The Grid Battleforce base was a hive of activity. They were all well trained and drilled for just such an occasion. They didn't have long to act, and they knew it. Time was a factor, every second that they delayed was just more time for Evox to prepare for his inevitable incursion.

They were also somewhat out of their comfort zone. They had been fighting a defensive war for so long, repelling Evox's attacks that they were not ultimately prepared to be the ones to kick in his front door so to speak. They'd never been set up as an invasion force, but now that he had stolen an entire Morph-X tower, full of Morph-X, he had all the power he'd need for a devastating attack. Between that and the fact they had also taken Devon prisoner meant that they had little choice. They couldn't afford to wait on Evox dictating the next move. Now was the time for them to act.

"Higgins, I don't know what you call that but it is NOT electronics!" Joanne said as she interjected herself into place as she saw one of the other engineers working. They had a very desperate plan, one that even Nate wasn't willing to put figures on the success of. They were rebuilding the Cyber Gate. The same Cyber Gate that Evox had one tried to use to transfer himself to their world, into Steel's body to invade their world. Nate had said he might be able to recalibrate it to allow them to pass through the other way. Unfortunately, when Nate started to use indeterminate words like 'might' it didn't inspire a lot of confidence, but it was what they had.

"Joanne, he was doing just fine…"

"Those connections were loose!" She interrupted Commander Shaw. "If we want this to work…"

"Joanne…"

"I need to get this…"

"JOANNE!" Commander Shaw called out. Joanne just stopped what she was doing and looked towards her. The Commander had known Joanne long enough to know she would never intentionally speak out of turn to a superior officer. She gestured to the other engineer to return to work. "Joanne, we're all worried about him. We're all doing our best to ensure this works."

"Commander…"

"You've overseen the work of everyone in the engineering department for months. You've never rated any of them as anything less than exceptional because that is what you demand of them AND of yourself." Commander Shaw reminded her. "They're all more than capable."

Joanne just went to the engineer, but she didn't need to say anything. He just nodded and fist-bumped her to let her know he didn't take it personally. Commander Shaw just looked to Joanne.

"Listen, this is very raw for all of us." She told her. "If you think you need to…"

"No, Commander." She interrupted her one more time. She just took a deep breath. "I can help."

"Then go and do so." She responded. "Check on the Zords. Ensure they're ready in case they need to be deployed."

With that, Joanne left the area, making her way to the Zord bay. She looked over to where Nate was checking the software.

"Progress update." She asked him. He continued checking the data.

"The interdimensional co-ordinates appear to be the same as the last time it was activated." He told her.

"Unfortunately, we won't know for sure until we try it." Steel added, coming to his brother's side. "We might only get one shot at this, and I know I for one don't want to end up in the wrong dimension."

"Then keep me posted." Commander Shaw told them. She heard her communicator and looked to it, seeing it was from security. "Commander Shaw here, is there a problem?"

"Commander Shaw, there's an issue in the lobby." Cole, the gate security guard said in a slightly uneasy tone.

"Problem? What kind of problem?" He asked her.

"The…uh…the Mayor's here, and he is NOT happy!" Cole told her. "He said he wants to talk to you right now about his son…and he said if you don't, he's prepared to go to the press."

"Escort him to my office, I'll speak with him there." She told him. With that, she headed to the elevators, making her way towards her office.

In another part of the base, Zoey and Ravi were sitting with Roxy. Now that she had woken up, they had moved her to another area of the medical bay. While the stasis pods had been built to keep those inside healthy, after so long unconscious, everyone wanted to be extremely cautious. Roxy seemed to be more annoyed than anything else with all the fussing.

"Roxy, it's just a few tests." Ravi said soothingly.

"Yeah, it's not you that's having needles the size of ice-picks jammed into every available piece of flesh." She replied grumpily. "I've spent months in bed, the last thing I want is to spend any more time here."

"Roxy, we know, but they're just doing their jobs." Zoey replied as she stroked her shoulder. "You'll be right back to leaving our room a pigsty and driving me nuts with stale pop tarts in no time."

"Yeah, and there's no pressure to rush back either." Ravi told her, stroking her hair.

"All Rangers, report to the Commander's Office as soon as possible." An announcement came over the intercom. Zoey got up from her chair beside the bed.

"Don't go anywhere roomie, not until these guys say you can." Zoey told her. "I don't want to have to order them to strap you down."

She looked for a moment between Ravi, who was holding her hand gently, and Roxy, before heading out of the room quietly. She understood them taking a moment for themselves. As she went, Roxy just looked to Ravi.

"Ravi, are you…?"

"I'm fine." He assured her.

"But…I stabbed you." She reminded him. He just smiled.

"No, you didn't, she did." Ravi assured her. "And she isn't coming back."

