The cadets were assembled in the main gym of the Grid Battleforce building, which had been cleared out, except for some sparring mats on the floor ahead of the day's assessment. They had been told today would be a major test of their hand-to-hand abilities.

Ravi was standing in the front row as always. It didn't matter if it was school, the academy, even as far back as kindergarten he was always the kid that was front and centre of the class. He was eager to impress, to ensure that he was not missing anything his instructors could teach him for his whole life, but right now, but at the moment, his mind wasn't completely on the task at hand. All he could think of was the same thing that had been echoing in his mind since he had first read it, the thing that had meant he had only had at most two hours' sleep the whole night.

Regulation 34 C.

He hadn't yet had a chance to talk Roxy about it. He didn't know if she had read the handbook yet, if she was even aware. He'd gone through the whole thing cover to cover now almost a dozen times and he couldn't for the life of him notice anything else that was different between the Ranger handbook and the Grid Battleforce Code of Conduct other than Regulation 34C. It was possible she simply hadn't read it, or maybe if she had read it that she had just thrown the book aside. Compared to him, Roxy's room was a complete shambles, and her idea of tidying and organisation was more akin to throwing things in the air and letting gravity decide where they were "filed". Did she even know that if they were both chosen that they would be banned from seeing each other? Or did she know but simply ignored the rule? Frankly either was a possibility with her. Roxy's free spirit was one of the things he loved most about her, but that didn't change the fact that it was now right there in black and white. If they were Rangers, and they were in a relationship, they had a choice, end the relationship or resign.

He didn't know how to bring up the subject with her, how to talk to her about it. He was still trying to figure out how he felt about it as much as anything else. It seemed like a ridiculous rule, one that was there for a legitimate reason but that wasn't necessary. As much as he loved her, he couldn't imagine anything coming between him and his duty, and he imagined Roxy would be the same. Rangers had protection, they were highly trained and if the worst truly came to the worst, it wasn't as though they didn't know what they had signed up for. Unlike some of the teams of the past, the candidates had all signed up for this, meaning that every one of them had accepted from the moment they signed their contract that they could very well be placed in the situation where their life was the price of saving the world. He would love to plead the case, but he didn't know how much good it would do. At best, the military was not known for being particularly quick to change its ways and traditions. At worst, he would be confirming what a lot of people already believed about him. That he would use the fact his mother was overseeing the project to change the rules to suit himself.

He didn't even need to look at Roxy to know she was looking his way. He could feel it, and a deep guilt bubbled within him. It felt dishonest, cowardly that he hadn't yet been able to talk to her about the fact that they could well be put in a position that they had to choose between their relationship and the program. In some ways, and he was ashamed to admit this, he almost hoped one of them would be cut so that it would be a non-issue and save him having to have that conversation at all. They all snapped to attention and saluted as General Burke came striding in with his panel.

"At ease!" He ordered them, looking around. "As you may notice, there are now less of you than there were yesterday. All I will confirm as that they were cut for conduct unbecoming of a Ranger!"

There were some whispers as he said this. The news about the brawl at Riptide had already made its way around the cadets. For some, they were quite happy to see the field being narrowed further, and having some potentially strong competitors being removed from contention. For others, they were unsure if it was just the rumour mill, but either way, now they'd heard it directly. They had indeed been cut.

"Make no mistake, I will hold each and every one of you to account for your behaviour! I expect absolutely nothing short of the conduct of a hero at all times!" He told them. "This is not about special treatment or personal glory. No one will know your names, no one will know who you are! You will be heroes, but not for glory or fame, but because it is what you are! That does not mean to say you should take your anonymity to be a licence to behave as you please! You will be a representative of Grid Battleforce at all times and I expect you to behave like it, whether your face is covered or not. Now, without further ado, I will pass you across to Mr Scott for today's assessment."

Jason stepped forward, considering the cadets before him. Somewhere in there, were the future of the legacy he had taken up himself. He had always taken the responsibility of the power very seriously, but even as the leader of a team, he had always been in some ways a passenger. He was charged with making the best of the Rangers he had under his command, but choosing the Rangers themselves had always been Zordon's responsibility in his day. Now, he was in the role of being one of the ones to decide who would wield that power.

