Blaze and Scrozzle arrived back at the base, finding Roxy making herself well and truly at home. Scrozzle ran over as he saw her scrolling through some of his files.

"HEY! Those are MY files!" He screamed, only for her to kick him away as he tried to pull her off the computer.

"Now now, hasn't anyone told you it's not nice not to share when you have house guests?" She teased him, before looking to the files. "I was just getting myself acquainted with your inventory. It looks like you have quite an arsenal here."

"Rude!" Scrozzle protested as he dusted himself off.

"After nearly quarter of a century I'd have been a little disappointed if he didn't have at least something to show for it." Blaze commented.

"You know, for a weapons designer your computer security is kind of a joke." She told him as she looked through the files. "Apart from this…what exactly is Vargoyle?"

"Nothing YOU need to concern yourself with!" He replied, snatching the computer away from her. Roxy just shrugged and bounded over to the Morph-X excitedly.

"Well, it looks like this has been a productive trip." She commented as she looked to it all. "All of this should power all the tech we need for quite a while."

"It would have been more if someone had brought something better than a hand pump!" Blaze said, tossing the handpump away. "But it did give me a chance to put that Devon kid in his place again. So, it wasn't a complete loss."

"I only brought the handpump because we didn't exactly want to risk wasting the power for our reinforcements and our return trip if we happened to run into trouble now did we?" Scrozzle told him. "We still don't have enough to transfer something of Evox's power back to your dimension, but we should have plenty to power some of our other tech for quite a while, including one of my Giga Drones!"

"Giga Drones?" Blaze asked.

"They're giant robots, he has a whole bunch of them in his silo underground." Roxy replied in an off-hand manner as she leaned against a wall. Scrozzle just glared at her. "What? We're the only ones here, and it's not like the Rangers are going to have to wait too long to see one is it?"

"They're much more than just giant robots. They're state-of-the-art weapons systems that can be imprinted with the unique weaponry of Robotrons. I have hundreds of them just waiting to be activated! One of them could train all the Morph-X from one of the towers and give Evox more than enough power to crush anything in his path!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Blaze asked. "Let's fuel one of these things up."

Back at Grid Battleforce, Zoey started to stir and come to. She had no idea what had happened to her. She did vaguely remember the battle, and she did remember dodging some attacks, but shortly after that, everything went dark. She was no stranger to exhaustion, having worked full-time since she was 16 along with her education, it was rare that she was ever fully rested, but this was so much more. It was like someone had literally just turned a switch off inside her. Her eyes started to flutter open and she finally saw light again, as someone looking over her. She could see a set of concerned eyes behind glasses and smiled wearily. She mumbled something unintelligible, her body still not quite up to the task of forming anything resembling human language. She tried to get up, but her muscles just weren't responding at all just yet.

"Well, Commander, they don't appear to be in any danger now." Nate told her as he finished scanning Zoey. She could only lie there, listening to what was going on around her. Her head slumped to the side, where she saw Ravi strapped to a table. He appeared to have some kind of cooling packs strapped to him, and the straps were pulled tight. She furrowed her brows as something came to her. Was it Ravi who attacked her? She knew they'd been bickering before but nothing about him would have ever given her the idea that he would take it as far as to actually try and attack her. She was on his team, and if nothing else Ravi was all about being part of a team. Hell, if he could be on a team with Blaze, he could put up with just about anyone. "Ravi's medulla oblongata is showing significantly less activity than it was a while ago and his body temperature is starting to recede."

That answered one question, if something had affected Ravi's brain that made a lot more sense than him just suddenly deciding to shoot one of his own team mates. Over in the corner, Devon was hooked up to a monitor, while Ben and Betty checked him over.

"Devon's blood pressure and pulse rate are returning to normal." Ben informed them.

"Do you have any theories what caused these weaknesses?" Commander Shaw asked Nate.

"To be honest, I have no ideas that I'd be willing to put my reputation on just yet." Nate answered her. "I haven't yet fully analysed the data from the readings in the team's suits to be able to determine what happened to them."

"I dare Blaze to come back." Ravi said, trying to get up, but being held by his restraints. "Next time, I'll take him down."

"Not if I get to him first!" Zoey said, but even she knew that her words would probably carry a lot more credibility if she could actually pull herself off the bench. Right now, she could just about move her head off the pillow and that was about it. Devon just sighed.

"Guys, I get it, we barely scraped through and its embarrassing." Devon told them. "Hell, I got my ass handed to me by Blaze for a second straight time and you better believe I want nothing more than to even that score, but going all Leroy Jenkins is what got us into this in the first place."

"Leroy who?" Ravi asked. Everyone in the Command Centre just looked to him, putting him on the spot.

"Leroy Jenkins? Are you serious? The internet meme? The Warcraft guy that…?" He saw Ravi and Zoey staring blankly at him. Nate, Ben and Betty were about to chip in, but Commander Shaw just indicated to them to keep quiet. Devon just shook his head. "Look, it doesn't matter. What matters is, we rushed in before we knew what we were up against. We didn't know who those guys with Blaze were or what they could do. Now, when I'm playing a video game, sometimes its best to hang back a little bit until the bad guys come to you. You need to see what kind of weapons they have, what they can do, analyse their attack patterns. Once you've seen what they do, you can figure out how to approach them from there."

