Bridge could feel the tears welling up in his eyes now. He felt so guilty he hadn't been able to visit his little siblings in the past few months. But with B-Squad becoming rangers and Gruumm's threat of destroying Earth, he'd neglected to visit her in person where he would have been able to realize how much she was struggling better.

"Callie, I'm so sorry. I realize it must feel like I've been neglecting you these past few months. That's not okay. I'll go talk to Cruger now. I'm taking a few days off to come see you and make sure you're okay." Bridge saw his sister's face fill with guilt as he announced he'd take some time off, and he immediately moved to squash the thought he knew was in Callie's head. "And you aren't taking me away from important work. You are important Callie. Even without powers, you are so much more important than my job here at SPD. And I'll take my morpher with me; if SPD needs me, they can call me."

Callie smiled with a shadow of guilt. "Okay, Bridgey, I really miss you. And I know Xavier and Aiden do, too. I'm glad you're coming to say hi."

"Me too, Cal. I love you, okay?"

"I know Bridge; thank you."

Bridge hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. He had sensed some tension recently when he'd had his daily calls with his sister, but he had no idea it had gotten this bad. She looked like she was barely keeping it together. Like, well, he knew she'd killed Michael a lot more recently but he'd wondered if that was her period or a friend fight or-

"Bridge!"

Sky's voice snapped him back out of his thought and he spun around to see Sky giving him a questioning stare.

"Did you hear me?" Sky was obviously annoyed. He'd either had a fight with Syd recently, had the spicy cheese sauce from the cafeteria, or was back on the kick of trying to become the red ranger.

"No, Sky, sorry. What did you say?"

Sky shook his head and also shook off his obvious frustration. "Sorry, Bridge. Cruger has decided we need another dumb training course; we are to report to the training center now."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Bridge slipped his phone back in his pocket, he would have to talk to Cruger later. Bridge sighed and stood to head to the training center.

Five minutes later, he was standing in front of the commander of SPD Earth, Doggie Cruger, and his assistant, Kat. "Good, you're here," said Cruger. "Line up."

The team immediately fell in line. Cruger might be their commander, but he was kind and the kind of leader that made you want to fall in line instead of ordering you in line. Sure he could be annoying and hard, but so could anyone. They'd gotten pretty lucky by getting Cruger as their commander.

As the team lined up in their usual order, Bridge found himself next to the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, the light of his life, the butter to his toast, his strong and overall amazing girlfriend: Elizabeth (better known as Z) Delgado. (He'd always found it funny that her first name was the same as Callie's middle name.) Their relationship was an unconventional one, that is to say, they got together in an unusual way. Z had just recently joined the team after being a homeless thief, and Bridge wasn't sure what to think of her. She was definitely beautiful. No. Drop dead gorgeous. And she seemed nice enough and her aura was calm and sweet, but how good could someone who was homeless and resorted to stealing be? But that's beside the point. Shortly after she joined, Syd started making trips to Sky and his room at night for 'sleepovers'... Very loud ones. Bridge had put up with it for almost 2 weeks, getting less and less sleep before he finally broke. He honestly was so tired he wasn't quite sure what happened until the next day when Z explained it to him. Apparently, he had dragged himself out of his and Sky's room and walked to Z and Syd's room and knocked on the door until Z answered. She told him he was almost crying and asked her if he could stay in her room tonight. She let him stay and the bond was there.

That being said, nothing untoward happened. He slept on the floor and started staying there any night Syd came to visit Sky. They'd stay up and talk on nights they weren't tired or they'd play board games or talk about life. Z told Bridge about her life on the street and how they stole to feed the hungry and everything in between. After a couple weeks, Z randomly invited Bridge to just sleep in the bed with her. She knew he wouldn't sleep in Syd's bed out of respect for her, but she knew from experience that the floor was a pretty uncomfortable place to sleep. They started dating soon after that without really talking about it or expressing their feelings to each other. They just kinda knew they both had feelings and it just kinda happened… Well, by happened he meant that they spontaneously made out in bed one night and went from there, but neither of them would ever tell anyone that.

"Cadet Carson! Are you with us?!"

Cruger's angry voice snapped Bridge back to reality "Yes, sir, sorry sir, I'm just stuck in my own thoughts, sir, it won't happen again, sir."