"Compassion, courage, honour, empathy, kindness. These are all the cornerstones of being a Ranger." Jason began his speech as he paced back and forward. "A Ranger is nothing without the values that make him want to use his power to fight for what's right. To defend those that are unable to defend themselves."

He stopped as he got to Blaze, and looked the kid up and down. He gave him a little smile and a nod. He'd seen him step up to break up the fight at the Riptide. Although it had been a few years since he'd competed at the top level, he also kept track of the tournament scene enough to know who Blaze was. World Champion was a title that Jason had lifted himself on one occasion after his retirement from the duties of a Ranger.

"However, as much as we wish it to be otherwise there is also another important thing a Ranger must be able to do and that is fight." Jason told them. "We would rather we could de-escalate a situation before it comes to that, but sadly you will always encounter those that will not resolve their differences without violence and you must be prepared to answer it in kind. I'm not going to lie, it can be brutal and it can be painful. The first time I faced a monster one-on-one, I was younger than many of you in this room. I've broken bones, I've bled, I've even endangered my life on more than one occasion, and as regrettable as it is, we must ask you to be prepared to do the same."

Jason then started to do a quick count of those in the room.

"There are twenty one of you left." He stated. "Blaze, I'd like you to step up first. You two, step up too."

Blaze and two other cadets stepped up onto the mat. Jason took off his jacket, putting it in a corner and stepped back up into the centre of the ring. He then brought his hands together.

"Full contact, begin!" He told them. The three cadets just blinked and stared at him.

"I'm sorry, what?" One of them asked.

"You think every fight is going to be fair? Is going to be one on one?" Jason asked him. "Now, begin!"

Blaze was the first one to realise Jason wasn't joking and by far the fastest off his mark. Even though there were two other cadets, it didn't take him long to bring them both down. Everyone knew that Blaze was the highest ranked in hand-to-hand, and he wasn't about to give the other two the chance to realise their best chance lay in ganging up on him. Jason looked to the other judges, who were busy scoring the bout. Jason just smiled.

"Nicely done Blaze." Jason complimented him, before pointing to Roxy and two other cadets as they all left the mat. "You three! Hope you don't mind getting a few bruises. You know the drill, last one standing. Begin!"

Over in the laundry, Zoey was trying to keep herself busy and keep her mind on the job in hand. She hated the laundry with a vengeance, but now that she had been cut from the Ranger program, for the time being at least, it was what she had and so she was going to do her best to be the best at it she possibly could. Commander Shaw had already promised her that she would be able to apply for new college courses in a couple of months, and in the meantime it did mean she had her room, board and her tuition being covered. It was nice, in some ways, to only have one task to concentrate on, but that didn't mean she wouldn't welcome getting another job on the base if the opportunity arose.

She had never had the luxury really of being able to sit back and just wait on opportunities coming to her, so she had always been a big believer that she could take the job no one else wanted and doing that well until a job she really wanted came up. It was a lot easier to wait on the right opportunity when you could pay your bills in the meantime, and she was going to make the best of things until she did get something better.

She was in a much better mood than she had been the previous day. Roxy, Ben and Betty were good friends, rallying around her and helping her through her disappointment. She had started to like the idea of being a Ranger, but if that wasn't on the cards, she was happy to find other ways to help a cause she believed in. She wasn't exactly terrible at science and in a few months she could see about taking on some kind of course that would see her being able to help out in the lab. She could only imagine how busy Nate was, not only revolutionising the energy industry, but also creating the Ranger technology. She imagined that it would be helpful to him to have a few more pairs of hands, even if all she ended up doing was some of the grunt work around the lab. She already had a good grasp of how to use a basic database, run an inventory and clean so maybe she could be a research assistant?

She felt a finger prod her shoulder and let out a huge shriek as she jumped backwards, crashing into someone and bowling them both onto the floor in a tangle of limbs. She looked to the side and saw a pair of glasses knocked slightly askew. Horrified, she quickly scrambled to disentangle herself and get up.

