The Titanozord blocked a pair of naginatas with its axe, sliding backwards and churning up concrete as it did. It swung its axe around hitting one of the Galvanax clones while another two leapt in to the attack.

"Sledge never rolled like this!" Matt complained as he struggled to maintain control. "So much for Summer Cove being a quiet town."

"It was until recently." Kendall said as she tried to keep some space while more of the Galvanax clones swung for her Plesiomax Megazord. The good news was that the Megazords arriving had distracted the monsters from attacking the city...the bad news was that now they had eight Galvanaxes focused entirely on them! "I guess this visit was well timed."

"Shame the others aren't here, we could use a few more Megazords." Matt stated. Their team had four...well...five Megazords if they counted the Spinozord, but so far none of them even knew where it had gone after the last battle, never mind how it activated. "How many do the new guys have?"

"One so far." Kendall told him.

"Well, I guess eight on three is a LITTLE better than eight on two!" He stated. Just then, the Ninja Steel Megazord arrived on the scene.

"Speaking of cavalry, we appreciate the assist." Brody said over the intercom.

"Hey, it's what Rangers do." Matt told him. "Maybe if we survive this we can do the formal meet and greet."

"Sounds like a plan." Brody told them.

"What do you know about these things?" Kendall asked him.

"They're holo-clones of the real thing." Brody told them. "But this is our Big Bad."

"Great, is there any good news?" Matt asked.

"If we cause enough damage they WILL go down!" Brody answered. "Our Pink is working on a way to shut them all down, until then, we can try and take them down the old fashioned way!"

"Well it's not a refined plan, but it's something to work with!" Matt called out as the three Megazords came together, forming a circle back-to-back. "So how much is 'enough damage'?"

"One way to find out I guess!" Kendall stated as they launched into the counter attack. She knew that for the most part they were stalling for time, but if they could at least cut down the odds in the meantime, that would be for the best. She found herself whispering. "Come on Sarah, you can do this."

Over at the Thompson house, Mrs Thompson was catching the news on television when she heard the door opening. She got up and headed over, hoping that it was her daughter returning. She hated to think of Sarah being anywhere she couldn't see her during the attacks. This was like Amber Beach all over again, worrying herself sick, hoping that her daughter was either still at the school or somewhere else she could shelter from the attacks. As she got there though, she was a little surprised to see Al coming in.

"Al?" She asked. "What are you doing home so...?"

"I asked to come home early." He told her. His wife just looked horrified.

"In the middle of THIS?" She shrieked. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

"Middle of what?" Al asked her. His wife grabbed him and dragged him into the living room, showing him the television.

"Oh." He said, looking a little distant. He had been in a bit of a daze coming home from work. He had left his car at the office, not thinking he was in a fit state to drive given the events of the day. However, he was either incredibly lucky in walking through one of the few areas of town that wasn't being torn apart, or he was in such a daze he had literally not noticed.

"Oh? That's what you have to say, oh?" Mrs Thompson asked him. "Al, you could have been killed!"

"I'm sorry, I...I didn't notice." He said to her.

"DIDN'T NOTICE?" She screamed, turning a distinctive shade of red, one he hadn't seen since some of his darkest days. She was ready to explode. "There are eight one hundred foot samurai monsters attacking the city, and you DIDN'T NOTICE?"

"I had to get out of there!" Al told her. "Mr Tien called me to his office."

"I don't understand." She said, looking confused.

"He...he offered me a job in his investments division." He told her. "He...he also offered me a drink."

"Al..."

"I turned him down, I promise you." Al told her. "I've been told it's a bad idea to turn Mr Tien down for anything, but I did I promise. But...I was tempted."

"Al, what...?"

"I...I just needed to get out of there." Al told her. "I need to call my sponsor."

"Of course." Mrs Thompson said sympathetically, going to the sideboard and getting out Al's address book, turning it to the appropriate page. She was still angry about the thought that he was in danger, but right now she was just happy he was at home safe, and could see that this was what he needed now more than anything. She sat with him and held his hand as he dialled.

