Previously on Power Rangers: Foxhole Force.

The Ravens decided to ruin the team's Sunday plans when they attacked a local school that was holding a science fair at the gym. The Rangers poured themselves into the battle, trying to protect the students and teachers present, and even the Black Ranger made an appearance to help them. But the Rangers were still outnumbered against Lieutenant Mureau, General Muldani and three other Ravens since their yellow teammate had to leave the scene and take the target away towards safety. But even though he managed to save the target, Riko ambushed him when he was alone. After a brief but intense fight, the Yellow Ranger was killed along with his Fox just as the rest of the team had been about to get there. The Foxhole Force lost a member, a Fox, and the rest of the team lost a friend. Seth Gordon was dead.

S1 E8: Smoke and… mirrors?

They would have all liked to close the youth centre at least for a day, but how could the Foxhole Court remain closed when so many children needed the shelter the place provided even if only for a few hours? It wasn't the kids' fault that their coaches were grieving and it wasn't their fault that the foxes were incomplete.

And they were more than understaffed. They were simply not ready to work again, providing comfort and security for other people when they couldn't even protect themselves.

But still, they tried.

Coach arranged a small memorial on Monday night for Seth and even though the late Ranger had no family to say goodbye to him, the whole team was there and so were a few of the older kids from the centre. Seth's job hadn't been directly related to any sport, but he'd been part of the Force and the Court from the very start, so people knew him enough.

Then, before midnight, the Foxhole Force members held a private memorial for themselves, so their Foxes could say goodbye too. Neither Seth nor the Blanford Fox were with them anymore, so the loss and the grieve were also double.

At least for everyone but Neil.

Whatever sense of loss he was feeling, he was feeling it through his Fox due to how much Red was grieving his friend. Monday wasn't an easy day and whenever his Fox wasn't openly and loudly mourning inside his chest, then he was absent much like he was when he'd been angry at Neil for wanting to leave. The redhead wasn't thrilled with the feeling of emptiness inside him during those times, but he gave the Fox time and space to accept what had happened.

Tuesday and Wednesday weren't much better and as the days passed, Neil could see the strain Seth's death was putting into everyone.

Allison, of course, was crushed. She and Seth had been together in the earlier days of the Force when there was only the two of them and even though their relationship hadn't worked out, Neil only knew them to be great friends. The best, if you will. So she'd been kind of absent herself, taking long breaks in between her shifts and disappearing to no one knew where for hours at a time, making Renee step in and man the front desk for her, something the other girl never complained about.

Matt and Dan never stopped working but even though they tried to put up a brave face for the kids during practice, everyone could see that their heart wasn't into it. Tuesday night, Neil had caught Matt red-eyed making dinner for himself, using the TV in the background to try and offset how empty their apartment felt without Seth. Now there was only the two of them, and Neil had never been good at filling up silence with chatter. It was awkward and tense, so Neil tried to avoid the common areas as much as possible.

Aaron and Andrew had been predictably stoics about it all, doing their jobs with precision and scary efficiency during the Foxhole Court darkest hour. Unlike their cousin Nicky who seemed to be having a meltdown, more for the fact the fundraising was this Friday than the fact Seth was no longer with them.

"Seth's gone, Allison's clearly not feeling up to it, Coach is distracted, Renee has to fill in for Seth and Allison, and the rest have to coach their teams all the time. How are we going to pull this off? The kids need this fundraising. We need the money for them"

It wasn't the first time the older man brought up the subject during lunch and even though he risked sounding insensitive about the whole thing, Neil could clearly see that Nicky was trying to focus his own grieve into something productive and it wasn't like he was wrong. They did have a deadline on the fundraising event. Friday was just around the corner.

"What if we postpone it?" Dan had offered Wednesday night as they all walked up the stairs to the Tower after closing the centre.

But Allison put her foot down and rejected the idea. "The Ravens have already taken enough. We're not letting them ruin this"

"Damn right" Matt agreed and then Allison wiped some angry tears off her cheeks and that was that.

The kids, of course, were the only thing driving the foxes forward.

As Nicky had said that day at lunch, Coach was distracted. He spent hours at a time locked in his office and wouldn't even berate any of them for barging in without knocking, something Kevin and Dan did a lot through the days trying to pull out directions from the man. But Coach was as overwhelmed that week as maybe Allison herself and who could blame him? He ran the Foxhole Force and he'd just lost one of his soldiers. If anything, he could be feeling Seth's death stronger than anyone.

Kevin, for his part, seemed to he running on sttuborness and willpower alone. And caffeine, definitely caffeine, because the taller boy wasn't sleeping and that much was obvious. If Neil had to guess, he'd say Kevin was feeling guilty about how antagonistic he'd been to Seth lately.

And Neil...

Well, Neil was somewhere in between all that.

He wasn't sad about Seth's death and he wouldn't be shedding a tear for the man any time soon, or anyone else for that matter, ever. But he did feel kind of responsible in the way Coach might be feeling as well. After all, he was the Red Ranger and he was supposed to be the team leader. Didn't that give him the responsibility to make sure everyone came home at the end of the day after an encounter with the Ravens? He was their newest member, sure, but he was the Red Ranger and that had begun to mean something to him.

Whenever the Red Fox made an appearance during its long periods of absence these days, it was always with a flicker of warmth in his chest after Neil acknowledged that thought.

Yes, being the Red Ranger was starting to mean something to Neil.

But Neil wasn't good at relating, or talking, or comforting people, so whatever sense of responsibility he was feeling he could only direct it towards his own job to make sure at least that was taken care of. That, and the fundraising. If Nicky needed him to be more involved in it, then that was the least he could do. For the kids, of course, and his team.

So when Friday afternoon finally came, Neil found himself covered in exy gear helping Kevin organize a game between sports adoptive brothers and sisters.

It had been Nicky's idea.

Adopt a sibling for a day!

Each official member of a team in the Foxhole court had to 'adopt' a younger kid for the entire day and they had to go through every activity together. They also needed to be from different sport teams.

"It'll help everyone feel included and it'll work on diversity!" Nicky had explained when he'd first brought up the idea. "Why stick to only one sport when you can try them all?"