"Nate!" She yelled apologetically as she backed up nervously. Nate Silva was a name she'd heard over and over again over the years. A passionate environmentalist, she'd seen his name connected to numerous inventions that were designed to improve the quality of life on the planet. Habitats that made the climate more hospitable to bees to help encourage pollination, water filtration systems that could be installed for virtually no expense in some of the least hospitable regions on Earth, crops that could grow virtually anywhere that weren't bred to be incapable of seeding to feed some of the most poverty-stricken regions…Just like her, there was someone out there that believed in doing everything possible to save the planet, but his mind and his skills allowed him to do almost miraculous things that could change the world. She'd come to idolise him even before she had any idea what he looked like. She'd heard the name but it was only a short time ago she even realised who he was. She could have been knocked down with a feather when she realised her idol was around the same age she was. Now though…she'd just knocked the guy that was the human race's chance of survival flat on his ass. "I'm…I'm so sorry!"

"It's OK." He groaned, rubbing the back of his head, feeling incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing. He had been trying to get her attention, but she hadn't seemed to hear him, so he went right up behind her. He hadn't intended to startle her, but now, here they were. Once again his brain was firing about as quickly as a broken metronome around her.

"I…I just didn't hear you, because of the machines and…"

"Yeah, that's what I figured." Nate said as he started trying to get up. Zoey suddenly realised she hadn't even thought to help him up and rushed over, offering him a hand. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"No, its fine, I should pay more…" She started to say, grabbing him and hauling him up, before with a rather sickening crunch, their foreheads collided. She'd been so eager to help him up, to correct her mistake she'd pulled him right into herself. They were both dazed. "…OW! I'm sorry!"

"No…no…its fine, really it is." Nate said as he steadied himself and straightened out his glasses.

"So, what are you doing down here?" Zoey asked him.

"I was looking for you actually." Nate told her. "The city gave me the go-ahead for those subsonic invisible fences."

"You're kidding!" She gasped. "Nate, that's amazing!"

"Yup, and it's all thanks to you." Nate told her. "I was just wondering if you'd like to go and help me install them."

"You…you want me to help you?" She gulped. She'd already assaulted the poor guy twice in the space of as many minutes. She was a little sceptical as to whether anyone should trust her with the welfare of possibly the most valuable person on the planet. "Really?"

"Well, you were the one that came up with the idea and the original design concepts." Nate reminded her.

"Yeah, but you made them." Zoey said self-consciously.

"It's something I wouldn't have thought of if it wasn't for you." Nate told her. "So, think the laundry could spare you for a few hours?"

"I don't know, we're…"

"Oh, she can be spared!" Betty rushed out as she appeared, seemingly from nowhere, exploding from a pile of laundry nearby.

"Yeah, we can help out here." Ben said as he sort of erupted from a laundry cart. Zoey was somewhat curious how exactly they both got there in the first place, but she'd known Ben and Betty long enough to know that in some cases, it was probably best she didn't dwell too deeply on the matter. It was far from the most bizarre situation they'd managed to find themselves in during all the time Zoey had known them.

"Are you sure?" Zoey asked. "I thought you were in the garage…"

"Uh…yeah…it's probably best we don't spend too much time around Captain Mannford for a while." Betty stated.

"At least until he stops limping." Ben added. "Thank God for steel toe caps."

Zoey just shook her head. She figured it was best not to ask. She looked to Nate a little nervously.

"Are you really sure you want me?" She asked him. "There has to be a whole bunch of lab assistants you could ask…"

"No, I figure the person who helped come up with them should get the chance to go." Nate told her. "Unless…you would rather…?"

"NO!" She rushed out, a little more eagerly than she intended. She grabbed her jacket and looked to him, at which he led her away. Betty pulled out her cell phone and took a picture, before quickly crafting a text message.

"You think this is it?" Ben asked excitedly as Betty started scrolling through her contacts.

"I don't know." Betty replied. "But Roxy did say she wanted to know anything!"

Back in the gym, the cadets were resting up after a couple of rounds of gruelling matches. Jason had been putting them through the ringer as much as he could, testing their very limits. Three person matches, five person matches, teams, handicaps…it seemed like there was no end to his imagination or his sadism. No one was exactly sure which. Roxy was pinching her nose and holding her head down, with a tissue underneath it as her phone bleeped. She opened it up, seeing the message from Betty.

"They're leaving the base to…go on some science type thing together?" She asked. "Dear God, they're really trying to kill me."

"I think they're just trying to test all of us." Ravi said as he arrived, clearly not knowing what she was talking about. He was limping around, trying to get some circulation back into his hamstring, which had taken some heavy kicks in his last bout.