Commander Shaw just listened to him with interest. Both Ravi and Zoey just kind of looked to each other. A lot of what he was saying did make a certain amount of sense.

"The other thing we have to do is we have to stop competing." Devon told them. "Ben and Betty saved my ass because they worked together as a team. Ben got rid of that dog while Betty took out the Tronic. They didn't care who did what, they only cared about getting the job done."

"But we definitely need to fix this thing." Betty replied, putting down the zap-o-matic. "I really don't want to end up frying myself again."

"Look, I know I don't know about this training you guys did, but when I'm playing online with my friends, we act as a team. Whenever I get put on a team with guys who keep arguing I have to log out because I know we're going to get slaughtered." Devon told them. "Truthfully? I really don't care which one of you leads the team. I'll follow whoever Commander Shaw says is best for the job, but if you keep fighting the way you are? You're not going to be leading anything because we'll be getting scraped off the pavement. Blaze already got away with some Morph-X. We've got to pull it together, because if that's what he can bring to the table when he doesn't have a lot? What's he going to be packing now he has a few barrels of it?"

Commander Shaw just backed away, deciding that now wasn't the time to interject. She couldn't imagine there being anything she could say that would add anything to what Devon already had. Zoey and Ravi both looked to each other.

"He's right." Zoey said wearily.

"Sorry Devon." Ravi added. "Next time, we'll do better."

Devon went to Commander Shaw.

"Commander, we need to figure out what caused these weaknesses." He stated. "When I saw that dog, I just…I don't even know how to explain what happened. I just completely wigged out. I've never felt that way before in my life."

"Your adrenaline, heart rate, pulse rate and blood pressure all increased dramatically." Nate told him. "If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say it was a fear response."

"No, it's something else. I've been afraid before, but that was a whole different thing." Devon continued to explain. "I've never felt anything like that before. I'd like to go back to the site and have a look around. See if I can figure anything out."

"Go." She told him. As Devon left, she turned to Nate. "Continue to do whatever tests you need to. I want regular updates on their condition. Something tells me it won't be long before Blaze and his new friend are paying us another visit."

"I will Commander." Nate responded.

Devon took Cruise and headed back to the distribution centre, showing some ID to the police and security officers on duty to gain access. He parked up around the back where the trucks were parked, beginning to look around. By now there were some police, security and some other Grid Battleforce personnel looking around, no doubt trying to get to the bottom of what had happened.

The trucks were still there, as were most of the barrels. If there was anything that could be counted as a blessing, it was that they only managed to get away with a few barrels, but Devon knew enough to know how dangerous even a few barrels of Morph-X could be. It was such an efficient fuel source that he'd heard cars were being developed that ran on Morph-X that would only need to be refilled once every few years.

Blaze had been careful not to get too trigger-happy. Like any energy source, the danger was if that energy was released all at once, namely in the form of an explosion. Blaze didn't strike him as the kind of guy that was willing to blow himself to Kingdom Come for the sake of a win. It wasn't much of a victory if he didn't get to walk away from it. He was still frustrated by the fact Blaze had beaten him again. He understood that he was good, but that just made him want to beat him all the more. It wasn't as though he wasn't up to a challenge. He'd fought the final boss in Dark Souls no less than fifty times before he finally beat him. It might not be the most noble reason to want to beat Blaze, but he did know that sooner or later he'd be back and the Rangers would have to battle him and defeat him anyway. Nate had already explained the only way to get the real Blaze and Roxy back was to destroy their avatars. If it just so happened to mean settling his own score in the process, surely that was just a bonus, right?

He saw a patch of ground that had been disturbed, and looked to it. He remembered things had been going fine until that dog showed up.

"Why'd I freeze when that dog was digging?" He asked himself. He'd seen the dog, and he'd seen it digging, and then it turned towards him.

He felt himself getting a little dizzy even thinking about it. A lot of things were coming back to him. So much so, he could almost hear it. Getting louder and louder and…

He spun around to see a dog racing towards him, coming at him full-speed. It crossed the entire length of the parking bay in only a couple of seconds. Once more he saw the teeth flashing at him, and the barking that drilled right through him, kind of echoing through his whole body. It leapt up and down near him, and all he could do was pull away. His hands came up to defend himself as his heart pounded in his chest and his mouth started to go dry.

"GET BACK!" He screamed at it. "GET BACK!"

"Come away." He heard a half-hearted voice saying from a little way off. He looked up and saw a woman around his age squeezing through a gap in the fence. That had to be how the dog got into the complex in the first place. She walked towards the dog with no sense of urgency at all, clapping. "You don't need to worry, he's harmless! He wouldn't hurt a fly!"

Devon's blood boiled hearing her say this, and before he could stop himself, he was yelling.

