Ellie and Sarah arrived at the hospital, just as a team was arriving down the elevator from the helipad. They had been assured that Al was on his way by helicopter, being brought directly from Manalua. They were naturally expecting the worst, and seeing a stretcher being wheeled in with numerous bags attached to it really didn't help matters. Ellie was beside herself as she rushed towards the stretcher, and Sarah was trying hard to keep her from getting in the way.

"I'm going to have to ask you to stay back ma'am, this man is seriously injured." One of the paramedics told her. She didn't even register as she was trying to protest that Al came up beside her. He turned her towards him, at which the three of them took each other into a tight embrace, like they never wanted to let go and risk even being a few feet apart ever again. They were pushed gently to the side to allow the stretcher to pass. It was quite some time before any of them were able to speak again.

"I'm so glad you're here. I was so scared I'd never see you again." Al told them, kissing both his wife and his daughter in quick succession. "I'm sorry…"

"Thank God you're alright." Ellie screeched as she kissed him again and again, holding onto him like his life depended on it. Sarah held onto him too. A small flare of her power let her know that her dad hadn't suffered more than minor injuries. Likely from the scuffle when he was taken. She was relieved that he was alright. While she was certain that he was likely going to be taking it easy for a little while, and certainly not taking any major adventures for some time, he did appear to be healthy for the most part. She just looked down the hall.

"The stretcher, who's on the stretcher?" Sarah asked. "Is that Mr…"

"It's not Jerry, they managed to take him in. He's in a holding cell in Manalua awaiting transfer to a suitable facility for interrogation." Al told them.

"Then who is it?" Sarah asked.

"It's that kid Trevor's showing the ropes." Al told them. "He was trying to talk Trevor down when a Ranger showed up and then there was a shot and…he's been hit."

"Oh my God, is he…?"

"I don't know, they were working on him in the helicopter." Al told them.

"Remind me to give that kid the biggest hug I'm able to muster as soon as he's able." Ellie stated, seizing her husband again. A doctor came over, noticeably reluctant to interrupt the scene. He finally managed to rouse their attention with a gentle cough.

"Mr Thompson, we should really run a few checks." The doctor told him.

"I'm fine." Al told him. "You should concentrate on the kid who just got shot."

"Officer Skullovitch is in good hands." The doctor assured him. "We really just want to be sure you're alright."

"Can we go with you?" Ellie asked him.

"We really shouldn't…" He could see the look on Ellie's face, the one that said they would pretty much need a crowbar and a willing team of mules to get her to leave her husband's side right now. "If you stay to the side and let us work, one of you can be in the room with us. We just want to make sure we're thorough."

"It's alright mom." Sarah assured her. "I'll not be far."

"Alright." Al conceded, kissing Sarah on the forehead. "Where do you want us to go?"

"We have an available examination room right here." The doctor replied. "Just this way. I promise we won't keep you long, we'll get you checked in and then…"

"Checked in?" Al asked. "But I'm fine!"

"We'd really like to keep an eye on you to make sure." The doctor told him. "Please, I promise you that we'll get you a room where your family can be close by."

"Fine, whatever." Al told him. "Look, I know you can't give out information on patients without consent but…"

"I promise you I'll keep you informed of Mr Skullovitch's condition." The doctor told him.

"Thank you." Ellie answered. "Can you at least tell us when he's up to seeing visitors? We owe that young man so much."

"I'll make sure as soon as he's fit enough to receive visitors we'll let you know." The doctor answered. "Now, if you please."

"Of course." Al sighed. "The sooner we do this, the sooner I can have both my girls with me again."

"I promise I won't go far." Sarah assured him. "I'm not going anywhere."

With that, Al and Ellie were taken to an examination room, leaving Sarah in the hallway by herself. She went over to a chair in the waiting area, flopping down, on a chair to wait on any word on her dad or the man she owed for bringing him back to her.

In another part of the city, Marcus Tien was in his living room, pacing as he spoke on the phone rapidly. By now news of the kidnapping had hit all the local news stations and was being broadcast pretty much non-stop. His first instinct as soon as he had heard that Al was gone was to start making calls and calling in every favour he could think of in the hopes of finding him. Now that he knew that the perpetrator had been caught and Al had been found, he was going out of his way to try and help in any way he can.

