Ace and his friends were sitting around, laughing and joking while Calvin worked on the engine of The Beast. He was sweating profusely, having pushed the car, along with Ace, his girlfriend Cherry, and both of his friends to the workshop before starting work on the engine. However, even although he ached all over and felt like he could nap for a week, to get even a look at the engine would be enough, but to actually work on it was a dream come true.

The engine really was a work of art. It was powerful enough to pull a freaking freight train and in the frame of an absolute classic vehicle that itself deserved to be placed on a pedestal for all to admire. Every part, every component of the engine had been custom picked and put together in a masterpiece of engineering that Calvin could only dream of being able to put together. While his parents were only too happy for him to tinker and work on Nitro, and his mom ran a small business from their garage at home doing repairs, they didn't have anything like the funds needed to put something like this together.

Mick came out of the class with a connector, handing it to Calvin.

"Here, this should work." Mick told him. "It should fit…"

"Come on Melvin, are you fixing it or making love to it?" Ace joked. His friends laughed and one of them fist-bumped Ace as Cherry just played on her phone, looking bored.

"Sorry Ace, I'm just making sure I do this engine justice." Calvin told him. Mick looked at him.

"Say Ace, he's doing you a favour." Mick reminded him.

"It's alright, I guess I'm not as quick as someone with Ace's ability." Calvin commented. Mick looked between them both and shrugged, before heading inside. Calvin got back to work, while Ace just sat, drumming on an oil drum lazily.

"I'm bored Ace." Cherry muttered. "I'm going to go find something fun to do."

"What, you can't have fun right here?" Ace asked her, putting his arm around her. She just brushed his arm off her.

"You know I don't like doing that kind of stuff in front of your friends." She muttered. "My friends are going to…"

"Come on babe, hang around, you're my girl." Ace told her.

"But Ace, I'm BORED!" She reiterated. "Maybe you and I can go somewhere? I'm sure Melvin…"

"Uh…it's Calvin actually." Calvin corrected her.

"Whatever!" She answered. "I'm sure he'll call you when the car is ready."

"Cherry, I don't want to go anywhere." He told her.

"Fine, then I'll see you around." She replied, turning to walk away. Ace grabbed her by the arm and held her.

"Tell you what, if you want to go so bad, go and get us some drinks." Ace told her. "I'll have a lime slushie."

As he released her, he slapped her on the backside. As she left, Calvin furrowed his brows.

"Ace, are you sure she likes being treated like that?" Ace asked him. Ace just smirked.

"Melvin my man, you treat them mean you keep them keen." Ace said, smacking his gum as he high-fived him. "Trust me, you want to get some real action from that girlfriend of yours, start treating her like shit."

"That doesn't seem like a great idea." Calvin answered. "For one thing Hayley would probably castrate me!"

"Dude, haven't you heard of the meninist movement?" One of the meatheads chuckled. "Real men are coming back!"

"Yeah, I like the way things are with Hayley." Calvin told him.

"Suit yourself." Ace replied with a shrug as he and his friends started to talk among themselves.

Sarah was fuming as she drove onwards on her leg of the relay race. Although the race was meant to be fun, although she didn't really care if she won, she was absolutely livid about the way the race had begun.

Shoespike had tripped her, she knew it, and she wanted nothing more than to get her hands on him and make him pay. She knew she shouldn't and she had already decided that defeating him in the race would be much more satisfying than all the ways she could batter him into submission.

The trip had put her way behind, and she had to work hard to try and catch up. She was still a significant way behind Shoespike as they approached the first hand-over. Shoespike handed off to Brody, who was bouncing on the spot, like he was psyching himself to take on the whole Warrior Dome single handed! As Shoespike handed off the baton, Brody took off like a shot. Sarah got to Preston, handing him the baton. The Blue Ranger looked at her, a look of concern crossing his face. He could see the mud and grass stains on her face and all down her front. There were still some pieces of grass in her hair.

"What happened to you?" He asked.

"I tripped!" Sarah said coldly, glaring at Shoespike.

"Are you alright?" Preston asked.

"I'll be better once you beat those guys!" Sarah yelled at him, shoving Preston off. "Go! GO!"

Preston looked confused, and a little scared given her mood, but he ran off, following on as quickly as he could. Sarah crossed her arms and went over to Shoespike, her jaw clenched as she walked right up to him.

