Devon raced towards the Morph-X tower, skidding down a main road. He looked up, seeing a new Gigadrone, fitted with a gigantic saw much like the Robotron they had just defeated, heading for the tower.

"He's going for the tower." Devon stated. "We don't have long."

"The Racer Zord is right behind us." Cruise told him. Devon cast a quick glance over his shoulder to confirm where it was, before reversing up the ramp inside. Within moments, he and Cruise were interfaced into the cockpit.

"Devon, I've gotten reports from the tower. The Gigadrone is already beginning to cut into it." Commander Shaw informed him.

"I'm almost there." Devon assured her. "Cruise, battle mode, now!"

Devon's Zord changed form, turning into its robot form, its sword drawn. He started punching in some commands.

"No time to be subtle. We need to get that thing away from the tower." Devon said as his Zord leapt to the attack. "Get away from that tower you hunk of junk!"

As he lunged for it though, the Gigadrone turned towards him and an energy shield raised. He'd played more than enough games to know that was rarely a good sign, but he was already committed to the attack. His Zord was repulsed from the Gigadrone and staggered backwards into a skyscraper where it barely remained upright.

"Devon, are you alright?" Cruise asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine but…what's going on with the systems?" He asked as he started fiddling with the controls, getting no response.

"The shield caused a feedback which crashed the system." Cruise informed him. "We need to reboot the system."

"How long will that take?" Devon asked him in response.

"Too long I'm afraid." Cruise answered. "The Gigadrone will be through to the Morph-X by then."

"Need a hand?" Ravi asked as the Wheeler Zord and Flyer came into view. The Gigadrone put up its shields again, and while it did defend against the missiles and blasts being fired at it, there was no feedback.

"Perfect timing guys." Devon replied. "Just keep him away from the tower for a few more minutes while I reboot."

He could only watch while Zoey and Ravi attacked, keeping their distance so that their own Zords wouldn't suffer the same fate as his. It seemed like the feedback only occurred at close range. He watched on, seeing that the shield would falter at times, letting a few blasts through. The shield wasn't indestructible, but he couldn't risk a full-on close-range attack or he could risk another feedback. That was when he thought of an idea.

"Cruise, run a scan of that Gigadrone, I want to know what makes him tick." Devon told him, before contacting Nate. "Nate, you said you need a Gigadrone intact right? That when they blow up, they're no use to you."

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Cruise should be able to send you a schematic." Devon informed him. "I need to know what you can see here that might disable it without triggering the self-destruct that fries the circuits."

"OK…" Nate said as he started to look through it. "Devon, it's not going to matter if we can't get through its shields."

"Let me worry about that." Devon told him. Nate hurriedly looked through the design, pinpointing something.

"This servo right here…if you can manage to punch through and pierce that, it'll be unable to send power to its limbs, but it might not have time to send the data to the central processor." Nate told him. "If you can pierce that with a strong enough attack so fast the Gigadrone doesn't get to trigger its self-destruct, you should disable it."

"Alright, light it up, I want this on targeting." Devon replied as he checked his system. "How's the damage looking Cruise?"

"System rebooted." Cruise informed him.

"Alright, guys, I need you to pour it on, I need an opening on that shield." Devon told them. "Just keep pouring it on, if we weaken it enough, I might be able to punch through."

"What's the play?" Ravi asked.

"You'll know it when you see it." Devon told him. "OK, turn it up!"

Both Ravi and Zoey unleashed everything they had, pouring on fire from every weapon they had at their disposal. Devon's Zord reared back with its sword with both hands, before launching it, sending it spinning through the air, where it hit the shield, punching most of the way through, but getting stuck halfway.

"Devon, was that it?" Ravi asked.

"Not even close!" Devon assured him, breaking into a run and launching himself off the back of Ravi's Zord. As he came down, he summoned up his Cheetah Beast Blaster. "FINAL STRIKE!"