"Are we positive this guy was a Ranger?" Roxy asked him.

"Our Ranger almanac said he was." Ravi answered.

"Well, are we sure he isn't still evil?" She asked him. "I mean, wasn't one of them evil at one time?"

"It was another one." Ravi assured her. She pulled the handkerchief away from her nose.

"How does it look?" She asked him. Ravi just looked to it and examined it carefully.

"It looks fine." He replied. Roxy, like everyone else, had been pummelled from one side of the room to the other in the various bouts. It killed Ravi to watch her being beaten, but he was impressed by how she handled herself. She didn't have the same military upbringing, but she was a gifted Martial Artist in her own right and was putting on a strong showing for herself. Ravi had no idea what the panel's scores were saying about them, but he was tallying up a kind of table in his own brain and he was quite confident that Roxy was pretty high on that table. He was proud of her, and loved seeing her doing well, but he was also ashamed to say that once or twice when she got hit with a big move, he kind of hoped she wouldn't get back up. He was also tempted himself to just lie down once or twice, but it wasn't in him not to give everything his all.

"Alright, break time is over, everyone on the mat." Jason declared. All the cadets groaned and started to make their way slowly to the mat. "Come on, do you think we got the benefit of groaning and whining when Astronema threw everything she had at us? Get your butts up here!"

They all lined up, at which Jason just smiled.

"I want to commend you all, you've all done very well to get to this point." Jason told them. "We've been assessing you every step of the way and we're all very impressed by what we've seen. We haven't just seen skill and strength, but a lot of guts too. However, there is one last test for today, and I'd like to introduce you to your opponents."

He panned his hands across the whole group. Ravi just gulped.

"You're…you're kidding, right?" He asked.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Jason asked him. "We've been compiling a table of all of your scores today, and the bottom six are being cut. For those six, this is your last chance to make the cut. For the rest of you…let's just call it a test of intestinal fortitude. Begin."

With that, he stepped off the mat. The students started turning this way and that, looking for who was going to make the first move. Those that had lined up on the outsides as they lined up to attention were at an advantage, those in the middle…they knew that they were in a precarious position. There was a cry and the first kick was thrown, at which Jason just stepped back to the panel and watched the show.

"You really are sick sometimes, you know that?" Carter asked him. Jason just smirked.

"You don't know the half of it." Jason answered.

Out in the forest just at the edge of town, Zoey and Nate were hard at work, setting up the first of their devices. Zoey could hardly believe that someone had actually made one of her ideas into a reality. She did have some basic knowledge of science and technology, but nothing close to what it would take to create something like her invisible fences. Nate had borrowed one of the Grid Battleforce vehicles and loaded it up with the devices, bringing her out to set them up.

Like any city, Coral Harbour was getting bigger, and more and more people coming to the city meant more traffic, which also necessitated new roads. Mayor Daniels had been committed to environmental policies, but even he had to bow to pressure at times when traffic was simply at an unsustainable level, and sadly sometimes that meant roads were built perilously close to woodlands. This stretch of road had seen a lot of animals being caught up in traffic, something that Zoey really wanted to do something about, but the idea of sticking up fences created its own problems. They were expensive, the building work would disturb natural habitats, and it was questionable how effective they'd be with certain species being well-known for their ability to make a mockery of fences. In the end, the idea of something that would simply discourage animals from venturing too close seemed like a much better idea.

Nate was up a ladder, fixing one of the devices to a tree by means of a brace he had made so that he wouldn't have to drive screws or nails directly into the tree. Although those would cause minimal harm, he was still always trying to find ways to disturb it as little as possible, something that Zoey greatly admired.

"So, these things run on Morph-X?" She asked him.

"Affirmative." He clarified, checking the mounting he was putting together. "Only a few millilitres of Morph-X should be able to power these for a couple of centuries."

"Centuries? Wow!" Zoey remarked.

"Could you hand me the small Phillips head screwdriver?" Nate asked her.

"Oh, sure." Zoey said, going to the tool kit. She suddenly became a little embarrassed. "Uh…is that the flat one or the cross one?"

