With her Rangers right behind her, Kendall debarked the PlesioZord and stepped onto Sledge's ship. She was morphed, but the Rangers weren't. However, they claimed to be feeling stronger, which was a good indication that their energems were on board.
Sadly, that meant there was a good chance Sledge was also on board. It was his weapon the energems were powering. Kendall doubted he would be on Earth without them.
"Ms. Morgan," she heard over the Dino Com and answered it quickly; hiding with the Rangers behind a wall so they weren't spotted by any aliens walking by. "I've been at the quarry half an hour. No sign of... anything."
"Keep trying to draw their attention," Kendall told the Prince and looked to the Rangers. "If they still don't show, keep watch over the city. Make sure no one else gets hurt."
The Prince gave a nod and then hung up. Kendall looked to the Rangers, and seeing they seemed to have more energy than they did on Earth, she felt better about letting them go off on their own.
"Please be safe," she begged them. Koda gave her a tight hug, while the others assured her they would do what they could with a promise. Kendall watched them take off and could only hope she would see them again.
She couldn't worry about them anymore. Now that they were gone she had one thought: rescue Cammy and Chase. Kendall had no idea where Sledge would keep his prisoners but figured it had to be somewhere on board the ship and somewhere easily accessible. He used them regularly to attack the Rangers, which meant it would be inconvenient if they weren't close by.
With her sabre in her hand, Kendall walked the halls, listening carefully for any sign of life. If she found herself face to face with some viviks she knew she could take them out. She had been able to do so before an energem had chosen her. As soon as she realized her mission for the energem put her at risk of fighting dangerous intergalactic aliens, Kendall had gotten herself some training. She didn't want to have to rely on a team to keep her safe. She didn't think there would ever be anyone she trusted enough.
Back then, she didn't think she would ever be so lucky. When Keeper first approached her, the thought of having friends, never mind a family was something she would laugh at. The family she was born into had abandoned her. Her father didn't care enough for her to stick around and her mother... Kendall couldn't even say she had done the best she could until she killed herself. Once her marriage was over, Kendall's mother had done nothing but drink. She had never intentionally done anything to hurt her daughter, but never tried to give her the best of anything.
The family she was placed in, Kendall couldn't bring herself to bond with. By the time she found loving parents, she had been too hurt. She was only trying to make it to the age where she could live by herself, hoping that with no one around her, she would never be hurt again. If she didn't let people in, it wouldn't hurt when they left her.
And if she left them first, she wouldn't be abandoned. It was why she had left the Fishers as soon as she graduated high school. She needed to be on her own. Only she could take care of herself.
However, those years were the loneliest. Kendall had a small apartment only for herself. She didn't socialize with her neighbours. They didn't even know her name. At work, she would lock herself in her office for most of the day. When she did have to come out, she would speak to her employees but keep her words to a minimum. They would know what she wanted them to do, how she wanted them to get it done, but nothing more.
Her employees thought she was a bitch. She had even heard Shelby said it several times to her co-workers before she bonded with the pink energem. It hurt Kendall to hear people think so poorly of her, but she couldn't blame them. She was a bitch. She didn't care about them.
Then, she found Koda. He had been a perfectly preserved caveman. So many scientists wanted him for their research. Kendall had been one of them. But when he was accidentally thawed and came to life, he was no longer research – not to Kendall at least. She had saved him from the scientists and taken him under her wing. Back then, Koda knew no English and everything about the modern world frightened him. Kendall too was scared. She had a prehistoric human to care for and she needed him to be able to trust her if he was to survive at all in this time.
Fortunately, Koda was a gentle giant. When it became clear to him that Kendall would not harm him, he grew attached to her. It was why she let him live in her lab. Not only did the caves resemble somewhat his home, but for the first few months Kendall couldn't leave Koda's side without him having some type of panic attack and trash whatever room he was in. Since she was working on tracking down the energems and she did spend most of her days in the lab, she kept him there.
As Koda adapted to the modern world, he began to feel lonely. There was less and less for him to discover to keep him busy. And the more he tried to be independent and the more he failed at doing so, the more he began to feel alone. Kendall watched him sit for hours in his caves, painting pictures of his family and staring longingly at all he had left of them.
She knew that loneliness and that pain. She knew how unbearable it was. Despite every part of her head telling her not to get too attached to the caveman, she reached out to him. Koda was her first friend. She became his family and him hers. Kendall promised she would always look out for him, and she would do everything to make this new world feel a little more like home to him. And as she did that, Koda became happy again. There were still times he missed home: and Kendall couldn't blame him. There was no way for him to go back. However, Koda grew stronger and adapted to this time far better than Kendall ever expected.
She had protected him. In return, he swore to protect her. Sometimes, it created a bigger mess than whatever had threatened her, especially in the lab. Kendall had times where she would accidentally shock or hurt herself and Koda would react violently towards whatever it was she was working in. Yet, he was always gentle with her. Kendall started to believe he would stick around. She didn't need to worry he would abandon her.
Then she met Chase and boy did he drive her crazy. He was unfocused and way too easy-going for someone with the power to protect the planet and quite possibly the universe. And despite her insistence he call her Ms. Morgan, he always refused. At first, Chase would spend more time flirting with girls than he would training and working combined. Kendall couldn't believe any energem in its right mind would choose him. But as she got to know him a little better, she saw he was more like her than she thought.
