Devon was in Commander Shaw's Command Centre early the next morning. He'd contacted everyone to ask them to assemble. It had been a slightly awkward conversation when she reminded him that they were meant to meet for a morning briefing each day anyway, but once she told him when to be there, he'd pleaded with her to change the time. He needed to show up at Sudsy's for his shift, and he wasn't going to get reamed out twice in as many days if he could help it.

He explained what had happened, told them about seeing the men heading towards Sudsy's, and the fact that afterwards, he had seen them all beaten into unconsciousness.

"Blaze did what?" Zoey asked as she tried to comprehend what Devon had told her. Devon just gestured wildly.

"I know, right? It's crazy!" Devon declared.

"What reason would he have to show up anywhere near there, never mind do something to help?" Ravi asked as he thought about what he had heard. "I mean, Blaze was never known for being a particularly helpful guy even before all this started."

"I think this all might be connected somehow to what I was telling you before." Devon said as he saw them looking at him. "Before I started my shift yesterday, I saw a couple of suits at the car wash. I didn't think much about it at the time but I overheard some of what they said. They worked for Blaze's dad. They were trying to buy Sudsy out, but he was having none of it."

"I don't follow." Commander Shaw said, looking at him quizzically. Devon just looked at her a little incredulously.

"Seriously? You don't?" Devon asked her. "Sudsy tells him where to stick his offer and that very night some guys look to redecorate his business with crowbars?"

"That's a very serious accusation to make!" Commander Shaw pointed out to him. "If you're going to make insinuations like that public, you'd better have something a lot stronger than some hearsay circumstantial evidence."

"Hearsay?" Devon called out. "I heard the conversation myself!"

"But there's no way to say that those guys had anything to do with Winchester for sure." Zoey told him. "Winchester has some pretty aggressive business practices. There was one store near my old neighbourhood that wouldn't sell to him when he was expanding one of his factories…he opened three stores right on the same street and charged half what he did. Mr Zubeskis had to sell up because he was going out of business."

"But that's a pretty far cry from sending in a mob." Ravi pointed out.

"Look, guys, I'm not talking about proving all this in a court, I'm just saying it's a coincidence we should really look into." Devon stated emphatically. "If it connects to Blaze's dad that's another time, he's showed up in his dad's business…"

"OK, we get it. You think this is all connected." Ravi conceded. "But even if that's the case, let's just say for argument's sake those guys were working for Blaze's dad…why would Blaze stop them?"

"It's a good question." Nate said with a shrug. "Blaze is a trust-fund baby. He's going to inherit everything. Why would he do anything that would stop his dad earning more money."

"I…I don't know." Devon stammered. "Not everything's about money."

"It is when your name's Winchester." Zoey sighed. Devon checked his watch.

"Shoot, I'm going to be late." He rushed out. "Look, I'm just saying…maybe you can look into it or something?"

"Devon, before you go…I'd like to speak to you." Commander Shaw said as the others left. Devon stayed behind, fidgeting nervously. He was already sure that even if he got a good run at traffic, he was likely to be late. Commander Shaw stood before him. "Devon, I need to speak to you about this job."

"Commander, I really need to…"

"Devon, your first duty is to be here, to be with the team." Commander Shaw reminded him.

"I'll be there if you call me!" Devon protested.

"I really hope so." Commander Shaw responded as she took a seat. "I'm trusting you Devon. You may go."

As Devon ran out of the base, she just sighed and shook her head. She looked to the technician sitting at the Zord station before her.

"Joanne, how are the morning diagnostics looking?" The technician pulled up some data screens.

"The Zords are all fully fuelled up." She answered. "Repairs are currently at 95 percent. They should be back to optimal within an hour."

"Keep me posted." Commander Shaw told her. "I'll be in my office. I have some things I need to think about."

Devon got to the car wash, finding Sudsy standing, looking out, checking his watch. He wasn't optimistic enough to believe that he was expecting a delivery. His suspicion was confirmed when Sudsy trudged towards him purposefully as he parked up Cruise and hung up his helmet and his jacket.

"Sudsy, look, I am REALLY sorry!" Devon said, trying to appease him. "I got caught up in some crazy traffic, and I hit like every red light…"

"Look, kid, you really need to pull it together." Sudsy told him. "I've got plenty of guys here and they all have their own stuff going on. Some of them have families, some of them have school, but when I expect you to start at nine, I mean nine. Not somewhere-around-about-nine but nine."