"Hi, it's me." Al began the call. He felt his wife's hand squeezing his gently and looked to her, taking comfort as always in the strength she had always given him. "Yeah, it's been a while."

Over at the Ranger Base, Sarah was working hard on finding a solution to their current problem. Her own clones were each working on trying a different solution to bringing down the hologram technology, while she dedicated her efforts to finding Hacktrack.

She was consumed with guilt over what was happening to the city. She had made mistakes before, as Rangers all of them had, and often their mistakes would have dire consequences. If they picked the wrong target to take down first, if they missed a counter attack, if they didn't notice some civilians that hadn't managed to escape, there was always a danger that someone could get hurt, and the sad fact was that while their mistakes did quite often lead to consequences for them, very often it was someone else that got hurt.

A couple of years previously, Sarah's mom had been on a city bus in the middle of Amber Beach during one of the Dino Ranger battles. The bus had taken a hit from a stray blast, and been knocked off the road into the side of a building. While Sarah didn't blame the Rangers, knowing that they couldn't keep everyone safe, it was the driving force behind her desire to help in any way she could. Her mom got lucky all things considered, she had suffered a concussion and both her legs were broken, leading to her spending a few weeks in the hospital, but she had survived. The Pink Ranger, Shelby, had rescued her from the bus. Sarah wanted more than anything to repay that act, to repay the fact her mother was still alive by trying to ensure it didn't happen to anyone else.

Unfortunately for her, and the city though this mistake was something entirely different. This wasn't failing to notice a flanking attack or deflecting a blast into an inhabited area by mistake, the fact was that the bad guys were using HER tech. It was her weapon that was destroying the city. Every casualty, every home destroyed or every business damaged was all on her. She wanted to get Hackrack, to destroy him for turning her technology, something she had created purely for good intentions on the city, and she wanted to prevent him doing it again.

She looked to the clock and realised that the efforts had already taken a lot longer than she had anticipated. The battle had already been raging for at least twenty minutes, and every minute it went on more people were in danger. She had no idea why it was taking so long for her clones to complete their assigned tasks. Any one of the solutions should surely be at least ready to test by now.

"Sarah, I need you to come and check this code, right away!" Clone 1 told her. Clone 1 was the one looking for glitches in the code, errors they could exploit and cause a catastrophic failure.

"Here I come." Sarah said, leaving her search programme to come over in an attempt to try and help. However, she was blocked by one of the other clones.

"Sarah, I need your help to block Hacktrack's signal!" Clone 2...or was it 3 she assigned to blocking the signal? She couldn't remember, but that clone was flailing wildly as she grabbed Sarah to start physically dragging her towards her console. "I've got a signal but I need ideas how to boost it to break in..."

"It's not going to work." Another clone...4 was it? Or maybe 2? Whichever one was working on cutting the power...or was she the one trying to regain control? She interrupted her fellow clone smugly. Sarah wondered...did she ever come across like that? God, did she come across as a know-it-all at times? "Sarah needs to come and help me!"

Sarah found herself being pulled in a literal game of tug-of-war between two of her own clones.

"WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING TO ME?" Another clone screamed, beginning to throw a tantrum. "I'm on the verge of a breakthrough!"

"Back off, I need her now!" Another clone screamed...she had no idea which one. Soon all four of them were screaming at her and each other. Sarah clutched her head, stepping back away from all of them as they all turned on each other.

"Why isn't this working?" Sarah screamed as she watched the scene of chaos unfolding before her. Kody ran off, looking for somewhere to hide. Suddenly all of the clones fell silent as there was another; much louder, much more chaotic noise distracting all of them. Sarah turned in time to see Mick marching into the room, playing what looked like half the instruments in the musical department at the same time! He had a drum strapped to his chest, which he was banging with a tambourine while he blew into a trumpet with the other hand. He had a pair of cymbals strapped to his knees meaning he set off a clash every time his legs came together.

"MICK!" Sarah and all of her clones yelled at him. Mick stopped playing and looked at them, quickly figuring out which was the real Sarah by the skull-cap she was wearing.