Nate looked to her, and she could only imagine what he was thinking. She didn't know the difference? To her, she'd always called them cross and flat. She was more than capable of fixing things, she didn't have the same luxury of buying new whenever something broke others did and she and her mom had put together every piece of furniture at her home from flat packs. The technical terms were something she just never really bothered with, she knew what they did.

"The cross one." He told her. He didn't know why he found it charming that Zoey referred to the tools that way. He was so used to being around people that threw around technical jargon all day that it was a refreshing break from the norm to have someone say something a little different. She handed him the screwdriver, at which he started tightening everything up. "OK, so fill the emitter, remember, just a couple of millilitres, and then we should have to ready to do a preliminary test."

Using a dropper, Zoey put the small amount into the device before handing it up to Nate. He turned it on and set it in the cradle, before coming down from the ladder.

"So, is that it?" She asked him. He pulled out a device.

"There's a sound in the subsonic range." He confirmed. The devices emitted a sound that was so low that it was outside the range of human hearing, just one of the reasons it was chosen. "Now, let's just get back to a safe distance and watch and see how it works."

They both headed back to the truck. Nate was about to look out something for them to eat while they waited.

"Oh…Oh…Nate, look…look!" Zoey said excitedly as she started grabbing at his arm. Nate turned around to see her frantically pointing at a baby deer that had wandered into view. It was heading in the direction of the road. They both watched as it got to within a few feet, and then it suddenly stopped. It seemed to look around, almost curiously, like it was feeling uneasy about something though didn't really understand why.

He felt Zoey gripping his arm tightly and smiled a little, feeling her tight grip. She was beaming brightly as she watched the timid creature. After a few moments in the space between the two devices it suddenly turned tail and trotted off in the opposite direction. Zoey turned Nate towards herself and grabbed his shoulders, beginning to bounce in glee.

"Nate, did…did you see that?" She shrieked. "It works!"

"Well, a sample size of one is a little too small to make a conclusion but…it definitely appears so!" Nate declared proudly. Zoey grabbed him, pulling him in and hugging him tightly, jumping up and down with him.

"IT WORKS!" She shrieked, laughing in delight. It was so infectious that Nate just had to join in, but after a few moments, something in Zoey's brain just suddenly kicked in. What was she doing? She was still jubilant over seeing that her idea worked, but this was one of the greatest minds of their time and she was reacting like a child. She backed off a little and tried to compose herself.

"So…um…" She stammered as she swept some hair behind her ear and tried to just pretend that she hadn't just done that, while simultaneously hoping that Nate wouldn't think she was a complete child with a healthy dose of hoping the Earth would just open up and swallow her whole. "We…should probably set the rest of these up."

"Yeah." Nate finally managed to say, somewhat in a daze, wishing that Zoey hadn't let him go. "Yeah, that would…be what to do."

With that, they each grabbed a couple of the devices and some tools, before getting to work.

Back at Grid Battleforce, the battle royal was descending more into a carnival of carnage as the cadets vied for the all-important places on the next stage of judging.

"Alright, you're out!" Jason called as one of the cadets started rolling on the mat, clutching at his ribs. There had been some impressive shows of tactics at first. Some of the cadets realised they were likely not at the top of the table and were seeking to team up to take down some of the stronger contenders, or at very least weaken them for future elimination. However, in the heat of the contest, any such alliances very quickly turned sour. When an opportunity came to eliminate someone from the contest, people were only too quick to take that chance, even if they had been working together only moments before.

It was working out well for Blaze. He knew that as the World Karate Champion and consistently highest graded in hand to hand, he had the largest bullseye on his back in this game. Still, it suited him down to the ground when temporary alliances crumbled and people instead gambled that reducing the number of opponents was more important than taking any particular opponent out…or that the heat of the moment simply made people forget their strategy on the subject.

People fell as time went on, and the medics at the side of the mat were pouncing on anyone that it became clear were unable to defend themselves any longer. Before long, they were down to the last half-dozen candidates.

Roxy flipped one of her opponents over her shoulder, before locking in a painful arm lock. The other cadet was quick to tap out before she could tear out his shoulder. Even those that were still competing could tell that it was better to lose one battle now and try to increase their score in another assessment than it was to risk an injury that would shelve them completely. Roxy felt someone back into her and spun around, raising a fist, only to see Ravi turning to her, also with his fist at the ready.