So older kids adopted a younger one and younger kids got themselves an older sibling for a day. It wasn't a bad concept and Neil would have been fine with it if he hadn't been stuck as an older sibling himself. Yes, the coaches and the Foxhole Court staff had to participate as well.

Neil's temporary younger sister was called Iliana and the redhead felt sorry for her, he really did, because he wouldn't wish himself as an older brother on anyone. The girl was twelve and she was from one of the soccer teams but she was valiantly trying to work her way through exy in this sports mash-up Nicky had insisted on doing. At least Neil didn't get the short end of the stick and ended up playing volleyball or basketball. He was content to leave all the other sports to people who could actually play them.

Or that's what he thought until the moment Kevin threw everyone off the exy court and directed them to the soccer one.

"Everyone gets to play a match for each sport" Kevin explained when Neil levelled him with an angry stare. "Nicky's orders"

At this point, Neil would have preferred to clean the whole youth centre with a toothbrush.

"Neil, you have to turn your foot" Iliana instructed between giggles. "Don't kick the ball with your toes!"

"Don't laugh!" Neil spat back, red coloring his cheeks as he kicked the ball away with his toes and they hurt. But no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't control the ball with his feet and he ended up making a full of himself on the court.

"I could give you lessons, you know?" Iliana said when they caught a water break half way through their game.

"When you learn to hold an exy racquet properly, then we'll talk"

"Hey!"

But she wasn't mad, just vindictive, so she reached for the bottle Neil was currently drinking from and squeezed until he almost choked with all the water in his face. He spluttered and by the time he could breathe again, Iliana was halfway to the court laughing and getting ready to resume the game. Neil could only sigh and wipe his face.

This is what he got for trying to be nice.

Despite the staff members not feeling up to it, what with Seth's death still looming over their shoulders, the youth centre was more alive than ever.

Music played from the speakers where Nicky had connected his phone to and his song list was as caotic as this whole sports event was being. One minute they had to suffer through some heavy techno only to be met with a latin merengue right after. At least that's what Nicky had called it.

The cafeteria was bursting with people. The menu today was varied and free for the kids but 5,99$ for anyone else. It included the main course, a beverage and dessert. The Foxhole Court wouldn't usually charge for food, but it was one way to raise some money for the centre. This was supposed to be a fundraising after all.

After soccer, Iliana and Neil caught a break in their schedule and then they had to step into the volleyball court. Neil swallowed but followed bravely behind Iliana. He'd never done volleyball before.

To his surprise though, Andrew was there too, along with a boy around Iliana's age that must have been his adoptive little brother for the day.

"It's not fair" Neil commented as he stood next to Andrew while they waited for the current game to he over.

"What" the blond asked in a bored tone. He was standing with his arms crossed over his chest and his armbands covering his forearms. Neil guessed the temperature inside the Court today was hot enough even Andrew couldn't get away with wearing their long sleeved staff uniform.

"He's a Monkey" the redhead explained, signaling to Andrew's brother. "You already get along"

When Iliana began tugging on his arm to guide him towards the court, Neil let out a tired sigh and Andrew finally turned to look at him. "So do you"

Neil definitely did not flip him off in front of their respective younger siblings. If anyone said otherwise, then they were lying.

They ended up on the same team playing against some foundation president or other and a bunch of other kids. Neil was pretty sure there weren't supposed to be more than six players on each side of the court, but who was counting, right?

Coach had gone through all the phone calls to invite people from other foundations to participate on their event. He'd contacted businessmen from potentially donating companies to spend the day here with their families and the Foxhole kids. Neil heard he'd even invited the Major of the city but it was unclear to him if the man had shown up or not. Neil didn't even know who he was after all.

Neil couldn't say he was truly enjoying himself with all the strangers waltzing into the youth centre throughout the day. He was probably more worried about every new face that showed up than he was about making sure no stray ball hit his face, something that had already happened twice during the volleyball game and Iliana was only too happy to remind him that volleyball was meant to be played with his hands, not his face, that he was gonna end up concussed if he didn't fucking concentrate.

Alright, that last comment was actually from Andrew, but who cared about volleyball anyway? Definitely not him.

Despite being absent for the majority of the event, the Red Fox made an appearance here and there to qualm any rising anxiety Neil might be feeling at participating in such a public event, and he managed to remain focused enough on the game that he didn't catch a ball with his face again. At least during the first set.

"Josh! Josh! Set me the ball!"

"I don't know how to do that"

"Just try! It's easy. See?"

"You toss it, then"

"I can't toss to myself!"

"And I can't..."

During the break between sets, Neil and Andrew watched as their adopted siblings attempted to play by themselves. "She's a menace" Neil said as Andrew's brother, Josh, failed at setting the ball right.

"Takes one to know one" Andrew replied and stole Neil's water bottle to finish it himself. Neil huffed but let it slide.

"What Monkey number is he?"

"13"

"Why?"

"Why what"

"Why that number? Is it just random?"

The blond scratched at a spot on his shoulder and continued not looking at Neil as they talked. "May 13th. He turns twelve soon"

"You know their birthdays too? You name them by their birthdays?" Neil asked as he remembered the rattled off list of names Andrew gave him the other day to prove he didn't give numbers to the Monkeys because he didn't care enough to learn their names.

"You sound surprised"

And how could he not? They weren't only just talking about a couple of kids. Out of the more than fifty kids who played basketball at the Foxhole Court, at least thirty of them were Monkeys, if not more, and Andrew remembered all their names plus their birthdays?

"It's weird" he settled for answering because he didn't know how else to put it.

"Someone oughta remember their birthdays" Andrew replied matter of factly and Neil was taken aback more by the earnest behind his statement than Andrew's words themselves. There was a story behind the blond's reasoning, he knew, but he wasn't sure how to ask.

"When's your birthday?"

And Andrew took his eyes off their siblings to regard him with what Neil had begun to understand as raw curiosity in his eyes. "When's yours?"

Busted, his Fox thought and if Neil could have, he would've rolled his eyes at Red.

Shut up, he thought back and felt the Fox retreating once more into itself. How useful of him to flare up just to mock him.