They watched as he drove forward the handle of the sword, driving it straight through the shield and into the Gigadrone. Its saw sliced deeply into the chest of his Zord, but after a moment it stopped. The Gigadrone just stood inert, slumping down like a puppet whose strings had been cut. After a long moment, it became clear his plan had worked. The Gigadrone was inactive, but not destroyed. He'd not only stopped the attack, but had secured Nate the technology he needed.

"That…was way too close." He said as he looked down, seeing the deep gouge in his Zord. "Virus Eliminated."

"I'll hook up some cables and get this thing to the black ops bunker." Zoey told them. "I'll meet you back at base for debrief."

"I'll meet you there too." Devon sighed. "There's something I need to take care of first."

In the Cyber Dimension, Blaze was standing, looking exceedingly cocky as Gigadrones carefully started storing all the Morph-X he had managed to funnel back into the Cyber Dimension. Three hundred tons! Three hundred! There was more than enough there to keep Evox running all but indefinitely, enough to send entire armies after the Rangers. Scrozzle came in, looking a little nervous.

"Are you really sure you need to store so much here?" He asked. "It is rather close to our base."

"You nervous Scrozzle?" Blaze asked him. "Don't worry. If there's something dear old dad actually did teach me, it's to spread out your assets. I don't want all of this in one place any more than you do. Trust me, I really don't want to sit on top of a bomb any more than you do."

"Wow, nice haul! Good job Blaze!" Roxy complimented him as she appeared. Blaze just smirked.

"Might have known you'd show up again after all the work was done." He said as he watched her wander over to some of the Morph-X, inspecting it.

"Some of us work with our brains, but if I need someone punched, I know who to call." She responded. "This is very nice; it looks like we have plenty of fuel to work with. Now just imagine what we could do if we weren't so short-handed."

"Short-handed?" Blaze asked her. "We have tons of Tronics. We can make Robotrons. I don't even know how many Gigadrones Scrozzle has just sitting under our feet."

"Plenty." Scrozzle assured them.

"Yes, well, forgive me if I would like another pair of hands with an IQ in triple figures." She replied. "You know what they say…three is a magic number."

"Another avatar?" Blaze asked her. "What do you have in mind?"

Roxy just gave him a wicked grin.

Later, Mayor Daniels headed into the Riptide Gym. Devon didn't have his phone anymore, and he hadn't swung by a shop to get himself another. The first thing he wanted to do was check on his dad. He'd seen him at the site of the battle and wanted to check that he was alright and arranging to meet.

"Dad!" Devon called out, waving him over. Mayor Daniels started to make his way over. He didn't look happy, which Devon took to mean that Sudsy had probably already called him. As he sat down, Devon looked at the menu. "You want a shake? A smoothie?"

"Maybe later." He said.

"I heard you got caught up in one of the Ranger battles." Devon told him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm in one piece, as you can see." Mayor Daniels responded as he settled into his seat. "I got a call from Sudsy."

"I figured as much." Devon sighed as he put the menu back. "Dad…"

"Two days? How on Earth does anyone get fired after only two days in a job?" Mayor Daniels asked him. "Running off the job? Leaving him in the lurch? Where did you learn that? Because I know I never taught you to shirk your responsibilities."

"Dad, I had to go." Devon told him.

"Really?" Mayor Daniels asked him. "What were you doing that was so important?"

Devon just fell silent. It wasn't as though he could tell him the truth. Mayor Daniels just shook his head.

"That's what I thought." He replied. "Devon, I'm very disappointed in you."

"Devon, there you are." A voice said, causing them both to look around. Devon was a little confused to see Commander Shaw walking over.

"Commander Shaw?" Mayor Daniels asked, recognising her as she arrived by their table.

"Mayor Daniels, it's always a pleasure." Commander Shaw replied, before looking to Devon. "I would have sent word to your house, but my son said he heard you were here and I was in the area, so I thought I'd deliver the good news in person. You got the job. Congratulations."

