Mike and Kevin were sitting in the Living Room of the Shiba House, having been benched from the battle, and relegated to watching their friends run off into battle with what everyone affectionately called "Plan B", namely simply destroying Epoxor and hoping that just like every other Nighlock, his curse would end when he was destroyed. Kevin felt his hand jerk as Mike moved, and saw it pointing in the direction of a bowl of trail mix.

"Again?" Kevin grunted. "Seriously Mike, if you put half as much time into training as you did into stuffing your face with junk..."

"Well if you put half as much time into having a little fun as you did into lecturing me, maybe you wouldn't be such an ass!" Mike interrupted him. "God, if it wasn't for that bathroom visit, I wouldn't know WHAT Mia saw in you!"

"Take that back!" Kevin growled. He knew he wasn't exactly what everyone considered "fun" like Mike, or Emily, or even Mia, but that remark was more than a little personal. Bringing his relationship with Mia into it was a shot way below the belt.

"Or you'll do what exactly?" Mike teased him, holding up his hands, bringing Kevin's with them by nature of their bonds. "Hit me? In case you hadn't noticed..."

Just then, they heard a scream from the screen...a startlingly familiar one. Looking around, they saw Mia being blasted into a wall and held there with a glob of Epoxor's glue the size of a Buick. Jayden and Antonio tried to follow up, but newly-hydrated, and full of power, Epoxor was too much for them, taking both down with a mass of his glue that looked to be bigger than the Samurai SUV.

"You see?" Kevin protested. "If you could just follow..."

"Follow?" Mike asked, a smile starting to cross his face. He was definitely annoyed by what Kevin had said, but he had put it to the back of his mind, figuring he could repay it later. Something about what he said got him thinking, and now the creative part of his mind that came up with some of his crazier plans was firing on all cylinders. "Kevin, you know how to waltz?"

"Waltz?" He asked. "Mike, our friends..."

"In the waltz, both partners synchronise to one beat." Mike explained. "Look, I can never compete with your technique. If I trained for a few years I'd still be behind you. Do you think you could dial it down a couple of notches?"

Kevin looked to the screen in time to see Emily, the only one still in the fight, being pasted to a wall by Epoxor. He realised that right now, they didn't have much of a choice. They didn't know how long it would take Ji to get to them, presuming he even knew about the battle.

"I guess I always did admire your creative mind." Kevin complimented him. "What do you have in mind?"

Back at the food court, Mal was still reeling from what he had heard Melanie admit. Given that she had said her father's case had made the papers, he was a little surprised that he hadn't heard more about it.

"You lost...?"

"We lost everything alright?" She yelled at him. "Our accounts were frozen! Mom's working at a supermarket to pay for the motel we're living in, and I'm working here are you happy?"

Mal just paused. He didn't like Melanie, she was always kind of...well...to put it bluntly, she had been a bitch. She had teased and mocked any of the girls that had not been as 'pretty' as her and her friends, she had gone out of her way to make many of the people he knew feel like something she scraped off her shoe...she had broken Spike's heart. She had led him astray, turned him into one of the elite, and against his friends, only to drop him in seconds flat when it transpired he wasn't what he thought she was.

"What makes you think I'd be happy about that?" Mal asked her.

"Oh please, you have as much reason as anyone to hate my guts!" She sobbed.

"Well, you haven't been easy to like." Mal agreed. This just seemed to make her cry harder though.

"None of the others know. I only take my shifts here when I know they won't come to the mall." She told him. "If they knew..."

"Wait a minute...they're your friends!" Mal interrupted her. "If you're finding things tough..."

"Kind of like when Jeremy lost his car?" She asked him. Mal could recall the incident and sighed. "Yeah, I thought as much. No doubt Hilary would love to hear about this."

"Hilary?" Mal asked her.

"She's wanted the head cheerleader position all year." Melanie told him. "If she found out about this, how quickly do you think she'd make sure the others knew about it? How long do you think it would take for her to tell everyone how much of a loser..."

"You are NOT a loser!" Mal blurted out. He had done so before he could stop himself, and he could feel her shifting behind him. He looked around as much as he could. "Listen, you used to think anyone that wasn't in your tax bracket was a loser right?"

"Screw you!" She snapped. Mal bit his tongue before he could say something he regretted.

"It's not like you can afford to turn many people away right now is it?" He asked her. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Listen, just because someone doesn't have money doesn't make them a loser."

"Yeah, try saying that when you're living out a suitcase." She snorted.

"I was." He told her. "Once. Besides, I would have thought that this might give you a greater appreciation what those who aren't fortunate enough to have rich daddies have to do to get by."

"Will you shut up about my dad?" She screamed at him, elbowing him again. He reached over, choking her slightly, but figuring it was worth it as he took his bag pulled it towards him. He slid it around to her. "What's this?"

"It's the way I get by." He told her. She opened the bag, and started rummaging.

"I...I...I don't understand."

"My mom and dad work about fifty hours a week to pay the bills." He told her. "I make some money on the side by teaching dance."

"Dance?" She asked him, finally making sense of what she saw. There was a collection of CD's, and some workout clothes in the bag.

"Mom loved dance, I did ballet for four years and ballroom for three." He informed her. "Round this time of year, in the run up to Prom season, a lot of the juniors and seniors want lessons so they don't make complete idiots of themselves."

"You teach people to dance?" She asked him. He just nodded.

"It's not something I advertise." He told her. "Even my friends don't know. I get enough shit just being one of the nerdy kids. I figured I'd only get it worse if people knew I was a ballerina."

Melanie let out a small laugh.

