Early one morning, Devon was in the park with his best friend Mike, sparring with him. It was quite a show for anyone that was passing by. Mike was not only a skilled Martial Artist, but also a highly acrobatic young man, with a heavy interest in gymnastics and free-running, which he blended into his own personal style. He had always wanted to fight like those heroes he saw in video games and movies, but his father had not been anywhere near so flamboyant and he found that most dojos were a lot more straightforward in their teachings, most seeing all the flips, rolls, cartwheels etc. as something that telegraphed rather than helped attacks. The fact was in practice, most Martial Arts were a far cry from what he saw on the screen.

It took a while, but he did find a way to not only make his flair for the dramatic and fancy into an effective style, but actually found that at times he could make it an advantage. As much as the theatrics could telegraph where an opponent was going, it also threw off a lot of people who generally only practiced against others who trained the same way.

It wasn't like they were in bad company either. Since the Rangers had shown up, anyone seeing a couple of people tumbling around, throwing kicks and punches at each other just presumed that they were fans. They'd seen others doing similar things on their way there, and while Devon's dad had strictly speaking told Devon he couldn't take lessons from Mike anymore, he didn't state specifically that they couldn't work out together.

Mike staggered back as he took a kick to the chest and just laughed.

"Good one man." He complimented his friend as they both stopped to catch their breath. "Water break?"

"Absolutely." Devon replied as they wandered off to the side to take a seat. Mike just looked to him as he took a drink.

"So, you're really not going to talk about it are you?" He asked.

"Talk about what?" Devon asked.

"The fact you're the Red Ranger." Mike said matter-of-factly, causing Devon to splutter water all over the place.

"You think…you think I'm…?" Devon said nervously, forcing a laugh. While he hadn't told Mike, he somehow didn't think that would matter too much to Commander Shaw. It was still fresh in his mind the fact she had threatened to have him imprisoned in a Government black site for the rest of his days if he ever told anyone who he or the other Rangers were. "Dude, I think you should really lay off the comic books."

"Really, it's gonna be like that is it?" Mike asked him. "Come on man, you don't think I'd recognise my own moves?"

Devon wanted to answer, but he could see that no matter what he said, Mike wasn't going to buy it. The guy had seen every super hero movie, read every comic and played every video game imaginable. More than that, he was intimately familiar with his own style of fighting. The fact he only had one student really didn't leave a lot of suspects.

"Dude, I have precisely one student, I literally taught you all you know." Mike reminded him. Devon just rolled his eyes.

"Alright, but keep it down, will you?" He asked as Mike punched the air and congratulated himself on guessing who the Red Ranger was so quickly. "I'm being serious, my Commander is like…crazy serious about the 'secret' part of secret identity. As in, she's already threatened to have me disappear off the face of the Earth if I tell anyone."

"Dude, I know a real super hero, that's like a million times better than knowing freaking Spider-Man, Batman and Iron Man combined!" Mike told him as Devon looked around, desperately trying to see if anyone was listening. "Look, I promise, no one will hear anything from me. My family has its secrets that they want to stay well and truly under lock and key. But if you want to talk, then…feel like you can. I can be your Alfred."

"You want to be my butler?" Devon chuckled.

"Dude, Alfred was like…special forces, former spy, 007 kind of dude. He was totally badass!" Mike replied. Devon just sighed.

"Well, I guess it would be nice to have someone I can talk to." Devon replied, taking a long slurp from a bottle. He gestured to a large crowd gathering in another part of the park. "What's happening over there?"

"Oh, it's just Winchester having another 'look how rich I am' unveiling." Mike informed him. "I swear, the only times that dude is in the city is when there's cameras involved."

"Don't you work for him?" Devon reminded him. Mike just laughed.

"Who the hell doesn't in this town?" Mike replied. "I know that you're a kept kid, but those of us that work in this city know that if you don't work for one of the Big Six Families, you just don't have a job."

"Dude, I get enough of that get a job bullshit from my dad, now you're going to start on it?" Devon asked him. That was when he noticed something. He could see Blaze hanging around near some bushes just at the edge of the ceremony. He didn't want to think why he was there, but whatever it was it likely wasn't good. "Mike, check that out."

"Some dude skulking around?" Mike asked him. "He's probably just trying to see what's going on…"

"Mike, you might want to start getting people out of here." Devon told him.

