Rachel slowly opened her eyes and harsh fluorescent light instantly forced her to close them again. She tried again, slowly focused and figured out where she was, the stark white walls, hard bed and a steady robotic beeping could only mean that she was in a hospital. Everything began to come back to her, a monster interfering with Aaronsdale's traffic signals and getting her backside kicked by someone call Princess Lena.

Realising the monster was probably still on the loose, she dragged herself into an upright seated position and tried to swing her legs off the bed. A sharp pain in her stomach forced her to stop, "I wouldn't recommend that," a voice said from the doorway belonging to a man in black scrubs and a white doctors coat, "to be honest, I'm amazed you're even able to move."

"I'm tougher than I look", Rachel sighed, noticing that she was wearing a hospital gown she asked the doctor, "do you know where my phone is, I really need to make a call."

"I'll ask one of the nurses to bring your things," the doctor replied, "can I give you a quick examination?" Rachel nodded and the doctor shone a light in her eyes, "Pupils responsive and clearly your conscious and able to respond." He stretched his arms wide, "Can you do this for me?" The white ranger copied the doctor's movements, albeit stiffly, "Motor function looks good, I must say Miss Zane I thought you'd be out for much longer with your injuries. When the ambulance crew brought you in, I thought you'd been in a car wreck but now there's barely a scratch."

"Like I said, tougher than I look", Rachel replied impatiently, "does that mean I can go?"

The doctor shook his head, "I'd like to keep you under observation for a few more hours, just to make sure you keep improving but I see no reason that you can't go home tonight." He made a few notes on his tablet before continuing, "Why don't you get some rest, I'll check back in a hour or so."

The white ranger nodded her thanks, the doctor had barely left the room before a nurse arrived, "I saw you were awake so I brought you these," she said and handed over a clear bag containing Rachel's clothes and phone, "the paramedics also found your laptop but it looks pretty badly damaged."

"Great," the blonde muttered under her breath, "good thing I backed up everything this morning."

"That's good," the nurse smiled, "I really like your channel and I can't wait for the next upload." Rachel gave the young nurse a sheepish smile in response, "I'll go tell your mother that you're awake," she added.

"My mother," Rachel froze, her heart skipping a beat, "when did she get here?"

"Not long after you arrived," the nurse frowned for a moment, "in fact she pulled in when the ambulance did, never seen a relative arrive so quickly," with that, the nurse left the room.

Rachel slumped back on her bed, both her parents lived in Phoenix, it should've taken them hours to get to Aaronsdale. The mystery was solved moments later when an older blonde entered the room but it wasn't her mother, "Major Earhardt?" Rachel asked in bemusement.

"Good to see you're awake," Taylor greeted the younger woman, "you had everyone worried. When you didn't answer your communicator, Jazz tracked you down as fast as she could."

"And you posed as my mother?" Rachel frowned.

Taylor shrugged, "Hospitals don't like giving information to non-relatives and we're far apart enough in age to make the lie believable."

"I thought you'd be the last person to bend the rules, especially for me," Rachel said heavily.

"I've worked with a lot of bad influences over the years," Taylor offered a half grin and sat on the bed next to Rachel, "I apologise if I was hard on you earlier, Mark relayed your comments to me."

"Course he did," Rachel snorted.

"Nevertheless you have valid points", Taylor continued, "perhaps we don't appreciate how hard it is being a Ranger alongside a full time job," she offered a knowing smile, "perhaps that's why most previous Rangers have been Stevie's age or younger."

Rachel raised an eyebrow, "How do you know so much about other Power Rangers." Taylor smirked in response but didn't reply, "Fine don't tell me," she paused before adding, "and you were right too, I really need to train harder, if I was more committed then maybe I wouldn't have gotten my ass kicked."

"What did this?" Taylor asked, "Jazz never got a Vyglass presence alert."

"Really?" Rachel wasn't a technical expert but that sounded concerning, "there was a monster, it was interfering with the traffic signals downtown, I think it jumped into an electrical cable to escape."

"Hmm that could explain it," Taylor mused, "I will check in with Jazz later but why did you try to take on a monster all by yourself?"

"It wasn't alone," Rachel replied shortly, "some psycho bitch called Princess Lena cut off my escape and wiped the floor with me, my guess is she's related to Prince Reise."

Taylor frowned, deep in thought, "That is concerning, I'll have to update the team," she stood up from the bed, "now, rest up and when you've been discharged Jazz said to go over to her place, she has something that could help."

Rachel settled back onto the bed, "Is that an order mother?" she asked cheekily, only to be greeting with a warning finger point from Taylor.

It was nearly dark by the time Rachel was discharged from hospital and the sun had completely set by the time she reached the University of Arizona campus. Knocking on the door of Jazz's house, it didn't take long for the Scotswoman to answer, "Hey you came," she greeted, "we're getting set up downstairs."

"We?" Rachel sighed, "I forgot, you live with Ricky don't you?"

Jazz held up her hands in apology, "I've warned him to be on his best behaviour but do me a favour, just give him a chance," Rachel hesitated for a moment, "he doesn't have too many friends, apart from me," Jazz added.

"Fine," Rachel submitted, "but I'm doing this for you, not for him."

Heading down into the basement level, Rachel spotted the yellow ranger working furiously on a racing seat surrounding by several monitors positioned at different angles around the chair, "Ah, hello," Ricky greeted the white ranger, "I'm nearly done then she'll be all yours."

"All mine?" Once Ricky moved, she spotted a control column similar to the one from the simulator at the Air Force base, "Have you built a flight simulator in an afternoon?" Rachel asked.

