the prince of a kingdom; why would you want to have our problems too?"

"More power is always appealing," Heckyl offered up, much to Phillip's astonishment, but the outlaw shrugged, "The chance to be more than a normal human? Who could really resist that."

"It has nothing to do with power," the prince spoke irritated some, "I really want to help out the Renegades after everything you've all done for me, for everyone. There's no ulterior motive, no greater meaning, I simply and truly wish to do what I can to make things easier and protect people like you all have."

"Then who cares if that Kendall lady yells at you or if your actions cause some chaos?" Dustin said with a slight laugh, "I mean I once accidentally traded places with my Sensei and I constantly caused my team some sort of headache though it was always all good. Like there isn't a Ranger ever who hasn't caused some kind of problem at some point for their team; it's like a rite of passage or something. And that's not even including the ex-villains like Karone and Anton over there. You're all good, man."

"Dustin does have a point," said a voice and they looked to the door to see Tommy come in; he looked healthier than he had for a while and leaned against the door mostly for effect, hands in his pockets, "I got my teams into so much trouble, it would take forever to go over it all. Andros was an insufferable lone wolf until TJ and his friends forced their way onto the Megaship, Merrick would never be where he was supposed to be until the 'wind' told him to go somewhere, Ethan got himself and two civilians sucked into a video game, after which a wizard then erased my mouth temporarily, and RJ is..."

"Some kind of mystical enlightened being of pizza and kung fu?" Heckyl offered and Tommy laughed.

"Yeah, that. The important thing is not to let it stop you; if you allow yourself to get angry or depressed because your actions cause issues or because you didn't think before acting, and you let that stop you, then you would never be able to make it as a Power Ranger or as an ally. Kendall was frustrated; there are four," he said then paused, looking to the Energem on the table, "Three remaining missing Energems, along with as many zords. Her museum was demolished, she was forced to leave her home and her life to keep herself alive, her team is mainly teenagers plus a caveman and a newly released medieval knight, and none of us know how long any of us can put up with all this before things get even worse. Sounds like she mainly just let stress get to her; give her time and you guys can better talk things out. But it doesn't do you any good to let yourself get riled up because you got scolded."

"Sir Thomas has a point," Ivan stated nodding in agreement, "Allow Miss Morgan time to calm herself; I am sure she did not mean to insult you."

Phillip sighed but couldn't quite argue; he picked the gray Energem back up, putting back, and Tommy watched him do so for the moment. The green nodded. "When you do, I'm sure you know what else you need to do."

"I need to hand over the Graphite Energem, I know," the prince said though he sounded hesitant, "I...just wish that I had actually proven myself somehow..."

Tommy put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a sympathetic look. Phillip left the infirmary without another word, the others watching after him. Only once he was gone did someone speak, Dustin chuckling lightly as he picked up his apple again and took another bite. "Maybe if he stops worrying about proving himself and just acts based on his heart, then he'll see that he's more than worthy enough. But people like him often don't see their forests for the trees."