"Because of some creepy dude in leather?" Mike asked.

"That's one of our bad guys!" Devon told him. "Trust me, bad shit is about to go down! Start getting people out of here and I'll try and keep him occupied."

"Devon…"

"Just do it, Alfred!" Devon yelled as he ran towards Blaze. Mike just threw his hands up.

"HOW?" He yelled, before running to the crowd, trying to imagine how he was going to disperse a crowd by himself.

Blaze was skulking around in the bushes, trying to get a good view of the ceremony. His dad was indeed unveiling something in the park, something that no doubt was another demonstration of his family's generosity.

"And although I will be sad to see the woodlands go, rest assured we at Winchester International are doing all we can to make sure our city is still one of the greenest and most beautiful in the country…nay, the world!" His dad called out as he prepared for the unveiling. "With that said, it is my privilege, nay, my pleasure, to donate these three exquisite trees to the city in honour of the latest super heroes."

Blaze just chuckled as he heard this. This was typical of his dad. Throw the scraps from his table while he kept his steak dinner and hope no one noticed. He had no doubt in his mind his dad probably already had the contract to make the new freeway. He had kind of an uneasy agreement of sorts with the other five main families in Coral Harbour. Any new construction work, he was the one that put in the lowest offer and they backed off, while they had their own interests. It wasn't strictly speaking illegal, but since they now effectively owned most of the business in the city, there really wasn't any way to say outright that they were all intentionally manipulating the fact that they controlled most of the businesses to ensure they didn't compete and kept the profits rolling in.

Blaze didn't give a damn about the woodlands, but it amused him to think of the fact his dad was going to slash and burn hundreds of trees that had likely been growing for thousands of years and giving back three new trees and getting applauded for it.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and was spun around, finding Devon standing right behind him, morphed and ready for action.

"Third time's the charm asshole!" He roared as he punched him in the face. The crowd all spun around to see the commotion. Blaze mopped his lip and smiled at him.

"I'll give you that one for free." Blaze said as he pulled out his key, sticking it into his morpher. In a flourish of light and glitching, he morphed and pulled into a guard. "The rest, you have to pay for. Think you can afford it?"

Devon threw himself at Blaze, while the crowd started to panic and run.

In another part of the city, Zoey was checking on the laundry while Jax was at her side. He was helping her keep track of the output to make sure the place was running as efficiently as it could. It was surprising how much laundry a military base could go through, but between standard uniforms, training gear and the fact that everyone on base had an allowance for how many personal items they could get laundered at Grid Battleforce's expense, there were literal tons of clothing coming through every single week.

"Jax, this is incredible, your database makes this so easy." Zoey said as she looked to the tablet, which had been linked into Jax's head.

"My brain has way more processing power than that thing you call a computer." Jax said with absolutely no modesty at all. "Like I said, I'm not just here to help pilot the Zord. I'm here to make your day easier in any way I can."

"Thanks…on both counts." Zoey told him. "I promise I'll spend more time in the simulator so you don't have to do quite so much of the work in the Zord."

"OK, I've got a bundle here, but I've no idea where it's going." Someone said, putting it down in front of Zoey. She looked through it, inspecting it.

"This is Betty's…and Ben's the only one that wears this size on the base." Zoey replied. "Take it to their dorm."

"Will do ma'am." He replied. Zoey just sighed.

"Would people stop calling me that?" She asked.

"You know, strictly speaking you are a sergeant now." Jax reminded her. She just groaned.

"Yes, but it just…really takes some getting used to." She told him, before checking her watch. "Alright Jax, would you mind finishing here? I have something I want to check on in the lab."

"You got it Zoey!" He answered as Zoey ran out. "Alright, come on, let's get this moving, this laundry isn't going to do itself! Let's see some butts moving people!"

Back in the park, Devon and Blaze were fighting as Mike tried to convince people to leave. It was a little difficult, there were a lot of press there to cover the unveiling and being the hottest thing in the city, an appearance by a Ranger was definitely far more interesting than a rich guy planting some trees.

"Dude, seriously, two super-powered beings are going at it hammer and tongs and you're not running?" Mike asked one cameraman as he filmed the encounter.

"Are you serious? This could get me an award!" He said excitedly.

"Are those posthumous?" Mike asked him incredulously. He looked up in time to see Devon and Blaze locking in a test of strength, struggling for position.