"Yes, I know it's not…I just want to make sure this incident receives the attention it deserves!" Marcus said as he talked on the phone. "Yes, you heard me right, I want the officer that was shot to get the very best care. Whatever equipment you need, the best experts, consider this a blank check book. I want absolutely nothing left to chance. Also, I would like to think that the District Attorney's Office is going to pursue this to the fullest…alright…yes, thank you for taking my call. Give your regards to your wife for me."

As he hung up, he noticed Preston coming into the room. His son was hanging around at home, having been involved in some kind of accident. He still wasn't sure about the exact details, Preston had told him he was attempting some kind of new trick when a box collapsed or a platform fell over or…if he was honest he wasn't really listening. It wasn't as though Preston hadn't occasionally ended up with minor injuries in his pursuit of bigger and more spectacular tricks. As long as he wasn't trying anything that was likely to kill anyone or land anyone in the hospital, Marcus just kind of accepted some time ago that trying to tell him 'no' was only likely to lead to them being even further estranged. Preston had pretty good self-preservation instincts and tended to learn his lessons pretty quickly whenever he needed to see the school nurse.

"Dad, have you seen the news?" Preston asked. Preston wasn't exactly much of a news hound, but then a kidnapping was pretty huge news. Marcus wasn't exactly surprised that breaking bulletins would interrupt other programming. He put away his phone.

"I was going to call you, I promise you Preston." Marcus assured his son. "I've been on the phone to the hospital. Mr Thompson has been brought there, I'm perfectly certain Mrs Thompson and Sarah are already there."

"Can we…"

"Go and get your jacket." Mr Tien told him. "Like I said, I was just about to call you. The driver is bringing the car around."

"Thanks dad." Preston said as he grabbed a hoodie. Marcus put on his coat and guided his son towards the elevator. Hopefully by the time they got there, there would be some good news.

Trevor was in a side-room, pacing impatiently as he waited for word on his partner. Spike had been very brave throughout the whole ordeal, but somewhere on the helicopter ride from Manalua, he had passed out. Trevor still didn't really know whether it was the drugs that he was given for the pain or the blood loss, or whether he had just finally succumbed to the pain, but the only thing he knew was that they were working now to save his life.

Gunshot wounds were a fact of life in police work sadly. Trevor himself had been shot in the line of duty on three occasions in his career. He did have a little bit of experience with the wrong end of a gun and knew all too well how badly things could go. Spike had taken a hit in the stomach, which itself was already pretty bad news. It wasn't like there were many good places to get shot, but the stomach was something of a lottery that only really had bad, not so bad and catastrophic prizes. Even if the bullet missed the spine, there were a lot of really bad targets in there. The gallbladder, the spleen, the kidneys, the intestines…all of them were organs that housed fluids that were toxic to the human body outside of their respective organs. If the shock and blood loss of the original injury didn't finish someone off, it wasn't unknown for someone to be literally poisoned by their own body.

He was still covered in Spike's blood, having crouched over him, pressing his hands onto his stomach to keep as much of his blood from pumping out of him as humanly possible. Even then, given how much was left at the scene and all over Trevor's hands, shirt and pants it was pretty clear that Spike would need a transfusion. It was fortunate that there were already a number of members of the department, Trevor included, who were willing to volunteer. Trevor was fortunate enough to be O negative, the universal donor, and had been a regular donor to the hospital. He just needed to wait on the call.

His blood boiled as he thought back to incident. He had been covering Jerry with his weapon while Spike tried to talk him down. A part of him was questioning Spike's good sense when he put his own weapon away, but as a strong supporter of community policing, he had a lot of admiration for his decision and he was proud of the kid for trying. It wouldn't be the first time that Trevor had done something similar himself more than once. He was impressed with how good the kid was too. While he had been a little sceptical about him being so fresh out of the academy, even with his impressive scores, he had seen with his own eyes that Spike was a natural negotiator. His pitch, his tone, his body language, his instincts, all of them were spot on, things that he knew officers who had been in the field for years lacked. He had seen Spike reach Jerry and speak to him, getting him to realise the futility of his situation while not erasing hope and causing him to do something stupid. He was only inches, mere inches from having his hand on the gun. Another second or two and Spike would have had the gun and the whole thing would have ended with a beer and a bunch of cops giving the kid a big head talking him up. Then, the Red Ranger got involved!