"Fine. No questions about birthdays" because he wasn't about to explain that he'd had as many birthday dates as he'd had names and yet, none of them were celebrated. And to think about his real birthday was just an invitation for bad memories to come. Neil wondered briefly what Monkey number he would get out of the 22 different names he'd been over the years, but then the thought made him remember his latest nightmare and the way Andrew had actually called him a Monkey and he shivered. He didn't need the image of Andrew turning into a Raven to plague him during the day as well.

One of the older volleyball players of the centre was acting as their referee, so when the whistle blew and they were called back to the game, Neil and Andrew went over to their siblings and started to play again.

"With your hands, Neil! Your hands!"

She really was a menace.

. … . … . … . … . … . … . . … . … . … . … . … .

"Oh, Neil! Thank God. Are you busy?" Renee waved him over the moment he set foot outside the youth centre and he made his way over to the bake sale Renee was currently in charge of.

She and Nicky had spent an entire week coloring the banners that advertised both the bake sale and the open doors day. They were proudly stuck to the wall above a large table that held every kind of cake and cupcake imaginable. Dan, Allison and Matt had baked them all last night, and as he made sure Iliana was right behind him, he met Renee as she came out from behind the table.

"Are you busy?" she asked again.

"Umm... I think we have basketball next?" Neil asked, turning to Iliana and receiving a nod in return.

Renee shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other and eyed him pleadingly. "Could you take care of the bake sale for a moment? I need to go to the bathroom"

Neil looked beyond her at the couple of people eyeing the desserts from the table and sighed in resignation. This shouldn't be too hard to handle. "Sure"

"You're a sunshine, Neil! I'll be right back" she answered and then bolted inside.

Neil felt a tug on his arm.

"But, Neil" Iliana said. "What about the game?"

"You can go in. I have to take care of this"

"But you're my brother for the day. We have to stick together"

The redhead had to handle a man that wanted to buy a slice of carrot cake so he told Iliana to sit in the chair and just wait for a moment.

"Here" he handed as an offering, giving Iliana a piece of chocolate cake. "If you wait here you can have this one for free"

She lifted a judging eyebrow at him. "They're free for us anyway"

Neil sighed. "Then just eat it and wait for me or go inside and play. I need to stay here for a while"

She looked like she was about to protest but decided to reach for the cake and sit quietly down in the chair Renee had been occupying before and eat it.

Neil let out a breath and turned to serve the guy.

A few clients and half the chocolate cake slice later, because 'they were siblings and they needed to share', a young woman approached the table with a polite smile on her face and a wave of her hand.

"Hi! Do you have lemon cake?"

"Umm, I think so" he searched the display until he found a hardly legible tag to his right. "There. You want one?"

"Two, please. Are you new here? I haven't seen you before at the Court"

Neil froze for a second but forced himself to reach for the lemon cake so he could cut away the two slices. The hairs at the back of his head stood on end as he fought to remember if he knew this woman from somewhere, if she could be a possible threat working for his father. As he worked on the cake, he studied the woman out of the corner of his eyes. He didn't think he knew her, and she was roughly his own age, way too young to have worked for his father when he was a kid but... Neil just hated people noticing him and asking.

Safe. His Fox said, and he forced himself not to succumb to paranoia. "I'm not that new"

"Oh, well, I'm Katelyn, by the way. I'm with the Vixen Foundation. Nice to meet you...?"

"Neil" he reached for a paper plate. "The Vixen Foundation... they give us sports uniforms, right?"

"Yes! We've been working with the Court for a year now. I think it's amazing what Wymack is trying to do here, so I want to help anyway I can"

"You here to make a donation?" Neil should be proud of himself, making small conversation with a stranger.

"Already am" she said smiling, waving the money for the lemon cakes in the air. "I'm also visitting a friend and seeing if there's anything I can help out with today. Aaron's in, right?"

"Aaron?" up until that moment, Neil hadn't thought about the employees of the Foxhole Court having a life outside the youth centre or the Force for that matter, much less friends. Not that it really mattered to him, but it was a surprising revelation.

"Yes. Blond, short, kind of grumpy?"

"I know who Aaron is. He's in, either by the infirmary or playing a game of something" he finished cutting the slices and plated them to go. Katelyn handed him the money.

"Great! I'll go find him. It was really nice to meet you, Neil"

"You t—" but he was interrupted by the dreaded sound of his communicator coming alive. "Shit, hold on a second"

It was the Raven alert.

"Umm..." Neil glanced behind him at the entrance of the Court but neither Renee nor anyone else came out to relieve him from his duties, so he fumbled to silence the communicator and turned back to Katelyn. "You said you wanted to help out today, right?"

Katelyn nodded with determined curiosity.

"Could you handle the bake sale until someone comes out? I really need to go... do something right now"

"Oh," she was definitely not expecting Neil to dump a bake sale on her, but she recovered quickly enough and nodded. "Yes, of course"

"Thanks! I'll send someone out to help you!"

He went to run inside when the high pitched call of his name had him coming to a halt. "Neil! Where are you going? Wait for me!"

Shit.

He turned back to Iliana. "There's something I need to take care of. I'll be back when I can"

"I'm going with you"

"You can't. Go back inside and do some of the activities"

"You're not ditching me"

The Raven alert on his communicator went off again, making him only more aware of the time it was taking him to answer it. He looked around him desperately until his eyes landed on the table again.

"Katelyn!" the woman looked startled back at him. "How would you like to adopt a sister?"

"What?"

"What?" this one was from Iliana.

"Just until I get back. I promise. But I need to go now and you need to stay with her" he told Iliana as he resumed his hasty retreat.

"You're a horrible brother!" she called out to him as he was about to be out of sight.

"I know!"

The last thing he saw was Katelyn offering a warm smile at Iliana as they sat behind the table.

. … . … . … . … . … . … . . … . … . … . … . … .

Whatever sense of levity the fundraising had given everyone, it was quickly drowned out the moment they all stepped in the command centre.

Dan couldn't get away from her tasks downstairs but Coach was there, waving the Rangers closer to the main monitor.

"What is it?" asked Kevin.

"Not Ravens, but the monitors picked up some activity down town"

Matt spoke next. "Is it a monster?"

Neil studied every screen and though he saw people running and hiding, he didn't see anything attacking them.

