Out of anyone in the world, Anton Mercer was the last person the Director expected to get a call from.

"Hello?" She asked as the face of the middle-aged billionaire appeared. She couldn't quite smile but she did her best not to frown. It was her job to be civil with one of Grid Battleforce's largest contributors, even if it made her nauseous.

Over the decades Anton had become a fairly regular figure in the Ranger circle, for some a more positive figure than others. Before becoming possessed by a reptilian alter-ego he had been one of the first investors in Cranston Industries when it was just a start-up. He'd even made the connections that secured the contracts with Lightspeed and Bio-Labs.

Even back then the director had always thought of him as a reptile. He was a pompous trust fund baby who used his wealth to buy nearly all of his friendships.

To this day she wasn't entirely sure if Tommy had brought him into the fold, or if Anton had used Tommy to get his foot in the door.

To Director Hart's surprise, Anton looked genuinely worried.

"It's Kendall," the man spoke with an air of concern.

The director relaxed a bit. "I assume she called you to vent about earlier."

Anton Mercer flashed a curious look which quickly melted away. "I couldn't tell you. Before we could even begin a proper conversation she was attacked."

An icy pang shot down the director's spine.

"Do you have her location?"

"I have what could be tracked before her cell signal vanished," Anton said.

"Thank you, Anton," The director said as earnestly as she ever had before. "I'll dispatch the Rangers to investigate."

"Please let me know as soon as you can," the billionaire all but begged.

"Of course," she said and immediately terminated the call. Then after a few clicks, she moved to the Ranger's channel. "Team, we have a situation. I'm going to send you all the coordinates. Report back as soon as possible, and may the power protect you."


Shelby sat in Tyler's jeep as he headed toward her house. The trip up to that point has been mostly silent, maybe even a little tense. Even Tyler seemed to be weighted down by something.

Not that Shelby couldn't perfectly understand why.

She was still trying to wrap her head around the situation herself. It almost felt impossible to believe that she was just a normal waitress a few hours ago. Now, all of a sudden, she was a superhero.

But still, it was unnerving to see Tyler so tense. His brown eyes were locked forward, with a distant look to them. He might not even notice if Bigfoot were to jump out at them.

"What's on your mind?' she finally asked him after a few more moments of silence.

He shook his head with a sad smile on his face. "Don't get me wrong, I think all of this is totally awesome. I just wish I could tell my dad about it."

Shelby nodded. She'd suspected that to be what it was. In some ways, she did understand where he was coming from since she couldn't tell her dad either on account of the whole secret identity thing.

But she also knew that wasn't really the point. What this was really about was much more than secret identities or anything related to their new superhero status. It was about something she definitely felt out of depth even mentioning.

Then, the silence found a way to break itself. Their new communicators beeped.

"Team, we have a situation," The director's voice carried a tense seriousness. "I'm going to send you all the coordinates. Report back as soon as possible, and may the power protect you."

The screen resting on the golden band came to life and displayed directions to the south side of Angel Grove, an area that never really recovered from the original monster attacks.

Tyler did a quick U-turn and barrelled toward Director Hart's coordinates.

Shelby watched as the houses grew more and more ramshackled along the way. It was terrible, that even with all GB had done for the city in their short time, there were still places like this around.

The jeep shuttered as Tyler hit a pothole. No- not a pothole. It was an entire area of the road almost entirely reduced to black gravel.

"Welcome to Angel Grove," Shelby said with a shrug.

A few more turns down and eventually, they ended up in the dilapidated remains of a cul-de-sac.

"This is it," Tyler said as they hopped out of his vehicle.

"Why was this Kendall's last known location?" Shebly asked aloud as she surveyed the area.

A dark thought entered her mind. What if Kendall hadn't encountered a monster, but instead there had been an altercation between her and some roaming gang members or other predatory parties who frequented these types of areas?

Before that thought could ruminate a blast of energy struck the ground in front of the two young adults.