Trevor had barely seen the Red Ranger himself before the gun went off. All he really saw was something red moving quickly from a little out of his field of view. He had run in where he didn't belong, got involved in something that was none of his business, all in the name of being a 'hero', and now Spike was the one that was paying the price. He looked to the door as it opened, seeing his wife coming in.

"Debra!" He said as he approached her, stopping himself from hugging her only because of the blood on his uniform. Debra could see the hesitance in him and decided to take the choice out of his hands, hugging him.

"Thank God you're alright." She breathed as she came and embraced him tightly. "Are you alright? What happened? Did…?"

"I'm fine, it's Spike that took the hit." Trevor told her. "This…this is all his."

"Oh my God, is he going to be alright?" She asked.

"It's a little early to start cashing in bets." He answered her. "They're still working on him. I've already asked the Captain to contact his family."

"They have to be beside themselves, I know all I heard was the word 'gunshot' and I…pretty much can't remember a thing between hanging up the phone and now." She admitted. "So, do they have the guy?"

"He's been transferred to the local holding facility. They're holding him on remand until he can appear before a judge." Trevor answered, the bitterness obvious in his voice. "He's a little banged up but other than that none the worse for wear."

"Well, that's a good thing, right?" Debra asked him. "I mean, at least this way he gets to be put on trial and…"

"And he would never have shot ANYONE if it wasn't for the Red Ranger sticking his nose where it doesn't belong!" Trevor snapped as he slammed a fist into the wall.

"Trevor…"

"Spike had that covered! Jerry was handing over the gun! He was giving up! Spike almost had it in his hand before he showed up!" Trevor continued.

"Wait, hold on a second, the Red Ranger was there?" She asked. "I thought the Rangers had been taken down. The last monster battle on the television it was only the Pink Ranger that was still standing!"

"Well, he showed up there, swinging his sword and just made everything worse." Trevor told her.

"But the news never said anything about a Ranger even being there." Debra informed him. Trevor just rolled his eyes.

"Of course, it didn't!" He scoffed. "The mayor no doubt wouldn't want the city's latest tourist attraction getting bad press even if they did cause a cop to end up in a hospital!"

"Trevor, please calm down." Debra said soothingly, taking him by the arm. "I know how you feel about the Rangers, but they do a lot of good in the city. Maybe…maybe the Red Ranger just made a mistake."

"When one of us makes a mistake, we're investigated and if necessary we face punishment. That's what has to happen when people have power, they need to be held to account for their mistakes!" Trevor ranted at her. "I carry a gun and I need to fill out a stack of reports this high if I open fire on a suspect. They run around with weapons that make a cruise missile look like a slingshot and they just get to go get pizza or play videogames or whatever the hell they do when they aren't destroying whole city blocks!"

"Trevor, try to calm down. This isn't doing anyone any good." Debra told him. "I know it upsets you when you see people get hurt, but getting yourself worked up like this isn't going to do Spike or anyone else any good."

"Officer Marx?" A nurse asked as she came in. "We've got a machine set up in the other room for you to donate."

"I'll be right through." He answered, following the nurse. Debra watched him go and took a moment to reflect. Although she would never have wished what happened on anyone, the moment she heard the word 'gunshot', her mind went to horrible places. Although she held nothing against Spike and hoped he would recover soon, she couldn't deny being glad to see that it wasn't Trevor.

Back in the waiting area, Sarah was sitting, waiting on word from the doctors that her dad had been checked in and she could see him. She looked up to the elevators as she saw Preston stepping off the elevator. He rushed towards her, carefully navigating his way around the other patients, grabbing her tightly. He felt a twinge of pain in his ribs, but he didn't care at all. He kissed her cheek gently as they parted.

"Sarah, is everything…?"

"Dad's alright, it wasn't him that got shot." Sarah told him. "It was Trevor's partner."

"Oh my God, is he alright?" Preston asked.