"You're getting better." Blaze complimented him.

"You don't know the half of it." Devon replied as he shifted his weight, flipping Blaze over his shoulder, onto the ground. Blaze rolled clear as Devon leapt into the air and brought his knee down, right where his head had been, and kipped back to his feet. Blaze summoned a blaster, aiming for Devon, but he tumbled and flipped clear, keeping him out of the way of the blasts. He pulled into a guard a little way off.

"And I thought the yellow one was the Jackrabbit." He stated as he put the blaster away. "Another time, maybe we can have a real fight!"

With that, he teleported away.

"Damn it!" Devon yelled as he teleported his sword back to the base. He was about to leave, when he turned to see the trees. They were barely more than saplings, and had been planted by hand. With the exception of a few news vans and Winchester's limo, there were no vehicles anywhere in the area. The nearest Morph-X tower was several blocks away.

"There's no Morph-X here." He commented as he looked around. "What the hell was Blaze doing here?"

Back at Grid Battleforce headquarters, Nate was in his lab, working on his latest upgrade for the Rangers when Zoey came running into the lab. She saw him as he was just finishing up. He smiled, thinking that it was amazing timing that one of the Rangers had come in just in time to see his latest update to their arsenal.

"Hey, Nate!" She called out excitedly. Since they had finished on the motor while they were in quarantine, she was hoping that it wouldn't take him long to get a working bike up and running. She'd hoped to get to talk to Mayor Daniels before the freeway build started, but she'd heard in the news that they were breaking ground later that day, meaning if she was going to act to save the woods, she needed to move quickly.

"Check it out!" He replied as he picked up one of their sabres. She watched as he started to fold it up. "I have re-coded your Beast X Sabres and your Beast X Blasters so they can interface!"

He clipped the sabre onto the end of the blaster, creating a larger, heavier looking blaster.

"Behold, the Beast-X cannon!" He declared proudly.

"Cool, I can't wait to try it out!" She said as she tried to hurry the conversation along. She really did like the look of the new weapon, anything that would make their job as Rangers easier had to be a good thing, but she was sure he would brief her and the others later. "Is my X-bike ready?"

Nate just snapped his fingers and directed her to another part of the lab, where he wheeled out a bike from behind one of the benches. Zoey could hardly believe it. It was like everything she'd hoped for and more…and Nate had seemingly built it in his spare time! She often wondered if Nate ever stopped working. She looked over the bike, inspecting it in awe.

"Your phenomenal idea, one Morph-X powered bike, built to your specifications." He told her. "The engine interface was pretty basic; the link up didn't take that long."

"And this is the same motor we worked on the other night?" Zoey asked him.

"Essentially yes." He told her. "I may have gotten in some parts that made it a little more efficient but basically, this is exactly the motor we made out of leftover scraps. All it needs is a little Morph-X."

He handed her a tube, and indicated to a part of the motor.

"I'll let you do the honours." He continued. "It is your idea after all."

"I just…put it in?" She asked. He nodded in response.

"The city will have to replace the Morph-X every few years or so, but given the rate of use, the costs should be negligible compared to the cost of a new road." He assured her. Zoey slid the tube into place, feeling it seal in place.

"What just happened? Did I do it right?" She asked in a little bit of a panic.

"It's a security feature, we don't want people to go stealing Morph-X." He assured her. "Only the city will have access to the keys to change the tubes."

"And its ready for me to use, right now?" She asked him.

"Ready to go!" He said proudly as he handed it over to her.

"And you're sure you can make a lot of them fast?" She asked him.

"The prototype is always the longest to make." He responded. "Now we have a template, we can put this into mass production pretty quickly."

"Great, maybe I can still make it before they break ground!" She rushed out as she pushed the bike out of the lab, almost running into Ben and Betty. Betty looked to the bike as Zoey left. She remembered seeing Nate and Zoey working on the motor while they were in quarantine. That they were still working together on this project was her devious plan working in a way she hadn't hoped for.

"Hey, does that run on Morph-X?" She asked. "I want one!"

"I'm a little busy right now, but I have the parts for you to make one of your own if you don't want to wait on mass production starting."

"Make one of our own eh?" Betty asked, looking intrigued by the thought. "Come on Ben, we've got work to do."

"Don't we already have work to do?" Ben asked her.

