Sarah was in the yard behind the school, working out to make sure she was in top shape for when she faced off against Wrench. Thanks to his new tech, combined with a series of surprise attacks, he had now left the team decimated, and leaving Sarah facing the very real prospect of taking him on by herself.

Preston was still not at a hundred percent, while Levi, Calvin and Hayley had now joined Brody in the hospital. The school couldn't really cover the fact that the school had been attacked, but fortunately the identities of the Rangers hadn't been revealed. Wrench knew that as bold a move as hitting the Rangers so close to home was, if he got there when other students were around, Calvin and Hayley couldn't risk morphing, making taking them down startlingly easy. As far as the student body and the authorities were concerned, Calvin and Hayley had just been unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and Levi had been hurt in an ill-advised attempt to rescue some of his students. The only good thing to come out of all of this was that the school was now closed and would be at least until the beginning of the following week.

Sarah had known Wrench from before, from her time acting in an assistant role to the Amber Beach team, and back then, like them, she had treated him as something of a joke. He was always rather cowardly, had a habit of not taking on the Rangers directly if he could help it, and when times got tough, he had actually run out on Sledge. She could still remember that he was among the many of Sledge's other cohorts who were unaccounted for because frankly once he was out of the picture, most of them just cut and run. They had no real loyalty to Sledge; beyond being afraid of him so once the threat of him coming after them was gone, most of them just left Earth never to be heard from again. Now, she was starting to think that perhaps that had been a huge mistake.

From what little she could piece together from what Brody had told her, Wrench had gotten the job on the Warrior Dome a little before they arrived on Earth. He had applied for a job and been taken on as an "intern" or slave because it seemed like a much better prospect than staying with Sledge. Bizarrely she had Wrench to thank for becoming a Ranger in the first place, since he had been the one to facilitate Brody and Mick's escape. Of course he'd done that more out of the desire to get Mick out the way so there was a Chief Engineer position available for him, but from there, it looked like Wrench's career path had taken an interesting turn too. Now, he was very much on Cosmo's inner circle and with him having lost Ripcon already, Wrench was clearly coming closer and closer to the top of that pyramid.

Mick and Redbot watched her as she trained, making sure she didn't overdo things. With her being the only Ranger left standing, they couldn't afford to risk her harming herself in her preparations. They all knew that the others would join her if she didn't have a choice, but Sarah was taking it all very personally. Between Wrench being a part of her past, and the fact he had done so much harm to the team, she was taking it as her responsibility to end him for good.

Viera came out from the back, carrying a large chest. Mick looked to her as she brought it into view, putting it down.

"Here." She told them. "I gave the Lion Fire Armour Star and the Lion Ship Star to Sel during the trip. He kept them in here."

"Thanks Viera." Mick sighed. "We may just need all the help we can get."

Just then, they heard a phone ringing. Sarah pulled out her phone and answered it.

"Hello? Mom?" She asked. "Look, I know you've probably heard of the attack by now but I wasn't there, I'm...what do you mean what attack?"

She looked over to the others and suddenly looked incredibly worried.

"Mom, slow down, I can hardly hear...what happened...? What's that about dad?"

Mick and Redbot just looked on as Sarah had to steady herself against the shelves.

"Yeah...I'll...I'll be there right away. Yes, I'll stay safe...I'll get someone from the school to drop me off. Yes, I promise." She didn't so much hang up the phone as drop it on the ground. The others all quickly gathered around her.

"What is it?" Mick asked her. "What happened?"

"It's...it's my dad. Something happened to him." Sarah told them, struggling to hold it all together. "They think he's been kidnapped."

"Oh, Sarah." Mick said, grabbing her into a tight hug.

"They think it's some guy from Panorama, someone that wants to hurt him." Sarah said, looking completely ill. "I...I need to..."

"It's alright, we'll get you home." Mick told her. "I'll get a hold of Jennifer to give you a lift. Under the circumstances I doubt she'll mind."

"Um...I...I need to go and get changed." Sarah said, looking down at her training uniform. "I have to...um..."

"It's fine, really." Mick answered. "Jennifer should be ready to take you home soon."

She just nodded and headed off to get changed. Mick ran a hand through his hair.

"This really couldn't have come at a worse time." He commented.

"Is there anything we can do?" Viera asked him.

"Not without risking running across the path of the authorities." Mick told her. "I think that right now, the only thing we can do is leave them to do their jobs."

"What about Wrench?" Viera asked.

"Wrench would be Sarah's job." Mick replied sadly. "We just have to hope she's up to it."