Tyler grabbed Shelby and pulled them both to the ground as another shot speared toward them. She grunted as his weight pressed against her.

A voice laughed, it was the type of laugh you'd never want to hear.

Their gaze shot towards the arm of a rusty crane, where a stocky creature in black armor looked down upon them.

"Hello Rangers," the creature said. "I assume you're looking for your friend."

Friend? Shelby thought with an inward scoff.

"Give her back," Tyler demanded before the Pink Ranger could say anything smart.

"Oh gladly," the creature said. "But only for a trade."

"What do you want?" Tyler asked.

Shebly flashed a momentary we don't negotiate with evil space aliens face. Then she realized they really didn't have a choice.

"That little pet birdie of yours," the creature growled.

"Oh, Zenowing?" Shelby asked with her blaster drawn. "Yeah, I'd say you can forget about that."

"Very well," the creature said. "Then I suppose I'll just have to keep my new prisoner. However, if you change your mind, bring Zenowing here before midnight."

With a loud creaking the monster's shoulder pads opened up to reveal a jetpack that sent him flying away.

"Well…" Shebly said. "That was productive."

"To be fair it could've gone a lot worse," Tyler replied.

Just as the two turned towards the jeep something totally unexpected and not ironic in the least happened.

The crane arm Sledge had been standing on suddenly came to life and lunged toward them.

In other words, things had gotten worse.


Kendall wrapped her hands around the round steel bars. The monsters in the cells around her eyed her hungrily.

"Hey there," a red and black creature with red horns said from across the aisle. "Why don't you come a little closer? I'd love to know what noise your bones make when they snap."

Kendall decided that it might be a good idea to step back into the furthest recess of the cell. She sunk to the ground and stared at the steel floor.

How had things become so hopeless?

A part of her wanted to blame Shelby. Without her none of this would've happened.

But still… doing so didn't really make her feel any better.

Mostly she spent all of her energy trying to stay calm. There was a sliver of hope, albeit a tiny one. She suspected that Anton Mercer was aware of what happened to her and would alert Grid Battleforce.

Granted, that didn't change the fact she was trapped in a spaceship floating in the upper atmosphere. But it was better than nothing.

After what felt like the slowest eternity her cell rattled open.

She shot up, expecting Dakoda or Chastity.

But instead, Sledge stepped inside.

"Good news!" The bounty hunter exclaimed. "I just finished having a meeting with your little Ranger friends."

Kendall arched an eyebrow. "And?"

"And they're letting me keep you!" Sledge howled.

Kendall's stomach twisted with a sharp pang. She didn't know why she expected any less from such a grimy scumlord but she was left feeling even more crushed than she ever thought possible.

Then, when Sledge grabbed Kendall by the neck a whole new terror enveloped her.

As she struggled to pull in even a breath of air Sledge brought her close to his face. The eye slits in his helmet glowed almost excitedly. "I think it's time that you make yourself useful.

Kendall grabbed the bounty hunter's thick armored fingers and tried to pull them away but he didn't move an inch.

She could smell the sickly sweet musk of his scaly body as he revealed what he held in his other hand.

Her eyes grew wide with an all-encompassing terror. The yellow slug, writhing in his grasp, seemed to lock its eyeless gaze upon her.

"They call it a kandrona brain slug," Sledge said joyfully. "I bet you can imagine why they call it that."

Kendall tensed up as she felt the slimy fat body of the slug press up against her ear.

The tension exploded into a whole-body electricity as Kendall pulled up on every ounce of strength in her body to try to escape Sledge.

All Sledge did was laugh and tightened his grip on her neck. Stars erupted in her vision, and a wet primal scream ripped from her throat. As the slug excitedly crawled inside her ear.


The ground shook violently as the massive scrap metal machine slammed its crane arm to the ground.

"Two monsters in one day?" Tyler asked as he pulled himself up.

"Maybe they carpooled," Shelby replied as she drew her morpher. In a flash of magenta light, she was transformed into the pink ranger and flanking the creature's metal hide with blaster fire.