He cared for Koda. He had to, of course. Koda was his teammate. As such, they needed each other. However, it went beyond just Ranger loyalty. When Koda did freak out over something unfamiliar, Chase had a way of calming him down. It wasn't quite like how Kendall could do it – Chase and Koda didn't share that same bond. However, Chase would never laugh at his new friend's confusion over the simplest, harmless of things. He never mocked Koda for not knowing how to wear a hat, or for getting lost just walking across the street. He didn't even get mad when Koda accidentally tripped on his skateboard, and responded by violently tearing it apart. Chase simply assured him he would learn about these new things over time.
And he reached out to Koda, in a way Kendall didn't think was possible. Chase was new to the United States. He had come over after bonding with his energem, when something in his heart told him he was needed on the other side of the planet. As a result, there was a lot that Chase wasn't used to, that everyone else around him seemed completely comfortable with. If something about the new world bothered Koda, Chase would bring up a piece of American culture that he didn't understand. Quite often, it was something that also bothered Koda, and the two of them would laugh about how crazy their new home was.
However, there was something else about Chase that drew Kendall in. The more he talked to Koda about how unfamiliar this new country was to him, the more Kendall could see Chase too felt lonely. He had left his family on the other side of the planet, and video calls and emails weren't enough to keep his spirits up at times. In Amber Beach, Chase was alone, but he didn't want to be. He admitted one day that he didn't want to call Kendall by her last name because she was the closest thing to a friend he had on this side of the world, and friends didn't refer to each other as Ms. or Mr.
Kendall agreed, eventually. She had opted to have any Rangers she met call her by her last name to keep some distance between them. They had a dangerous job, and they were likely to come from different parts of the world. One way or another, they would leave her eventually. She didn't want her heart to break again.
But Chase was different. Always had been, and now Kendall knew he always would be.
Eventually, the rest of her current team joined. And the longer they stayed at the museum, the more they got to know her. As they got to know her, they began feeling fiercely protective. Never as much as Koda, and not quite as much as was Chase, but it more than enough. They protected her against her father, against anyone else they thought wanted to hurt her. They even protected her against the aliens, beyond just their regular duties. Kendall had a team watching her back. Then she realized they were her friends.
Then, they became family. They were the very thing she feared. At time still it scared her. However, she found herself enjoying it more and more.
She wouldn't lose them now.
A door opened before her and Kendall looked inside the room. It was Sledge's prison and hundreds, if not thousands of monsters were locked in cells. Kendall didn't feel any sympathy for them, but had to imagine how uncomfortable it must be to be trapped for all those years, maybe even millenniums. Keeper did mention Sledge being a bounty hunter when he had lost the energems. Some of these monsters could have been locked in cells since dinosaurs walked the Earth.
But Kendall didn't care for them. She wouldn't. She was only looking for two people.
"Chase! Cammy!" she cried, hoping her voice would be louder than the cries of the trapped aliens. She didn't hear Chase or Cammy calling back to her, but couldn't assume they weren't here. She walked in, taking extra care not to get too close to any of the cells. She didn't want any monsters to grab her.
"Come on. Come on," she begged, looking inside every cell, making sure she wouldn't miss her friends. The hallway that contained the cells was long, but Kendall walked the entire way. When she reached the end, she saw there was only one cell left, and it was marked danger. She couldn't see inside without getting closer.
"Chase! Cammy!" she called and suddenly heard movement from inside. Something rushed to the front of the cell, causing Kendall to jump back. If it was an alien, she didn't want to get caught.
"Kendall!" a little hand reached out. The hand was red, blistered and swollen, but Kendall recognized it. She rushed back, touching it gently.
"Cammy, is that you?"
"I want to go home," Cammy sobbed. Kendall nodded her head.
"That's what I'm here for. Is Chase with you?"
"Right here," his voice called and Kendall breathed a sigh of relief. She had found her friends, now she just needed to get them home.
"Are you okay?"
"Better once we're out of here," Chase responded. "Do you have a key?"
Kendall shook her head. She hadn't even thought about looking for a key. She glanced around the prison before realizing Sledge would be stupid to keep a key near any prisoner. They all looked different and all had different powers. One of them could be able to grab the key if it stayed close by.
"I'll have to find it," Kendall said and let go of Cammy's hand, causing the little girl to scream. Chase must have taken her because Kendall could hear him trying to calm her down. She hated to leave, but knew she had to do it. She turned around and then gulped.
Before her, Sledge stood, and he had his new blaster aimed right for her chest. Kendall dropped her sabre and put her hands up.
"Hand it over," Sledge demanded and she knew he meant her energem. But she shook her head.
"Let my friends go."
"There will be no bargaining," he told her. "This is my ship, and you, Ranger, are all alone. Hand over the energem, or your refusal will be the last thing you do."
The blaster powered up. It seemed the energems had recovered enough energy that Sledge could shoot her. If he did, not only would he kill her, but he would very likely destroy the cell behind her. Chase and Cammy would be dead too.
"If you want it so bad, just take it," Kendall said and suddenly started to run towards Sledge. The closer she got, the more he hesitated to fire. Anyone close to the blast point would be taken out along with the target. The closer Kendall got to him, the more likely he was to kill himself.
So he dropped his blaster and decided to take her out the same way he had done the others who challenged him. He would fight.
He had never lost a fight.