"Go check it out" Coach ordered and when they all hesitated and didn't move, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, I know it's hard, going out there without Seth. But we have a job to do and the city needs protecting"

"But we're incomplete again" Allison said in an uncharacteristic small voice.

Neil felt a pang in his chest at her words. The Red Fox had come to the forefront the moment the Raven alarm had reached them, and for the first time both Neil and Red were feeling dread instead of excitement at the prospect of morphing and going out there.

"But it's our duty" he said, not realizing he'd spoken out loud until he found every pair of eyes focused on him. He cleared his throat. "I mean... if not us, who?"

Matt and Kevin nodded while Allison sighed. "I know"

"Come on" Neil said, letting himself be guided by his newly discovered feelings about this whole leadership thing. "It's morphing time"

They walked towards their usual morphing space and got in position, Seth's absence more noticeable than ever.

They didn't shout or move in a particularly spectacular way. They simply placed a hand over the Force insignia on their cuffs and murmured the words to themselves.

"Power Rangers, Foxhole Force"

Red enveloped him, and not just the color, but the Fox as well. Neil had morphed a handful of times already since becoming part of the Force, and though he knew what to expect from it now, the process of morphing still left him in awe and wonder. The feeling of nothingness and everything, the burst of color and energy. Feeling one with his Fox for the seconds it took to morph into the Red Ranger before they went back to being two different souls sharing the same body. The suit and the electricity that ran through his skin as it enveloped him completely. Every time was the same and yet each time was different.

When the command centre materialized around them again, the Power Rangers stood in the almost empty room until Coach pressed the button that opened the hidden panel on the wall and sent them on their way.

"Be careful, Rangers" he said with a firm yet sad undertone to his voice. "Protect the city but protect yourselves as well"

"We will" Kevin stated and they moved as one towards the tunnel.

By the time they reached downtown, there was no one in sight.

"Where the hell is everyone?"

"Coach, you see anything?" Matt asked.

"Most people fled the scene, but a lot of them are hiding indoors"

"Well, there's no sign of a monster either so maybe it's just gone"

"We should get back to the centre" Allison offered, eager to leave the scene behind.

Then Neil said, "Shouldn't we at least look around? Something must have triggered the alarm"

A shiver ran down his spine as Neil looked around them in search of something, anything, but the place was so quiet it was eery. There was something about the scene that was just... unsettling. He wasn't sure if it was the lack of Ravens, the lack of people where there had been dozens before or the generalized feeling of emptiness that ran through the Foxes at being out there in the field without the Blanford Fox and the Yellow Ranger.

The little plaza they were standing on was a disaster. The tables just outside a cafe were scattered, beverages thrown haphazardly to the ground. It was obvious people had fled in a hurry, so they must have been attacked by something. But what? And where were they now?

"Hey, do you see that?" Allison asked, calling for their attention and signaling to where an object stood by a corner, right before the street turned left.

They ran over to it.

"What is that?"

Upon closer inspection, they found what looked like a long metal box. It was rectangular shaped and gray, reflecting the sun light out of every surface. It was also really tall, maybe even as tall as Matt.

"Don't touch it!" Kevin warned right as Matt had been about to do just that.

"But, what is it?"

"Rangers," Coach called from the centre. "It is not the only one"

At his call, the Rangers peered around the corner and came face to face with dozens of the same box-like objects. They were spaced randomly, all over the street and some of them were vertical while others completely horizontal on the floor.

"That's... unusual" Kevin commented and took a step forward. The rest of the team followed behind.

"Are they giving out any energy signatures?" Allison asked Coach.

"Not that I can pick up on from here. Do the Foxes feel anything?"

"Not mine"

"Uh uh"

"No"

"Be cautious then"

"Roger that"

"Who's gonna touch it, then?" Matt asked as they circled one of the boxes.

"Why do we have to touch it?" asked Neil, eyeing the box distrustfully.

Matt shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. "Dunno"

"Well, I'm not touching it"

"Me neither"

Kevin sighed and stepped forward. "Blue Staff" the staff appeared in his hands and he proceeded to poke the thing with its tip. Neil wasn't embarrassed to admit he took several steps back just in case the box exploded upon contact or something.

But nothing happened.

"Maybe—"

"Help!" the scream had them turning to their right. "Someone help me!"

The Rangers ran towards the voice that was coming from somewhere down the street and saw a woman on a business suit cowering away from something they couldn't see but that she clearly did, because her face was terrified and there were tears running down her cheeks.

"Stop!" Allison yelled at whatever was making the woman this way, but all she got in response was another hysterical cry for help before another metal box appeared out of nowhere and circled the woman until she was trapped inside. Her screams ended the moment she was out of sight.

"Holy shit!"

"No!"

The Rangers couldn't believe it. They ran the rest of the way towards the box that now contained the woman and didn't think twice before banging on it to call for her attention, but either she couldn't hear them or she wasn't able to answer back, both of which were equally bad options. Neil looked behind him towards the dozens of boxes they'd just ran through and cursed.

"Guys, all of these... they're people. There's people in them"

"We need to get them out" Kevin stated, going ahead against the others' protests and smashing his staff against the box.

It didn't shatter. It didn't even shake.

"Damn it, Kevin! Don't go around doing that" Allison complained.

"What about the blasters?" Neil suggested but Matt balked at the idea.

"There's people in there"

"Then what the he—"

"Look out!" Allison yelled and they were fast enough to roll away right before a monster rushed through where they'd been standing moments ago. At least, Neil thought it was a monster, not that he could actually see the creature. "Careful guys! I almost couldn't see it, I barely saw a flash"

"But what was it?"

"I don't know!"

Then they heard the voice. It was high pitched and fast and it was creepy as hell. "Colors! Colors! Gotta capture colors! Capture colors!"

The voice came from behind them and when Neil whirled around, he almost got a heart attack. "Shit!" he jumped back and got into a fighting stance, but the monster didn't move. It merely kept talking.

"Capture colors. Gotta capture a color"

The monster was... it was... something. Neil wasn't really sure what he was looking at. Mainly he saw the sun reflecting on the creature's skin, if it could even be called that, like when the sun caught on the scope of a snipers' riffle, and his own reflection staring back at him. Distorted, fragmented and contorted.