"I said I'm sorry…"

"Yeah, and that and cab fare will get Janet to her econ class in time." Sudsy said as one of his other workers sprinted out. Devon just pointed to her.

"You only open at seven." Devon commented as he saw her diving into a cab and leaving in a hurry. "She has a shift that's only two hours?"

"She makes it up on breaks and weekends. She works here because I can fit her shifts around her studies." Sudsy told him. "Look, I get it, I was young once, but you need to learn some responsibility. People rely on you. If you blow that off, well…then where does that leave everyone else?"

"Yeah, I get it." Devon sighed. Sudsy pointed to some vans.

"OK, the slaughterhouse delivery guys just arrived." Sudsy told him. "And you need to be thorough. Those vans stink to high heaven if you don't get it all."

Devon took off his communicator and pulled out his cell phone, putting them on a chair as he went over to start working. He opened the back of the first van and recoiled.

"Seriously?" He asked. "Just as well you told me these were slaughterhouse vans or I'd be calling the cops!"

Elsewhere in the city, Blaze appeared with Slicertron near a refinement plant. As soon as they arrived, they were seen and people started to panic. Blaze just had a self-satisfied smirk on his face as the security guards came out to see what the problem was.

"Good morning Gentlemen." Blaze greeted them. "I was wondering if we could bother you for a few hundred gallons of your finest refined Morph…"

One of them pulled a taser and pointed it at Blaze. He just cocked an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" He asked, flicking a thumb over his shoulder. "You DON'T see this thing standing behind me?"

The security guards all looked to each other, before running inside and starting to lock up the doors. A security screen was coming down as Blaze rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, before pointing to the entrance.

"Slicertron, do me a favour and make me another way in will you?" He asked, cracking his knuckles and starting to stretch out in anticipation of a fight. "This is going to be fun."

Over at Grid Battleforce headquarters, Commander Shaw was in her office, checking over something when she got an alert. She looked to her communicator.

"Commander Shaw." Joanne greeted her. "I've got a report from the refinement centre in grid reference bravo six seven. They say some kind of giant saw is slicing its way into their lobby."

"That centre refines several tons of Morph-X a day." She commented. "Contact the Rangers, tell them to get down there."

"I've already sent the message. Zoey and Ravi are on their way." Joanne told her. "I haven't been able to get an answer from Devon yet."

"Keep trying." Commander Shaw told her. With that, she settled back into her chair, turning around to look out of her window over the city.

Ravi and Zoey pulled up outside the refinement centre, finding the security screen sliced in nice, clean, straight lines creating a large entry way. They both ran inside, finding Blaze in the lobby, having some fun with some of the security guards. He wasn't even really trying all that hard, they were clearly no match for him, and if anything, he looked like he was just toying with them for his own amusement. He dumped the last of them on the floor as he saw them arriving.

"Just yellow and blue, huh?" He asked. "Aren't you a little understaffed today?"

"It's still more than enough to deal with you!" Ravi called out. Slicertron stepped into view, before firing a couple of saw blades their way. Ravi and Zoey had to dive for cover under the attack. One came so close that Zoey had to quickly put a hand on her head to make sure it had actually missed. She was relieved when she found no blood.

"That thing almost gave me a permanent centre parting." Zoey commented. "Where's Devon?"

"I'm sure he's on his way." Ravi told her. "Let's do this!"

They both strode out into the lobby, their Morph-X keys in their hands.

Back at the car wash, Devon was just finishing one of the slaughterhouse vans. They were a big job, the nature of the business meant they very quickly needed a lot of deep cleaning. He was putting back the hose when he heard his communicator bleeping. He checked it, seeing that he had several missed alerts.

"Oh shit!" He called out as he started to gather his stuff. He looked around frantically, seeing Sudsy inspecting some cars before collection. "Sorry Sudsy! I need to go!" Devon called out to him. Before Sudsy could even answer, Devon was pulling away, gunning his engine as he headed for the coordinates locked into Cruise's central processor. Sudsy could only shake his head in disbelief and head for the cleaning equipment. There was still work to be done, and someone had to do it.

Back at the site of the battle, Ravi and Zoey flew out of the refinement centre, tumbling away to a safe distance as Blaze and Slicertron followed them out. Ravi looked to a rather pathetic-looking piece of scrap in his hand that used to be a blaster.

"Nate is not going to be happy about this." He commented as he hit the command, teleporting it back to the base for repairs and exchanging it for his sabre. He ran for Blaze, who summoned his own sword, beginning to attack him. Zoey headed for the Slicertron, dodging its blades as she closed in.