"THAT'S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!" He yelled with an anger that was well beyond reason. She was at least twenty feet away from the dog, making absolutely no effort to come over or try to restrain it and simply telling him in an off-hand way that he was in no danger when it was jumping at him with those flesh-rending fangs bared? And…was she smiling? Was she laughing at him? Did she think it was funny? "THAT THING NEEDS TO BE ON A LEASH!"

"He was just saying hello!" She snorted as she patted her leg and called to the dog. It eventually left Devon alone and went back to its owner, at which Devon all but collapsed, needing to steady himself on a nearby wall. He had to try hard to catch his breath.

"Devon, are you alright?" Cruise asked him. "Your heart rate is extremely high."

"I'll…I'll be fine, just give me a second." Devon said as he tried to catch his breath. He could only think about the dog, once more, the teeth, the barking, all piercing straight through him. He could imagine it leaping at him, its fangs sinking through his flesh, dragging him down and…that was it, that was the common factor. But it didn't make sense to him. There'd been dogs in his neighbourhood growing up. While he was more of a cat person himself, he'd always seen people walking around with dogs. It had never bothered him before, so why was he now considering getting his sword or his blaster as soon as a dog started barking at him? What had changed in him now?

Just then, he heard what sounded a lot like lightning, but the skies were still clear. He looked up, seeing green energy in the sky. Before long, a giant robot appeared and dropped down, landing in the middle of the city. His communicator sounded.

"Devon, some kind of giant robot just landed in the city." She informed him.

"Yeah, I see it." Devon told her. "I'm not too far away."

"Zoey and Ravi aren't yet fit for battle. You'll have to use your Racer Zord to take him on." She told him.

"OK, but uh…I'm going to have to get somewhere quieter to morph." Devon said, looking around.

"Devon, it'll be fine." Commander Shaw assured him.

"Look, I know the Grid Battleforce staff know who we are, but there are a whole bunch of cops and other…"

"Devon, just do it!" She told him. Devon just nodded, before pulling out his Morph-X key. He jammed it into his morpher.

"Activate Beast Power!" He called out, morphing once more into the Red Ranger. It took a while for the pyrotechnics to subside, but once they had, he was keenly aware of the fact that everyone was staring his way. He just sighed. "Another problem for another time."

With that, he leapt onto Cruise and sped away to link up with his Racer Zord once it was deployed.

Back at Grid Battleforce, Commander Shaw was overseeing the new incursion.

"Nate, I've deployed the Racer Zord. Devon is taking on the robot as we speak." She told him. "Have you made any progress with the other Rangers?"

"I've done a diagnostic and found that the coding for the Ranger suits was partially corrupted." Nate informed her. "Because Evox had corrupted the first run, I didn't have time to check that all of his code was out of the system. It looks like some of the coding has been corrupted. It's not enough to give Evox access and corrupt the Rangers, but the system that gives them their animal DNA powers has been affected."

"Can you fix it?" She asked him.

"I'm not sure its something that can be fixed, its within the code itself which means…" Nate paused as he noticed something on the screen. "Commander, can you roll back the recording of the battle a moment?"

"What am I looking at Nate?" She asked him.

"Do you see the billboard on top of that apartment complex on Rosslyn Avenue?" He asked her.

"Yes, it's a dog food advert." She replied. "Why?"

"Because Devon showed an extreme fear reaction to the dog, he showed the same reaction again shortly before this battle." Nate informed her. "But here, he's looking straight at the billboard and absolutely nothing."

"I don't follow. How is that a bad thing?" She asked him.

"It's a phobia." Nate said as the pieces fell into place. "Just looking at a picture of a dog doesn't seem to set off his fight-or-flight reflex, he needs to feel like he's actually in danger. He needs something like a specific sight or a sound. There are some regions where farmers will use dogs to keep cheetahs out of their farming lands…I think Devon must have a phobia of dogs related to his corrupted cheetah DNA!"

He then turned to Zoey and Ravi.

"Jackrabbits have a metabolism that's far faster than that of humans. By comparison they need far more nutrition relative to their bodyweight to function." He said as he started looking around, finding his lunch box. He pulled out a carrot and stared at it for a moment. "It's not ideal but we're kind of desperate here. Zoey, eat this!"

Zoey bit into the carrot, and within moments she could feel her body starting to energise. Her brain was starting to function more rapidly too. There was a strange buzzing in her head as she devoured it.

"This…this is incredible, what's in this thing?" She asked.

"I'll…explain it later." Nate told her. "Ravi, you said you felt hot and then you got overly aggressive. It's related to your medulla oblongata, which regulates numerous physiological and emotional reactions in the body. When you use your gorilla strength you utilise that section of your brain more because its much more prominent in lower primates than it is in us."

"So, what do I do?" Ravi asked him.

"Just…try not to overheat." Nate told him as he started undoing Ravi's restraints. "I'll see if I can make some modifications to your suit that can help regulate your temperature, but for now if you start to overheat, you need to pull out and cool down if you can."

"I'll turn the A/C up full blast." Smash said as he helped Ravi out of the bench.

"Now, Devon needs you!" Nate told them. "Go go go!"