She extended a hand for a handshake. Devon took her hand and shook it, not knowing what else to do.

"Job?" Mayor Daniels asked. "What job?"

Devon just looked to her. That was what he wanted to know!

"Devon applied for a position on our custodial staff." She said, as coolly and as confidently as she spoke with anyone else. She had spent years dealing with classified information. She was extremely comfortable lying and did so seamlessly. This was the first time he was hearing about a job.

"You applied for a job with Grid Battleforce?" Mayor Daniels asked him.

"Yes, he was most enthusiastic. He said he was impressed by our mission and wanted to help." Commander Shaw told the Mayor as she gave a glance to Devon. "I'm just sorry I wasn't able to be more flexible but…you know what it's like finding good times to interview staff I'm sure."

"Yes, indeed." Mayor Daniels said, looking to Devon. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I…knew you weren't too fond of Grid Battleforce before." Devon said, trying to add something of worth to the story. "I wasn't sure you'd approve."

"Approve? Have you seen what Morph-X is doing for the city?" Mayor Daniels asked him. "Not to mention the Rangers. Devon, if you'd just said something, I'd have understood. Sudsy would have too, I'm sure."

"Which reminds me, we need to take a little trip." Commander Shaw told him, before looking to the mayor. "If you don't mind, of course, I can always wait until…"

"No, no that's fine." Mayor Daniels responded. "I guess I'll see you at home."

"I'll see you later dad." Devon answered as they headed out. He hadn't expected it, but Commander Shaw, it seemed, had saved his skin.

Over at the Black Ops hangar, Zoey came into the base, de-morphing as she did so, having landed her Zord in the bay and come to check on Nate. She found him staring at the Zord, full of wonder and amazement. He didn't even see her as she entered.

She stood, watching him scurrying around its feet, muttering to himself and inspecting it. He looked like a kid with a toy…a fifty-storey toy, but a toy nonetheless. He was no doubt already coming up with a million and one ideas how to use it to figure out new weapons and strategies. She leaned against the door frame and just watched him. He was simply amazing to her. Focused, smart, adorable…adorable? Where did that come from?

He let out a little squeal of excitement, taking down some notes as he saw something. OK, it was pretty adorable. She suddenly started to feel warm again. Why was it so hot in here? Did the base even have heating?

"Oh, Zoey, hi!" He greeted her, gulping as he realised, she had seen him. Did she notice him squealing? Please say she hadn't seen that! What would she think of him if she saw that? "Um…I was just…looking at this Gigadrone! It's almost completely intact!"

"Yeah, Devon's plan really came through for us." Zoey replied, coming over next to him.

"It's amazing, I've already learned so much and I've barely even started more than a cursory examination." Nate told her. "I mean…check this out, you see these circuits?"

"These ones?" She asked, moving right next to him, looking at his tablet as he showed it to her.

"Exactly, it's really advanced and very unique." Nate told her. "The last time I saw anything like this was when I was studying Doctor Cranston's work on the Machine Empire weaponry!"

"Wait…the Machine Empire? The forces of King Mondo that the Zeo Rangers defeated back in the late nineties?" She shrieked excitedly, looking at it. Nate turned to look at her. She noticed him looking and started to become a little self-conscious. She'd completely nerded out in front of him. "Uh…I'm…I've…been studying since…"

She then looked at how close they were standing, and felt something. His hand…she was touching his hand! They both backed away from each other.

"Yeah, that's right." Nate stammered nervously. "It shows a lot of similarities to that technology."

They both stood silently for a moment.

"I should really be getting back to the base." Zoey told him. "Um…you want a ride?"

"No, I've got a date with some data." He said, cringing when he said it. Why did he have to say things like that?

"Well…have fun." She replied. She turned and scurried out of the lab before she could embarrass herself any further. Nate watched her go, before slumping down into a chair.

"What am I thinking?" He muttered, before looking to his tablet and starting it recording. "Alright, beginning analysis, approximately seven thirty PM on February12th…."