"You think you're the only one that can slice and…" She started to say, but he dipped his head before she could land the blow. His head was covered in a couple of contra-rotating blades. Before she could pull the attack, her sword was seized, pulled in and in a shower of sparks, pieces of it were thrown in all directions. Zoey just stared at the hilt left in her hand.

"At least it wasn't my arm!" She commented. She leapt away as Slicertron came for her, landing dozens of feet away. Whatever she was going to do, it was pretty clear she needed a new strategy if she was going to keep all her limbs.

Ravi swung for Blaze wildly, powering up his strikes. Blaze could see the energy coming off him and knew he must have activated his power. He ducked several of his blows, moving so quickly he turned into a blur. He finally managed to catch Ravi with an upward strike, sending him flying. He started laughing as Ravi hit the ground, steam coming from his costume.

"A little hot under the collar?" Blaze taunted him. Ravi knew he was right. He needed to be careful, he was starting to overheat. He could already feel his rage starting to overtake him. The last thing they needed was for him to lose control again. "Step for a hint. Strength only matters if you can actually hit your target. Give me speed over power any day."

"Couldn't have said it better!" Devon called out. Blaze turned in time to see the red streak coming towards him. He took the hit, staggering a few paces, before confronting the Red Ranger. Slicertron came to his side to join him, but Blaze just held up a hand.

"You know what? I'm kind of bored now. There's much better targets out there." Blaze commented. "See you around."

With that, they disappeared. Devon de-morphed, turning towards Ravi and Zoey as they got back to the truck. Zoey was rummaging through her bag, looking for some snacks, while Ravi was sitting in the driver's seat, the a/c turned up full blast to cool down. Devon approached them.

"Guys, are you OK?" He asked them.

"Yeah, just about." Ravi answered. "You were cutting it pretty close back there."

"Devon, I don't think this is going to work. You're going to have to quit that job." Zoey said through a mouthful of food, gulping it down. "We got lucky this time."

"Guys, I'm sorry, but I can't." Devon told them regretfully.

"Why not? It's not like you wanted a job in the first place." Ravi reminded him.

"Besides, you have a job." Zoey added.

"Not as far as my dad knows." Devon pointed out as he sat on Cruise, his shoulders slumped. He had heard all the talks about responsibility. From his teachers, from his dad, from Commander Shaw…now he was hearing it from his friends. It wasn't that he didn't understand responsibility, he appreciated how much it impacted others when someone promised to do something and then didn't come through. It was more than just disappointment, sometimes there were also real consequences when someone didn't keep a promise. In this case, his friends nearly paid a very steep price for the fact Devon wasn't able to respond as quickly as he should have because he had made a promise to Sudsy. "You guys don't get it. When I was with my dad last night, we went for dinner and we just…we just talked. No screaming, no snide remarks, we just…talked. Do you know how long it's been since we did that? I've been nothing but a disappointment to my dad for a long time, but last night, he was just happy with me, and I don't want to lose that."

Zoey and Ravi just looked to each other. They knew that Devon's situation was very different from theirs. They both lived and worked on the base. The people they dealt with most directly already knew what their priorities were and understood why they needed to drop everything and leave. They wanted Devon to be happy, and they were pleased to hear that he and his dad were getting along.

Devon's phone rang, at which he answered it. He had to quickly pull the phone away from his ear because of the volume of the voice on the other end. Ravi and Zoey could hear it and they were a couple of feet away from him.

"Sudsy…yeah…how many?" He asked. "Yeah, I can stay late. I'm sorry…"

With that, he put his phone away. He stood and stared at them for a moment, like he was trying to think how best to say it, but he couldn't find the words. There were only so many ways that someone could say sorry. He instead got on Cruise and sped away, leaving Ravi and Zoey behind.

Commander Shaw was in her office, studying some papers when there was a knock on the door. She looked up to see Joanne standing in the doorway.

"Make yourself comfortable." Commander Shaw told her. Joanne came in and took a seat, lowering herself slowly into the chair with a pained expression on her face. "How did the battle go?"

"Blaze and the Robotron fled." Joanne told her, handing her a tablet to show her the footage. "They didn't get any Morph-X, so on analysis…"

"It's a success." Commander Shaw said as she looked at the footage. On the surface of it, as an analysis, it did sound like a successful deployment. More successful than any of their others. The Rangers had driven off Blaze and the Slicertron and didn't lose even a drop of Morph-X in the process. However, it wasn't enough to reduce a battle to a simple cost/benefit analysis. She wanted to know the full details. "When did Devon respond to the call?"