"WHAT are you doing?" Sarah demanded. Her eyes were wide in amazement. Mick was a strange guy, that came with the territory. Being an alien they knew that there were some cultural differences and sometimes he had to rein in some of his more bizarre behaviour, but even he knew that when there was a battle raging wasn't the time to be doing...whatever the hell it was he was doing!

"Oh, sorry, did I interrupt?" He asked her. Sarah was almost floored by this question in its seeming stupidity. All of her clones seemed to share the sentiment, splitting off and going back to their own corners. The city was in danger of being flattened any minute. The three Megazords could only hold out so long, and she had no idea if Galvanax and his goons could just create more if they did somehow win. Now was not the time to be messing around, she had no time or patience for his quirks right now.

"Are you kidding?" Sarah demanded.

"I just thought I would learn to play musical instruments!" Mick said proudly. "But...um...I can't seem to get it quite right."

Sarah's mouth just hung open, unable to find any kind of words to respond to this. Mick clicked his fingers as he seemed to get what was going on, but nothing could prepare Sarah for what he said next.

"Maybe YOU could spare a moment to help me!" He suggested. This was the moment that Sarah completely lost the last shred of her patience.

"Of course not! I am in the middle of a crisis!" She screamed in Mick's face. "And instead of helping me, you're messing around with instruments...and...you're trying to play four at once!"

"Is that an issue?" Mick asked her. Sarah was ready to explode.

"You need to focus! You need to do one thing at a time!" She screamed in his face. "It's better to do one thing well than four things terribly!"

"Hmm...interesting." Mick mused. "Aren't you trying to do four things at once?"

"I have my clones!" Sarah told him.

"Oh...you mean...those clones?" He asked. Sarah turned to look at the room. One of her clones was bashing her head against her computer screen, while two more were in the middle of a screaming match that was starting to become physical, pushing and shoving each other. The other one was literally curled up in a ball on the floor weeping hysterically. Suddenly something hit Sarah. Brody had told her that her track clone couldn't even follow the course. The chess club clone had lost every game, and her camping clone couldn't even put up a tent she had put up herself hundreds of times without incident. Her clones ran on her brainwaves, that was how they would act as she would, but the more she did, the more demands were on her brain. Each clone activated was essentially like controlling a highly advanced videogame...and she was trying to play Zelda, Sonic, Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed all at the same time!

"Oh!" She said in an embarrassed way, realising the chaos she had created. "The clones weren't helping me, they were distracting me. I need to concentrate on one thing at a time."

"Bingo." Mick said with a smile. It was only then that Sarah figured out that the one-man-band routine had all been a ruse. It was just one of Mick's unique lessons. She squealed and threw her arms around him, well, his drum anyway as she couldn't reach him.

"Thanks Mick!" She squeed as she hugged the drum. "What would I do without you?"

"Well, that is something you won't have to find out, because I will always be here for you." Mick said in a paternal way as he reached for her skull-cap. "Now...can I? All these Sarahs is getting a little creepy."

"Gladly!" Sarah said as he took the skull-cap off. The four clones disappeared and their holo projectors fell to the ground. Sarah could already fell a weight being lifted off her mind, and her brain seemed to be freer, more open and less cluttered than it had been. She heard the alert from her tracking software and knew that Hacktrack had been found, but as she was going to go check her computer, she stopped and picked up one of the holo projectors.

"What is it?" Mick asked her.

"Hacktrack likes my technology huh?" She asked. "Maybe I'll tempt him with a little more!"

Back in the city, the Ninja Rangers and their unexpected comrades were struggling to limit the damage being done by the clones while they waited on word from Sarah.

"Titano Axe, Collosal CRUSH!" Matt called out as he brought his axe down, destroying one of the clones. It was difficult to see in his cockpit as it was filled with smoke, and his systems warnings were flashing and sounding sirens to alert him to the numerous imminent mechanical failures. "One down!"

"Make that two!" Kendall said as she launched her Rocket Punch through one of the clones.