"Colors! Colors! Colors!"

Staring at the monster was weird. It was like he could see its shape, the edges moving when the monster did, but he couldn't look at the thing directly because all he got in return was the reflection of everything else.

Then Kevin stood by his side and explained what was going on. "Mirrors. Its body is made of mirrors"

The four Rangers faced off against the creature and Neil couldn't help but thinking that the Ravens were at least damn creative with their freaking monsters.

Then the fighting started.

"Let the people go!" Allison demanded.

"Colors! Colors! Colors!"

They charged the monster.

Kevin's staff was already out so he took point on the attack while the others tried to get a good punch in, 'tried' being the operative word because it wasn't that the monster was particularly fast, it was that looking at it was disorienting as hell and Neil almost hit Matt thinking the Green Ranger was just a reflection on the monster's skin.

Allison summoned her weapon and brandished the whip against the creature, but even though it was covered in mirrors, they didn't break easily and the Pink Ranger found herself flying through the air when the monster gripped the whip end and yanked her with it. When their blue teammate failed again to subdue the monster with his staff, Neil took out his blaster.

"Move, Kevin!" he warned before aiming and firing.

And a whole lot of good it did him.

The discharge from the blaster caught on the monster's mirrors and rebounded, getting fragmented in the process and hitting not only Neil back, but Allison and Kevin as well. The Rangers went down with an explosion of sparks.

"Good one, smartass!" Kevin mocked as he regained his feet, Neil following behind but saying nothing in return.

"Alright" Matt added then. "It's my turn now. Kit Gloves!"

The heavy green gloves materialized around his fists and the Green Ranger proceeded to pummel their enemy, moving like a professional boxer and jumping out of the way of the monster's own attacks before diving in and hitting every available surface.

After a quick combination of two front jabs and a powerful right cross, Matt made a break through and a piece of glass from the monster's chest fell to the ground with a resounding crack.

"My mirror!" the monster bellowed. "You'll pay! Pay for that! Colors! Gonna capture a color!"

"Look out!" Kevin warned Matt just in time before a giant box appeared over him. Matt dived out of the way and the box crashed to the ground, shattering in a million pieces but thankfully empty and harmless.

"Rangers, avoid the cages at all cost"

Like they needed the reminder.

Soon enough, the battle became a giant game of catch in which the main goal was not to get caught. Boxes, or cages as Coach had called them, rained down on them and whenever they weren't dodging the cursed things, they were trying to sneak at least a decent hit themselves but, again, 'trying' was the key word because between the raining cages and the dizziness that looking at the monster brought, the Rangers wouldn't be getting the upper hand any time soon.

That was, until the Black Ranger appeared in all his silent glory just in time to grab Allison and jump out of the way with her before a box fell in on her.

Yes! Neil thought at the same time Allison pushed the Ranger's hands away and snarled in his face. "You!"

Then the monster. "Colors! Colors! Black! Other colors!"

It was annoying, really.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the Pink Ranger asked, only to be met by silence and what Neil assumed was a heavy stare beneath the black helmet.

Allison kept on talking unconcerned about the monster being still very much present. "Get out of here! We don't need you!"

"Allison, now's not the time—"

"No, Coach!" she interrupted, and Neil could only half pay attention because someone had to keep fighting the monster. Matt and Kevin helped him keep the monster distracted so he wouldn't try to trap Allison again. "He's got some nerve showing here! He's a Ranger! He can't just fucking show up whenever he fucking wants to!"

Neil caught a hard fist to the stomach but Kevin was there to block the monster's next move, giving the redhead a second to breathe and see what was going on between the Black Ranger and their pink teammate.

Allison shoved the other Ranger. "You're fucking selfish, that's what you are! If you'd been with us from the start–! If you—! You're the one that should've gotten killed!"

"Allison!"

"We don't need you!" she repeated as she shoved the Black Ranger back again, who still wouldn't utter a single word and neither would he push her back. Neil had always thought the Black Ranger was puzzling enough, but now it was just shocking to see him there just taking everything Allison said without a fight.

"Neil, watch out!" he avoided another hit and focused back on the monster.

"This is getting nowhere" he said and he wasn't sure himself if he meant their battle against the monster or the Pink and Black Ranger confrontation happening just a few feet away.

Apparently, Kevin thought the same way. "Ally! This isn't helping anyone. We need to focus on the monster"

"I am!" she bellowed back and summoned her weapon once again. Neil didn't like where this was going.

"Allison, stop!"

It was only Coach's words that had Neil taking his eyes off the monster just in time to see Allison attacking the Black Ranger with her whip.

What the hell?

She brandished the weapon but the other Ranger was fast enough to dodge it the first few times. Still, though, the weapon caught him in the forearm and Neil could have sworn he heard a curse at the painful contact. Or maybe the curse had come from him, who still couldn't believe that two Power Rangers that were supposed to be on the same side were fighting each other.

Though fighting each other may have been a bit of a stretch, since the Black Ranger never hit Allison back, he just avoided her attacks as much as possible and countered them without really hurting her. He hadn't even summoned his black shield yet.

Still, Allison talked.

"Six Rangers. We could've been six Rangers. He wouldn't have had to fight Riko alone! But we never know when you're gonna be there or not. We can't plan like this!"

The thing is, Neil kind of got her point but this wasn't the time nor the place to be fighting each other. It didn't matter that the Black Ranger wasn't an official part of the team, he was a Ranger and they were on the same side. The last time the team had fought so much between eachother, they'd lost a target. Hadn't they learned their lesson by now?

Stop, his Fox said and Neil knew inmediately what it meant because he felt the same way. Neil needed to stop this fight.

Making sure Kevin and Matt could handle themselves against the monster, Neil let them know he would try to calm their pink teammate down.

"Hey!" he called once he reached the estranged Rangers. "We need your help to kill the monster" he told them both, but Allison wouldn't budge.

"We don't need him for anything!"

"He didn't kill Seth!" Neil tried to reason, but that only brought Allison's fury on him.

"He might as well have! We can never count on him! And what if next ti—"

"Guys!"

"Watch out!"

Neil whirled around.

"Colors! Colors! COLORS!"

