At the park, Gia and Emma were leaning on the rail by the edge of the lake as Jake, Noah, Troy and Jordan played soccer. Although Troy and Noah weren't actually on the school team, they had agreed to help out where Jordan needed more than two opponents to demonstrate some of his 'tactics' for dealing with the much more physical Stone Canyon team. Most people knew the Stone Canyon Cavemen by reputation.

They were described as a 'physical' or 'rugged' team, but that was really just a euphemism for 'rough as all hell'. They thought nothing about keeping other players off the ball by virtually any means necessary, including having a number of dirty plays that were designed to keep some pretty blatant rules infractions out of the view of the ref. A lot of their games were known for two thing, an unusually high number of warnings and yellow cards, and most of the opposing team limping off the field. It wasn't a style that Harwood was used to, and in the last seven years, of the fourteen games they had played, Harwood had only won four. Jordan was hoping to change that, by showing his team mates how to counter the 'tactics' favoured by the Stone Canyon defenders.

As Noah hung off Jordan, holding him back, Jordan quickly shifted his weight, dumping him hard on the ground. Quinn let out a little squeal from the bench she was sitting on nearby.

"Wow...um...Jordan's pretty intense when he gets going." Emma commented. Gia just nodded wordlessly, before looking back to the lake. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I'm just thinking about how messed up things are getting." Gia admitted. "I thought when we dealt with the mutants, things would start to get better, but if anything they're getting worse."

"Gia..."

"Emma, I know why you told our parents, trust me, I get it. I've thought about telling mom so many times." She carried on. "I miss Cat like crazy. Honestly, it terrifies me to think that one day she'll get fed up waiting for a girlfriend hundreds of miles away that has probably the most insane life in history and cuts her losses, but at the same time, I'm glad she's safe. If I had my way, I'd send mom out of town too."

"It is getting pretty intense." Emma admitted. "I mean, I know our friends, our families are always in danger here, but the way Alice...um...you know..."

She just jerked her head in Jordan's direction just as he was wrestling Jake off him, sending him to the ground. Allison called out in disapproval from the sidelines, screaming at Jordan for the unnecessary and highly illegal manoeuvre.

"I have to admit I'm kind of worried about him." Gia told her best friend sadly. "I don't claim to be a psychologist or anything, but he just...it doesn't seem right the way he's acting."

"Troy's worried about him too." Emma informed her. Troy had called her a few times, just to keep her up to date on what was happening, and more importantly so they could just talk and help each other through this difficult time. "He told me, that Jordan hasn't cried once since his dad died."

"I can't think what that did to him." Gia commented. "And what about that whole thing? The General wasn't even his dad? I mean...I know I've sometimes wished my dad wasn't my dad, there was some mistake or something...but to find out like that...?"

"I doubt there's a great way to find out." Emma sighed. "But just imagine, how he found out...he only found out when he couldn't donate the blood...the blood the General needed to survive."

"I was trying not to think about that part." Gia replied with a shudder. "I just wish Jordan would, you know, show us some emotion. Let us know what's going on in his head."

"Yeah, Jordan's never been too great at that." Emma answered.

"And look how that's ended in the past." Gia replied.

"I know, but unless he lets us in on what he's thinking, there's not much we can do." Emma answered dejectedly. "Until then, all we can do is give him space, and hope he talks to someone before..."

"Before he goes all Psycho Robo Knight?" Gia asked. Emma didn't answer, but that was a huge concern for all of them. "There's something else isn't there?"

"It's just a thought I've been having." Emma told her. "Metal Alice went after the General...but she hasn't gone after any of the rest of our families."

"Maybe..."

"Gia, think about it, it's been over a week since it happened, and we haven't seen or heard a thing from her." Emma reminded her. Gia was about to answer, but thinking about it, she had to admit that it was odd. She had murdered the General, but hadn't done anything else since then. She hadn't even shown up anywhere, or sent any form of attack, at all. It was almost as if the General had been her only intended target. It was almost like she hadn't come back, because she had accomplished what she wanted to. "Why hasn't she done anything since then?"

"Hey Emma, do you have your camera?" Quinn called over.

"I always do." Emma replied, reaching for her camera bag.

"Well, why don't you get a few shots of us together?" Allison asked her. "When the guys stop kicking the crap out of each other, maybe we'll get them to join us."

"I doubt it'll take long for them to lose interest in soccer." Emma chuckled as she heard the jingle of an ice-cream truck coming up the path. Gia made her way beside Quinn and Allison, posing for them. "Alright guys, everybody smile."

Meanwhile, in the underwater base, Metal Alice was continuing her work on completing the systems, when her internal chronometer became aware of the time. It was early in the day, long before the humans would operate at peak efficiency, but late enough that the Rangers would be up and about. She turned to the corner, where Rotox was powering up.