"You recovered well." He taunted her. "Looks like you took a nasty spill at the start there."

"Really? That's what you're going with?" Sarah asked him. "What the hell was that?"

"Whoa, hey, hey, hey what is this?" Principal Hastings asked as she came over.

"This jerk tripped me!" She yelled as she pointed at Shoespike.

"She's lying! She probably stepped on her own shoelaces or something!" He protested.

"My trainers are VELCRO!" She responded. Principal Hastings just interjected between them.

"Now that is ENOUGH!" She told them. "Sarah, go for a walk and cool off!"

Sarah groaned and walked away, heading back towards the finish line while Principal Hastings turned around.

"As for you!" She found that Shoespike was gone. She scratched her head and looked around for him, finding no sign of him. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he sounds just like my calisthenics instructor."

Further along the track, Preston was running, trying furiously to catch up to Brody. He didn't know what had happened to Sarah at the beginning of the race, but looking at her, he could tell that she believed it was something to do with the stranger Brody and Levi had taken onto their team.

It wasn't like Sarah to make accusations without a good reason. Sarah was a kind-hearted and reasonable person. She could be quick-tempered, but she always looked for the best in people, and she always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. He had to admit from some of the stories she told him, she had a lot of reasons to be bitter. She had seen and heard some pretty wild things that would test anyone's trust between her family life, her time in Amber Beach and even her experiences in Summer Cove. Throughout it all though, she still always tried to think of others and put herself in their shoes. It was one of the things he admired most about her.

To hear her accuse, or at least imply that Shoespike had done something underhanded he was more than willing to believe her, and he was going to do what he could to achieve her goal of making him pay by defeating the others in the race. As he got closer to Brody, putting on an impressive pace to come from behind, he figured he could probably get the desired result just by explaining to Brody what had happened. The Rangers were bound to value one of their own over a stranger they had only met that day.

"Hey Brody!" Preston called out, trying to come up behind him. Brody threw back his arm, almost hitting Preston in the face. Preston thought this was odd, but assumed he had just startled him and came up beside him. "Hey, Brody, that guy you and Levi teamed with. I think he tripped Sarah!"

"He did?" Brody asked with a smirk on his face. "Was it anything like THIS!"

With that, he grabbed Preston and threw him into some nearby bushes. The Blue Ranger had to shake the cobwebs loose and disentangle himself from the bushes, getting back onto the track.

"What the hell?" He asked, before starting up again in pursuit of his friend, and some answers!

Back at the workshop, Calvin was working hard on the repair. As he had suspected, it wasn't a huge job.

"Alright, I think I found the problem." Calvin told him. "It was just a loose connection, it's simple enough to fix. I'm a little surprised you missed it actually."

"What makes you say I missed it?" Ace asked him defensively.

"Well…you built the engine didn't you?" Calvin asked him. "I didn't mean anything by it, it's easily enough done, I can't count the number of times I…"

"Fine, whatever, just fix it will you?" Ace responded. Calvin just gestured to the car.

"Actually it's done." Calvin told him. "But your oil level is a little low, we should really re-fill the oil tank. Would you mind helping me?"

Ace rolled his eyes as he got out of the car like Calvin had just asked him to do hard labour. The Yellow Ranger cleared the way into the engine and handed Ace a funnel. Ace let out a long whistle.

"Nice job, you're a real jack of all trades!" He said, looking to the engine. He started looking around for where to put the funnel, finding an opening. As he put it in, Calvin just laughed.

"You're such a joker Ace, that's not where it goes." He told him, opening up a cap. Ace pointed to him.

"Just checking!" He answered. Calvin got the can of oil.

"Alright, hold very still." He said, starting to pour oil into the funnel. As he was doing so, Cherry came back, carrying some slushies.

"Alright, I got your stupid slushies!" She stated. The distraction was enough to cause Ace to move the funnel just enough that Calvin poured some of the oil on his hand. Ace recoiled in disgust.

"Aw, watch it, I hate it when I get oil on my hands!" He whined as he looked to his hands like they were covered in toxic waste or acid instead of oil. Calvin looked to him completely baffled.

"Really?" He asked. "Then how did you build your engine by yourself?"