In a gas station on the freeway miles outside of Summer Cove, Al pulled the Blue Lincoln into the forecourt and stopped up by a pump.

"What are you doing?" Jerry demanded angrily. "Is this it?"

"Do you really think I could hide anything here?" Al asked. "No, I just need to fill up."

"You're just stalling..."

"Look at the gauge yourself!" Al stated, pointing to it. "It's not my fault you forgot to fill the tank when you rented this thing!"

"Alright, but make it quick." Jerry told him. He grabbed Al as he was about to get out and handed him a credit card. "Don't try anything cute now, pay at the pump!"

Al had hoped that perhaps he could slip the teller a note or something, but he guessed it was kind of a vain hope that Jerry would let him too far out of his sight. He went to the pump and put the card in, picking up the hose. He heard a knock on the window.

"Premium!" Jerry warned him. "Don't want you making any mistakes like putting in diesel or anything."

Al just put the hose down and grabbed the right one, beginning to pump the gas. He looked around, wondering if there was some way he could alert someone to his plight without putting someone in too much danger. It was clear that Jerry hadn't been thinking right to begin with, and with the addition of a couple of hits of cocaine he had taken to give him the nerve to carry out his plan, he wasn't confident that Jerry wouldn't use the gun if he was pushed or startled. He didn't want to get anyone else involved if he could help it, but so far he was kind of short on the details of his own plan.

His first thought was to get Jerry as far away from Summer Cove and his family as he could. Al was, if nothing else, a numbers man at heart, and he already knew his odds of getting out of this unharmed were not the kind of odds he'd ever lay a bet on. If anything, he was thinking less about getting out of the situation himself and trying to think how best to sacrifice himself in a way that kept Ellie and Sarah safe. After all, it didn't really matter what happened to him if he could get Jerry into the custody of the authorities.

The pump was nearly finished, so he didn't have long left to think of something, but that was when he noticed the cameras. Like all service stations, this one had cameras. He didn't have any materials or time to make a sign or something, but he made sure he let one of the cameras get a good look at him. As the pump finished, he hung up the hose and went to check the details of the transaction. That was when a thought occurred to him. The message said not to remove the card, the machine seemed to be taking a while to process the transaction. Al grabbed the card and yanked it out, getting into the drivers' seat. He quickly started up the engine and drove off.

"What's the hurry?" Jerry asked.

"Forgive me for wanting to get this over with and get back to my family!" Al responded, looking at the mirror. He could see the cashier rushing out, no doubt alerted by someone driving off without paying. He could see him already pulling out a phone. He looked to Jerry trying to keep his attention away from the mirrors so he couldn't see that by now the cashier was likely calling the cops on the guy that just stole a tank of premium. "Believe me Jerry; I don't give a shit about the money anymore."

"Well you should give a shit about the speedometer." Jerry warned him. "If we get pulled over, it won't end well for you."

Al just nodded in understanding, before turning his attention back to the road.

Over at the Thompson House, Principal Hastings pulled up behind one of the two police cruisers that were stationed there to keep an eye on the family in case Jerry came back, letting Sarah out the back of the car. She was barely out of the car before Ellie was at the door. Sarah ran over to her mother, grabbing her in a tight hug for support.

"Mom, what happened?" Sarah asked.

"They don't know too much, all they know is that your dad was attacked here and then he left." Ellie told her uneasily. While Sarah did know a fair bit about what happened in Panorama, being young at the time her parents didn't feel that she was ready yet to hear a great deal of it. Sarah knew that her dad had done something bad and that it was his decision to turn in a lot of his friends that had been the only reason he was still with them and not in prison for a very long time. Trevor had insisted on staying as one of the officers on the scene so that there was a friendly face there.

"We have a suspect and we're looking for him." Trevor assured her.

"Who is it?" Sarah asked. "Who did this? Who's got my dad?"

Sarah had enough to deal with knowing that Wrench was coming to Summer Cove in the morning. She was determined that nothing was going to happen to her dad into the bargain. If she had a name, she could try and track him down; she had the power to take down a simple thug if she found him.

"Sarah, I understand, but we have people who are trained for this kind of thing." Trevor said to her in a soothing way. "I promise, we're doing everything we can to find your dad."

"Well it's not enough!" Sarah snapped at him. "You need to be out there, not here on our doorstep..."

"Sarah, please, try to calm down." Spike said to her. "Right now, your mom needs you. The best thing you can do is stay here and let us all do our jobs."

"But..."

"Take this not as coming from a cop, but from someone who has lived through something like this." Spike told her. "Losing your head now isn't going to help anyone. Your mom needs to know you're here with her safe and sound, and when we find your dad, he's going to need you too."