"We haven't heard anything yet, so…no news is good news, right?" She asked. "They're going to check my dad in overnight for observation, I'm just waiting until they finish examining him before they let me in. Mom's with him now."

"So…that was a pretty wild day huh?" He asked. She just nodded sadly. "I mean, I caught your battle with Wrench on the television."

"Oh, yeah, that was…I guess it went well." She stated.

"Went well?" Calvin asked, making his way over gingerly. "Sarah, you caved him up like slow-cooked pork!"

"Cal?" She asked. "Where did you…?"

"We were all sent here, remember?" Levi asked her. "We were all watching in the day-room."

"It was something else girl!" Hayley congratulated Sarah, offering her a fist-bump. "You absolutely crushed it!"

"I really didn't do much, it was the Lion Fire Armour mainly…"

"Yeah, except a ninja always knows that any weapon is only as good as the person that wields it." Levi reminded her. "You were on fire!"

"That's my girl alright!" Preston said proudly, holding her close. Sarah just smiled. For the first time in the day, she actually felt good.

"Um…say, where's Brody?" She asked. Levi looked around.

"Um…I thought he was right behind me!" He remarked. "I think I might know where he is."

He gestured to the others to follow him, which they did. He got to the door of one of the rooms and gestured to them to be quiet, before silently opening the door. Looking inside, the Rangers found Brody and Tom inside, sitting up on beds side-by-side with a large, 62" screen in front of them playing a football game. They both had chips. They both yelled out loud and threw their hands up as a touchdown was scored.

"Oh man, what is their defence made of, crepe paper?" Tom asked.

"Where has this game been all my life? I can't believe I never gave it a chance until now!" Brody said, crunching down some chips.

"You know, I know the owner really well. Once we're discharged I could probably swing us a couple of tickets to the box for one of their home games." Tom told him.

"Oh man, that would be EPIC!" Brody replied, high-fiving him, before turning his attention back to the TV. "Oh, for the love of…what the hell kind of call was that?"

"You'll flag that and you didn't flag Reyes? What the hell does that guy have to do to get a call? Pull out a chainsaw?" Tom protested as they both high-fived. Levi looked to the others and smiled.

"Well, at least someone had a good day." He responded. The others all laughed as they continued to watch them enjoy the game.

Up on the Warrior Dome, Wrench's systems came back online and he could now see himself back in his lab. Just as he'd intended, he had managed to retain his CPU by teleporting his head onto the ship while the rest of him was being hacked to pieces. He could see some kudabots working on a new body while Cosmo and Odious were standing a little way off.

"Well, that was certainly something now wasn't it?" Odious asked. "You really managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory there didn't you?"

"Oh, shut up!" Cosmo snapped. "It's not like you've come any closer! I did more in one week than you've done all year!"

"And yet, here you are, back in repairs." Cosmo told him. "You're lucky I like you Wrench, if the Champ had his way I'd have been putting your head into the garbage compactor!"

"But but…"

"Me…all I'm thinking about is the potential for a re-match." Cosmo told him. "But make no mistake Wrench, you're on thin ice!"

"But I…"

"You showed me what you CAN do Wrench, the fact you didn't deliver makes me REALLY question your value!" Cosmo told him. "Believe me, it's only the fact that my ratings this week were the highest they've been in weeks and pre-orders for the Pink Lion-Fire-Armour Power Ranger are through the roof that made me consider you as anything other than a funny little paperweight on my desk!"

He looked to the kudabots.

"Rebuild him, exactly as before, no expense spared." Cosmo told them, looking back to Wrench. "I'll just garnish your salary for it."

As he left, Odious just placed a hand on Wrench's head.

"So close and yet so far." She taunted him. "Your rise in this organisation has been meteoric Wrench, but the thing about meteors is sooner or later, they come crashing down!"

With that, she left. Wrench knew that this setback had put him in a very bad position, one that he was sure would put him firmly under the microscope from now on.

"I need to do something, something anything to get Cosmo to notice me!" Wrench said as he tried to think of a solution. His gaze caught onto some sample jars in the corner, one of which held a bronze, grilled mask, covered in genetic material. "No, I'm not that desperate yet…am I?"