"Very carefully obviously!" He snapped at him. He pointed to one of the meatheads. "Get me the rag from the glove compartment!"

The meathead pulled out a rag, handing it to Ace. A piece of paper fell to the floor from it as Ace started to clean up his hands. Calvin bent down, picking up the paper. He couldn't help noticing the name on it.

"Hicks' Autoshop." Calvin read aloud. "This is a receipt. You paid someone to rebuild your engine?"

As Ace snatched the receipt from him, Calvin thought back across a few things that he hadn't really noticed before. Ace had asked him to do the repair, something that he should have been able to do himself easily if he had the expertise he said he did. He had been very evasive about the Nos system that he had installed, and hadn't told him how he fitted it. He had also put the funnel in the wrong place instead of into the oil tank when Calvin asked him to fill it up.

"You didn't do any of this did you?" Calvin asked him. "You just tell everyone you did so they think you're some kind of mechanical wizard. You're a fraud!"

"Yeah, and you're a dweeb!" Ace responded. "So what if I didn't do the work myself? Who cares? My only mistake was paying someone to do it when some idiot like you would do it for free!"

"I can't believe I was sucked in by you. I thought you were something special." Calvin snorted in disgust. "You have a nice car, but you are no Ace."

"So what are you going to do about it? Tell on me? Who do you think anyone is going to believe?" Ace asked him. "Everyone's seen that piece of crap you drive!"

"At least mine is honest!" Calvin responded.

"The point is, who is anyone going to believe, you or me?" Ace asked him as he snapped his fingers. Cherry gave him his slushie, at which he took a bit sip, before spitting it out in disgust. "Cherry, I asked you to do ONE THING! I asked for LIME!"

"They were out of lime so I got lemon!" She told him with a shrug.

"You IDIOT!" Ace screamed at her. "In what universe is lime ANYTHING like lemon?"

"Hey, you shouldn't talk to her like that!" Calvin yelled at him.

"This doesn't concern you!" Ace answered, grabbing Cherry by the wrist and twisting it.

"Ow, Ace you're hurting me!" She complained.

"In what UNIVERSE is lime the same as lemon?" He reiterated.

"They didn't have lime…"

"So you should have gone to the place on Bleeker…"

"That place is almost the opposite side of town!" She complained, pulling to get away. "Ace, you're hurting me!"

"Let her go Ace!" Calvin warned him.

"Or what?" Ace asked. Calvin could see the look on Cherry's face and could see she was in pain. The grip he had her in was incredibly painful, and if he moved the right way, he could break it. Calvin made his decision, grabbing Ace's hand and twisting it, forcing him to let Cherry go, before shoving him away into the shelving units.

"Thank you." Cherry said, running away and leaving Ace behind. Ace watched her go, before turning his gaze to Calvin. He snapped his fingers at which the two meatheads started to advance on the Yellow Ranger.

"You're going to regret that!" Ace told him as he balled up his fists.

"That's funny." Calvin responded. "I was about to say the same thing!"

Back at the race, Brody was nearing the third leg hand-over where Levi was gearing up ready to go. Hayley watched him preparing like he was getting ready for a war and just laughed.

"Lighten up Levi, it's only a fun run." Hayley told him.

"Oh, it'll be great fun!" Levi told her. "It'll be great fun when you're eating my dust!"

"Yeah, OK whatever." She chuckled. Mrs Finch was watching from a little way off, waiting on Mr Edwards, the gym teacher to show up with her baton.

"Oh come on Hayley, just because you know you're going to lose!" He commented. "The only people who don't want to compete are losers! There's no participation trophy!"

"Levi?" Mrs Finch asked. "I know you're new to this whole teaching thing, but that's not really a great lesson to teach one of your students."

"So I should teach her that everyone gets a trophy even if they don't win?" Levi asked. "Sorry, but the only place that anyone cares about is FIRST place! There are no participation trophies in life!"

"If you think that's all that matters, it sounds like the real participation trophy is your teaching qualification." She told him bad-temperedly. Levi just waved her off as Brody came into view, handing off the baton.

"Get going Levi, show these losers who's the man!" Brody told him. Levi ran off, leaving them behind. Mrs Finch just shook her head in disbelief.

"My God, he's gotten to one of you already." She responded. "It's like you're related or something."