"Now Rotox, the time has come for the Rangers to face the new generation of destructive technology." She told him as she powered him up for the attack. "Show them why extinction is the inevitable end of their pathetic species."

With that, she activated a command, and Rotox teleported out of the base, heading for the city.

Back at the park, the Rangers, Quinn and Allison were all sitting out on the grass, enjoying some ice-cream. It looked like it was going to be a pleasant day all in. Jordan was quiet, but they had pretty much expected that by now.

"These pictures really turned out great." Allison complimented Emma as she scrolled through them on the camera. "You're going to have to send me a copy."

"No problem." Emma said with a little smile as she pulled Troy into herself. "I always appreciate fans of my photography."

"Your work's really great." Quinn told her. "Mr Evans' been talking about doing a new brochure for the wildlife park for ages, maybe I can talk to him about hiring you."

Before she could answer, their morphers all bleeped. Troy excused himself and got up, heading a safe distance from them.

"Um...what was that?" Quinn asked them. Noticing Jake and Noah stumbling around their words, trying to find a suitable explanation, Gia looked to Emma, who had a little bit of a smug smile. It was one issue that they now no longer had. Cat knew about them, and had done for a while. Troy, well, he was one of them, and now with Eric and Louise knowing about them, they wouldn't have to lie anymore when their morphers sounded an alert. Gia knew that she would probably consider suggesting to the others that they let some of those they trusted in on their secret.

"It's...um..." Noah stammered, trying to come up with an explanation.

"Guys, it's that delivery we were waiting on." Troy told them as he got back. "We need to go."

"Sorry Allison, it looks like we're going to have to cut this short." Jake told her.

"What kind of delivery?" Quinn asked as they all started to gather up their things.

"It's...it's a surprise." Noah stammered out. "It's something Jake and Emma are planning for Thanksgiving."

Both of them just glared at Noah. It was an explanation of sorts, but it also kind of landed the in it. Being the Senior Class President, and Vice President, it wouldn't be too hard to believe that they'd be responsible for setting something up for Thanksgiving for the school. Of course, that now meant they would actually have to...and he was pretty sure they had other things on their minds.

"Really? Is it a float for the pep rally?" Allison asked, looking excited.

"Um...it's...quite something." Jake replied. "You'll have to wait and see."

"We'll...uh...we'll meet you at the Brainfreeze!" Gia chipped in. "We'll be there soon!"

As they all ran off, Noah felt two hands slapping him across the back of the head.

"Ow, sorry, it was all I could think of!" He protested.

"Well, you're helping us with it." Jake replied. "Cause right now, I'm drawing a blank.

In the Warehouse district, Rotox was making his way through the area, making no effort to hide himself. He wasn't programmed for stealth, he was programmed for combat, and he only had one objective, the Rangers and Robo Knight. Doing a quick analysis of the district, he powered up to 21 percent of his maximum power, finding no significant threats to himself in the area.

Building up momentum, he turned himself into a wheel, and drove himself straight through the wall of a warehouse, sending concrete and steel flying. He quickly resumed his warrior mode and started to look around, analysing the threat level in the area. Numerous workers had already started to panic and scatter seeing him.

There were a few explosive chemicals and compounds in the area, but after a quick analysis, he surmised nothing had the force required to penetrate his armour, and so he proceeded with stage one of his plan. His programming informed him that most of the city's production came from this neighbourhood. If it was destroyed, it would take weeks for industry to recover. The statistical probability of the rangers showing up to stop him quickly was over ninety nine percent.

After blasting some gas tanks, setting off an explosion and starting a fire that would quickly engulf this warehouse, and would probably spread quickly to neighbouring units, he pursued the workers. His data informed him that the Rangers paid more attention to humans in danger than mere property damage.

"The reign of robots is at hand!" He called out, beginning to open fire at the fleeing robots. He checked his internal chronometer. The average response time for a monster attack was approximately 3 minutes 37 seconds. It wouldn't be long before they showed up. He increased his power output to 39 percent in preparation for their arrival.

On the way to the Warehouse district, Jordan's cell phone started to ring. He checked the caller ID, finding a name appearing on the screen that had been programmed in only days before. He cursed loudly as he stopped. The other Rangers noticed him stopping and followed suit.

"Jordan!" Gia called out. "Come on!"

"It's the cops!" Jordan replied as he answered. General Edward's murder was still an ongoing murder investigation. Jordan couldn't exactly explain who had really killed him without having to answer a whole lot of questions as to who he really was. He had also been found at the scene with a few injuries himself from his battle with Metal Alice earlier in the day. In a desperate attempt to find something he could tell the police, he had come up with a story that he had walked in on a home invasion. He'd tried to be as sparing as possible with the details, but the fact was a murder investigation was still a pretty big deal, even in a city like Harwood where sadly, casualties were becoming a fact of life. A detective had given Jordan his number and informed him he'd call if he had any information.