The monster slashed through them all, having escaped Matt and Kevin, and though the Black Ranger summoned his weapon and shielded Allison with it, he didn't miss the powerful kick that sent him flying through the air until he landed on the roof of a car.

Neil himself landed on his ass and the hairs at the back of his head stood on end inside his helmet when the monster turned and fixed its crazy stare on him. "A color. Red color. Gonna capture a color. Capture a color!"

Neil saw it all happen but he wasn't fast enough to avoid it.

The box appeared in the air above him, long and dark as it descended upon him. He scrambled to his feet, muttering curses along the way but that was as far as he got before the metal box enveloped him.

"Nei—!" but the sound of his name got cut off as he was separated from the world and it was the last thing he heard before he was surrounded by a sea of darkness and silence.

Neil breathed heavily into his helmet as he tried to process what just happened, but reaching out with his arms only to find a solid wall all around him wasn't helping him control his panting breaths, and neither was the endless reflection of his body staring at him from each and every wall around him.

Mirrors.

The walls on the inside of the box weren't made out of metal but mirrors, and even though it was dark inside it, Neil could see enough to notice his own reflection multiplied to infinity and moving every time he did. The motion was so disorienting he had to close his eyes to stall the nausea from settling in.

He wasn't sure if that was much better.

Neil had never been claustrophobic. Not really. He didn't like tight spaces from where he couldn't get out from as much as the next guy over, but being trapped inside this mirror box was seriously putting his patience and his sanity to the test. If the box were any smaller, both his shoulders would be touching the walls at the same time.

He wasn't exactly panicking but it was surely a close thing.

"Guys?" he called, tapping the side of his helmet. "Coach? Can you hear me?"

He was met with silence.

"Is anyone out there? Hello!"

Nothing.

Neil pounded on the walls. "Red? Red, are you with me? Red!"

Here.

He let out a sigh and rested his forehead against the wall.

Calm.

"Yeah, I'm trying" but his heart rate wasn't slowing down any and the Fox knew it. He could feel it.

No amount of pounding was making any progress on breaking the walls around him and the mirror box was proving to be more resistant than Neil's own resolve. He didn't think summoning the red staff would be any more helpful, in part because Kevin's own staff had yet to make a dent on either the monster or any of the boxes, but mainly because Neil didn't feel like impaling himself by materializing the staff in such a tight space.

He drew his blaster then, forcing his eyes open in the process and ignoring the thousand other Red Rangers doing the same around him.

"Okay, okay. I can do this" he aimed above him at the roof of the box and fired.

Of course, the blast ricocheted all around him in a crazy show of light. "Shit, shit, shit!"

He wasn't hit by a miracle and he could feel the Red Fox frowning at him. "I had to try something!"

Dumb.

Neil rolled his eyes. What was he supposed to do now?

A shift on his reflections had him focusing on them because he hadn't moved his arms that way and just when he was about to experiment by lifting his right arm up, the thousand copied images of the Red Ranger vanished and Neil gasped at finding himself surrounded by complete and utter darkness.

Red?

Here.

The Red Fox aura started shining around him with a soft glow and Neil thanked the Fox by hugging an arm around his middle. But the endless darkness on the mirrors didn't last forever because Neil saw, in the distance, the image of a boy staring sadly up at him. He knew the distance was a trick of the image, because when he touched the mirror in front of him, the solid wall was still barely inches away.

The boy started walking towards him and when he got closer, he lifted a finger to signal at something behind Neil. He turned and caught his breath when he found another boy already looking at him, this time a little older and closer to him.

"Who are you?" Neil called and was disturbed to notice the boy's lips moving along his asking the same silent question. Who are you?

"What's going on?" again, the boy's lips moved.

Neil frowned and looked back at the first kid who had gotten uncomfortably close as well. The kid walked from mirror to mirror until the two boys were standing right next to each other. Neil asked the question again and this time both boys spoke silently back at him.

Another boy appeared. This time older and he stood behind the first one.

Then another one and another one until Neil was surrounded by the quiet children and his heart was threatening to burst out of his chest. Just what the hell was going on? But he didn't need much more to find out, because the next image that appeared was that of a redhead eight year-old boy with terrified but sharp blue eyes and then Neil understood.

He gaped at the images all around him. They were every version of himself he'd been over the past ten years.

There he was, blond haired and green eyed.

There he was again, dirty blond hair and brown eyes.

Black hair, green eyes.

Brown hair, blue eyes.

Every person, every name he'd ever been, they were all looking intently at him and Neil didn't know whether to be freaked out or scared. He supposed he could be both.

Then the images changed again. His past selves disappeared, leaving only the body of his eight year-old self who then proceeded to take his shirt off.

"What are you doing?" as expected, the kid's lips moved as his own even though no sound came out of them.

Eight year-old Neil, or Nathaniel, stared impassively up at him as an iron brand began to show on his skin, his tiny body not even flinching while the hot mark was branded with an invisible iron on his skin.

Neil was horrified, current Neil that is, and he felt his own scar flaring up in sympathy. But the horror show didn't end there. After the iron burn, the bullet wound made a spectacular appearance in slow motion followed by slashes of knives and road rash.

"Stop" he said, but the wounds continued to appear until not only was he seeing his marked body on the walls but the memories of how he'd gotten those marks as well playing like a movie on the endless mirrors. "Stop!"

But they didn't stop and no matter how much he pounded on the wall, the images played on.

Calm.

"We have to get out of here" Neil muttered and it was like the undercurrent of anxiety in his voice prompted another change in the images.

Nathaniel's otherwise impassive expression transformed into a cruel sneer that had no business being on such a young face as a knife appeared in his hand and the kid took off, running without really moving until he approached the back of a man and without preamble or hesitation cut his throat from behind.

"What are you doing!?" but Nathaniel didn't look back as the knife transformed into a gun while he ran and then faced off against a woman that tripled his size and age. "Stop!"

Nathaniel fired. Once, twice, three times.

The woman dropped dead to the ground and with a quiet startle, he realized that he knew that woman.

As the images continued to play out, Neil understood with a sickening realization that they were memories of the things he had done to survive while on the run.