"Here!" Mr Edwards, the gym teacher called to Mrs Finch as he handed her the baton. She ran off, leaving Hayley starting to get edgy. She was looking around for any sign of Preston, but she could only see a bush…a bush that seemed to be running right for her!

"Hayley, take it!" Preston said, handing her the baton. Hayley just looked to him.

"Preston?" She asked. "What happened to you?"

"Never mind, just go!" Preston told her, gesturing wildly after Levi. "Just go!"

As Hayley left, Preston turned to Brody, glaring at him angrily.

"What the hell was that?" Preston demanded of him. Brody just started to make crying noises and rubbed his eyes to mock him, before walking off to return to the finish line. Preston just threw up his hands before trudging back towards the finishing line himself.

Back at the Shop Class, Ace and his friends were quickly finding out that there was a lot more to Calvin than the easy-going tinkerer that people often overlooked. Calvin didn't really excel in anything other than Shop Class. He wasn't stupid, he did well in other subjects, but he was in no way exceling. He'd easily gain the interest of colleges, but he was a B grade student pretty much across the board. He wasn't on any sports teams, because sports didn't really interest him too much. He'd watch football on Thanksgiving and at the Superbowl but that was about the extent of his interest in sports. No, with the exception of mechanics, and tinkering with his truck, Calvin pretty much faded into the background. Which was why Ace and his friends would never for a moment have considered that he would mop the floor with them!

One of Ace's friends was already on the floor and out of the fight, struggling for breath, while Calvin took care of the second with a throw to the floor, finishing up by placing a hand on his forehead, driving the back of his head into the concrete floor, stunning him.

Ace got up, coming straight at Calvin, taking some wild swings which Calvin ducked easily. The Yellow Ranger hammered into his ribs with some hard punches, before flooring him with a huge uppercut. Ace looked up to him with a dazed expression from the floor.

"I don't know what went down between you and Monty, but between this and the way I saw you treat your girlfriend, I'm pretty sure you brought it all on yourself." Calvin told him. "The problem with being a bully is every once in a while, you pick the wrong victim. Welcome to karma!"

Ace and his friends peeled themselves off the floor, getting into The Beast.

"You shouldn't…"

"Get out of the way nimrod or I'll run you over!" Ace warned him. Calvin just stood aside and gestured out of the gate. Ace started up the engine and drove out of the yard. He didn't get far before smoke started billowing out and it was making some pretty unhealthy sounding noises.

"I tried to tell you!" Calvin shouted, with a huge smile on his face, taking satisfaction in Ace's misfortune. Mick came up to him.

"So…that's your cool friend who built his own car huh?" Mick asked him.

"Yeah, he's not my friend." Calvin told him.

"Yeah, I think the three on one brawl kind of tipped me off on that part." Mick replied.

"It also turns out he didn't build his own car, and he's not that cool…it turns out he's just a jerk who bullies people weaker than him and lies to make himself look good." Calvin said, sounding disappointed. Mick just sighed.

"Yeah, I got that impression when I found Cherry inside in tears." Mick told him. "She tried to tell me she slipped and hurt her wrist but it didn't take long for me to pick holes in that story."

"It turns out that Ace is just out for himself. He doesn't care about anyone else unless they have something he wants." Calvin responded. "Friendship is a two way street. If he's willing to treat his own girlfriend like that, his friends need to wake up pretty fast. Real friends are there for each other. I have a feeling Ace would have fed those to idiots to me if he thought he'd get away."

"Hmm…yes, I know that Calvin. The question is do you?" Mick asked him. Calvin just looked a little taken aback.

"What, are you kidding me? I'm nothing like Ace!" Calvin protested. "I would never…"

Mick held up the baton at which Calvin face-palmed.

"The race!" Calvin screamed. "I wasted so much time here it's bound to have started!"

"Well, you probably won't come in first and you might have to make it up to your friends." Mick told him. "But I'd say that they'd appreciate you making the effort to put in an appearance."

"You're right, I need to get out there." Calvin answered. "Thanks Mick!"

With that, he sprinted off. Mick headed back inside, closing up the gates behind him before Ace could think to come back and ask for help.

A/N: Well, there was a few issues getting to post lately, so I've got two chapters at once! Enjoy!