"Ravi, I was connected to her. I saw and felt everything." She reminded him. "That thing…that thing is inside me somewhere…"

"No, it's not!" Ravi put down harshly. "Roxy, the avatars take the worst traits of a person and turn them all the way up. Blaze is a dick. He was cruel, he was malicious, he was devious, but he never tried to kill anybody, but I watched his avatar run his dad through with my own eyes."

"Ravi, that thing…before when you…when you kissed her…"

"I was hurt, and my suit had no power. I knew I'd never beat her in a real fight." Ravi explained. "She was obsessed in a way that made her careless. I knew if I made her think I wanted her the way she wanted me that she'd let me get close enough to…"

His words tailed off as he looked deeply into her eyes.

"There's only one Roxy for me." He told her.

"Ravi…I've always had kind of a fixation." She admitted. She just gulped as she tried to process her thoughts. "That 'chance' meeting in the park? I…kind of followed you there."

"You what?" He asked her.

"And I might have signed up for all this…" She said, gesturing around the room. "…because I heard you talking about Grid Battleforce at the karate class."

"You did?" He asked, looking a little stunned by this revelation. He had admittedly been blinkered to a lot of things in his time, thanks to his tunnel-visioned obsession with his career. He hadn't even realised that Zoey was Roxy's room mate until she rather embarrassingly let him know and he realised she'd been there when he and Roxy were together on a few occasions. She just nodded.

"That thing…"

"That thing is gone, it wasn't you it was a perversion of you." He assured her. "You are the most amazing person I've ever met. Maybe a few of the details of how we got together are becoming a little clearer, but we've got a whole lot of time to figure all that out."

"We do?" She asked. He just nodded.

"We do." He answered, before kissing her cheek, and then getting up, before heading out of the room.

Commander Shaw got to her office, finding Mayor Daniels pacing the room impatiently. He'd been granted clearance, but the rest of his entourage hadn't. Commander Shaw got there, and saw him coming towards her, clearly furious. For a moment she had to wonder if he was going to attack, but it came only in the form of a furious roar.

"MY SON?" He bellowed as she stepped into the room. She just steadied herself and looked to him.

"Mayor Daniels, I can tell you're upset…"

"Oh, I am beyond upset! Upset is what I am when my internet goes down or one of my backers threatens to pull out if I don't sign a zoning bill." He snapped at her. "I saw him! I saw him when that thing attacked him and his suit just…disappeared!"

"Mr Mayor…"

"Months! Months now he's been coming and going at all hours, coming home with bruises like he's been fighting…" Mayor Daniels ranted.

"Mr Daniels, your son is one of the finest young men I've ever worked with. He has been an exemplary Ranger, and a true hero." She told him.

"That thing took him!" Mayor Daniels snapped. "God only knows what they're doing to him! If anything happens to him…!"

"Rest assured, we are already working on getting him back." She told him. "I pride myself on never leaving a member of my team behind. "We're already working on getting the team through to the Cyber Dimension to bring Devon home."

"Believe me, if anything happens to him, then I will not rest until you are held to account." Mayor Daniels threatened her. "I don't care what happens to me in the process. This place, Grid Battleforce, all of it! I will bring reporters and lawyers and politicians into every corner of this place until…"

"Mayor Daniels, I understand how you feel." Commander Shaw told him as the Rangers arrived.

"I really don't think you do." Mayor Daniels responded. "Ever since my wife…Devon's all I have. You couldn't possibly understand what it feels like to know that your child is in danger."

Commander Shaw gestured to the Rangers, and then nodded.

"With respect, Mr Mayor, I do." She responded as they all removed their helmets, revealing their identities. "Since the first day, I've had to know that my son was taking that very risk."

She composed herself a little as the mayor tried to get his head around what he was seeing.

"With respect, that was at least one reason I didn't want their identities to be known." She told him. "All of them have families that would be going through exactly what you are now."

"Your son is the Blue Ranger?" He asked, shaking Ravi's hand. "And you…you're the laundry girl that made the devices to keep animals off the road…and you…you're the robot that tried to apply to run against me!"

"Hey, I'm half-human thank you very much!" Steel protested.

"Mr Mayor, based on our intel, Evox stole that Morph-X to transfer himself into a new body." Zoey explained. "With that, he can come back to this world. Devon was trying to stop him."

"And I was proud of him finally getting a job as a janitor." Mayor Daniels lamented, shaking his head in disbelief. "Why does my son always have to go from one extreme to the other. I'd have been happy with him cleaning toilets, instead he goes from unemployed to Red Ranger?"

"It's a lot to take in." Nate stated. Mayor Daniels just looked to them.

"What can I do to help?" He asked.

"Nothing." Commander Shaw told him. "Right now, Devon is in another dimension. We've built a device which should allow us to send the team through to rescue him and stop Evox for good."