"Commander Shaw…"

"Joanne, when did he respond?" She asked.

"He answered the ninth call." Joanne informed her. Commander Shaw just handed her back the tablet.

"Thank you." She answered. "That will be all."

As Joanne started to get up, Commander Shaw saw the pained expression on her face.

"Joanne, is everything alright?" She asked.

"It's fine." Joanne assured her. "Believe me, it's been worse."

"If you need any help…"

"It's fine." Joanne assured her. "Believe me, Commander Shaw, you've done more for me than I could ever have hoped for."

"Just let me know if anything changes." Commander Shaw told her.

"I will." Joanne assured her, before heading back to her station. Commander Shaw turned back to her own research; some police reports that had been filed over the last couple of days. Although Grid Battleforce wasn't really a law enforcement agency, she did have some connections. She just continued to examine them closely, wondering how she was going to deal with Devon.

Back at the car wash, Devon was slogging his way through the backlog of cars. He'd agreed to stay late so that he could make up for the work he had missed, but it was still pretty clear that Sudsy and the others weren't happy. A lot of the others were giving him a wide berth, and it looked like Sudsy didn't have to do much to encourage it. He came over to him once he was finishing up with a taxi, sending it on its way. He was carrying coffee, which gave Devon a little hope that he was giving a peace offering.

"Thanks." Devon said as he took the coffee. "I promise, I'll finish all this up by tonight."

"Well, you better. Because you already cost me a couple of jobs." Sudsy told him. Devon just looked at him confused.

"I did?" Devon asked him.

"Yeah, because you ran out, I had to do the slaughterhouse vans." Sudsy told him. "Because I was doing that, I had to turn away a couple of drive-ins."

"I'm sorry…"

"You know, I keep hearing you say that, but it doesn't make it alright. Customers don't wait until its convenient for you to do the work, you're meant to be there for them." Sudsy told him flatly. "If you're gonna work here, you need to be here. Otherwise, you're gone."

"Alright, message received." Devon answered sheepishly. "Thanks for the coffee."

"You're welcome." Sudsy said as he walked away. Devon was about to head back to work when he saw Ravi and Zoey arriving.

"Need a hand?" Ravi asked with a smile as he hung up his jacket.

"It's OK guys, you don't need to help out." Devon assured them.

"We don't want you to lose your job." Zoey assured him. "We might not be happy about the way things went down earlier, but we can see how much this means to you and your dad."

"Besides, we're a team." Ravi added. "Many hands make light work, right?"

"We'll be done with this in no time." Zoey agreed as they put their communicators and phones on a chair with Devon's and grabbed some cleaning supplies.

"Thanks guys." Devon said gratefully. "I promise I'll make this up to you."

Over in the Cyber Dimension, Blaze and Slicertron were in Scrozzle's workshop. Blaze had been impressed by how well the Slicertron had performed, and he wanted to make the best of it. Scrozzle was working on an upgrade.

"Are you nearly finished?" Blaze asked him.

"You think fashioning diamond tipped saws is easy?" Scrozzle asked him. "Now the motors have been increased drastically in power. Now with this last blade and…there. Now you should be able to slice right into a Morph-X tower."

"Good." Blaze said with a smile. "I'm sick of small-time scores. We hit a tower; we'll be able to float a battle-ship in Morph-X."

"Presuming you get past security." Scrozzle pointed out. Blaze just sneered.

"Those jokers? Like that's a challenge." He replied arrogantly. "For what they get paid, no way they're risking their necks once they see him."

"And I think I might be able to help you get a little window of opportunity." Roxy said, causing them both to do a double-take. She hadn't been seen since her last fight against Zoey.

"So, you are still around." Blaze commented. She just smiled sweetly.

"Yes, I just like to think about things before I start swinging like a demented Go-Go dancer." She told him as she went to Scrozzle's computer. "I was just checking a live feed and look what I saw that was quite interesting."

"So, the Rangers are washing cars." Blaze answered with a shrug. "So?"

"Look over there." Roxy pointed out, zooming in. "Their communicators are unguarded."

She gestured to Slicertron.

"You take the overgrown can opener and find a Morph-X tower a few blocks away." She told him. "I'll make sure no one will be calling for help."