Neil didn't want to see this. He didn't want to see himself at age eight, nine or ten cutting a man's throat like his father had taught him how to do. He didn't want to be what his father wanted him to be. A killer. Everything he'd done on the run he'd done it to survive and seeing it all happen again was making his lungs strain for air.

Then the scenes shifted and Nathaniel wasn't standing behind one of his father's men but behind Seth and even though Neil screamed at himself to stop, the knife came away bloody anyway.

"Stop it! Stop!" Nathaniel didn't listen and his next victim was Renee as he snapped her neck while in a sparring match.

Then came Nicky. A bullet to the head. And Kevin, an exy racquet to the temple.

Then Andrew. Nathaniel's hands around his neck.

Not again. Not Andrew dying again because of him.

"Stop, please! No!"

Neil couldn't breathe.

Calm.

"I can't!"

Nathaniel moved on.

Neil wasn't one to shy away from violence since he'd grown up surrounded by it, and though he was ready to do whatever needed to be done in order to survive, he'd never wanted to hurt anyone innocent. Now that he worked at the Foxhole Court, he wouldn't say he had friends but he also didn't want to be the reason any of them ended up hurt.

As he continued to watch himself murder each and every one of the people he worked with, he remembered just why he never should have stayed with them in the first place.

Calm!

"I c-can't... can't breathe! Red?"

Calm.

"Stop it! Neil, stop it!" he yelled but Nathaniel didn't listen because he wasn't Neil yet and he continued to lay waste within the Foxhole Court.

Coach was next.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck" he was gasping now. He was sure he would pass out.

But the Red Fox got angry and Neil felt it like a fireball exploding in his chest. He inhaled sharply and then doubled over as much as the mirror box would let him because Red was fighting to get out of his chest. Neil dropped to his knees, panting against the side of the box as he watched the Red Fox's aura shining beyond his body and projecting into the four walls that contained them. Then the Fox grew, and it grew and it grew and it grew, taking Neil with him, securing him within the white walls of his own tall frame until the mirror box finally shattered around them and the outside world crashed back into focus. Light and noise competing for his attention until Neil felt solid ground beneath him and he opened his eyes, not knowing when exactly he had closed them, and found himself standing within the giant version of the Red Fox.

He looked down to the street where the rest of the team was still battling the monster and Red's anger mixed with his own to squash the panic he'd felt inside the box. If the mirror boxes were designed to torment their prisoners, then the people trapped in them down below needed their help more than ever and Neil was determined to kill the monster with his bare hands if that's what it took.

"Neil! Are you okay?" he picked up Allison's voice from within the cacophony of questions directed his way inside his helmet, and he succeeded in putting the awful images from the box aside to focus on the matter at hand.

"Move out of the way" he told her and everyone else as Red bent down and seeked out the mirror monster between a handful of boxes on the street. "He's mine"

His voice was eerily cold as opposed to how desperate he'd sounded to his own ears while trapped in the box, but he pushed the thought aside to focus on his mission.

Red picked up the monster with his teeth.

"Colors! Colors! Colors!" the monster yelled in a freaked out tone itself but neither Red nor Neil wasted any time taunting it.

Red threw the tiny monster in the air.

"Colors! Col—" the Fox's teeth snapped shut and the monster exploded until it was nothing but a show of raining shards that disappeared before they hit the ground.

The Red Fox let out a satisfied hum as it settled down.

"Holy cow!" someone yelled from down bellow.

Thank you, Neil told Red and the Fox answered by reminding him to be calm.

A second later, the tall fox frame began to shrink until the Red Ranger was standing on the street once again surrounded by the rest of his team. It really shouldn't have surprised him that the Black Ranger disappeared the moment the monster was taken care of.

All the mirror boxes around them shattered and the Rangers had to occupy themselves with helping the poor people that had gotten caught in them.

As Neil had guessed, they all looked like they'd been through the wringer.

"Neil!" Matt called once they were done. "You okay, man?"

"Fine"

"That was fucking awesome! You and Red"

"Yeah"

The Green Ranger cocked his head to the side. "Neil... are you sure you're okay? What happened in the box?"

But Neil shook his head and signaled for everyone to follow him. "Let's just go back to the centre"

"Neil..."

"The fundraising isn't over"

And that was all it took to get everyone on board. The Power Rangers left the scene to go back to the Court.

. … . … . … . … . … . … . . … . … . … . … . … .

"How did everything go?" asked Dan when Neil passed her on his way out of the kitchen.

"Great"

"Why didn't you tell me you left Katelyn at the door?" Aaron asked when Neil bumped into him on his distracted walk towards the front doors.

"Forgot"

"The hell is wrong with you?" Andrew asked when Neil walked out of the Court into the middle of the bake sale.

"Nothing"

"Liar"

Neil shrugged and seeked out Renee behind the table. "Iliana?"

Renee offered him a cupcake but he shook his head. Andrew took it instead. "Oh! She fell in love with Katelyn and dragged her to the basketball game. They should be done soon"

"You're back!" Neil looked to the side to see Monkey number 13 rushing towards them.

"Umm... yeah"

The kid looked at him with a mischievous smile on his face. "Katelyn adopted Iliana for the rest of the day so you're out of siblings"

"Bummer" he replied without any real heat or intonation whatsoever, but Josh didn't seem to mind. He turned to Andrew next.

"Come on, Drew. We can still play one more game"

The blond finished his stolen cupcake and sent a two fingered salute Neil's way. "Duty calls"

And that was that. Neil was free of all responsibility for the rest of the day.

"Hey... are you okay?" Renee asked when they were alone.

Neil nodded and went back inside. "I'm fine"

. … . … . … . … . … . … . . … . … . … . … . … .

Neil was restless.

The fundraising had ended hours ago and Neil and the rest of the team had spent several more hours after that making sure the youth centre was spotless for the next day. And still, Neil felt restless.

He was pacing his room back and forth as he tried to dispel unwanted images from his head, taking a huge gulp of air every time he came close to the open window. But what he'd always considered the biggest bedroom he'd ever slept in was now small and suffocating. The walls felt like they were closing in on him and no amount of cool midnight air coming in through the window was stopping him from feeling like a box would drop in on him at any time.

He needed out.