They both stared at each other for a long moment. They'd both come so far, lasting out the gauntlet through so many of the other students. Roxy stared at Ravi for a moment, breathing deeply as she tried to regain some focus on what was going on around her. For this exercise they were opponents, but ultimately she wanted to be on the team with Ravi. She wanted to be with him, and couldn't imagine bringing herself to hurt him in any way. Looking at Ravi's eyes, she could only imagine that he was feeling much the same.

They were interrupted as Blaze darted between them, leaping into the air and hitting a split-kick that knocked them both down, stunning them. He looked between the two, trying to decide which one to go for. Ravi was the one who had higher scores than him in pretty much every other area, so he ended up going straight after him. Not allowing him the opportunity to regroup, he grabbed one of Ravi's arms, leaving him wide open for a shot to the ribs that drove all the air out of him. He followed up with a kick to the face that felt like it ripped his jaw clean off. Ravi hit the floor and was barely able to move, finding himself being rolled off the mat by one of the medics.

He was disappointed he hadn't made it all the way, but as he was getting checked over by the medic, he could see another cadet coming off the mats. It was now down to only Blaze and Roxy for the overall winner. Roxy looked a little wobbly on her feet, while Blaze still seemed to have that confidence about him that he always did. Cadets started cheering them both on as they started trying to feel out what each other had left.

They exchanged some quick attacks, but as exhaustion became a factor, Roxy ended up going for a somewhat desperate gambit, moving in for a takedown, hoping for a submission. She managed to get his arm and was twisting, trying to force him down. Blaze was on one knee, but knew his brace wouldn't last forever. He grabbed her hair, yanking her head back and forcing her to let go. As soon as she did, he grabbed her nose, which he had seen her taking a shot to earlier and pulling at it hard. Her eyes watered up, and she was unable to see, giving him all the time he needed. Skipping backwards to give himself the room for a wind up, he threw a spinning back kick, knocking her straight to the floor. Roxy, lay there for a moment, looking like she was going to try and get back up, but then her arms gave out under her and she flopped back to the mat. She was done.

"Nicely done Blaze!" Jason congratulated him as he held up his hand. "Maybe you'd like to give an old champ a go some time."

"It'd be an honour sir." Blaze replied as he looked to Roxy, who was starting to get attended to. He could see Ravi kneeling by her side, checking that she wasn't seriously hurt. Carter called them all back to the mat, asking them to line up.

"Alright cadets, today's been a difficult one for all of you. I have to say everyone here showed incredible ability." Carter told them. "However, we've tabulated our results and we've decided on the bottom six."

"Ramierez!" Angela called out. "Eddison, Snipes, Wilson, Li and Forrester. Thank you for your efforts. You should all be very proud of yourselves, but I'm afraid this is as far as you go. You've all been cut."

"Now, despite what my colleague here would have you believe, we're not all complete sadists." Carter told them. "Tomorrow, you all have the day to rest before the next assessment. I suggest you all do that because after that…I have a feeling you'll need it."

"You're all dismissed." Commander Shaw told them. The cadets started to file out, while Ravi checked on Roxy.

"Are you alright?" He asked her. "That last shot…"

"Yeah, Blaze really should register that foot of his." She muttered. "It hits like a truck."

"Do you want me to…?"

"I'll be fine Ravi." She told him, looking around to make sure that they were now alone, before drawing in and kissing him. She parted from him, but she felt something was wrong. He didn't seem to be kissing her back. "Ravi?"

"What?" He asked her.

"Is everything alright?" She asked him. Unfortunately, everything wasn't alright. He could only look at her.

"Yeah, I'm…I'm fine." He told her. "It's just…I'm wondering if you're OK."

"Oh, I'll be fine." She told him, grunting as she got up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find as many bath salts as I can lay my hands on and I'm going to soak for a few hours!"

As she limped away, Ravi ran his hands over his face. He was proud of Roxy. She had richly deserved to get as far as she had, and he wasn't even sure if there wasn't a chance she would have won. Unfortunately though, now more than ever, it became clear to him that his hopes of the decision being made for them were fading fast. Roxy had cemented herself as being one of the strongest and most likely candidates to become a Ranger, which now meant the moment he was dreading was inevitable. He was going to have to tell her that soon, they'd need to make a life-changing choice.