"Yeah, but we're working in the garage today and Lieutenant Stone doesn't care if we're late." She reminded him. "Come to think of it, last time we worked in the garage, he made that joke about how he wouldn't mind if we didn't come in at all remember?"

"I guess we could use some tools down there to build it." Ben said with a shrug. "I'm sure he'll let us know if he needs us."

Nate just handed them a box of parts.

"There, you should have everything you need in there, anything else, I'm sure Lieutenant Stone will provide."

As they left, Nate just shook his head with a little laugh and got back to work.

Elsewhere on the base, Devon was eating in the mess hall when Ravi came over, sitting down with him.

"How's the new job treating you?" Devon asked him. Since the Ranger Programme was secret, those involved had other jobs on the base and were simply seconded to it when needed so that they didn't have to list anyone as being employed as Rangers. In Ravi's case, being one of the consistently best scorers in his tests and being obsessed with working out anyway, he was assigned as a physical training officer.

"I get to work out as much as I like." Ravi said with a shrug. "I only have a few classes a day, then other than that I'm just hitting the gym."

"I'm sure you just love that." Devon chuckled.

"Devon, I signed up to serve, not work out all day and get paid for it." Ravi told him. "I mean, I like having more time, but seriously at times I wish I could go back to being security or something."

"I spent the morning in the park sparring with my friend Mike." Devon told him.

"OK, that sounds good." Ravi replied. "At least you're not wasting every day."

"Seriously, what is with everyone?" Devon asked. "Who made this rule saying everyone has to be in a job they hate from the day they turn 18?"

"Not everyone has a choice Devon." Ravi replied, putting a forkful of food into his mouth. "Not everyone is part of the silver spoon brigade."

"Talking about that…I ran into our buddy Blaze." Devon told him. Ravi just threw his hands out as he heard this.

"Dude, what the Hell?" He asked. "Why didn't you call us?"

"I thought I could handle it." Devon responded.

"That's not the point! We're meant to call in when we see one of the bad guys. You know what my mom would say?" Ravi asked him. Devon just shrugged.

"I don't need to. I can just listen to you lecture me instead." He answered with a grin. Ravi just rolled his eyes.

"So, what was he up to? I can't imagine there are too many big Morph-X supplies out there." Ravi quizzed him.

"I thought that too. There was barely any Morph-X out there and he didn't seem to go for any of it." Devon informed him. "But his dad was out there."

"Mr Winchester?" Ravi asked. Devon just nodded.

"He was kind of skulking around watching him." Devon informed him. "It seemed pretty weird."

"Have you reported this yet?" Ravi asked him. Devon just shrugged.

"I will once I finish this." He assured him. Ravi knew better than to remind him he should have reported it immediately. After lunch was probably about the best he was going to get. However, he was curious, if Blaze wasn't after Morph-X, what would he want in the park?

Zoey whizzed her way through the city out towards the woods on her new Morph-X bike. It handled exactly as she had hoped it would! Motorized bikes weren't exactly a new concept, they'd been in production for a long time, allowing the rider to augment their pedalling with a little boost from the motor, or even to just let it take over for some distances to make things easier for the rider, but it still had the same issues as any other motor, namely how it was powered. With Morph-X, that wasn't going to be a problem.

She saw a construction crew and some news crews and knew that she was cutting it fine. If they'd broken ground already, the odds where they would have moved on already. She didn't have long though, she looked around, hoping to find Mayor Daniels before he could do his announcement. Unfortunately, she could see her mom starting to pack up and Mayor Daniels directing a bulldozer.

"I'm too late!" She groaned, before she noticed something on the ground. A lizard had run into the path of the bulldozer. Without thinking, she threw down the Morph-X bike and ran, screaming for them to stop, waving her arms frantically, before stooping down and scooping up the lizard, barely having time to leap clear herself before the bulldozer saw her and hit the brakes.

"Zoey, what are you doing?" Muriel asked, looking incredibly worried. Given the fact her daughter had been within inches of ending up under the wheels of several tons of construction equipment, it wasn't really a surprise that she was worried. It was the first time her mom had seen her since she had joined Grid Battleforce, and instead of a nice lunch or maybe a movie, she was watching her daughter throwing herself under a bulldozer. "You could have been killed!"