"See that it doesn't." Cruger gave him a disappointed look and started to address the team. "I've noticed that all of you are lacking in many areas of training. Your most recent evaluation scores all of you in the top ranks for tactical planning and hand to hand combat." Cruger turned to Kat and nodded for her to open the doors into the training area. As the doors opened the team saw a full obstacle course with water, forests, cities, and cliffs for them obviously to try and climb through.

"On the downside however, your endurance, strength, precision, trap recognition, and dexterity scored lower than acceptable for your Power Ranger status. Kat and I designed this course to get you back up to the top of these criteria. We are calling this the Ranger Gauntlet, it has a water section where you will have to navigate a sinking ship and swim through a turbulent current. It has a Forest section where you will have to spot traps and navigate an area that looks incredibly similar. It has an urban section, where you will have to navigate close quarters, disarm explosives, escape traps, avoid traps, and reach a checkpoint before you're trapped. And finally, it has a mountainous region where you will practice climbing, navigating and fighting through caves, and navigating through dark terrain. You will have to attempt this course four times, once as a team with no morphers, once individually with no morphers, once as a team with morphers, and once individually with morphers. Kat and I will be monitoring your progress. This should take at least 6 hours to complete all 4 times, so I suggest you start now. We are assigning this to improve your teamwork, and your individual skills. Good luck."

With that both Kat and Cruger walked into a separate room on the side of the training area, no doubt a control room so he could critique their approach.

"This is stupid! We did fine on our last evaluations!" Jack, the red ranger complained.

"That's the point, Jack." Sky, the blue ranger and Bridge's roommate, argued. "We as Power Rangers can't just do 'fine'. We have to do excellent on our evals. Earth is depending on us."

"Fine then, Mr. Suckup. You can go first." Jack waved Sky forward.

"C'mon, Jack, as much as I hate to admit it, Sky is right." Z spoke up. "Plus, we have to do this first one together without morphers, so let's go."

Bridge sighed as he followed the team into the course. He would have to talk with Cruger afterwards.

The water course was wet, that was the best way to describe it. Wet and annoying. But it wasn't too hard. It took a little bit for the team to get back into work mode where they worked together like they were in the field but they got there. Although Syd definitely saw it as an exercise and not something to put her all in. She even made Sky help her swim through a part… Syd was a fine swimmer.

The forest took a lot longer than the water course. The group quickly got lost and Jack had to climb a tree (a feat much harder without his morpher) to figure out which way to go. Near the end of the forest part, Syd suggested that this was a test from Cruger and that he might have hidden things he wants them to find like he did before they were rangers. Bridge didn't agree but it was Jack's call and Jack said the team should split up and look for clues. Even though they all went their separate ways, Bridge happened to stumble across Sky and Syd who had linked up to make out. Bridge just shook his head when he found them and went back to the rendezvous point since he knew it was a hoax.

The city was by far the hardest, it started out by them getting caught in an SPD style escape room. When they finally escaped, they ended up taking an hour break inside a fully stocked grocery store and eating lunch inside the course. Bridge was worried the store was a test on their integrity but after five minutes of everyone else eating, he gave in and had some food himself. The city had everything, there was a rundown sector with fake robots for them to fight, a SPD building with some items they grabbed to fight the robots, the grocery store, and so much more.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they had made it to and through the cliffside part. Jack had just used his power to phase straight through the rocks but the rest of them struggled to get through and up the rocks. But then he finally saw the bell. The beautiful bell that ended the course. "We're done!" Z said tiredly as Sky rushed ahead to ring the bell.

"Not quite yet, rangers." Cruger holo projected into the clearing they were in. "I said you'd be going through it as a team and individually. You can take ten to decide who's going first."

"Are you serious?" Jack asked with obvious emotion "We gotta do this again?"

Bridge sighed, it was gonna be a long day.

~

A few hours later the team was finally done with the course, exhausted they all split to go get showers, and most likely, naps. While everyone else was going to their quarters, Bridge went towards the command center. He knew Sky would be taking a while in the shower and so he knew he had time to tell Cruger he needed time off and why without prying ears.

"Cadet Carson!" Cruger greeted him as the doors to the command center opened and where he and Kat were reviewing the exercise. "Why aren't you showering?"

"Well, sir, I needed to talk to you about something, and I knew Sky takes looooong showers, and I didn't want to say this in front of a bunch of people, and I knew you'd be here after the exercise, and-"

"Cadet Carson, Bridge. What is it?"