"And that makes three!" Brody said as he cut down another. "Now we just have to figure out what to do about the other five!"

"Guys, I'm on my way!" Sarah's voice came over the intercom.

"Sarah!" Kendall called out, hearing her voice. "You've figured out..."

"I've located Hacktrack! He's the key to all of this!" Sarah told them. Just then one of the clones smashed down the Titanozord.

"Guys, I'm going down!" Matt called out. "Sorry, I'm out!"

"Then help me with Hacktrack!" Sarah told him.

"One of the other clones sliced through the Plesiozord, causing a critical failure. Kendall hit the recall command.

"I'm out too." She told them. "Send me your co-ordinates! We'll help you on the ground!"

"Hayley, Calvin, you guys go too!" Brody instructed them. "Preston, you're with me!"

"How long do you think we can hold out against five clones by ourselves?" Preston asked him.

"With luck, long enough." Brody answered honestly.

Down on the ground, Matt helped Kendall to her feet as Sarah roared into the street on her Mega Morph Cycle. Hayley and Calvin ran into view, joining them.

"Sorry I took so long guys." Sarah told them as they gathered around.

"Where's Hacktrack?" Hayley asked. "You said..."

"I don't know exactly, I've tracked his signal to this area, but I can't pinpoint it." Sarah explained. "He's close though."

"What have you got?" Calvin asked her. She reached to the back of her bike, pulling out a device that looked like a pyramid, with a gold sphere inside it. She presented it to them.

"This is a new holo-projector." Sarah stated.

"Another holo-projector?" Matt asked sceptically. "You think right now what we need is MORE clones?"

"This one is better! It'll make clones much more powerful than before!" Sarah continued, ignoring him. "So whatever we do, we cannot let Hacktrack get his hands on this one!"

They were all suddenly hit by an energy blast, knocking all of them to the ground. Matt was starting to get up, and saw Hacktrack heading towards the Holo-projector. He was loading a Dino Charger into his blaster, but he felt Kendall grab his wrist.

"Kendall..."

"No, don't!" Kendall told him.

"Didn't you hear her?" He asked. "We can't..."

"Yeah, I heard her." Kendall said with a smirk. "I have a hunch."

"Well...you've never been wrong before." Matt said as he powered down his blaster. "I hope you're not about to start now."

"Ha ha! You're too late Rangers! I'll absorb this techno-gadget too!" Hacktrack taunted them.

"NO! STOP!" Sarah called out.

"Thank you for making our clones stronger than ever!" Hacktrack said as he absorbed it into himself. The team watched as he stood triumphantly for a moment, before suddenly his hands started twitching...before he knew what was happening he was punching himself in the face repeatedly.

"What the hell?" Calvin asked.

Up on the Warrior Dome, Galvanax was savouring his victory, playing with the Ninja Steel Megazord as his victory looked all but inevitable. Suddenly though, the mask started to heat up, it wasn't just warm though...it was burning him! The screen got brighter and brighter until he couldn't bear to look at it and he ripped the mask off as it started sparking. He threw it at some Kudabots only moments before it exploded, taking them with it.

"CURSE YOU RANGERS!" Galvanax screamed as he stumbled blindly off the stage. Cosmo knew he had to work fast to save his show.

"Um...the Rangers seem to have pulled a magnificent feint!" Cosmo said as he watched all the clones disappear. He turned to the Buzz-cams focusing on Hacktrack, seeing the robot as he stomped around, clawing at himself, tearing pieces off his own body with his bare hands.

"Y...y...you...infected..."

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist more of my technology, so I just uploaded it with a little virus." Sarah said proudly. "Of my own design of course!"

"So THAT was your plan!" Calvin said in a congratulatory tone. "You even had me fooled!"

"Well, you know what hackers do to spread malware nowadays, they tempt people with stuff they can't help but download." Sarah said smugly as Hacktrack fell to the ground and exploded. "Show's over, Ninjas win!"

"Maybe not." Hayley reminded her. "That's up to the audience at home."