His words tailed off as something occurred to him. A smile crossed is face.

"February 12th!" He said as he opened up an internet search.

A little while later, Zoey arrived back at the base, finding Devon, Ravi, Ben, Betty, Joanne and Commander Shaw waiting for us. She took her place in line, standing at ease.

"Rangers, you did some good work today." Commander Shaw began. She always believed in at least starting off on a positive note. "Today could have been a lot worse than it was. You all came together and you fought admirably."

"Devon really did great taking down that Gigadrone without destroying it." Zoey added. "Nate's studying it now. He thinks he's going to get a lot of useful data from it."

"Unfortunately, it was not without cost." Commander Shaw pointed out. Devon stepped forward.

"That's…that's on me." He admitted, before turning to the others. "I'm sorry guys, I know I let you down. I was so worried about making my dad happy I wasn't there when you needed me."

"Devon…"

"No, it's fine." Devon stopped Zoey as he continued. "The thing is, in trying to make everyone happy, I ended up making no one happy. I left Sudsy in the lurch, I disappointed my dad when I got fired, and because you guys were helping me, our communicators got trashed and Blaze got away with a ton of Morph-X."

"300 actually." Joanne corrected him. Everyone just stared at her. "What? It was!"

"Thing is, I should have been here and I wasn't. But…thanks to the Commander, I think I might have found a way to make it up to everyone." Devon explained. "Everyone, say hello to Grid Battleforce's newest janitor."

"Janitor?" Zoey asked. "You got a job as a janitor?"

"Now dad's happy that I'm all responsible and have a job now." Devon explained with a smile. "And now I can spend all day on the base and no one will think anything of it."

"Not to mention we managed to make things right with Sudsy for the inconvenience of losing his most recent employee." Commander Shaw added as they looked to her. "I signed a contract with him to clean all our transports on a monthly rotation."

"I just know he'll be happy with all that extra business." Ravi agreed. "There are dozens of vehicles down there. That contract's got to be worth a pretty penny to him."

"Not to mention I wasn't exactly the model employee." Devon admitted. "Something tells me that in the grand scheme of things, he's going to prefer the deal he has now."

"Blaze might have got away with a lot of Morph-X, but right now, I think we've got a pretty good thing going." Zoey stated. "And a pretty good team."

Just then, an announcement came across the announce system.

"Custodial team to the third-floor men's bathroom." The announcement came. "Flooding on the third-floor men's bathroom."

Commander Shaw just looked to Devon, who just smiled as he saw this.

"Good one Commander." He chuckled, before looking to the others, who were all struggling not to laugh. He looked back to Commander Shaw, who was just staring at him with a completely serious expression on her face. "Wait…you…you expect me to…?"

"Well, you are the janitor." Ravi reminded him, a little snigger escaping as he said this.

"Yeah, but…that's just a token job. They don't actually expect us to do it, right?" He asked, looking around. "Right?"

"They're a cover, but they are our real jobs. We're just seconded as Rangers when we're needed." Zoey explained to him as he started to look a little worried. "You don't think all those clean uniforms just magically appear out of thin air, do you?"

"And someone has to make sure all those cadets know what they're doing in training." Ravi said with a shrug.

"You're…you're joking right?" He asked, the desperation becoming evident in his voice. "Right?"

Ravi went to a cupboard, getting a mop and bucket, handing them to Devon before patting him on the shoulder.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"Oh, and today was chilli day in the cafeteria." Zoey said as she handed him a plunger. "So…have fun with that."

As they all walked out of the room, heading back to their duties, Devon just looked to the supplies in his hands. He considered for a moment the horror show that was probably waiting for him in the men's bathroom. However, as he headed off, he couldn't help smiling. His life was like a videogame. Some amazing friends, incredible powers, some cool new weapons and vehicles, and the kind of adventure even the best of his favourite games developers could never even begin to imagine creating. If this was the price he had to pay for it, then how could he really complain?

Fin.