"Trust me, everyone would completely love hearing the head bitch of the school was working at the Chicken Shack." She told him. "Well, was...no doubt when Mr. Cormier comes back, he'll probably sack me for shouting at you."

"Sorry about that." He told her. "I didn't want to get you in trouble."

"Well, there are other outlets." She sighed. "I just hope I can find somewhere else that'll give me shifts when the others aren't around."

"Is that all you think about?" Mal asked her. "What others think about you?"

"School sucks enough." She told him. "It'd suck even more if I didn't have any friends..."

She felt him gripping her hand and she looked down to it. She didn't know why, but she found herself smiling a little to feel it.

"If anyone treats you like that, they were never really your friends." He told her. "Me, Jimmy and Vicky stuck by Spike, even when he was acting like a complete prick hanging out with the cheerleaders..."

"HEY!" She screamed. Mal suddenly remembered that Melanie was the head cheerleader and held up a hand, somewhat of a pointless gesture since, sitting back-to-back, she couldn't see it.

"The point is, we were his friends when he was...well...what you called a loser." He told her. "Have you ever heard the Eric Clapton song..."

"Oh my God, I LOVE Eric Clapton!" She yelled. Just then, he could feel her shifting, as if looking around to see if anyone else had heard her. "I mean..."

"It's alright, no one heard you." He chuckled. She was so image-conscious; he doubted she would want anyone to know she had even heard of Eric Clapton, much less was familiar enough about his music to know any particular songs.

"Nobody knows you..."

"...when you're down and out." She sang to complete the line. She sniggered. "My friends would call me a dork for knowing that."

"Like I said, if they did, they were never your friends." Mal told her. "The point of the song is, your true friends are the ones that stick by you, even when they have nothing to gain by it."

Melanie was silent for a while, a long while. She had heard that song multiple times, hell, she would never risk telling anyone at the school she had the album and had listened to it hundreds of times, but the message was only now beginning to dawn on her. Nobody knows you, when you're down and out...people that were outside the loop...they were cut off. Scorned, abused. She had even been one of the ones throwing the abuse. She was terrified of being one of those people, so much so, she had done everything she could to make sure no one she knew had any idea of her situation.

"I'm sorry for anything I said or did to you and your friends." She told him. "Please, tell them."

"Hey, if we get out of this, I think it'll mean more coming from you." He told her. With that, she squeezed his hand in a wordless gesture. He just smiled. It was a small step for the 'queen bitch', but it was as close to a thank you as he could expect.

Mike and Kevin arrived, just in time to watch the Black Ranger being splatted against the side of a skyscraper with a huge blob of glue. Mike smiled and looked to Kevin.

"Ready for this?" He asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be." He responded.

"Go Go Samurai!"

It was awkward, especially for Mike, who had agreed to use his Samuraizer with his left hand so they weren't both trying to morph from the same side, but in the end, it worked, and both Rangers were ready for action. Epoxor just laughed seeing them.

"You two seem a little...stuck." He sniggered. "Come on, what do you think you can do like that? I've already taken out the rest of your team!"

"Well, try taking us then!" Mike called out. He rushed forward, at which Mike pulled out his Spin Sword, a little awkwardly so as not to cut Kevin. He turned it into his Forest Spear, and both Rangers rushed forward, screaming as they went.

Epoxor conjured out a club, but he was startled as Mike lowered the point of the spear, before both Rangers fell back, sliding along the ground. He swiped for them, but they went beneath the swing.

Then, he heard a little whistle. He looked down, seeing both Rangers between his legs. He also saw the spear bent, curved...and realised that Mike had driven the point into the ground behind him to put it under stress. They released the end, at which it sprung up, smacking him and catapulting him high into the air.

"Your turn." Mike stated. Kevin pulled out his Spin Sword, also very carefully, and turned it into the Hydro Bow. Mike held it with him, lending Kevin his Symbol Power, and in a storm of energy arrows, Epoxor exploded high in the air. A moment later, the glue around their wrists disappeared, allowing them to roll apart. Mike looked to the nearby building, seeing the glue holding Emily there disappearing.

"You guys did great!" Mia congratulated them. "How did you think about that?"

"It was Mike's idea!" Kevin stated, slapping Mike on the shoulder. "He's the creative one."

"Yeah, but it was Kevin's aim that took out that Nighlock." Mike conceded. "And yeah dude, that IS a compliment."

"Alright guys, we'll have time for back-slapping later." Jayden chipped in. "That Nighlock's just gone Mega Mode!"

With that, they called out the Zords.

In another part of town, Cody and Spike were in the bathroom of his house, Cody looking anxiously at the cistern as Spike waited.

"Well?" Spike asked him.

"I can't go with you watching!" He protested.

"Do you think I want to see...?"

Just then, the glue holding them together disappeared. Both boys just looked at each other.

"Thank God!" They chorused, at which Spike scurried from the room, and Cody hurriedly started unbuckling his belt.

In the food court, the glue holding Melanie and Mal together disappeared. Both of them started stroking their necks, making sure they weren't imagining things, before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Well, I guess I better get going." Mal sighed. "Mom will be wondering where I am."

"Wait, didn't you come for some food?" She asked him. "I'll give you an extra large portion."

"Uh...is that allowed?" He asked her. Melanie just shrugged.

"Screw it, I'm probably fired anyway." She answered. She stuffed a bag full of chicken and held it out to him. He just smiled. "Just...um...what we talked about...?"

"Not my style." He assured her. "What happened in the glue, stays in the glue."

"I appreciate that." She said, chewing her bottom lip nervously. "Well...uh...see you at school."

"Yeah." He replied. "See you at school."