"Hey, I just got this paint job!" The robot roared as it studied the fresh scorch marks on its arm. "Well, two can play at that game." The machine unhinged its jaw and fired a blast of energy that struck the pink ranger in the chest.

Tyler took a defensive stance in front of the fallen Ranger. "Okay… this would be a good time for my T-Rex friend to show back up." He pulled his hands into fists and made a serious expression.

Only for absolutely nothing to happen.

Instead, the junk automation took the opportunity to charge toward him.

Tyler jumped to the side as the machine literally steamrolled past him and hit one of the still-standing buildings. He tore through the wall like it was cardboard and sent the rest of the structure crumbling into ruin.

Shelby felt a jolt of worry. She knew that Tyler wouldn't stand a chance against an adversary like that.

Nevertheless, Tyler either didn't know or didn't care. As the robot shook off the debris Tyler jumped in the air and spin-kicked the machine.

His his landed like a fly pelting a glass wall, and much like a fly, Tyler was promptly struck with a massive swatter.

His body bounced across the ground like a stone skipping. But before Shelby could rush to his aid the creature turned towards her and grabbed her with his yellow arm.

"Now I know how the teddy bear I won at the arcade feels," she groaned as the hydraulic arm lifted her in the air.

"I'm surprised you won anything from one of those things," a female voice spoke. "You know they're a complete scam don'tcha?"

A blast of energy struck one of the rubber hoses that ran along the yellow-painted steel, cutting it in two and sending oil spewing out.

Shelby fell as the arm released her, but before she could hit the ground she fell into a pair of strong arms.

"Tyler?" She asked in a momentary daze.

"Not quite," the blue ranger replied. "Thankfully."

Shelby looked back at the blue ranger, her new teammate. And she could already tell she didn't like him. It wasn't even in the way he responded to being called Tyler, well, not entirely that. There was just something extremely obnoxious about him that she couldn't quite place.

"He's a real prince charming ain't he?" The black ranger asked.

"It's best if you just ignore her," Blue said as he set Shelby down.

Black put a hand on her hip. "Hey, that's my line."

As the two Rangers continued their bickering the robot began to charge its attack again. Thankfully Shebly was aware enough to tackle the two to the ground.

"Good save," the blue ranger said, still feeling the heat from the laser that sailed over his back. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Shebly said as she helped the two Rangers back to their feet.

"I hadn't heard we were getting a Pink Ranger, but I'm glad to have you," the black ranger said.

"It was a pretty sudden thing," Shebly admitted. "But I'm glad to help out.*

"If only someone would help out a little less," The blue ranger groaned as he stared past the other rangers.

Shelby followed his gaze to see Tyler charging toward the robot with a piece of jagged rebar in his hands.

The affront to robotics was too busy charging up its next attack to see Tyler coming, giving the young man a perfect window to strike. With a roar he slammed the rebar into an exposed opening in the machine's arm, causing it to instantly erupt into sparks.

"What the-" the robot exclaimed as it turned towards Tyler.

"Now," Tyler called to the Rangers, "hit it with everything you've got!"

"He can't possibly think that's going to work," The blue ranger spoke aloud, then turned to see the black and pink rangers already taking aim.

"Not if you don't pitch in," Shelby shot back.

"Okay, whatever," Blue said as he raised his weapon.

All three of them spun their revolvers in unison, and when they pulled the trigger their combined energy blasts merged into a multi-colored spear that struck the machine with enough force to knock it off its feet.

"You…rusty… organics…" the machine groaned as sparks erupted across its body and electricity arced around it. "Your day will come."

The machine, which had just pulled itself up into a wobbling stance, fell back to the ground and exploded.

Shelby erupted with excitement as she examined the scorched ground, now littered with bits of metal and wire.

"We did it!" Tyler exclaimed, sharing her sentiment. "We kicked that robot's shiny metal butt!"

"There wasn't a bit of shine on that bucket of bolts," the black ranger replied.

Shebly paused. There was something about the black Ranger's voice that she found…oddly familiar.