"Jordan, this is Detective Barnes." A voice on the other end began. "I'll try not to take up too much of your time. We think we might have found a lead in the case."

"Right, um..." Jordan started to say, trying to think of what exactly he could say or do about it. He held a hand over the mouthpiece. "It's Detective Barnes."

"What?" Jake asked. "Well...what does he want?"

"That's...um...what do you have?" Jordan asked him.

"I'm sorry, but I'd really rather not discuss the matter over the phone." Detective Barnes told him. "There are some things we need to talk about. How soon can you be at the station?"

Jordan covered the mouthpiece with his hand again, looking to the others.

"He wants me to go to the station." He told the others. "He wants me to answer some questions."

Troy thought about it for a moment, before looking to Jordan.

"Go." He told Jordan.

"Troy..."

"We've got no idea how long this'll take." Troy reminded him. "We really don't need to get the cops looking too closely at you."

"But Troy, the police station is miles away!" Emma reminded him. "It'll take Jordan ages to get there an back!"

"Look, we want you with us too, but this is important." Troy told him. "Go and find out what Detective Barnes wants, and get back to us as soon as you can."

Jordan hated this idea. He hadn't had the chance to let out his anger in all this time, and the first time an opportunity came up, he was being forced to run off and talk to the police, waste time with an investigation that he already knew was pointless. He already knew who the killer was, and he knew that it was more likely he could bring her to justice than any police investigation could. In the end though, he couldn't doubt what Troy had said. For now, he was the grieving son, who should want the police to do everything they could to find his dad's killer. If he didn't act like it, he would only arouse suspicion.

"I can be there soon." Jordan told him.

"You're underage, so you'll need an adult with you." Detective Barnes told him. "I can arrange for someone to be here."

"Thanks." Jordan answered. "I'll be there soon."

As he hung up, he cursed loudly, and looked like he was going to throw his cell phone away, but looked to the others.

"I'm sorry about this guys." He told them. "I'll be as quick as I can."

"Just take care." Troy answered as Jordan ran in the opposite direction, before they resumed their journey.

As they made their way to the Warehouse District, they morphed, arriving prepared for battle. Hearing some screams from one of the factories, they arrived to see some workers being chased away.

"What kind of monster is that?" Jake asked, seeing Rotox standing before them. He looked completely unlike anything they had faced before now. Completely armoured, with a battery of guns across most of his body, on a kind of rotating wheel, he looked bizarre, even compared to what they were used to.

"That's not a monster." Noah replied, performing a quick scan of it. His visor showed that this was the source of the high power level Tensou had warned them about, but most importantly, it showed no life signs whatsoever. "That's...that's a robot."

"I guess Metal Alice finally decided to play the first card in her deck." Troy stated. "It doesn't matter either way. He's going down."

Rotox scanned the Rangers, assessing their threat level, before coming up with his opening strategy. He raised his power levels to 68 percent output to be on the safe side.

"So, you're the Power Rangers huh?" He asked as he transformed into his wheel form. "Let me show you how I roll!"

He revved up, before burning off, rolling towards them at incredible speed. The Rangers tried to avoid him, but before they were prepared for the assault, he managed to smash through all of them, leaving them all struggling on the ground. Still a little stunned, Noah started to pull himself to his feet.

"Show us how he rolls?" Noah groaned as he steadied himself on his feet. "Man, even when the enemies are robots they still come with pointless bad puns. Why would Metal Alice waste the programming space?"

"That was brutal." Gia grumbled, nodding in agreement.

"He totally needs one of those 'how's my driving' stickers." Jake complained.

"That was a blast!" Rotox called out, firing off his battery of cannons. The resulting explosions drove the Rangers back into one of the warehouses, and left them more than a little shaken up. It was quickly becoming apparent that since switching from biological monsters to robots, their opponents weren't becoming any weaker.

"You humans really are weak!" He commented as he arrived in the doorway. "There's no way you'll break through my defences. Magna beam!"

Before they knew what was happening, he brought what had to be over a ton of scrap metal flying towards him, before forming it into a shield.

The Rangers fired off a salvo from their Megaforce Blasters, but far from doing any noticeable harm, all the shots rebounded harmlessly off his shield.

"Not a Scratch!" He stated, almost as though taunting them.

"What?" Gia screeched. "How?"

"My shield protected me, but nothing will protect you from my shield!" He yelled, throwing the bladed shield at them. Figuring out the angles, he caused it to rebound off a beam, slicing through the Rangers, before hitting a corner and flying back to him. The Rangers found themselves once more on the ground.

"No way!" Gia complained. "This guy's relentless, there's no opportunity to counter, he just keeps attacking!"

"He's a machine, he must not tire like the other monsters." Noah reminded them.

"Just once, I wish you could give us some good news." Jake said as they prepared for another attack.