"Then take me to it." Mayor Daniels insisted. The Rangers and Mayor Daniels all looked a little uneasy with him asking this. "Please, I know I can't go with you, but…at least let me get that close. I want to be there when you bring him back."

"It's against my better judgement, but I feel under the circumstances, I can't really deny you." Commander Shaw replied, looking to the team. "Come on, we haven't a moment to lose!"

In the Cyber Dimension, Blaze walked to the area where Devon was being held, shackled to a wall. He smirked as he saw him struggling against his bonds.

"It's quite useless, I doubt even your friend Ravi could shift those." He told him.

"Yeah, well, in case you hadn't noticed, giving up isn't really my thing." Devon answered.

"Yeah, and look where that's got you!" Blaze chuckled. "I mean, I keep beating you! Over and over and over! It's getting to the point where it's almost not even fun anymore!"

"Really?" Devon asked him. "Because from where I was standing, I had you that last time!"

"Says the guy chained to a wall." Blaze snorted. "You're ridiculous."

"I wasn't the one on my back de-morphed." Devon pointed out. "I wasn't the one that needed to point a blaster at an innocent bystander to save my own ass!"

"And the sun was in your eyes and your shoe lace was untied…" Blaze mocked him. Devon just pulled himself up to full height.

"If you were any kind of man you'd never have sunk to that level! You did it because you were scared, because you knew I was this close to finishing you once and for all!" Devon stated. "And no matter how much shit you talk, you'll always know that's the case."

"All I know is I WON and YOU DIDN'T!" Blaze roared as he grabbed a rock, throwing it at Devon, barely missing him. The Red Ranger just started laughing.

"Yeah, you sound like a real winner now." Devon taunted him. Blaze just strode up to him, summoning his sword.

"You know what? You might have got close." Blaze acknowledged, levelling the blade to Devon's neck. "But it doesn't matter, because you weren't prepared to push for the win. That's all that matters! And once Scrozzle and Meghan have Evox's body ready? Even that won't matter. Your whole pathetic world will crash and burn."

With that, Blaze strode away.

Back in the real world, the team were putting the final touches on the Cyber Gate. Nate punched in a few commands on the computer, at which it started to make ominous sounds and started sparking to life.

"Uh…I don't remember it sparking quite that much the last time." Ravi commented.

"We're reverse engineering unfamiliar technology and crossing unfamiliar dimensional barriers and I'm doing it pretty much with no real guarantee I've got the right co-ordinates." Nate reminded them. "Alright, as near as I can tell…this is…it!"

With that, he hit the last of the commands. The Cyber Gate shimmered and opened up in a deep, blue light. They could vaguely see something that looked like a landscape on the other side, but it wasn't terribly clear. Joanne strained to see.

"Did…did it work?" She asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Nate said, picking up a small device. "This is a homing beacon. It'll send a signal right back here once someone is on the other side. If we have the co-ordinates right, it'll let us know and the rest of the team can follow."

"There's a lot of 'ifs' and 'shoulds' in this plan aren't there?" Zoey said uneasily. Nate just nodded in agreement.

"I don't like it either." He assured her. "But this is as sure as we're going to get until someone goes through."

"We volunteer!" Betty called out, throwing up her hand. Ben just looked at her in horror.

"One of us should really do it." Zoey stated. "Nate, if it doesn't work, we're going to need you to pull them back and try again…I'll go."

"What? No!" Nate yelled.

"What about me?" Steel asked. "I mean, if anything happens to me, I can be rebuilt!"

"Steel, you can't! The circumstances that created you are entirely unique!" Nate reminded him. "Even if we built another body and infused it with human and insect DNA, it wouldn't be you!"

"Guys, I should go." Ravi stated. "I mean, I am kind of next on the chain of command."

"Oh, really?" Zoey asked. "Ravi, I don't think we ever established that, but even if you were…you just got Roxy back!"

"Look, we need to pick one of us to go through!" Nate stated. "One of us needs to…"

However, while they were arguing, none of them noticed Mayor Daniels had come out from behind the computer desk. Before anyone could stop him, he had snatched the beacon from Nate and was running towards the portal.

"Mayor Daniels DON'T!" Commander Shaw yelled, but it was too late. In a flash of light, he disappeared from sight. They all just stood, staring after him.

"You know, I might have wanted to run for mayor myself," Steel began, "but if he can just confirm a pro-robot rights bill? Screw it, I'm voting for him!"

Nate went to the computer, checking on the signal from the beacon.

"Nate, is he…?"

"It…it worked!" He screamed excitedly. "It worked! We now have the exact co-ordinates of the Cyber Dimension!"

"Great, then we know we can follow him." Ravi responded. "Come on team, let's bring them home!"