"Well, not from scratch," Ricky rubbed his neck, "the seat and basic rig is from my racing simulator, I've just tweaked everything to match the configuration of the Swan Zord."

"Dinnae forget about me," Jazz interjected, her Scottish accent much more pronounced than usual, "did ye forget who programmed the whole thing?"

"I was just getting to that bit," Ricky replied defensively, "my charming roommate borrowed the base code for the Zord simulator so now you've got your very own simulator to practice on if you can't make it to the base."

Rachel didn't know what to say for several moments until finally, the words came to her, "Thank you," she gave Jazz a quick hug. She turned to Ricky and after hesitating, hugged him too, "Both of you."

Ricky's face was turning red at the gesture from the white ranger, "We got off on the wrong foot, consider this an apology." Jazz sniggered from behind at her roommates obvious embarrassment, "Why don't you try it out," Ricky suggested quickly.

"Most men would just buy a bunch of flowers as an apology," Rachel said as she settled into the seat, "you did give this a wipe down though," she added with a cheeky grin.

Ricky had a retort on his tongue but a warning glare from Jazz silenced him immediately, "We're going to help as much as we can," Jazz stated whilst still glaring at Ricky, "we'll stay up all night if needed, I've got plenty of this to keep us going," she produced a bottle of dark orange liquid with Irn-Bru on the label.

"Just say yes to the drink," Ricky whispered, earning him a nudge from the Scot.

For the next few hours the trio worked relentlessly on the simulator, pausing only for Jazz and Ricky to make adjustments to their rig whilst drinking unhealthy amounts of the Scot's overly sweet orange soda. Rachel's performance gradually improved to the point she was able to complete her simulation run effortlessly, "Nicely done," Jazz congratulated the white ranger, "consider yourself graduated from Zord driving school."

"Alright," Rachel cheered, "maybe we should get to bed while we can."

"I wouldn't bother," Ricky answered from the stairs, "we've been down here so long that the sun's up."

The white ranger checked her phone, "7AM," she gasped, "and eight missed calls from Martin, don't know which is worse." She listened to one of the voicemails, her heart sinking with each word, "He wasn't able to extend my deadline, I have to publish my latest video by tonight otherwise I've lost their sponsorship."

"Bit harsh," Jazz snorted, "don't they know you were in hospital most of yesterday."

"Welcome to corporate America," Rachel said whilst roughly running her hand through her hair, "part of my wants to tell them to stick it, I've saved plenty away from the last five years."

"Why don't you then?" Ricky asked, "Five years is a lifetime in the online world, maybe a break would do some good."

Rachel let out a dry chuckle, "You make it sound so easy," she gently patted the chair of the yellow ranger's racing seat, "maybe you should take up iRacing, I could be your manager."

"Oh no, my skin is far too thin to be competing in online racing," Ricky shook his head, "one taunt from some ten year old kid and I'd be done."

"That actually happened once," Jazz added, "it was dreadful yet amusing to watch," she added with a small smile towards the yellow ranger who merely pouted in response. Unplugging her laptop from the simulator the Scotswoman added, "My Mum says if you're not enjoying something, stop doing it because life's too short." Before she could continue there was a buzz from her laptop, "Spectacular timing Vyglass," she muttered.

"Is there an attack?" Rachel asked, looking over Jazz's shoulder.

"Looks like it, not too far from where you were attacked yesterday," Jazz replied. As Ricky and Rachel went to leave, she grabbed the white ranger by the arm, "Not you Rachel," she added, "sorry it's the Major's orders."

Ricky offered an apologetic smile towards the white ranger as he ran up the stairs, "This is crap," Rachel huffed, "I know what I'm getting into, I can help the others."

"Probably because you were in hospital yesterday," Jazz replied frankly, "now I need to concentrate and see if I can find this monster's weakness."

Rachel huffed and reluctantly took a seat just behind Jazz. Watching a battle was much different than fighting, especially when you had the power to help. Her battle yesterday was only with Princess Lena, she didn't get a chance to face off against the Road Warrior. Watching how the monster was manhandling the other Rangers , she began to wonder if that was part of the Vyglass Princess's strategy, to prevent the team from getting a look at their latest monster in action.

The Road Warrior had the ability to turn himself into electricity and jump into any nearby electric object or power line. Once inside, he could move around unseen by the Rangers, enabling to hit several sneak attacks. He was also able to use the road signs covering his body like weapons, launching them like giant frisbees at the Rangers.

Several minutes into the battle, it was clear that her team were struggling, "There must be a way," Jazz muttered to herself, "if only we were near the sea or river, we could try and fight him near water but no, we have to be surrounded by desert."

Suddenly Rachel jumped to her feet, "Tell the others to lure him to the Intersection of Franklin and Washington, I think I've got an idea."

Jazz didn't ask questions and immediately grabbed her headset, "Rangers, can you try and get the monster to the corner of Franklin Drive and Washington Avenue? We might have something that can help."

"We'll do what we can," Mark replied over the comm, "what's this idea of yours?"

"Good question," the Scot turned around on her chair slowly, "what's your idea-", she stopped when she noticed that Rachel wasn't in the basement. Cursing under her breath, she returned to the comm channel, "Standby on that one Mark, Rachel's disappeared and I think she's coming your way." She switched off her mic and sighed deeply, "The Major is not gonna be happy with me," she said to herself.

A/N - Sorry its been two months since the last update, real ife and a bout of Covid has eaten into my free time. Normal service should hopefully resume from now on