"That was far too close! I am so sorry miss…!" Mayor Daniels started to say, before he saw Zoey getting up, covered in crass and muck. It was…not exactly how she wanted to present herself to tell him her idea to save the woods he was about to bulldoze. "You, I remember you from Grid Battleforce…your Zoey, right?"

"Uh, yeah, that's right." She said a little sheepishly. "I'm sorry for the fuss, but that bulldozer was about to squish this poor little lizard."

She could see the way everyone was looking at her. Great, now instead of presenting a serious idea, she was the girl that almost got herself crushed by a bulldozer to save a tiny reptile.

"Well, I'm just glad you're alright." Mayor Daniels said to her. "Now, I have to get on with…"

"Mr Mayor, what if you didn't need to build this road?" Zoey rushed out as he was walking away. He stopped in his tracks and turned back towards her. "Mr Mayor, this wood is an important eco system, home to hundreds of animals. Getting rid of it means they'll lose their homes."

"Zoey, I've written many green-belt initiatives in my time. It's one of the reasons I've been in the job so long, people like the fact I've kept so much of the green spaces in this city." He reminded her. "I didn't like proposing this road either, but traffic in the city is a nightmare. I just can't see any other way around it."

"Then let me show you!" She said, handing the lizard to her mom, before running to the bike, picking it up and bringing it over to him. "Let me introduce you to the Morph-X bike. It runs on clean, renewable Morph-X. You can pedal it for exercise or let the motor do most of the work. And, if I say so myself, it's a lot of fun to ride too. You put these around the city for people to borrow, pretty soon more people will leave their cars at home."

Mayor Daniels started to inspect the bike with interest. Seeing this, Muriel gestured to her cameraman to start rolling. Mayor Daniels considered the bike. Zoey could see him thinking as he looked over the bike.

"Just imagine how much money the city would save if they funded my bikes instead of building new roads." She suggested. She was buoyed when she saw the bright smile on his face.

"You have a good head for business Zoey." He told her. "I had considered a bike-sharing scheme, but the city is a big place to pedal everywhere. Maybe with these, people will consider leaving the car in the driveway if they're just going to work."

After mulling it over for a moment, he looked to her.

"I'll make you a deal. And since I'm sure Ms Reeves here is already rolling, I'm choosing to be very clear and choosing my words carefully. I'll fully fund your bikes on a trial basis…for one week."

This sounded a lot more daunting than Zoey first thought. One week wasn't exactly a lot of time to get the word out and sell people on the advantages of cycling instead of driving. Even in the age of instant information from the internet, things took time. One week was a hell of a short time frame to ask people to change the habit of a lifetime.

"If you can get these bikes set up and get people to start riding them, then you have my word we'll talk about a larger scale roll out." He told her, offering his hand. "If the numbers add up, I'll cancel this road."

Zoey knew that it was a big mountain to climb, but she also knew that it wasn't like she was in the position to negotiate much of a better deal. She took his hand, shaking it.

"Deal." She told him. As Mayor Daniels walked away, Zoey was wracking her brain for where to even begin. Nate told her they could mass produce quickly, but in a week? They'd need a lot of bikes so that people interested could start riding them straight away, and more so that people who took a bit longer could get hold of them if they wanted to give it a shot and see how it was. Not to mention advertising and publicity and…

"CUT!" Muriel called out, causing Zoey to jump. She had forgotten her mom was even there. Zoey saw the cameraman putting the camera down. "Now that is a news story!"

Well…that was a start at least. Her mom came over and swallowed her in a huge hug.

"I'm so proud of you!" She rushed out. "I know…I know you were disappointed to not get the job you wanted at Grid Battleforce, but this shows you're still working hard."

"Yeah, I'm doing that alright." Zoey answered.

"I'd love to catch up if you have…"

"I'm afraid I don't have much time right now. I really need to get back to the base." Zoey told her. "My mouth has written a pretty big ass check and if my friends and I are going to cash it…"

"I understand completely." Muriel assured her. "Maybe a celebration lunch when you get that contract?"

"Sure, that sounds like it'll be great!" Zoey answered. "Um…I really need to be going. I'll see you later!"

As Zoey got back on her bike and rode off, heading back to the base, Mayor Daniels was breaking the news to the road crew that they were being put on hiatus until further notice. Muriel just smiled as she saw them starting to secure their equipment.

"That's my girl." She said proudly.