"That was wild!" Tyler said, each syllable brimming with enthusiasm.

"What's wild is how quick you are to put yourself in harm's way," the blue ranger said.

His voice was familiar too… Shebly noted suddenly.

"You were amazing, Shebly!" Tyler said with a massive grin.

"Wait- Shelby?" The Blue Ranger asked.

Shelby felt her stomach drop. She knew that voice. Knew it very well.

"Heh, yeah," Shelby replied nervously as she demorphed into her normal attire. "It's kind of a long story."

The blue ranger didn't say anything. Instead, he shot daggers through his eyes that Shebly could feel even from behind his visor.

Then two demorphed.

"Oh hey, I know you," Tyler said. "You're Shelby's boss. Small world huh?"

"I guess that's one way to put it," Dakoda replied flatly.

"I don't know you," Tyler said to Chastity.

"That's your loss," the woman with long dark hair replied with a smirk. "The name's Chastity by the way, and you're?"

"Tyler," he said and offered his hand.

"Okay, okay, everyone's well met now," Shebly said as she watched the two shake hands a little too enthusiastically. "We need to report back to Direct Hart."

"For once, I'm with Shelby," Dakoda said as if agreeing with her was the equivalent of an unprompted ice-cold water bottle to the neck.


Director Hart sat stiffly at her oak desk. Her short but still perfectly manicured nails rapped nervously as she watched the live feed of the Ranger's latest battle.

The robot was tough, but in the end, the Rangers pulled together and defeated it.

Yet it was far too close for comfort.

She expected a snide remark from Zenowing, then remembered that the ancient avian was in his private chamber, meditating.

The bird was gnawing on her nerves, but funny enough his presence was preferred to this.

In the silence, her thoughts were free to fester. She could feel them thrashing against her mental fortitude, cracks were beginning to form.

"You look like you could use a drink," a voice said.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," she muttered.

Then, she realized who had spoken.

stood in the door frame with a coffee in hand

The director couldn't help but smile. "You came quicker than I expected."

"I was in the area," he replied with a shrug.

"Let me guess, right outside Stone Canyon?" The Director asked with a playful tone.

"Riley asked for help with his family's irrigation system."

"Oh wow, I didn't think I'd ever hear that you volunteered for physical labor," the director said.

laughed, "You were always the one that said I needed to get outside more. Besides, it was refreshing to spend time on something a little more down to earth."

The director snorted. "I bet."

"Speaking of that," said.

"It's right here," the director said as she reached into one of her desk drawers to reveal a red Dino charger.

took the charger into his hand and gave the thing a once-over. "I can see Kendall borrowed a lot from my notes. But the morph-x charged dino cell is absolutely inspired. What do you even need me to finish on this charger?"

"It was the first one we developed," Director Hart said. "Initially it was going to be given to Dakoda, but as it turned out his body simply wasn't compatible with that frequency of Grid Energy."

"Yeah… not everyone is as widely compatible as Tommy," said.

"Yeah, and normally the rejection wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the charger wasn't designed with that possibility in mind so Dakoda accidentally flooded it with his personal frequency and fried the cell. Kendall said it's a simple fix but with four other chargers to make we put it on the back burner."

"I see… well this won't take me long at all. Maybe twenty minutes at most."

"That would be perfect," The director said. "Thank you so much."

"Not so fast," said. "If I'm going to do this for you I'm going to need you to do something for me."

Director Hart frowned, she felt a pang in her guts. The two of them had been friends for so long that she could already tell that whatever he was going to say wouldn't be something she wanted to hear.

"You have to talk to him."

No. No, no, no, no. Not in a million years… Is what she wanted to say. But instead, she simply nodded. "Okay. I don't think anything good will come from it, but if it's what you want then I'll do it."

offered a subdued smirk, one that told her he was resisting the urge to show how pleased he was with her response.

Director Hart shook her head. All of these years later, with more experience than most people get in their whole lives, Billy was still a giant dork.