Disclaimer: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and all related logos are property of Saban Entertainment and/or Disney Entertainment. I do not own any of the characters, nor do I plan to make any money from this fic. If I do, they're more than welcome to all entitled royalties. In the meantime, please don't sue me.

A/N: This is a one shot deal, and there are no plans for a follow up or a sequel. All of these are short stories dealing with some of my favorite rangers and some of the most infamous situations throughout their respective series. Each of them is much too short to be a stand-alone fic, so I bunched all of them into one big story. Take a few minutes to leave a review; they're greatly appreciated.

This fic takes place some time during "Message in a bottle" from the Wild Force series.

Wild Force: I'm not a kid
Max sat on the edge of the dock; throwing rocks and watching them bounce across the water. The sun was beginning to set, and there was a slight chill in the air, but it didn't seem to bother him. The water was peaceful, soothing, and it gave him time to think.

From the moment he was recruited as a ranger, the others treated him like a kid. They under estimated his ability, second-guessed his decisions, and generally made fun of him. He had just as much power as the rest of them, just as many abilities, but none of the others utilized his potential. When Alyssa read the story of the wish in the bottle, he knew it was far-fetched, but he couldn't help but try. He found himself a bottle, wrote his wish on a sheet of paper and stuffed it inside, and tossed the bottle into the ocean.

Since then, he'd been sitting at the dock, waiting for something… anything. The sun had almost gone down completely, and there hadn't been a sign of anything. He was about to call it quits and head home, but before he could get up, he saw a rock skip across the water. It went much further than any of the rocks he threw, which prompted him to turn around.

There was a person standing behind him, but it was getting dark, so it was difficult to make out who it was.

"Nice throw," he said.

"Thanks, I've had a lot of practice," he picked up another rock, pitching it into the water. Both of them watched as it skipped along the water, eventually disappearing. "I use to come here all the time with my father."

"I'm Max," he said, standing up and extending his hand to him.

"Do you work at the marina or something?" the stranger asked, shaking his hand.

"Why do you ask?"

"Your vest. It says Surging Shark, I thought you might work with animals or something," he said.

Max nodded. "Yeah I do, in a way."

"Pretty late to be out here by yourself, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I just came out here to be by myself. I have a lot on my mind."

"Oh, I'm sorry I bothered you."

The stranger turned to walk away, but Max stopped him.

"Wait," he turned around. "You can stay, I'll go."

"You wanna tell me what the problem is? Maybe I can help."

"I doubt it," he paused. "Its just that the people I work with treat me like a kid because I'm the youngest. I just wish they would stop calling me a kid."

"I know the feeling. The people I use to work with use to treat me like a kid too. I was much younger than them, so they always felt like they had to baby me all the time."

"How'd you deal with it?"

"After a while, I earned their respect. It took me a while to realize that I was younger than them, so there were going to be things they were better at that I was. Eventually, we all came to an understanding."

"Where did you work?" Max asked.

"Lets just say we worked with cars," the stranger told him. "Just stick with them, it'll work out."

"You think so?"

"It always does." He paused. "Well, I'm outta here. My dad will be looking for me soon, I should head back."

"Thanks for the advice man," the stranger nodded. "Hey, I didn't catch your name."

The stranger picked up one more rock, throwing it into the water. "My name is Justin," he told him, walking away.