Sarah felt the frustration building in her. She wanted nothing more than to run off and find her dad herself, to bring him home safe and sound and make sure whoever had taken him would never even think of doing something like that again, but feeling her mom holding onto her, Sarah knew that they were right about one thing. Her mom was facing losing her husband, the last thing she needed was for Sarah to run off as well, especially since she didn't really have any idea where to even begin looking for whoever had taken her dad. Asking who had a reason to want to harm him was like asking for a copy of the Panorama phone book! Reluctantly, she accepted the helplessness of her situation and nodded, heading inside with her mom. She went with her, sitting with her on the couch as her mom held onto her hand.

"Is there anything I can do?" She asked. "Coffee? Tea?"

"Tell me everything's going to be alright?" Ellie asked her, leaning into her daughter and holding onto her tightly. Sarah just held her, wishing that she hadn't asked for the one thing Sarah couldn't give her.

Outside the Thompson House, Trevor and Spike were awaiting any word. They didn't really want to intrude on the family at this delicate time, but between wanting to make sure that there was someone there in case Al and Jerry came back and to relay any information that did come through, they really wanted to keep a presence at the house. Spike looked to Jerry.

"You don't need to stay." Spike told him.

"What was that Skullovitch?" He asked him.

"Well...I know Hayley was hurt in that attack earlier." Spike reminded him. "I'd understand if you wanted to go to the hospital."

"Sadly this is all just part of the job." Trevor answered sadly as he looked to his phone, finding no new messages from his wife. "I'll be there when I can, but right now my place is here."

Just then, Trevor's phone started ringing. He answered it, hoping that it was word on Hayley, but he heard the voice on the other end.

"Marx, I thought you'd want to know. There's been a break in the case." The Captain told him.

"You've found them?" Trevor asked.

"Not quite, but there's a report from a gas station heading out of the city of a blue Lincoln that drove off without paying for a tank of gas." He told him. "I'm sending you a still from the footage as we speak."

Trevor got the notification of the message and opened it up. He could see Al on the camera, almost like he was specifically staring right into it. Sure enough, it looked like he'd been roughed up a bit, and since they couldn't see Jerry, they had to assume he was in the car.

"That's him alright." Trevor told the Captain.

"We've got a registration number." The Captain told him. "We've put out a bolo for sightings. We've given the instruction to report their location but not to approach under any circumstances."

"That's probably for the best for now." Trevor answered. "Which direction were they heading?"

"They were heading north." The Captain told him. "Wait...I've just got a message...there's a sighting here, it says they were heading on the freeway up towards..."

"Panorama?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, that's what it looks like." The Captain answered.

"We're on our way." Trevor told him. "Tell local PD to contact me directly if there are any more sightings."

He put his phone away, smiling as he did so.

"Al, you are one smart son of a bitch." He commented.

"What?" Spike asked.

"Spike, the guy's a financial wizard." Trevor reminded him. "What do you think are the odds he'd screw up a simple credit card transaction?"

"You think...?"

"He knew the theft would be reported, and he made sure the camera got a good shot of him and the car!" Trevor replied, gesturing to the other car. "You two! Stick to the Thompson House like a limpet! If you leave for any reason, I'll make it my personal mission in life to make your lives a living hell!"

With that, he and Spike got into their car and drove off, heading for the freeway.

Up on the Warrior Dome, Wrench was in his quarters, preparing for the show. Half a dozen kudabots were on duty, polishing up his armour to make sure he looked his best for the cameras. He had to say, while he hadn't actually wanted to be one of the warriors on the show, the attention he was getting; the pampering and the makeover were all rather flattering!

"Careful, I just had that repaired!" He complained as one of them was rubbing his shoulder joint. "Stupid robot! I should turn you into a coffee maker!"

"You definitely seem to be enjoying the attention though." Cosmo said as he arrived, smiling. "Tell me; are you perfectly certain you don't want to be on this side of the camera more often?"

"No thank you!" Wrench assured him. "It's one and done for me! I believe in retiring while you're ahead."

"Just think, only one more Ranger to go." Cosmo said to him. "I just hope you don't finish the bout too quickly and deprive our audience a show."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that." Wrench said, picking up Levi's Rockstorm Blaster, holding it in both hands and bending it until it snapped in two. "With the Pink Ranger, I'm going to take my time and enjoy myself!"

A/N: Yes, I'm BACK! Morphicon was great! And while it was a blast, I do feel I have a bit of catching up to do! Hope you liked it!