"Well sir, you know my family situation. My sister called today. She needs me to take a few days off and visit her. I was hoping you'd approve some leave." Bridge looked down on the floor. He knew Cruger would say yes but he still felt bad about leaving when Gruumm could attack at any moment. "I can take my morpher with me so if Grumm shows up I can rush back!"

Cruger thought for a moment and nodded. "I feel much better with you going with you taking your morpher. Your leave is approved for as long as you need it, just return to your team if there's a crisis."

"Thank you, sir! I won't let you down!"

Kat pipped in "We know you won't, Cadet Carson, or I guess I should say Cadet Evans."

Bridge smiled as he walked out of the command center. He never used his civilian name anymore because he was always at SPD. His real name was Bridger Carson Evans. Son of Alyssa and Cole Evans. When he joined SPD, it was suggested he change his name so nobody knew he was a son of two of the Wild Force rangers. And so he did, so did Sky and Syd. (It was her parents and his mom who had suggested it in the first place.) They were all children of former rangers. That was part of why being rangers was so important to all of them. Sky was especially important because of his dad, but they all greatly desired to be like their parents.

Bridge opened the doors to his quarters and immediately realized something was off… He heard the shower running and saw a pile of clothes on the floor in front of the door. The weird thing was that not only were there blue clothes… but also a pink jumpsuit on the floor. Bridge shuddered and facepalmed. His roommate and half brother was 'with' Syd. Again.

"Hey, Sky! You gonna be done soon?" He called through the door.

He heard scurrying and shushing of Sky shushing Syd. "Yeah, Buddy!" he called back "Just give me another minute!"

Bridge picked up a book and laid down on his bed to read. That way when Sky did whatever he did to 'hide' that Syd was in there he could play dumb. Two minutes later, without fail, the water turned off and the door opened. He saw Sky out of the corner of his eye carrying a rather large and squirmy pile of laundry out of the bathroom.

"Hey, buddy, I'm gonna go do some laundry, I'll be back in about an hour okay?" Bridge heard Syd quietly yelp and Sky bumped her against the wall, to which he pretended he didn't hear.

"Yeah, you have fun." He told Sky.

"Oh I will, thanks!" Sky said before flinching, it was obvious Syd had kicked him for his response. Sky walked out the door and as soon as it closed Bridge started dying laughing. He thought it was hilarious that not only were they sleeping together, but that they thought nobody knew, and that they thought that horrible excuse somehow hid what they were doing from him.

Bridge finally got control of himself a few minutes later and shook his head as he went to shower. After his shower, he started packing; he knew Sky wouldn't be much longer, and he knew he would want to join him and visit his family too. He was just finishing packing when Z opened up the door and strolled through.

"Hey Bridgey, I thought we were going for a wal…" her voice trailed off as she saw his suitcase. She gave him a suspicious eye. "Why are you packing?" she asked with an accusatory tone.

"Uh, well, you see, um. I'm getting a few days off. Cruger thought I could use a vacation." Bridge technically wasn't lying but he knew Z didn't believe his story when her face continued to show suspicion.

"You wanna try that again? And this time the truth."

Bridge sighed and told her the whole story, from Callie calling, to her powers, to Skyfall Academy, to her friends and their powers, to his mom, and his family, and Cruger knowing his family, and the buttery toast he had for breakfast.

"Ok, so your sister has powers and lives at a school for people with powers and needs your help?" Z put a hand on his shoulder "I don't need to know about what you ate for breakfast."

Bridge nodded. "Well yeah, oh! And I'm keeping it from everyone cause I think they'll all try to come with me when I go and we need people here to fight Gruumm."

Z gave him a surprised look "Well no duh we would try to go with you! We're your team! And this is important. How'd you keep it from Sky?"

"Well about that…" Bridge pointed to the pile of clothes next to the bathroom door. Z looked at them with confusion until she noticed the pink jumpsuit poking out from the pile. Her face got red from embarrassment and she gave Bridge a little nod of 'that would do it'.

"You can't expect us to just stay here though, Bridge. We are gonna help you."

"You guys don't have approved leave. Besides, it's my sister, I should be the one to go."

Z's face contorted into a mischievous look. "So if we got leave then we could go with you?"

Bridge was now concerned, she was definitely up to something, he just didn't know what. "Theoretically, but Cruger won't give it to y'all."

Z smiled "Okay, Bridge, have fun on your trip!" she said in a fake 'I definitely don't have a plan' voice as she skipped out of the room. Bridge had a feeling she was gonna find a way to come with him.