After they'd defeated the monster, Red had gone back to his silent and distant vigil, letting Neil know he was there but retreating into itself enough that the redhead couldn't count on the Fox to dispel his anxiety. And Neil wouldn't want to bother the Fox now anyway. He needed to be able to calm himself down on his own, so what he did was turn back to his default setting and decide to go on a run.

He wasted no time changing since he was still wearing his day clothes and merely grabbed a hoodie on his way out the room. Matt was nowhere to be seen, so either he was in Dan's room or already asleep in his own.

He passed the others' apartmens on his way to the stairwell but hesitated before going down.

Just a quick run, he thought to himself. I will come back.

Still, he waited. He had been steadily breaking each and every one of the rules his mother had ever taught him but that didn't mean he didn't feel the ocasional need to run and disappear again forever, specially when things seemed to be getting more than complicated. It was basic instinct by now.

Neil was getting too invested. He didn't know how else to put it. He was getting invested in the youth centre and the Foxhole Force. He was getting invested in his coworkers and his Fox. If he ran now, he would lose it all.

But the thing was, if he set foot outside the centre right now, he would run, because the images the mirrors had reflected back at him were playing around in his mind in a loop. Him murdering his teammates and being everything his father had taught him how to be.

Yes, if he went outside he knew he wouldn't be coming back.

So in a split second decision, he went up instead of down because he still needed some fresh air and no walls at all and opened the access door to the roof.

The night was pleasantly cool, and silent. The stars shone above him bright and unbothered. Neil filled his lungs and let out his breath slowly, repeating the process two more times until he didn't feel like crawling out of his own skin.

Then, "This is my roof"

The unexpected voice startled him out of his thoughts. He whirled around to see Andrew standing in the threshold, an unimpressed look on his face before he walked forward around Neil and headed towards the ledge.

Recovering from the sudden appearance, Neil breathed deep one more time and followed. "Technically, it's Coach's roof"

Neil stopped following when Andrew got dangerously close to the edge of the building and just stood a few steps back looking down into the city. The view was impressive and suddenly Neil could understand Andrew waking up at the butt crack of dawn to see the sunrise from up here.

The click of a lighter had him looking at Andrew, who was lighting up a cigarette and was already staring up at Neil, having sat down with his legs dangling over the edge. The blond held up the cigarette in offering.

Neil huffed. "Power Rangers that smoke. Shouldn't that be against some moral code or something?"

Andrew shrugged. "I'm not a Power Ranger"

"Well, I am. Allegedly"

"You're not one right now" Andrew insisted, lifting the cigarette higher and showing an incredible amount of patience while Neil hesitated.

Eventually, the redhead stepped closer and took the cigarette, taking the offer as permission to sit down as well though he refrained from leaving his legs airborne. Andrew lit up another one for himself and smoked at least half his cigarette in silence before Neil even took the first drag.

It had been quite a while since he'd indulged in the acrid pull of smoke filling his nostrils more than his lungs, but two minutes inhaling the scent had him already calmer than he'd been all night, if not a little nostalgic. The cigarette smell reminded him of his mother like nothing else did and, unfortunately, his mother reminded him of all the reasons he had for either staying or leaving Palmetto. If anything, smoking felt like a double edged sword running clean through him right now, Andrew's presence the only thing tipping the scale towards staying long enough for Neil to eventually finish his cigarette without any more anxiety begging him to leave.

"Something went wrong in the field" Andrew stated after a while, a shrug the only thing he got in response. "I'm asking"

The blond lit up again but Neil shook his head at the offering.

"I know... I just don't know how to answer"

"Try truthfully"

When time dragged on without a reply, Andrew flickered the ash from his cigarette on Neil's lap. "Pity isn't a good look on you"

Was that what this was? Pity? Did Neil pity himself for not being able to control his anxiety on his own? For not finding the courage to leave but feeling crossed about staying? Did Neil pity his abilities as a Ranger and a team leader? Did Neil pity his past?

"I'm... I'm not sure—" I want to find my mother anymore.

"What"

Because Neil knew other people now and he'd gotten a taste of what having a life was like. He had a job and a routine and for the first time in a really long time he had a cause other than finding his mother or staying alive. Being locked inside that mirror box had reminded him of the life he'd led so far, and he wasn't sure he wanted to get back to it. Was it pity to want something better for yourself?

"Nothing" he eventually answered Andrew's question and brushed the ashes from his lap.

"You're full of shit today" which ripped a bitter laugh from him.

"As opposed to every other day?"

"As opposed to our deal" the blond replied matter of factly, taking a long drag from his cigarette and blowing the smoke directly into Neil's face. He probably thought he was being annoying, but Neil closed his eyes and inhaled the smoke, letting out a satisfied sigh.

When he opened his eyes, Andrew was glaring at him.

Neil shrugged again, feeling lighter than he'd felt all day. "I thought it was a truth game, not a truth deal. And I'm not sure it's even your turn"

"Keep up with the count"

"You're the one with the freak memory"

The blond didn't seem insulted but maybe slightly crossed, if the furrowing of his eyebrows was any indication. He took his eyes off Neil to stare down at the city and blew some more smoke into the air.

"I have an eidetic memory" he confessed and Neil hummed. That explained a lot. And after that little tidbit of information, he should have expected Andrew's next words. "Now tell me a truth"

Neil considered his answer carefully.

The blond already knew something had happened earlier while he'd been on the field, that much was obvious, but Neil wasn't about to confess to a panic attack in the middle of a mission due to some mirrors showing him everything he didn't want out of life. He also didn't feel like confessing to a bit of an existential crisis where he wasn't sure who he wanted to be anymore, because for the first time ever he wanted to be someone. And not just anyone, but Neil Josten, janitor by day and Power Ranger by night.

He didn't want to confess he felt guilty about Seth's death and incompetent as a leader. He didn't want to confess he wanted to be better for the team and for his Fox. All of these felt like too many raw truths to exchange for an eidetic memory.

Neil looked out towards the city as well and felt the answer hit him like a gush of cold wind on the face. Andrew had asked for a truth anyway, so...

"I'm going to ask the Black Ranger to join our team"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Andrew turning to stare at him with a typical blank expression on his face. Then the blond blew another wave of smoke into his face before stubbing his cigarette between them.

"Good luck with that"

Next episode: A fool's errand